{"id":5354,"date":"2022-02-15T10:00:13","date_gmt":"2022-02-15T02:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/countryairstrips.com.au\/?p=5354"},"modified":"2022-02-15T10:30:28","modified_gmt":"2022-02-15T02:30:28","slug":"who-is-the-pilot-in-command","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/countryairstrips.com.au\/who-is-the-pilot-in-command\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is the Pilot in Command?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Who is the pilot in command? A faulty assumption leads to an accident<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Maralinga
Maralinga Airfield South Australia<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Maralinga is a 3,000 sq km section of desert in South Australia. The British Government tested atomic weapons there in the 1950s. In the 1990s, the Australian government completed a successful decontamination of the site. Though my main work was based in Canberra, I needed to visit the Maralinga site about four times a year. I was an owner of a Cessna 172 and I used it to travel to and from the job. Canberra to Maralinga is approximately 2,000 km and I would always go via a different route and enjoy different scenery. Sometimes I would take my two young boys. We enjoyed my flights to Maralinga.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the years, I began to tire of CASA inventing mandatory ways for me to spend my money, such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unnecessary maintenance directives,
Insisting I pay for security passes when I already had higher level passes for my work,
Escalating tower charges, etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At an air show at Narromine I met a friend who had recently built a Savannah aircraft. It’s a two-seat, short field performer, could land in a farmer\u2019s paddock or on clay pans in the desert. I flew back to Tumut with him and I liked the Savannah. I agonised for a week and then I ordered a kit for $60,000. There would be a three month wait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About then I had a month of work at Maralinga. I flew there in the 172. By then the main work had finished and the site was mostly in mothballs. I was the only person on site.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maralinga is now deserted, but once hosted bombers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I heard there were two Western Australian men then at the Brisbane Savannah agent\u2019s hangar finishing off a new Savannah. They would soon be flying it home to Perth. I contacted them and invited them to overnight at Maralinga and they accepted and arrived a few days later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I meet new people there is a silent computer in the back of my head that assesses them. Are they talking sense, is their story credible? We all do that, though some may not admit to it. Mick and Jim were about my age, they were jovial, their speech was a bit rough, but they had a lifetime of experiences. They quickly fixed a generator that had been giving me trouble. I was very impressed by their knowledge and skills. I quickly dismissed my reservations and developed a confidence in their judgement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We agreed we would fly a few circuits in the Savannah after lunch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Savannah's