Enjoy reading the article which will be in the Australian Gliding Magazine from November 2006. It is written by the oldest competitor in the World Comps in Sweden , Tony Tabart.He looks back on most probably, his last world comps.Cheers Ritz.

Sweden FAI Multi Class report for Soaring Australia

from Tony Tabart

20 July 06

It was a privilege to represent Australia at the last full multi-class competition at Ekeby airfield, Eskilstuna, Sweden in June 2006. There were 116 pilots from every continent, with 36 competing in 18m class; I was the only Australian in the class. At 70 years old, I was the oldest pilot in the competition; the youngest was Pyotr Jarysz from Poland at 23 years old, in Standard class.

Ekeby airfield is west of Stockholm and south of Borlange which, despite its reputation, would have proven a better site given the Ekeby infrastructure and the weather conditions.

Ekeby airfield was increased in width by the organisers through leasing adjoining farming paddocks. But it was still critically short in length, particularly for the heavier gliders, with high trees at one end and trees plus power lines at the other end, and no possibilities for emergency landings. Fortunately there were no aborted takeoffs or self-launch power failures early in the launch. Being virtually a farm paddock, the field was extremely rough with limited prepared areas.

Open class was always at the back of the grid, with 18m class generally first or second. There was therefore little flexibility in tasking. The gliders on the grid were tightly packed and jammed back as far as they could go.

It surprises me that a country with many adequate airfields of sufficient and safe length would not make one available for a world class event – we were stuck in little better than a farm paddock with poor amenities.

The Ventus 2cx pilots in 18m class were very happy with the Schempp-Hirth announcement – during practice week – that the glider can now operate at 600kg in 18m configuration. Unfortunately, as I was flying the Ventus 2cX prototype, I was only allowed 525kg. TL is in fact a 2cM with 2cX tips; there are no tanks in the tips and no extra reinforcing for the increased weight. I was extremely disappointed that I had not been advised of the planned increase in weight for the 2cX; had I known, I would have chosen another glider to hire. Although conditions were weak at times during the competition, the 2cXs generally held their 600kg of water until finish, and the extra weight certainly counted in the glides and I was continually outflown.

There were queries from pilots at home regarding the performance of the ASG29 vs the Ventus 2cX but, given my maximum-all-up-weight restriction and thereby reduced-wing- loading, I was not in a position to be able to personally compare. I had a discussion with Ake Pettersson (Sweden, flying an ASG29) after we had flown together for a leg on a weak start. It was a strong day as it ended up, but weak when we were together. Ake did not know that I was restricted to 525kg and he was flying at full 600kg. The 29 was climbing about the same as me but was slipping ahead in the glides at about 80 knots, and this was my experience throughout the competition. Looking at performances overall, at full weight there seems to be nothing between the Ventus 2cX and the ASG29 either in climb or cruise. Sam Zimmerman (Ventus 2cX) and Rick Indrebo (ASG29) from the USA, who regularly flew together, told me that at the same wing loading they found no difference in performance.

I was grateful for my motor given the weather and terrain and the number of outlandings. On day 3, 34 out of 35 outlanded in Standard class and 21 out of 23 in 15 meter class. On day 6, all outlanded in Standard class and 20 outlanded in 15 metre class. Day 6 was the worst for 18 metre class with 15 outlanding, including me. The worst day for outlandings in Open class was day 3, when only 6 out of 22 got home.

The weather went from extremes of instability to very stable and low, from day to day. It went from rain every day of practice week to no rain at all, then warm and humid for the last week. In practice week, there was sometimes overdevelopment at 10am briefing following by an immediate launch into good climbs under developing towering cu, then snow showers that impacted on the leading edge drastically reducing L/D – very worrying over unlandable terrain. One day it was minus 8 degrees at 5,000′ – thank goodness for heated boots.

There was tremendous cooperation between teams when we were getting ready in the difficult weather conditions prior to and during practice week, particularly with technical support.

The flying from Ekeby was fiercely competitive over a lot of unlandable terrain – lakes, forests and forest clearings. Fierce gaggling and complaints from pilots invited several addresses at morning briefings regarding safe thermalling. Chief Steward, Dick Bradley pointed out that as the competition progressed some pilots were taking more and more risks by reducing their own margins of safety, and endangering other pilots.

There was at least one mid-air contact from which both gliders recovered with minimal damage. Personally, I had two near incidents with pilots who ultimately won each of their classes. I reported one blatant incident, but the traces were non-conclusive. I preferred to stay out of the gaggles before gate opening time. If you wanted to be in an advantageous start position, you had to mix it with the big gaggles to be as high as possible.

Holger Back (German champion) who flew an LS10 reported in the DG Flugzeugbau GmbH newsletter (Holger is head of their production line) that: “Quite often the thermals were somehow weak and although the starting points were widely spread, up to 60 gliders circled in the same thermal. Holger felt uneasy in that crowd of planes and started flying cross-country knowing that this is a tactical mistake. But he decided that his own safety counts more than being the first!”

I had adopted the same approach. My best placing was on day 1 with 731 points for 24th position. The competition was tight and the results close – typified by the fact that the Jones brothers, who demonstrate the best in pair flying, finished 1st and 8th in 18m class, with 548 points between them. My overall position was 33rd with a total of 5,013 points for 10 days flying.

Those times when I was safely on task with good height and there were good thermals available, I enjoyed flying over beautiful and spectacular Swedish country, with its 100,000 lakes.

Because of the perceived possibilities of tracking, a Flarm was not obligatory and apparently less than 50% of gliders had one, which is an issue that needs to be addressed quickly to ensure that this excellent safety tool for our sport is used in future competitions.

Of interest to Australian comp scorers, there were a couple of glitches with the See You Competition scoring system analsying my traces. When my score first appeared on the website, all looked normal – a start time, finish time, duration, speed and distance – all there, with no indication of an ‘outlanding’. However, in both instances the distance was well under the task distance, even though I’d successfully finished – a couple of hundred km less. There was no note against TL at the bottom of 18m scores to indicate a problem. Apparently, See You had noted a ‘photo landing’ and that was where my scoring distance stopped. The scoring system hadn’t flagged a problem and it was only the very significant difference in distance and speed which alerted that there was a discrepancy.

The competition in Sweden was expected to be expensive, but the organisers exacerbated the situation by imposing such items as a surprise $A20 daily self-launch fee and a $A350 camping fee, even though we’d hired a local club member’s caravan and site fees had already been paid to the gliding club.

Facilities available on the airfield made this additional payment unjustifiable. The male showers and toilets were in containers, with only 2 plumbed toilets, and limited hot water – often cold. There were 3 plumbed toilets for women and children as well as female visitors (the competition covered public holidays as well as weekends, and there were hundreds of visitors). The temporary chemical toilets for men and women were avoided.

The dining area was open to the elements and unheated. Most were put off by the bitterly cold conditions during practice week and little socialization took place between pilots and crews, who returned to their camps at the end of the day or to their accommodation off-site. The food available was expensive and limited in choice.

It is my belief that bids must be totally transparent with all costs outlined, in every small detail, and site facilities guaranteed. There has long been talk of selecting half a dozen sites for world competitions. Running competitions at proven sites seems a better alternative for the safety and wellbeing of our pilots given the poor infrastructure at Ekeby airfield and the safety issues resulting from the lack of airfield length and outlanding possibilities.

Minimum conditions before launch should be determined and enforced – in the old competition days, launch wouldn’t start until there was more than 1,000 metres available.

It seems the organisers in Sweden were pushing for competition days – that were not devalued – at the risk of the pilots in order to justify the site selection.

In Sweden, I experienced two classes battling in one thermal before a start and the day was only called off when the Austrian team captain reported to the comps director, over the start frequency, that his pilots were complaining about safety. All four classes were often launched when convection was barely above 2,000′.

All starts were over a 6km line and all finishes were first through a control point of 500m from the west. The start points were as widely separated as possible, considering the only available area was locked between two large lakes and air space. Each class had their own start point each day, but the start points were so close and with widely spaced start times, often gliders from two or three classes converged together in one thermal. Every pilot’s performance was compromised because the tasks generally covered the same small area over unlandable forests and lakes, fringed by airspace.

Impressions which have been gained since I first flew in a world competition in Yugoslavia in 1972 are that European experience counts when flying in Europe. Pilots need to be comfortable crossing lakes and unlandable terrain at low heights. Pilots must be prepared to complete a task with little possibility of getting above 3,000′. Team flying helps pilots to win in European conditions. I believe that for an Australian team to do well internationally, we must adapt some form of pair flying to help each other out in unfamiliar conditions. Having an engine makes the possibility of ‘outlanding’ manageable for pilots and crews, but the terrors are still there over unlandable terrain as, of course, an engine can’t be relied upon. Whilst airspace was another factor to consider in Sweden, avoiding the airspace itself wasn’t a problem but limited competition area was. (With the excellent Ilec SN10 airspace map, avoiding airspace was not a problem for me – I was often able to go within 100 metres of the edge without a worry.)

My most negative experience was the fierce gaggling and I came away feeling that the best pilots may not have been the winners. The gaggles were well mannered early on, but in the last ten minutes before start, with pilots clamouring for maximum height, aggressive flying tactics meant that safety was compromised. If pilots can’t be relied upon to fly safely, then organisers should be obligated to ensure that there are sufficient thermals, available height and space in the task area to reasonably launch.

If the pinnacle of our sport is to be degraded by issues of safety, politics and dollars, why would our pilots want to be involved? Why would you want to launch out of a rough paddock, too early, into an overcrowded sky, at great expense both in personal safety and dollar terms? I feel too much emphasis is put on achieving competition days, which are not devalued, making these poor situations much worse. Avoiding devalued days is no longer as relevant as in the times of lower performance aircraft.

If international competitions are to be held at such sites as Ekeby, a reduction in size of the multi-classes should prove a great improvement for the safety of our pilots.

Tony Tabart

July 2006

Tips for outlandings in water

Sweden is a land of forests and around 100,000 lakes, with only very small areas of agriculture. We were given a very good briefing about outlandings in water – not a recommended option, of course, but better than a forest or a forest clearing. If the choice is between a forest or a forest clearing, choose the forest. Some tips for water landings are:

Before landing: call on radio; call on frequency may not be heard so also call on 121.5; turn off master switch; locate seat belt lock; locate canopy emergency jettison; check ELT is on; check phone is on (for tracking purposes); gear down; electrics off.

Where to land: deep enough to avoid submerged rocks; don’t land too close to shore; land along the shore, not into it; the glider will float, so land on downwind side of the lake so the glider might drift into shore; check gear is down; low speed; main wheel first (not tail first); flaps in thermal position; airbrakes closed as soon as possible.

After landing: the glider floats; open canopy; sit on glider and think; make a plan; take off parachute; don’t swim with clothes on; don’t swim into wind.

Possible problems: your radio call on frequency may not be heard so try 121.5; canopy might break and be dangerous; don’t swim with clothes on; the water is less then 10 degrees Celsius; you will probably be in the middle of nowhere with no civilisation; your mobile phone won’t work; mosquitos will be a problem.

So, Jo packed two strong plastic garbage bags behind my seat. If I landed in water, the plan was that I could take off my clothes and put them in the bags, tie a knot in the bags and then float into shore. Each day, my mobile phone was on and locked, and in a zip-lock plastic bag in the glider pocket. Fortunately, I didn’t need to execute this plan.

Tony Tabart

Latest news by Ritz
October 30 2006

Life continues!!!It is weird but life goes on if nothing has happened. So do we! Most of the items have been picked up. Nathan is putting gliders in trailers and the kitchen , restaurant and bar , but also the office look empty, as if a bomb has fallen and destroyed things.

The happy young pilot from the nimbus FF is here to pick up his glider. He was astonished to see, he got it for such a nice prize, but “forgot” in the exitement that he needs much more hours then the 200 he has in gliding, to fly this great bird.I introduced him to the other bidder Michael and told him , that he is the current world champion!!!He was very proud to shake hands and told Michael that when he will not learn quick enough to fly the glider, they should talk.

Ingo told us yesterday that he was happy the bus was staying. Bill bought it years and years ago for 200 dollars and Ingo was the lucky one to bring it “home ” to Toc.where it stays thanks to DON!

Bob Brown from the Tocumwal Historic Museum in the briefing room was the happiest person, as EVERYBODY including the owner , allowed him to keep ” his” green old chairs( with a few nails you can feel,but who cares) for readings . The museum will still stay open for the public which is great.

In between Hana and Lada arrived for some good gliding. In one month the Diana 2 will arive in Australia and now she has her own glider instead of sharing one. Hopefully a tug will be here soon too, so she will be ready for a new season, here or somewhere else, depending….

This looks like Debbies last week here, so a good time to set a date to finally have lunch with her.She was always TOO busy and she is a lovely lady and a very capable one.

Benalla and Narromine have already started their season and Corowa starts straight away after the containers have arrived with the gliders. Some guests are already in OZ, as I spoke with them on the auction.

Finally also time to say congratulations to Francesco and Grietje with their new born baby Frank.

Tony has been here and took my information to make this site look like “a million dollars” and Jo from Tony Tabart will be the correspondent for Australia after I leave. Dick Bradley sends me his info from Africa and I am busy with somebody in Canada for their info.

Thàt `s it for now. On November 3 Inge and her family will arrive here for their last Tocumwal holiday.Will be pretty busy with my grandchildren and I am really looking forward to see them here. Ritz

October 29 2006
The next 3 stories tell you all about the final day at Sportavia in Australia.

What I learned yesterday was to never ever sell gliders on an auction when you want to see dollars!!!!
On the other hand when you want to have a bargain buying a glider you should go straight to an auction.
First of all compliments to Peter Menhennit for having ALL gliders looking in absolute fantastic state.
Also Bob Smith and Bill Harvey deserve compliments for working so hard on the Scouts!
The sale started at 10 and people were walking around with phones hanging on their ears and talking in it all the time.
the old field cars were the first to go. Even ” Helga ” was sold! Bill Harvey was the lucky one to buy the yellow ute and Mary Russel got back her husband Dessies very old ute. Don was so good to put 300 dollars on the table for “OUR BUS”.
The first glider for sale was the junior and it was bought by one of our regular guests for don’t fall over!!!!! 6000 dollars!!!!!!That set the standard in prize as all gliders just went unbelievable cheap.
What about 12.500,- for and IS 28, also bought by a local , but for sale when somebody wants it!Between 2000 and 5000 for the Blaniks and around 40.000,- for the LS 4 gliders. 46.000 for LP the LS 6 and just under 100.000 for the duo. This dual- seater will leave for the Hunter Valley together with the orange tow plane.Benalla bought the yellow tug for their operations in Liliedale. The other 2 tugs have not been sold yet.
There was a run on kitchen items and the brand new coffee machine from the bar, was sold for 1900,-
Tom Gilbert’s daughter nearly bought all office stuff and they need to come back from Temora to get the rest today as the trailer they brought yesterday could hardly close with everything in it.
Instuments, loggers and parachutes were gone in a flash.All buyers looked as they had had, a full plate of whipped cream.
It all finished around 7 and another day , a more different then normal, was over!!!
We finished the day saying goodbye to friends leaving and drinking great red wine from the winery owned by Graham Bunn. What great wines he makes!!!!!
Margie Close did buy some blankets and bedspreads for the dogs and we used them to sit under them , as it was “bloody” cold, even the red wine helped ONLY after a few bottles. Luckily Graham brought a lot.
This is the last story about Sportavia. Forgive me for getting into so many details , but for a lot of pilots this might help to get over it.
It is “just a gliding field , others would say. But……As only pilots know who have been there it was a special one!

The weather on October 28 suited the occasion. It was a sunny but very cold day. “antartic air ” Eddie told us while we were all freezing and walking behind the auctioner group. At 2 AM, yes in the early morning the first people drove in to be in time. Planes flew in from different sides of Australia. Cars came with and without trailers.Even from Perth (WA) and Queensland from Victoria , NSW and Canberra.
At 10 it was really busy. Middle fingers were put up to show feelings and everybody thought it felt like a funeral. People were hugging and holding each other and even people who have been always against gliding at Tocumwal, joined in. A sad day for ALL pilots if they were power pilots or glider pilots.
It was nice to catch up with so many friends.Some I did not see for a while and lots of regular visitors.
Several tuggies arrived as Anthony and Simon and Glenn, with friends , girlfriends and even with children. Glenn and Tammy just got their second baby , a nice little girl.
Faith was there with her new borm baby Lincoln. Faith and Simon grew up at the airfield where mum Margie and Dad Jeff were running the Sportavia show together with Don, for 10 years after Bill sold and before we bought in.
Not a lot wanted to buy , they just wanted to be part of this last “black” day in Tocumwal. Even old Bill Riley managed to sit for half an hour in front of the N hangar doors. looking at the final day of what he started some 30 years ago! It must have been terrible for him. Son David did not want to be part of it and also Ingo did not show up.
I think it was great to have at this VERY SPECIAL day, so many friends here with such good memories of flying at Sportavia.
Old Jim managed to walk behind his trolley in and out , just for a very short moment as it was too crowdy for him.But he WAS there!
We helped each other and life goes on again, but without Sportavia.It has been a GREAT time, an unforgettable time, a time on which we can live for ever.

Tocumwal NSW on Ocrober 29 2006

A few latest -news- stories by RITZ.

Well, Denimpie first!!! For all who have stayed with us, Denim was the stripy cat from Ritz. For 10 years she lived in the hangar and she made lots of friends. She is a brave cat , walking around with baby tiger snakes and even baby brown snakes!Today she moved to her NEW home. A very sad moment for me, but I know she will be taken care of as nowhere else. Sue and Nathan are taking her to Cooma and as Sue took care already of her during my winterstop in Holland, she now first walked to her instead of me.A good sign of friendship!
Denim says hello and farewell to everybody who petted her!
Next story to follow! Ritz

Latest news by Ritz.

Australia/Tocumwal.
Lot`s of stories when you talk with friends. Yesterday Glenda and Ross dropped in and we had a nice time catching up with a lot! Jo and Tony dropped in this morning to see how we are. They were on their way back from the Nationals and Tony flew as coach in a double seater with a student with 400 hours and they got 3d in open class. More results later.

Looking back at all the young ones since 1984 when I visited for the first time, we took care here of a great group of new young pilots. Cameron starts flying in Hong Kong after flying for a Thai company in a 747 as first officer.He now starts on a 737 800 for a Hong Kong one. The world is small as he caught up there with Belgium friend Danny who lives also in Hong Kong.Danny and Rudy and Chris and more friends from the Keiheuvel club visited us regurlary. Also Michael flies for Cathay Pacific and the other Michael, we called him Tom Cruise, flies in Hong Kong. So a lot of our tuggies have done well. Inge flies as a captain on a 737 and Anthony flies for Quantas, James flies or flew for Malta Airlines, Bones flies in Darwin on amfibians, Akhil in Africa doing geographic- low- flying and earning good dollars.Dennis flies as a captain for Australian and Kurt flies somewhere in Queensland. I forgot a few and I do not know about a few, but I hope they all do well too.

Lot`s of wind again, but warm and dry. On ABC News I heard that half of the farmers all over Australia suffer the drought (3 years now in a row) and they have put 500,000,- aside for relief as well as 5000,- for families who need councelling after what they go through! Pretty sad!!!!

Will be back tomorrow, cheers for now Ritz

Latest news by Ritz

Australia Tocumwal:
Think I will never stop looking at the skies. It is so built in , in my system.This morning early , though I was only awake at 10.30 the sky up North looked great and clouds on a very blue frame of sky, were already high and looked more then inviting. At that time there was nearly no wind from the N. and it was already HOT. Today we go over the 30 dgr. mark again!At noon the Northerly picked up a bit, but cloud streets were EVERYWHERE, with as far as I could a bit of overdevelopment up N.

When I looked at the different gliding places around they do some flying but not so much yet.Kingaroy had on the OLC an over 400 km flight. A lot of our customers have moved to Corowa and I am sure they will have a good alternative there. Weather is the same and if they like mountain flying they even have the mountains close by now. Daan ,Geoff, Anders, Junzo and Yoghi , will go there and I wish them great and safe flights.

For some of our guests we went to look at caravan sites at Benalla and they were more then friendly there and showed us all around. We have had contact with Narromine too and will go to visit them soon and George and Diana visit Corowa today.

Ron House is busy to clean his van to move it away.Ray Waller and Gregg Mags have moved their caravans already and so did Mike Toth. He had the easy job as he bough a place to built a hangar at John Williams entrance.
Bill and Val Riley arrived back from their holiday in Queensland and dropped in to see me and I will go and visit them for a bit longer. Bill Harvey and Bob Smith are very busy with the Scouts to get them in perfect condition for the auction. Debbie works hard in the office to have all paperwork ready.Tony will be here soon and we are going to look at making SOARING.EU look MUCH better!!!!

That `s it for now , will keep you posted!!! Ritz

Latest news by Ritz.

Australia/Tocumwal.
I promised to find out about the THE FRIENDLY GAMES in Alice Springs. So here is some info, but you have to be quick if you are interested as it starts today and goes till October 28 2006.
In their announcement they write: Come and play the masters way with over 4000 athletes across 34 sports participating in a week of celebrations like no other!!

The Alice Spring Masters Games gliding competition will be held by the Alice Springs Gliding Club. Classes available in single -and two seater–other classes decided on final entries.
More info you can get from our good friend Simon Holden ( 0418 897 256)or read their web site : www.alicespringsmasters.nt.gov.au
Enjoy!!!!!!!Wishing you GREAT FUN , Simon!!!!!

I also wrote to you about Marina`s husband Giorgio Galetto from Italy, visiting Australia. He will be here to do performance coaching in december and January and he will ” Coach the coaches”.
Unfortunately Marina could not come with him, she takes care of their daughter and is very busy with the preparations for the Junior World Comps in Rieti in 2007 together with Leonardo Brigliadori, who will be the director. Their website will be up and running soon.
Giorgio will coach and fly on different places and for Australian Magazine Readers they can find the info on page 30 and 31 from October`s Magazine.I am sure there will be also some info on the GFA website.
I know Giorgio and he is the most lovely person , a great pilot and he was World champion in 1999 and he and Marina live for our gliding sport. Enjoy his lectures, briefings and flying to the fullest!!!!Wish I was still here in OZ, to listen to him , but my departure is already on the 20thiest of November.

The wind is GONE!!!!! Finally. We had up to 50 knots wind here. Today is sunny and warm up to 28 in the shade , no clouds but on the ground we could see good thermal activity.It is dryer then dry, which is very bad for the economy as lot`s of farmers suffer. The weed is so bad that farmers put their cattle in to eat it.Pretty sad!!!

It is 4 PM now and Eddie started at 9 and is still busy. I just see him pass by! Good to see that atleast “something” is flying here.

Latest news by Ritz.

Australia/Tocumwal.
Sorry to all pilots and friends who have never been at “our” gliding centre, but the next couple of weeks the news will not be European but Australian and from Tocumwal. Today I use the sun room , where many of you have written emails to friends and family on the other side of the world.Dundee has allowed me to use his laptop and all is working fine.

We just said good bye to John Nugent who had a lovely stay here and enjoyed as much as we did , yesterday evening`s 2 cm thick T bone steak, prepared by Dieter on his BBQ.John was very sad to see the empty pool , the yellow grass etc as Sportavia meant a lot to him!
Also Swiss Chris was here with his daughter to collect his glider CH from Corkey `workshop. It is ready for a new season , but where……???
Tim and Laurel stayed for the night and Tim prepared his caravan , which he specially bought for his gliding weekends here in Tocumwal, to let it go “somewhere”.
We all know more after the auction, atleast that`s what we hope.

In between Eddie was pretty busy flying around with students/guests in the brandnew and very goodlooking 2d Jabiru. They operate from the North side of the WW2 hangar and they are called: Australian Sport Aviation.
For all European pilos who flew with us in the past and go flying in Benalla, Corowa or Narromine now, they are still welcome to fly with Eddie or Don ,only now in a Jabiru. You can contact them per email on
edmadden at iinet.net.au or
donaldescott at hotmail.com Sorry but ” at ” is the sign I can`find on the computer but you KNOW!

Aircraft hire cost (using Jabiru aircraft):
-$ 140,- inc GST per hour for all training dual or solo and on solo nav training. Cost includes all pre flight and post flight briefings.
-$ 100,- incl GST per hour for solo flying (non training) .You have to have a pilot certificate .
-$ 100,- incl GST Trial Instructing Flights approx 30 Minutes flying time.

Membership cost: You must be a member of Recreational Aviation Australia. Don and Eddie can sign you up as a temporary member or 2 hours flying membership free , read no cost!!!
Per year you pay $132,- you also receive a monthly magazine. It also includes a student pilot`s license and operations manual.

So you know a bit more about flying with Eddie and Don or alone in a Jabiru. It is a cheap way of learning how to fly in a power plane and lots of friends have put this extra dimension of flying in their log book.Specially for overseas guests it is a cheap way of converting to an Australian license.The Jabiru is designed to take full advantage of the new Australian Aircraft Operating orders (CAO 95.55) which now permit this class of aircraft ,registered by the Recreational Aircraft Association and piloted by an RAA certified pilot to fly up to 10.000 ft AMSL & outside controlled airspace . A RAA pilot may operate from licensed airports and may also, by endorsement , carry a passenger.
More info you can receive from Eddie and Don also on their mobile phone: Eddie 0427 534122 and Don on 0429 001605.