There is nothing to be gained from exacerbating tragedy with public speculation, but it seems we as aviators can't help ourselves. The recent King Air crash at Essendon sparked industry-wide speculation about the cause, much of it done without having any facts of value to hand. The ATSB revelation that there is no sign of engine failure washed a lot of theories down the gutter (including mine) and catalysed another round of guesswork. It looks like we haven't learnt anything from being made to look like idiots the first time around.
Wings over Illawarra (WOI) is now only a month away, and I am looking forward to what is emerging as a truly great air show. Last year, Bright Events put on a blinder, encouraged by co-operative weather and a huge public interest. Adding the Aviatex expo to the air show gives the general aviation community even more reason to head down to Albion Park on the first weekend in May to fill their souls with every good thing we love about this game. Long may this event live.
So, could this first Aviatex be the genesis of a movement that grows into something like AERO Friedrichshafen? It's a stretch at the moment to say that it could, but my experience is that lack of will is the greatest killer of promising aviation events. AERO is supported by just about every major GA manufacturer in Europe (and nowadays there are a lot of those!) and from the USA, so it has a greater mass of GA participation pushing it forward than WOI does. In Australia, we don't have that mass, but there is enough there to support and foster our own GA shows, albeit on a somewhat smaller scale than AERO. All it really takes is enough will.
I was intrigued to see Tecnam announcing a MkII version of their P Twenty-Ten four-seater. In October 2015 I was privileged to fly the original 180-hp, fixed-pitch model and was happy to declare it already one of the best GA aeroplanes in the world. Whilst there I was shown a prototype with a blue lever on the quadrant, so a CSU has been slated for the Twenty-Ten almost from the outset. Could this be a text-book case of how to make a great aeroplane even better? I suppose only the order books will be able to reveal that.
May your guages always be in the green,
Hitch