Tabla de contenidos para May-June 2026 en Australian Flying

MCDERMOTT AVIATION HAS used Verticon 2026 in Atlanta to unveil its next major strategic move: the rollout of a manufacturer-backed program for the McDermott 214ST helicopter platform. Already the world’s largest operator of the Bell 214 series, the Australian-owned company is now positioning itself as the manufacturer and global supplier of the 214ST, following its acquisition of the aircraft’s type certificate. The move marks a significant evolution for the company, which has spent decades operating, maintaining and engineering the aircraft in demanding roles including aerial firefighting, heavy-lift logistics and disaster response. Founder and President John McDermott said the program represents the rebirth of a proven platform, now refined by decades of operational experience. “What’s particularly interesting about this program is that it’s essentially the rebirth of a tried and proven…

HÉLICOPTÈRES GUIMBAL HAS announced full-scale development of the GrandCabri G5, an all-new five-seat turbine helicopter unveiled at Verticon 2026 in Atlanta and aimed squarely at the entry level turbine market. Derived from the widely used Cabri G2 trainer, the GrandCabri G5 marks a significant step for the French manufacturer. The aircraft will be powered exclusively by Safran’s new Arrius 2D engine and is planned to enter service before the end of the decade. Designed to carry one pilot and up to four passengers, the G5 is pitched as a versatile platform capable of covering a wide range of missions while bridging the gap between light piston trainers and larger turbine helicopters. Founder and CEO Bruno Guimbal said the aircraft was developed in response to global customer demand for a modern,…

A GRASSROOTS INITIATIVE AT Temora Airport is giving young Australians a hands-on introduction to aircraft building, with a focus on skills, safety and inspiration. The Temora Flyers Inc (TFI) Youth Aircraft Builder Training program offers free monthly workshops for high school-aged participants, providing practical tuition in aircraft metalworking and fabrication. Led by aircraft builder, Sam Richards, the program aims to keep younger generations connected to aviation technology and hands-on engineering. Each workshop accommodates two students aged 13 to 18, with all tools, materials and safety equipment provided. By the end of each session, participants complete an airworthy component and receive a certificate of achievement. Since launching, the program has trained ten local participants. “All achieved success and, more importantly, a sense of accomplishment,” Richards said. “As a mentor, it doesn’t…

REGISTRATION: ZS-EBC DATE OF ACCIDENT: 13 JULY 2005 AIRCRAFT: PA28-180 OPERATION: PRIVATE PIC LICENSE: PPL AGE: 35 PIC TOTAL HOURS: 59.85 HOURS ON TYPE: 59.85 DEPARTURE: JAN KEMPDORP INTENDED LANDING: HELUM MINE ACCIDENT SITE: RUNWAY 36 AT HELUM MINE CAVOK: 180°/10KT, TEMPERATURE: +18°C POB: 1 + 3. INJURED: 0. KILLED: 0 Synopsis The pilot, with his wife and two children, was on a flight from Jan Kempdorp to an airfield at Helum mine, just north of Swartruggens. The estimated flight time was one hour 20 minutes. Headwinds increased that to one hour and 35 minutes. They arrived at 1630 local. The runway is on top of a hill, with mountains to the north and west. The sun was low, limiting the pilot’s vision to the north and west. He inspected…

FROM THE ’60S through the ’90s, we saw great growth of GA. Since then it has stumbled and stagnated. Overkill regulation has played a large part in this loss of growth, including the loss of hundreds of flying schools, even as national wealth has increased and our population has doubled 1988 was a defining moment. A new Civil Aviation Act came into force that removed aviation from the Transport Department and direct ministerial control. The Act, changed by Transport Minister Gareth Evans, created an independent regulator with crucial wording: Section 9A(1), CASA must treat the safety of air navigation as the most important consideration. This, combined with no direct ministerial responsibility, creates an illogical requirement. CASA therefore has a near impossible task of conforming with the Act. As Dick Smith…

YOU MAY BE surprised to learn that the job of an editor is largely sedentary. It mainly consists of email interviews, liaising with writers by phone and compiling the articles at a desk (or, in my case, a bed). If I didn’t live in a vibrant suburb, with a café virtually next door to my apartment block, I might not leave the house for days. Which is why my very favourite part of my job (other than scoring rides in amazing aircraft) is getting out and about to airshows. The last weekend of March was the host to two airshows: Warbirds over Scone and Fly’n for Fun. I opted for a trip to Parkes for the latter. Unfortunately, a fast-moving cold front delivered storms, strong winds and a sharp temperature…

I WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF MOVING house when I received a call from Cirrus Sales Representative, Rebecca Penny. “How would you like a flight in the new SR22 G7+?” she asked. The flight was scheduled for moving day, but my excitement was such that I immediately rang the removalists and changed the date. I move house every year; how often do I get a chance to climb aboard a new demo aircraft? I locked it in. It was a clear, golden morning when I headed to Bankstown to meet Cirrus Australia Regional Sales Director Ed Lawler and see the aircraft for the first time. Parked on the apron, its go-faster neon yellow paintwork glinted in the early sun. It looked less like a new aircraft and more like a…

WHEN VISITING AVIATION organisations, you often get an immediate sense of what they are about. At Jandakot-based Aero Jacks, the impression is clear: this is no ordinary maintenance facility. Aero Jacks is the largest general aviation maintenance organisation in Western Australia, supporting both fixed-wing and rotor aircraft, or as they describe it, “anything powered by piston or turbine engines.” The company is an authorised service centre for Cirrus Aircraft, Diamond Aircraft Industries, MX Aircraft, Rotax Aircraft Engines and Beringer. It is also one of the few organisations in Australia with in-house capability to repair composite structures, wood and fabric-covered aircraft. Beyond maintenance, Aero Jacks is the type owner and manufacturer of the MX Aircraft extreme aerobatic series – the MXS and MX2 – as well as the Aircraft Designs Stallion.…

AUSTRALIA’S AVIATION WHITE paper, published in 2024, placed no doubt on what the current government believes is the future fuel for general aviation: electricity. Driving this paradigm is the impending demise of avgas and the ALP government’s quest for net-zero carbon emissions. Electric power, the paper says, is the “most prospective solution”, but could this be blinkered thinking that is ignoring a more practical and immediate solution? Whilst the government is investing in electric systems that in 2026 have not reached viable stages of development, virtually no mention is being made of diesel engines burning sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). The government is touting SAF as the fuel of the future for airlines and turbo-props, either 100% or blended with Jet-A1, prompting suggestions that GA should adopt the same fuel in…

LEONARDO HELICOPTERS AND LifeFlight Australia have unveiled plans for a new training academy featuring advanced simulation systems not previously seen in Australia or the Asia-Pacific. Announced at Verticon 2026, the collaboration will establish the LifeFlight Clive Berghofer Training Academy on the Gold Coast as a Leonardo Authorised Training Centre. It will house the only full-suite Leonardo immersive simulation systems outside Italy. The purpose-built facility will deliver integrated aviation, aeromedical and offshore emergency training, bringing together pilots, aircrew, doctors, nurses, paramedics and offshore personnel in high-fidelity, real-world scenarios. The partnership combines Leonardo’s simulation technology with LifeFlight’s 46 years of operational experience. Among the systems will be the Modular Interactive Trainer for Helicopter Operators (MITHOS), an advanced rear-crew training platform and the only one of its kind outside Europe. A Leonardo Full…

SIKORSKY, A LOCKHEED Martin company, is preparing to build the first production batch of its latest heavy-lift variant, the S-92A+. Sikorsky says it has capacity to produce up to 12 S-92A+ aircraft annually to meet growing global demand across personnel transport, cargo and specialist operations. At its Stratford headquarters, the company will produce key dynamic components including the main gearbox, blades and drivetrains. Final assembly will take place in Owego, where they have previously delivered 23 U.S. presidential helicopters based on the S-92 platform. New production aircraft will be standardised to the S-92A+ configuration, featuring upgraded engines and the Phase IV main gearbox. The S-92A+ upgrade will be available as a retrofit kit for existing S-92A aircraft, with optional engine enhancements.…

SOUNDS BORING? I promise it’s not. How you taxi tells me more about your flying than anything else. In the olden days when everything was black and white, the RAF taught me that a taxying accident is unforgivable. Their exact words, passed down from the Queen, I think. Now, fast forward to the 1960s and the subject comes up again. I am enjoying a chat with Phil Smullian, the boss of Air Cape’s charter ops and a much decorated WW2 RAF pilot. I always enjoyed Phil - he was a rotund, smiling guy with a big walrus moustache and a brilliant sense of humour. The naughty fuel pump Suddenly there’s a crash and Ray Grinstead bursts into the office all arms, legs and excuses. Ray was the sort of guy…

AT THE START of last century, life in regional and remote Australia was tough. Drought, floods and fire plagued the hardy souls who farmed or worked in small towns. In 1919 a Catholic priest published a poem capturing the challenges of living outside Australia’s big cities. The poem, Said Hanrahan, uses gentle humour and sharp wit to highlight both the hardships and resilience of people in the bush. One line quickly spread across the nation and is still remembered today: “We’ll all be rooned (ruined) said Hanrahan before the year is out.” Hanrahan predicts disaster whether it rains too little or too much. Yet his pessimism is balanced by others who have “smiles on every face” and “dancing feet” when dams are full and the harvest is good. Life may…

PROPOSED CHANGES TO airspace management in the Sydney Basin could significantly reduce flight training capacity and create long term pressure on Australia’s pilot pipeline, according to the Royal Federation of Aero Clubs of Australia (RFACA). The organisation has raised concerns about a proposed traffic levelling mandate affecting Bankstown Airport and surrounding Class D airspace, arguing the proposal is driven by air traffic control staffing limitations rather than airspace safety requirements. “Our core concern is straightforward: the proposed traffic-levelling mandate for Bankstown Airport (and associated Class D airspace across the Sydney Basin) is driven by a shortage of TCU consoles and ATC staffing, not by any airspace safety requirement,” RFACA president Lachlan Hyde told Australian Flying. Hyde said modelling based on Airservices Australia data shows the proposed changes could significantly affect…

I HAD MIXED REACTIONS WHEN I told people I was heading to Temora to fly in a Rocket. My non-aviation friends assumed it was another questionable life choice, filed mentally alongside wing walking and solo ferry flights in lipstick and heels, and quickly lost interest. Pilots, on the other hand, asked the only question that mattered: F1 or Harmon? The answer then, and now, was simple: F1. Revisiting the aircraft years later, I realised how clearly I remembered that first flight. Some aeroplanes blur with time. Others remain vivid in sensation, sound and movement. The Rocket falls squarely into the latter category. The F1 Rocket is a tandem two-seat, low-wing taildragger designed in the United States, with kits originally built in the Czech Republic. Constructed largely of aluminium and aerobatic…

RILEY MCDONALD ALWAYS knew he wanted to be a pilot. He just wasn’t sure what kind of flying he wanted to pursue. That changed in 2014 when he watched Chris Clark and Paul Bennet perform at his hometown airshow. “Seeing that level of precision, skill and showmanship lit a fire in me,” McDonald says. “From that moment on, I knew I wanted to become an airshow pilot.” Learning from the ground up McDonald’s pathway into aviation began the way many do, on the ground and in the hangar. He worked under Chris Clark at a joy-flight company and flying school, washing aircraft and working the front desk in exchange for lessons. “I was willing to do whatever it took to be around aeroplanes,” he says. Clark’s enthusiasm for aerobatics shaped…

MICROFLITE AVIATION HAS taken delivery of a third five-bladed Airbus H145, bringing the Melbourne operator’s Airbus fleet to 21 helicopters. The addition reinforces Microflite’s position as Airbus’s largest civil customer in Australia and the country’s first H145 operator. The aircraft joins a diverse fleet ranging from single-engine H120s, H125s and H130s to twin-engine H135s and H145s. The new H145 will support an expanding mission profile that includes military training, commercial utility work, fire observation and rescue operations. Chief Executive Rodney Higgins said the aircraft continues to prove its value across multiple roles. “The H145 has proven to be an exceptional workhorse for our multi-mission operations,” he said. Powered by twin Safran Arriel 2E engines, the five-bladed H145 offers increased performance, including an additional 150 kg payload, giving it one of…

OVER THE PAST decades I have been professionally active on the back-end of accidents and disasters. My role varied with need: embedded in investigation teams, supporting second victims (operators involved but not physically harmed), advising management and boards, and appearing in courts of law. In all those places I’ve seen my share of suffering, grief and loss. These encounters were, in a sense, laboratories of chaos and pain where attempts to restore order and fairness after disaster were laid bare. I was rarely there as a detached, objective scientist. I was there fully. I shared tears across an ocean with the aunt of a fighter pilot—vanished and presumed dead—officially accused of ‘losing situation awareness.’ I cried with the nurse convicted over a young patient’s death. I sat for months with…

FRANKLIN’S COMMON-SENSE APPROACH to safety was originally aimed at fire prevention, but its message of vigilance applies equally to modern aviation. From a personal perspective, vigilance means planning ahead and ensuring your aircraft, operations and flying skills remain current. There is also a broader responsibility to ensure the safety of our industry is not threatened by bad actors or hazards left unaddressed. Reporting unsafe behaviour, low-flying aircraft, maintenance defects and unsafe drone use is crucial to aviation safety and helps prevent accidents. That is why we continually promote reporting. One way we are reinvigorating this message is through a safety reporting sticker aimed at pilots, maintainers and others working in aviation environments. Headlined “See it, report it, prevent it. Together we can make our skies safe”, the sticker directs people…

HOW MANY OF us have recently had to choose between two expenses when we only had enough money for one? How many of us have skipped a refresher lesson with an instructor because the $250 was needed for car repairs or school fees? Rising cost-of-living pressures force us to decide where our money goes. Aviation training and maintenance can easily slip into the same optional category as a holiday in Bali or a second car. Nice to have, but not right now. Recently the question came up: is the rising cost of living actually killing and injuring pilots? Anyone with aviation experience will tell you that most accidents are caused by pilot error. The aircraft sitting in the hangar doesn’t want to fly ahead of a thunderstorm. It doesn’t want…