http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/10/01 ... australia/

The pilot, Paul Cox, said he did not see the Ferris wheel before his plane hit it.


I guess in Australia flying 30ft over a Carnival is cool.

This could have been a lot worse. I love how they called a two place full size airplane an Ultralight too. This is precisely the reason that everytime you mention Ultralights or Experimentals the first thing people say is "Aren't those dangerous?"

Time to establish a TFR around all fairs and circuses. Being that a ferris wheel technically is transportation in a circular fashion, TSA needs to get involved. Furthermore, since you go up in a ferris wheel, FAA needs to make sure the operators have class 1 medicals.

Sadly, the TFR would have an impact on many things at the fairs. Being that TFRs ban use of 'model aircraft' too, balloons of all type are out. Dart games are gone too since they are missiles.

A lot of tough sacrifices to be made but federal involvement would have prevented this.

I believe that in many other countries, small 2-place aircraft qualify as "ultralights" and are subject to less restrictive regulations, similar to light sport aircraft in the US.

Best,
O-2

The Aussies are an Epic bunch....No one really had any injuries, The kids were great, ect... How do you crash into a ferris wheel and not knock it over? They just seem to look at the bright side down there.No crazy talk about how dangerous everything is,no talk of banning everything deemed unsafe, Just talk of how awesome it is that nobody was hurt......Australia is cool.

First let me state that I have NO idea what happened with this Ferris Wheel crash.
I will state things that I do to keep 'controlled flight' into objects/terrain from happening to me.
I like to fly low. I do it regularly out here in very rural central Washington.
I do NOT fly low into a low or setting/rising sun. I plan my sightseeing/pleasure flights so that I don't have to 'return to base' into the sun. If I want to go towards a low sun, I fly like a sailor deals with wind on the nose and fly about 45 degrees off the heading I prefer, and 'tack' back and forth with a long 'reach' so there are few turns through the 'sun' heading.
Over the last decade cell/communication towers have sprouted up like weeds around here. On the flatlands the towers tend to be taller for increased range and-hard to believe-fewer towers. New ones continue to happen regularly, so vigilance is necessary.
Also when flying low I watch for power/telephone POLES. NOT the lines between them. Depending on the angle of the sun in relation to the lines they frequently cannot be seen until the last moments before reaching them. Locally an ultralight (powered parasail I think) flew at a very low speed into lines. Unfortunately this is not as rare as it should be.
I am very careful not to 'fixate' on something I am watching on the ground. There is all sorts of interesting stuff that happens on the ground, but I constantly scan back to where my airplane is headed. This is a very hard one and self discipline is necessary!
If you are flying within any possible reach of anything ground based, you need to be on CONSTANT alert, eyes scanning to at least 45 degrees of each side of your course. Your brain needs to be actively processing what you are seeing, hearing, and feeling with the aircraft. I don't/won't fly with music as a distraction at low levels. I also do not "relax".

You can always gain altitude for safety and relaxation.
Altitude is your friend.
lc

This "mishap" reminds me of a video I saw many years ago of the old lady who drove out onto the railroad tracks. Her comment to the cop was " I had to go somewhere". Fortunately she had exited her car BEFORE a train demolished her car.