April 12 
Cirrus aircraft well known for their "Ballistic Parachute System" for use in an emergency were put to the test in Canada and Florida over the past 2 days

In Canada an SR20 flying at night with 4 POB became uncontrollable and the pilot elected to pull the 'chute around 9,000' - the aircraft 'landed' safely and the next day in the USA an SR22 experienced a complete instrument failure in IFR conditions with the pilot wisely activating his aircraft's 'chute

"The Cirrus SR20 is the first certified installation by the FAA of an aircraft with a parachute system as a primary safety device"

April 9 
The Burt Rutan designed Scaled Composites constructed SpaceShipOne made the first flight into near-space to-day after only its second powered flight

The privately funded rocket powered 3-seater reusable spacecraft soared to 105,000' over Mojave airport in California hitting Mach 2 in the process

Scaled Composites is competing for the X-Prize of $10 million for the first to launch a vehicle capable of carrying 3 people to a height of 100 kilometres and return to Earth and repeat the flight again in the same vehicle within the following 2 weeks

April 8 
A farmer in China has constructed his own version of a home-built ultralight aircraft that caught the attention of the world's media

The machine was only capable of taxiing along the farmer's property - reports had it unable to fly

China unlike a number of other countries had discouraged "home-built" aircraft and private flying until recent times - a web search found there may be only a very small number (if any) indigenous PPL holders

April 8 
Mature aged ultralight pilot/instructor Bill Morris has been jailed for 2 months by District Court Judge Brian Boulton after flying his aircraft low over his ex-wife's house at Biloela in central Queensland

Bill flew his machine "..low as 6 metres from the roof scaring neighbours and terrifying his estranged wife"

He claimed he was "distraught at the break-up of his marriage and concerned about seeing his infant child"

Bill spent a number years training ultralight pilots on the Whitsunday Islands airport at Shute Harbour - an idyllic lifestyle envied by many an aviator and visitor to the area

April 9 
Just in case you failed to notice on your last visit to Archerfield, located on the western end of the airfield is a portable radar dish

It's understood by the News Desk that Airservices Australia is testing the military based radar for possible use on the airfield as there is no ILS

A conceivable reason for the dish could be to support a budget airline reported in the media to be starting up later this year and operating BAe HS146 commuter jets out of all capital city secondary airports including Archerfield

April 9 
Time for a review of statistics for the AirCentre pages; month is March 2004

If you want to view a screen-capture image of last month's visitors from around the world then click HERE but be warned - if you're on dialup it may take a minute or so to load and it's only half the story but enough to give you the idea that these pages are widely read around the world - in fact from 60 countries to be precise (up from 51 last count)

Included in the list is a few large search engines listed under Network/Unknown

For previous stats - September 2003 click HERE and for a January 1998 article click HERE