August 8  2006
A 4-seat Cessna 182 departing Archerfield for Goondiwindi around 1100hrs had an apparent engine failure after it had climbed to 1000ft - the outbound cruise height

...the engine started trailing white smoke when only about 10km from the departure airport...

Owner/Pilot of the C182 - 29 year-old Jonathan Haire - failed to accomplish a successful forced landing into a nearby sports oval and sustained burns to his arms legs and lungs after the machine caught fire when it ended up inverted in the yard of a Darra home after initially striking powerlines

   
The male home-owner rescued the pilot from the flames before the Cessna was completely consumed by the avgas fed fire ...the Princess Alexandra Hospital medical team placed him an induced coma to ease the pain...

News Desk Comment

Accidents involving aircraft entering or leaving Archerfield airspace include the following:- March 2006 - Lancair from Townsville · Fatal March 2002 - PA-28/235 Cherokee on Approach June 2001 - Twin Commanche Take-Off · Fatal December 1997 - Jabiru Successful Out-Landing

August 10  2006
A Cessna 172 with 4 persons on board enroute from Merimbula to Melbourne's Essendon airport was forced to make an emergency landing in Victoria's "High Country" after encountering wing ice that would have severely reduced flight performance
 
All 4 survived the landing that almost demolished the aircraft and spent the night in freezing temperatures awaiting rescue from the Police Emergency Response team

 
The crash site was around 6k's east of the Mt Baw Baw alpine village - the professional pilot of 30 years activated the emergency beacon called aviation authorities and his wife on his mobile phone advising all on board were "fit and well" and awaiting rescue
 

News Desk Comment

Image perusal indicates the C172 was not in a landing configuration - all on board were extremely lucky to survive the inadvertent "landing" in scrub

August 14  2006
Motor vehicle manufacturer OZ's GM Holden has decided to enter the aviation scene with a helium filled non-rigid airship designed to hover over major sporting and cultural events
 
The USA designed Lycoming powered 6 person machine has a "hang about" time of more than 8 hours and sports an enormous TV screen on the port side measuring 21.3 by 9.1 metres

 
Is the first airship in the world with a TV screen large enough to be watched by persons on the ground
 

News Desk Comment

Airships were popular in 80/90's with the Bond and Whitman airships flying about including one incident when the Bond airship actually "crashed" at Archerfield and $40,000 of helium gas escaped

Airship reports at AF in 1999 HERE and 1997 HERE