Australia

I just read a post by Stealth Pilot and wondered where he is. I tried
to post it but it bounced. Here's another try before I give up.



Hey Stealth:

Aren't you talking more about the Lancair IV-P ? I know one went in
from a spin this summer down under. BTW, where in Aus are you? I
just flew around 1/2 the entire country in an RV-6 during the month of
September. We flew from melbourne to Bendigo, Mildura, Arkaroola,
Leigh Creek, Coober Pedy, Ayres Rock, Alice Springs, Cloncurry, on to
Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef, then down the East Coast to MacKay,
Maroochydore, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, cut into Casino over to
Armidale, Temora, then back to Bendigo and Melbourne.

Took a month and about 30 hours of flying in the RV-6. Then we flew
to Hobart in Tassie. Toured all of Tasmania and left on the smoker at
Launceston back to Melborune, over to Auckland then back to L.A.

Australia was one of the most undeveloped and wealthy lands I've ever
seen. It's a treasure trove of minerals, from Uranium (the Beverly
Mine at Arkaroola), to Silver, Gold and Opals at Coober Pedy. Your
government is half way between a democracy and a dictatorship however.
I found that the British left quite a bit of pomp in the government
officials I dealt with to get an Australian pilot's license. It was
suppose to be a rubber stamp, but it wasn't. They wanted me to walk
through their maze, which I had to do. I guess I'd call the
government a socialistic government with a strong "Green" movement
that stops all mining exploration or any exploitation of the vast
minerals and other forms of wealth there.

One thing I really noticed is that nobody complained about the high
taxes. All the civilians I met sort of didn't care that they were
paying about 40% in income tax and another 10% imbedded in everything
they bought as a federal sales tax. That tax too is sort of incidious
because it's imbedded in the price of the item you buy. It's not
added on so you see it as an additional charge to something you
purchase.

With the fuel costs, and general items one needs to live, I sort of
figured your taxes are about 60% total of what you earn. I was
complaining about CASA when I got back here to my buddies at the FAA
and they said that at one time there were 1400 CASA employees and only
700 airplanes in all of Australia. Interesting.

Oh, CASA is their equivalent of our FAA, the Civil Aeronautics Safety
Administration or something almost like that. They demanded that I do
absolutely everything with perfection and told me they'd have my
permanent license to me in 6 weeks. Well, it's been since the first
of Sept. and I haven't seen it in the mail yet. I'm not holding my
breath.

Australia was a magnificent sight to see in the springtime (Sept).
But when we landed anywhere in the interior the flies were everywhere.
They crawled up my nose, in my eyes, ears, everywhere. I had a hard
time fueling the airplane without stopping. When we'd fly into an
airport, we'd break a branch off a tree as a swishing stick to keep
the flies at bay. In Coober Pedy, the opal capital of the planet, I
asked the hotel owner who picked us up from the airport if the flies
were always like this and his response was , "No...they haven't
started yet since it's early spring."

We bought nets to wear over our heads at Ayres Rock. Alice Springs
was worse. The nets were manditory.

Funny how many flies there were on the interior and there were none in
the rain forests of the East Coast.

Flying from the East coast at Brisbane back to Bendigo then to
Melbourne we saw the most beautiful and largest agricultural region on
the planet. Talk about wealth. There were $trillions in production.
The agricultural region just kept going for 1000 miles. It was
overwhelming to see the vast riches of that region. It actually look
a lot like the entire area from Vienna, Austria to Budapest, Hungary
which was the riches region I'd ever seen until I saw that one in
Australia.

There are many things that have a profound place in my memory of this
trip, from the great wealth of that nation to the kindness of the
people. One of the biggest memories too is that there is absolutely
nothing in the interior of Australia, no rivers, no agriculture, no
roads, no people. There are only a few aboriginal people near the
four of five towns that exist in the interior. There are litterally
millions of square miles of desert. But the desert is pretty. It's
all got plant life on it. It's no sand dunes. The plants are all
different than the ones we have here too. Although hard to see from
the air, we spent a lot of time at each place, just browsing around
and walking in the desert, enjoying the strange and unusual plants.

That's about it. Time to somewhere else now.

BWB

just flew around 1/2 the entire country in an RV-6 during the month of
September. We flew from melbourne to Bendigo, Mildura, Arkaroola,
Leigh Creek, Coober Pedy, Ayres Rock, Alice Springs, Cloncurry, on to
Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef, then down the East Coast to MacKay,
Maroochydore, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, cut into Casino over to
Armidale, Temora, then back to Bendigo and Melbourne.

You missed the jewel in the crown, Western Australia.

"Badwater Bill" wrote in message
...

I just read a post by Stealth Pilot and wondered where he is. I tried
to post it but it bounced. Here's another try before I give up.



Hey Stealth:

Aren't you talking more about the Lancair IV-P ? I know one went in
from a spin this summer down under. BTW, where in Aus are you? I
just flew around 1/2 the entire country in an RV-6 during the month of
September. We flew from melbourne to Bendigo, Mildura, Arkaroola,
Leigh Creek, Coober Pedy, Ayres Rock, Alice Springs, Cloncurry, on to
Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef, then down the East Coast to MacKay,
Maroochydore, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, cut into Casino over to
Armidale, Temora, then back to Bendigo and Melbourne.

Took a month and about 30 hours of flying in the RV-6. Then we flew
to Hobart in Tassie. Toured all of Tasmania and left on the smoker at
Launceston back to Melborune, over to Auckland then back to L.A.

Australia was one of the most undeveloped and wealthy lands I've ever
seen. It's a treasure trove of minerals, from Uranium (the Beverly
Mine at Arkaroola), to Silver, Gold and Opals at Coober Pedy. Your
government is half way between a democracy and a dictatorship however.
I found that the British left quite a bit of pomp in the government
officials I dealt with to get an Australian pilot's license. It was
suppose to be a rubber stamp, but it wasn't. They wanted me to walk
through their maze, which I had to do. I guess I'd call the
government a socialistic government with a strong "Green" movement
that stops all mining exploration or any exploitation of the vast
minerals and other forms of wealth there.

One thing I really noticed is that nobody complained about the high
taxes. All the civilians I met sort of didn't care that they were
paying about 40% in income tax and another 10% imbedded in everything
they bought as a federal sales tax. That tax too is sort of incidious
because it's imbedded in the price of the item you buy. It's not
added on so you see it as an additional charge to something you
purchase.

With the fuel costs, and general items one needs to live, I sort of
figured your taxes are about 60% total of what you earn. I was
complaining about CASA when I got back here to my buddies at the FAA
and they said that at one time there were 1400 CASA employees and only
700 airplanes in all of Australia. Interesting.

Oh, CASA is their equivalent of our FAA, the Civil Aeronautics Safety
Administration or something almost like that. They demanded that I do
absolutely everything with perfection and told me they'd have my
permanent license to me in 6 weeks. Well, it's been since the first
of Sept. and I haven't seen it in the mail yet. I'm not holding my
breath.

Australia was a magnificent sight to see in the springtime (Sept).
But when we landed anywhere in the interior the flies were everywhere.
They crawled up my nose, in my eyes, ears, everywhere. I had a hard
time fueling the airplane without stopping. When we'd fly into an
airport, we'd break a branch off a tree as a swishing stick to keep
the flies at bay. In Coober Pedy, the opal capital of the planet, I
asked the hotel owner who picked us up from the airport if the flies
were always like this and his response was , "No...they haven't
started yet since it's early spring."

We bought nets to wear over our heads at Ayres Rock. Alice Springs
was worse. The nets were manditory.

Funny how many flies there were on the interior and there were none in
the rain forests of the East Coast.

Flying from the East coast at Brisbane back to Bendigo then to
Melbourne we saw the most beautiful and largest agricultural region on
the planet. Talk about wealth. There were $trillions in production.
The agricultural region just kept going for 1000 miles. It was
overwhelming to see the vast riches of that region. It actually look
a lot like the entire area from Vienna, Austria to Budapest, Hungary
which was the riches region I'd ever seen until I saw that one in
Australia.

There are many things that have a profound place in my memory of this
trip, from the great wealth of that nation to the kindness of the
people. One of the biggest memories too is that there is absolutely
nothing in the interior of Australia, no rivers, no agriculture, no
roads, no people. There are only a few aboriginal people near the
four of five towns that exist in the interior. There are litterally
millions of square miles of desert. But the desert is pretty. It's
all got plant life on it. It's no sand dunes. The plants are all
different than the ones we have here too. Although hard to see from
the air, we spent a lot of time at each place, just browsing around
and walking in the desert, enjoying the strange and unusual plants.

That's about it. Time to somewhere else now.

BWB

Interesting narrative, Billy. Send us pictures of you posing with Steve
Irwin and his pretty American wife. Also some of the reptiles you handled,
you ol' swashbuckler you, like the fierce snake, taipan, and death adder.

Awaiting your next travelogue. Your friend, Larry

One thing I really noticed is that nobody complained about the high
taxes. All the civilians I met sort of didn't care that they were
paying about 40% in income tax and another 10% imbedded in everything
they bought as a federal sales tax.

I care ..... it is a bloody rip off compared to the US and Europe ! That is
the price we pay for the social wellfare system we run ...

I was
complaining about CASA when I got back here to my buddies at the FAA
and they said that at one time there were 1400 CASA employees and only
700 airplanes in all of Australia. Interesting.

Not true .... I don't know exactly how many airplanes we have here at the
moment but my guess is that it is approx 15000 + all the ultralights and
homebuilts that don't carry a state VH registration number.

On Sat, 18 Dec 2004 23:03:24 +1100, "smjmitchell"
wrote:

One thing I really noticed is that nobody complained about the high
taxes. All the civilians I met sort of didn't care that they were
paying about 40% in income tax and another 10% imbedded in everything
they bought as a federal sales tax.

I care ..... it is a bloody rip off compared to the US and Europe ! That is
the price we pay for the social wellfare system we run ...

I was
complaining about CASA when I got back here to my buddies at the FAA
and they said that at one time there were 1400 CASA employees and only
700 airplanes in all of Australia. Interesting.

Not true .... I don't know exactly how many airplanes we have here at the
moment but my guess is that it is approx 15000 + all the ultralights and
homebuilts that don't carry a state VH registration number.


I almost missed all this.
recent outages in my isp's news server were almost the death of BWB's
post.
a beautiful piece of imagery.

the Stealth Pilot lives in Perth.

the post regarding the lancair was based on 3 lost aircraft and 6
fatalaties. at one stage 30% of the australian lancairs had been lost
during test flying or familiarisation flights by new owners.
undoubtedly there are a few models of lancair mixed in there.
one of our accident investigators with the atsb did a spreadsheet
calculating aircraft losses by design and was stunned that the lancair
sat on the top of the list with the highest statistic by far.

the stats regarding casa are pretty well correct. they date from the
late 70's when the department of civil aviation ran all the major
airfields, all the air traffic control, the accident investigation and
the regulatory side of things as one all encompassing entity.
the stat was that casa (or whatever its name was then) employed THREE
people per aircraft while the FAA employed 1 person per 15 aircraft.
needless to say a lot has changed since then though Oshkosh still has
more aircraft attending each year than on the australian VH
register.(which excludes ultralights, gliders, weight shift and
powered parachutes)

the thing that we get right in australia is the absence of weapons.
lots of us own guns and use them but we dont carry the things as a
routine thing. if the guy you meet isnt going to shoot you then you
will be more friendly and can have a more irreverent sense of humour.
I see that you noticed the difference.

the thing that we get wrong is that we dont pursue technology as much
as we should. the stupid troglodytes (greens) have a grip on the place
and stifle all innovation. our manufacturing has all been shipped to
china because they are 5 - 10% cheaper and of course it is always
easier to piggyback on a country as large as the USA than to get the
finger out get on with life ourselves.

btw as a W8 tailwind pilot myself I have no problems with lancairs as
a design. if they were being given out I'd have one in a flash :-)

Stealth Pilot

ps the outback desert area is known in australian aviation as the
GAFFA which translates as the great australian f**k all. 'cause
there's f**k all out there but knee high scrub and rabbit burrows.
it is GPS country for sure.

On Sat, 18 Dec 2004 03:39:25 UTC, (Badwater
Bill) wrote:

snip

Australia was one of the most undeveloped and wealthy lands I've ever
seen. It's a treasure trove of minerals, from Uranium (the Beverly
Mine at Arkaroola), to Silver, Gold and Opals at Coober Pedy. Your
government is half way between a democracy and a dictatorship however.
I found that the British left quite a bit of pomp in the government
officials I dealt with to get an Australian pilot's license. It was
suppose to be a rubber stamp, but it wasn't. They wanted me to walk
through their maze, which I had to do. I guess I'd call the
government a socialistic government

! This is John Howard's government you're talking about. I know they
call themselves 'the Liberal Party' which would be confusing to most
Americans, but they aren't (mostly) Liberals, and Howard in particular
is a very Conservative Conservative. I know you probably ran across
some tings which are leftovers from previous governments eg our
Medicare system, but Howard is out to obliterate those things. (And
they weren't 'socialist' anyway, just a different mix of
government/business to the US)

with a strong "Green" movement
that stops all mining exploration or any exploitation of the vast
minerals and other forms of wealth there.

No, that's not true either, their is plenty of exploration and
exploitation going on, but the Greens are very good at getting media
coverage and the anti-greens love to claim they are stopping all
progress, so it might look like they are i control. They aren't, and
Howard and his government are definitely not Green.

One thing I really noticed is that nobody complained about the high
taxes. All the civilians I met sort of didn't care that they were
paying about 40% in income tax and another 10% imbedded in everything
they bought as a federal sales tax. That tax too is sort of incidious
because it's imbedded in the price of the item you buy. It's not
added on so you see it as an additional charge to something you
purchase.

The top personal tax rate is lower than 40% and you only pay it on the
part of your income above a certain threshold, so no-one is paying
40%. Yes we pay GST, but previously we paid sales taxes which it
replaced so the result is about the same. On the up side we don't pay
state taxes like the US seem to do. If you find a study comparing
international tax rates - where all taxes, levies, stamp duties etc
are included, you'll find that Australia is in the lower part of total
tax range, probably (though I am going from memory here) lower than
what some parts of the US pay.


With the fuel costs, and general items one needs to live, I sort of
figured your taxes are about 60% total of what you earn. I was
complaining about CASA when I got back here to my buddies at the FAA
and they said that at one time there were 1400 CASA employees and only
700 airplanes in all of Australia. Interesting.

Can't prove or disprove that, but it doesn't sound right, especially
the second figure..

Australia was a magnificent sight to see in the springtime (Sept).
But when we landed anywhere in the interior the flies were everywhere.
They crawled up my nose, in my eyes, ears, everywhere. I had a hard
time fueling the airplane without stopping. When we'd fly into an
airport, we'd break a branch off a tree as a swishing stick to keep
the flies at bay. In Coober Pedy, the opal capital of the planet, I
asked the hotel owner who picked us up from the airport if the flies
were always like this and his response was , "No...they haven't
started yet since it's early spring."

Didn't he explain to you why you saw so few choppers? We train the
bigger flies instead.

There are many things that have a profound place in my memory of this
trip, from the great wealth of that nation to the kindness of the
people. One of the biggest memories too is that there is absolutely
nothing in the interior of Australia, no rivers, no agriculture, no
roads, no people.

Now I know you are hyperbolising, as you amend this a few lines down
.... There's plenty there, you just didn't see it

here are only a few aboriginal people near the
four of five towns that exist in the interior.

4 or 5 .... oh Billy!

There are litterally
millions of square miles of desert.
Did anyone tell you there is/was a cattle station in the Northern
territory that's bigger than Texas?

But the desert is pretty. It's
all got plant life on it. It's no sand dunes. The plants are all
different than the ones we have here too. Although hard to see from
the air, we spent a lot of time at each place, just browsing around
and walking in the desert, enjoying the strange and unusual plants.

I'm glad you enjoyed it, come again, soon.

Chris

The top personal tax rate is lower than 40% and you only pay it on the
part of your income above a certain threshold, so no-one is paying
40%.

This is incorrect. Our top personal tax rate is 47% you pay that on anything
over approx $50K. I for one definitely pay more than 40% of my total income
in personal income tax. The same would go for any other professional unless
they are cooking the books.

Chris Lasdauskas wrote:

snip

The top personal tax rate is lower than 40% and you only pay it on the
part of your income above a certain threshold, so no-one is paying
40%. Yes we pay GST, but previously we paid sales taxes which it
replaced so the result is about the same. On the up side we don't pay
state taxes like the US seem to do. If you find a study comparing
international tax rates - where all taxes, levies, stamp duties etc
are included, you'll find that Australia is in the lower part of total
tax range, probably (though I am going from memory here) lower than
what some parts of the US pay.

What country are you in - certainly not Australia

http://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/co...u=5053&mfp=001

shows

Over $70,000

$18,612 plus 47c for each $1 over $70,000

The above rates do not include the Medicare levy of 1.5%.


--

regards

jc

LEGAL - I don't believe what I wrote and neither should you. Sobriety and/or
sanity of the author is not guaranteed

EMAIL - and are not valid email
addresses. news2x at perentie is valid for a while.

On Mon, 20 Dec 2004 09:52:18 +1100, "smjmitchell"
wrote:

The top personal tax rate is lower than 40% and you only pay it on the
part of your income above a certain threshold, so no-one is paying
40%.

This is incorrect. Our top personal tax rate is 47% you pay that on anything
over approx $50K. I for one definitely pay more than 40% of my total income
in personal income tax. The same would go for any other professional unless
they are cooking the books.



That's what I thought. I talked to a lot of people who claimed they
paid much more than 50% of everything they earned when including GST.

Bill

On Wed, 22 Dec 2004 18:00:57 +1100, jc wrote:

Chris Lasdauskas wrote:

snip

The top personal tax rate is lower than 40% and you only pay it on the
part of your income above a certain threshold, so no-one is paying
40%. Yes we pay GST, but previously we paid sales taxes which it
replaced so the result is about the same. On the up side we don't pay
state taxes like the US seem to do. If you find a study comparing
international tax rates - where all taxes, levies, stamp duties etc
are included, you'll find that Australia is in the lower part of total
tax range, probably (though I am going from memory here) lower than
what some parts of the US pay.

What country are you in - certainly not Australia

http://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/co...u=5053&mfp=001

shows

Over $70,000

$18,612 plus 47c for each $1 over $70,000

The above rates do not include the Medicare levy of 1.5%.


As I said above, I thought this was correct. Thanks for backing it up
for us.

BWB