Notes
10 | Pilot September 2017 http://www.pilotweb.aero
Colin Hales injured in forced landing
New UK PC-12 sale to Neil Armstrong
British pilot and aircraft engineer Colin
Hales’ flight around the world in his
homebuilt KR2 Itzy was brought to an end
on 11 July when the aircraft was severely
damaged in a forced landing on a golf
course in Japan. Colin’s aircraft came to
grief at the Himejiaioi Country Club in
Hyogo Prefecture in western Japan. Aerial
footage shows the aircraft resting against
an embankment in a confined area close
to a building, its fuselage broken in half
and one wing folded under the other.
Having faced almost nine months of
bureaucratic delay after landing in Japan
last November following an epic flight
across Russia (described by Colin in an
article published in Pilot in May) he had
taken off four hours earlier from an
airport in central Japan and covered 350
miles when he came down due to some
unspecified problem (“it was not the
engine” he has since said on his website).
According to the Osaka Aviation Bureau,
Colin was heading for Okanan Airfield
having taken off from Niigata Airport
earlier in the day.
Costly errors
Last December PPL Andrew Hart took off from
Weston Airport, Dublin in a Piper PA-28 bound for
Shobdon. On his arrival there a visiting flying
instructor was concerned that he had landed in
poor weather conditions and asked to see his
pilot’s licence, which he was unable to produce.
The instructor informed the CAA and investigation
revealed that Mr Hart’s PPL was not valid as his
medical certificate had expired. The CAA
prosecuted and, during the hearing at Worcester
Magistrates’ Court in July, the court heard that on
his flight to Shobdon Mr Hart had also flown
through restricted airspace in West Wales without
ATC clearance, and penetrated the Aberporth
Danger Area. He pleaded guilty to one count of
flying without a licence in contravention of the
Air Navigation Order 2016 and was fined £600 and
ordered to pay CAA costs of £552 and a victim
surcharge of £60.
Commenting after the hearing, Tony Rapson,
Head of the CAA’s General Aviation Unit, said:
“It should be self-evident that anyone flying an
aircraft needs to be appropriately licensed for
the type of activity they are engaged in.
Unfortunately, a small number of people still
think that the rules don’t apply to them and they
can carry on regardless, despite the obvious risk
to other airspace users and the general public.
We will always take action against such people.”During July’s Goodwood
Festival of Speed, locally
based Oriens Aviation —
British Isles sales
distributor for the Pilatus
PC-12 — delivered a new
PC-12NG to Neil Armstrong
(no, not that one! — Ed),
owner of Armstrong
Group Holdings.
The aircraft will be
based at Leeds-Bradford,
from where Armstrong
anticipates that he will
fly up to 200 hours a year
in connection with his
business interests in Jersey, the west of
Ireland and Mallorca, and for leisure.Oriens also helped to recruit pilots for the
aircraft. “We expect to use two pilots on
the longer flights,” Armstrong says.
Meanwhile, at its Stans, Switzerland
factory, Pilatus Chairman Oscar J
Schwenk handed over the specially
marked 1,500th production PC-12 to the
Australian Royal Flying Doctor Service. In
1994 the RFDS was among the first
customers to take delivery of a PC-12 and
currently flies 33 of them to provide
medical assistance to people living in the
remotest areas across the continent,
transporting some 18,000 patients
each year.Sporting a beanie hat he’d bought in Iceland ‘as a bit of a joke’ Colin stands beside his homebuilt KR1,500th PC-12 goes to Australia’s ‘flying doctors’The Oriens team with customer Neil Armstrong (centre)We understand that although Colin
vacated the wreckage unaided and was
able to walk to the clubhouse, he was
airlifted to hospital and is now undergoing
treatment for fractured vertebrae andother injuries. Colin’s friend Zanna McKail
has set up a JustGiving Facebook page
aimed at raising funds to pay for his
medical treatment in Japan https//www.
justgiving.com/crowdfunding/colin-hales