The pilot and four friends departed Bankstown on a visual flight rules (VFR) pleasure trip in the pilot's recently purchased Piper Cherokee Six (PA 32-260). The trip had been planned to take five days and included flight legs to Bourke, Birdsville, Alice Springs, Yulara, Oodnadatta, Broken Hill, Condobolin, Parkes, and thence to Bankstown.

The first leg to Bourke was uneventful. However, when the pilot refuelled following arrival at Birdsville, a heavy flow of fuel was observed from the overflow and vent of the left main fuel tank. The fuel system of this aircraft consists of four separate fuel tanks; left and right tip and mains. Fuel feeds to the engine from a single fuel tank at a time and depends on a manual selection by the pilot. The pilot concluded that the flow was coming from the left tip tank. He believed that the contents of the left tip tank were flowing into the left main tank. When he moved the fuel selector to the right main fuel tank, the leak quickly stopped.

Fuel was again observed flowing from the vent and overflow of the left main fuel tank whilst the aircraft was enroute to Alice Springs. The fuel system was subsequently inspected at Alice Springs by a Licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineer (LAME). The LAME informed the pilot that the left tip tank should not be used but that the remaining three tanks were safe to operate. The pilot elected to complete the trip by filling only the remaining three fuel tanks, leaving the left tip tank empty. With the three tanks full, he calculated that the aircraft's endurance was reduced to 4 hours and 45 minutes. Further legs of the trip were uneventful. The pilot calculated that the average fuel consumption remained at approximately 55 L/hr.

The pilot's fuel management technique for the remaining three tanks was to operate from the right main fuel tank from take-off until reaching cruise level, a period of approximately 10 minutes. He would then select the right tip tank and draw fuel from this tank for approximately 50 minutes. The left main fuel tank was then selected and would be drawn from for about 30 minutes. This would be followed by the right main fuel tank for a further 30 minutes, and so on, in order to maintain the aircraft's lateral balance.

On the day of the incident, the pilot had planned to fly from Oodnadatta to Condobolin via Broken Hill, with a possible extension to Parkes depending on in-flight calculations of fuel remaining. The pilot had started preparations for this leg shortly after dawn. Following a refuelling stop at Broken Hill, the aircraft departed at 1422 EST for Condobolin. When the aircraft reached Menindee at an altitude of 5,000 ft, a significant amount of cloud was observed along the planned track. A diversion was made to the south and the aircraft was descended to maintain altitudes between 2,000 ft and 3,000 ft. With the weather to the north still looking unsuitable for continued VFR flight, the pilot elected to divert for a landing at Griffith.

Greater than expected headwinds were encountered on the track to Griffith with the aircraft's groundspeed reducing from 90 kts, the planned groundspeed for the Broken Hill to Condobolin leg, down to as low as 75 kts. However, the pilot believed that he had more than sufficient fuel to reach Griffith. He became concerned about the fuel state when the aircraft was some 20 NM north-west of Griffith. He subsequently transmitted a message on the flight service frequency indicating that he may need to consider a landing before reaching Griffith. An alert phase was declared and crews of aircraft in the locality were asked to provide assistance in guiding the pilot to Griffith in the failing light conditions.

The pilot reported that the engine started to falter when the aircraft was approximately 10 minutes flight time from Griffith. He had been drawing fuel from the right tip tank and responded quickly by changing the fuel selector to the left main fuel tank. The pilot was verbally assisted to locate the lights of the aerodrome by the crews of two aircraft in the area. At the top of the descent for landing, the engine started to falter again so the pilot selected the right main fuel tank. Whilst on final approach, the engine again started to falter, however, the pilot was concentrating on the landing and chose not to make another fuel tank selection. A safe landing was completed at 1820, however the engine stopped during the ground roll and the aircraft had to be pushed clear of the runway. The total elapsed flight time from Broken Hill was 3 hours and 58 minutes.

The aircraft underwent inspection by a LAME at Griffith following the incident. No anomalies could be found with the fuel system, fuel gauges or the engine, which may have contributed to the incident. No explanation could be found for the fuel overflow problems which had been experienced earlier in the trip.

The pilot held a valid licence and medical certificate for the operation being undertaken. He had accumulated a total of approximately 750 hours and had flown about 50 hours in a similar Cherokee Six previously. Whilst he held a Night VFR rating, he did not satisfy the recency requirements in order to exercise the privileges of that rating. However, this was not considered to be a contributing factor to the incident.

The pilot had recently purchased the PA 32-260 after completing a 40-minute inspection flight at Roma with the previous owner. He later ferried the aircraft from Bathurst to Bankstown, a flight of approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes. In addition, he had completed a half hour period of circuits before embarking on the pleasure trip. He had amassed some 25 hours in the aircraft during the trip, culminating in the incident flight.

On reflection, the pilot believed that the incident resulted from a number of contributing factors. The incident flight was flown at much lower altitudes than those of the previous legs of the journey, most of which had been flown at approximately 7,500 ft. The pilot reported that he continued to use a high-power setting of 2,450 RPM and a slightly richer mixture to maintain smooth operation of the engine. In addition, the aircraft was not fitted with an Exhaust Gas Temperature or Cylinder Head Temperature gauge to assist with accurate leaning techniques. The resultant effect would have been a higher fuel consumption than he had previously experienced. Discussions with other pilots and maintenance personnel who were familiar with the aircraft type, considered that a fuel consumption rate of 60 L/hr was a more accurate reflection of the aircraft type's average fuel consumption. Using this fuel consumption figure and fuel capacities gleaned from the aircraft's flight manual, the fuel endurance of the aircraft, with the remaining three tanks, was calculated to be approximately 4 hrs and 10 minutes. When a fuel consumption rate of 55 L/hr was substituted, the aircraft's endurance was approximately 4 hours and 33 minutes, still 12 minutes less than the pilot had calculated.

The pilot added that a passenger had to return to Sydney to enable him to connect with a flight to Perth. This self-imposed pressure influenced his decision to "push on". These two factors, combined with the cumulative effects of fatigue resulting from a five day journey, the last day of which had commenced at dawn, most likely eroded his ability to make sound decisions and judgements, in what became stressful circumstances.

Shortly after take-off, the crew of the Boeing 767 were advised by ATC that tyre debris and part of a control pulley had been found on the departure runway. The crew advised that they would return to land after jettisoning fuel to reach maximum landing weight. The crew later declared an emergency due to aircraft control difficulties. A distress phase was initiated by ATC. When emergency services were in position, the airport was closed to all other operations and the aircraft landed safely.

A subsequent inspection of the aircraft revealed that the tread of the inner rear tyre on the right main landing gear had separated, although the tyre had remained inflated. Liberated rubber debris had entered the right wheel well, damaging a pulley and its mounting bracket in the right inboard aileron control system. This led to a loss of function of the right inboard aileron due to a reduction of aileron cable tension.

Investigation of the tyre failure by the tyre manufacturer concluded that the failure was the result of the loss of rubber adhesion to the casing plies below the buff line. The tyre was on its fifth retread and had been subjected to nine landings since the last retread.

The aircraft manufacturer reported that redundancies built into the aircraft control system provided sufficient remaining lateral control, despite the loss of right inboard aileron function.

Once established in the cruise, the pilot noticed that the right auxiliary fuel gauge indicated an above average consumption. When the fuel selector was changed to right main tank, the excessive consumption remained. The pilot decide to continue to destination after calculating his endurance at the indicated fuel consumption. At this stage the aircraft had passed the equal time point. He cross-fed fuel from the left-wing fuel tanks and kept both engines running. The aircraft arrived with 120 litres of fuel on board.

A post flight inspection by maintenance staff found that the right wing was stained underneath with avgas. Further investigation found that the fuel delivery hose to the fuel control unit was under torqued. Removal of the fuel finger filter found that the adapter O-ring was damaged.

The aircraft was being used to spread dressing on a property near Mindarie in South Australia. The landowner had not provided a map of the treatment area, instead, giving the pilot a preflight briefing that included drawing a diagram of the property with his heel on the ground. The property was located just to the north of a heavily wooded road running east to west. The property owner included the location of known powerlines in his briefing to the pilot.

The pilot began the job by performing the clean-up runs, filling in areas not suitable for the longer swath runs. He flew these runs primarily from the north-east. As he set up for the first swath run by flying east along the road before turning north to the property, the aircraft struck a powerline. The powerline was strung across the road to a derelict building.

The pilot reported that the powerline separated from a point near the disused building, and that approximately 30 m of line snapped back across the aircraft, damaging the left wing and aileron. The pilot landed the aircraft safely in an adjacent field. The pilot reported that the owner had not advised him of the location of the powerline because the owner was not aware of its existence. He also reported that he did not consider the likelihood of a powerline in that location due to the rundown nature of the building to which it was connected.

The SAAB 340 departed normally from runway 16R, but shortly after becoming airborne the crew requested a return to land. When asked if operations were normal the crew reported the aircraft had suffered an engine failure. ATC activated the crash alarm and closed the airport. The crew were offered a circuit to either runway 07 or 34L/R but elected to continue for a right circuit to runway 16R.

The aircraft was flown on a visual low-level circuit to a safe landing. Preliminary investigation revealed major damage to the power turbine section of the left engine. The engine was subsequently returned to the manufacturer's engine overhaul facility for examination. Their engineering report revealed that the stage two turbine forward cooling plate had separated at the outer rim.

The report noted that the failure was consistent with other cooling plate separation events. The manufacturer had previously issued a service bulletin which introduces improvements to the cooling plate to preclude this type of failure. The operator had a program to incorporate this modification during planned hot section module changes. Incorporation of the modification to the failed engine was planned for the week following the incident.

The flight was the first exercise for a type endorsement. After some upper air work had been completed in the training area the aircraft returned to Bankstown for circuits and landings.

The instructor reported that the student was having difficulty with flaring the aircraft and was occasionally ballooning the landing. It was therefore decided to terminate the exercise after the next landing. The final approach was normal, but the aircraft again ballooned. Before the instructor could effect recovery action, the aircraft stalled and contacted the runway heavily, collapsing the nose landing gear. Both occupants vacated the aircraft without injury.

The aircraft was being landed on runway 36, with an easterly wind gusting to 10 kts. A three point attitude was used for the landing. After the touchdown, braking was used to slow the aircraft but it developed a swing to the right. The pilot applied left brake to stop the swing but pedal pressure was soon lost. The ground loop continued, resulting in damage to the left main gear and left wing.

An inspection of the left brake system found that the pedal bled to the floor, after initial pressure was obtained, in about one second. No leaks were found. The fault appears to be an internal failure of the master cylinder.

An emergency locator transmitter was carried but it did not activate.

The helicopter was spraying a melon crop when the main rotor came into contact with a steel rod in the crop. The subsequent rotor imbalance necessitated a forced landing. The helicopter subsequently landed heavily, and the main rotor blades cut off the tail boom resulting in substantial damage. This accident was not reported.

The pilot reported, that during the take-off run on runway 27 at Bunyan, the tug and glider combination experienced a slight down draught which caused them to settle back on the runway. The combination ran along the runway for a further 10 metres and the glider became airborne again. A short distance later as the tug was becoming airborne, there was a hard loud thump on the nose gear. The aircraft became airborne, and all controls and instruments indicated that the tow was normal. Given the length of strip remaining, the hill in front, and the glider at low level on tow and the now normal operation of the aircraft, it was decided to continue with the glider tow.

The glider was towed up to 5,500 ft, and then released. The tug commenced a descent and returned to the airstrip to land. After allowing sufficient distance for the tow rope to clear the power lines on approach to the airstrip, the aircraft descended to make a smooth touch down on the main landing gear.

When the nose landing gear touched the ground, it began to skid over the rough surface, as the scissor link had apparently been fractured during take-off and the nose leg turned through approximately 60 degrees from its normal tracking position. The nose leg then fully collapsed resulting in the propeller striking the ground. The aircraft subsequently ground looped and the left wing tip struck the ground. The aircraft was evacuated with nil injuries to the occupants. The pilot of the glider observed that as the tug was about to become airborne, he saw a cloud of dust rise from the nose wheel of the aircraft, after which he noticed that the front wheel of the tug was approximately 60 degrees from its normal position and the scissor link appeared to be fractured. He advised that he continually tried to transmit a message to the tug, but his radio apparently was not transmitting.

After departing Albany for a private strip near Muradup, the pilot encountered deteriorating weather conditions including showers, cloud and failing light. With rain falling at the alternative strips, the pilot decided to continue to the private strip. During landing, the pilot rounded the aircraft out too high. It floated and the pilot applied full flap resulting in a landing 200 m down the 600 m strip. On the application of brakes, the aircraft skidded on wet grass on the slight downslope. As the aircraft came to the end of the strip, the pilot reported that the aircraft veered right, puncturing the right landing gear tyre on a log. It continued along a dam embankment before hitting a fence and coming to a stop. The pilot and passenger were not injured although the aircraft received damage to the right wing, left engine cowl and left elevator.