John Kent has stepped down as ILAS Chief Inspector at his own request and has been replaced by John O'Toole.

John O'Toole has worked for Aer Lingus for nearly 20 years, currently in the role of training captain on the A320 fleet. He became a licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineer in Canada in the late 1980s having completed technical college and an apprenticeship. He started flying commercially and worked as a pilot/engineer on various smaller aircraft types in remote regions. After a few years in Ireland, he got involved with flying and maintaining light aircraft. He later became involved with the Iolar restoration project (Aer Lingus Charitable Foundation) and subsequently the DH Chipmunk fleet of the Irish Historic Flight Foundation. In 2013, he became an inspector for ILAS. He holds an MSc. from Cranfield University, in Safety and Accident Investigation. He is desperately trying to finish a Murphy Rebel kit aircraft for at least ten years now. John is the current holder of the ILAS Classic/Vintage trophy for his upgrade of EI-AET to floats

John would like to express his gratitude to the ILAS committee for his appointment to CI and is delighted to serve the greater ILAS membership in support of their sport aviation goals and aspirations.

On behalf of the members, we wish him every success in this new extra position of responsibility and we assure him of our full support. 

30 people attend turned out to hear Leo Murray of Air Accident Investigation unit  deliver the inaugural Dave Ryan Memorial Lecture at Kilrush on Saturday 7th April on the crucial subject of permit aviation safety

Soup and rolls were there ready for all when they arrived. The time before the lecture was time for people to meet up and catch up with fellow aviators. While the weather was good at the airfield, it was not as good in other parts of the country. Nonetheless, four aircraft flew in for the event and the rest attended by road.

Charles O’Shea opened the lecture by speaking about Dave Ryan and his contribution to aviation, as well as acknowledging Eamon Fitzgerald. Leo Murray from the AAIU then gave his presentation.

The presentation was split into two parts. The first part of the presentation focused on the process the AAIU has in place to handle accidents, beginning when an accident is reported, then the onsite procedures, followed up by the lab and the final report being issued. He mentioned the regulations they must follow: Annex 13, SI 460 2009 and EU 996/2010. In the second part of the presentation, Leo spoke about different problems that single engine aircrafts experience including induction icing, He also covered the safety aspects of BRS parachutes and inappropriate landing sites

Leo gave an overview of the report issued by the AAIU in relation to Dave’s case. Given the occasion and the number of us who knew and admired Dave Ryan, this was difficult for all in the room.  However,  it was done in a positive way to raise awareness and was all the more effective because of that personal connection. 

Leo displayed an interesting chart in which Irish meterological data over the last 30 years was mapped onto the familiar chart showing the risk of induction icing.  The vast bulk of the data points fall within the induction icing curve and almost half of them fall within the most serious risk area.  This demonstrates what we all know but need to take more heed of; there is scarcely ever a day in Ireland without risk of induction icing. 

Leo spoke about BRS parachutes, advantages, disadvantages, costs and safety precautions. He showed some videos of BRS being deployed in a test environment and an emergency situation.

Leo spoke about the difficulties of choosing landing sites other than airfields, in particular about the dangers of unknown slopes and hills. If it is not an emergency, he recommended performing a flyover and possibly walking the site first to make the landing and take-off safer.

All AAIU reports are on the website www.aaiu.ie and if you sign up you can get email notification of when reports are issued. Leo encouraged people to read the reports and gain knowledge and lessons learned from them. On average, Ireland has approximately four fatalities a year and everyone would like to see it reduced to zero.

After the main presentation, Loman introduced John Todd who gave an update on Dave Ryan’s Little Wing 3 project which he has taken over. He showed pictures of the progress made to date and discussed the build and plans.

The information contained in this lecture was very important to all of us. Hopefully we all took something away from the day so we can improve our own practice. As pilots, we are always learning.

The ILAS Tool Library has made an important acquisition; an ACES Probalancer Sport Model 1015 dynamic propellor balancer.

This advanced tool will form the basis of a new Prop Balancing Service to be delivered through Inspectors who have been trained in the process.

Details of how to access the service are available on the Member Services page

A short case study video can be seen here: https://youtu.be/zCVS4GED_Vk

The committee has arranged a series of lectures to take place during the remainder of the winter and spring period.

The list of events planned for the coming winter/spring series are:

• Aviation Weather, given by Met Eireann
• Permit Aviation Safety, given by the AAIU.
  
• EASA - what on earth is going on? given by Julian Scarfe of European Air Sports
  

Following the fly-in season, the lecture series will resume in September with further events planned for locations around the country.  Our intention is to have approximately six such events over the course of each autumn winter and spring.  With the Annual Awards event and the AGM, this will make for a busy social and educational season in the period when flying weather is less reliable. 

During the summer flying season, ILAS will continue to host 2-3 fly-ins, so the focus on 'indoors' activity will diminish. 

All events will be published on this website and will be announced via email to members.

You are viewing the new ILAS website, launched at the AGM on 28th Jan. This major revision features a new and clearer navigation structure, membership self-service features and event management services.

The new website is a total rebuild of the last version, based on an entirely new platform called "Wild Apricot" (whose name is seen in the generic help system) and offers a fresh new interface with a much more logical member structure.

There is now a clear division between the public face of the website and the members' area, with much of the most valuable information and facilities accessible within the members' area only.

The website has greatly enhanced event management facilities, with the option for users to register for events, each of which will have its own unique event page.  While events in general remain free to members, registering ensures they are added to an email list for any updates.  Event announcements will now only go to those who have not yet registered while a reminder will only be sent to those who have registered. Members can also register guests that they would like to bring along.  For the odd event such as a training course for which the trainer is brought in from abroad, the website has facilities for collecting event fees on-line and issuing e-tickets. 

In addition, the website has very powerful membership facilities, including the ability for members to reset their own password and edit their own profile.  Members can also make subscription payments as before, but now they can opt to make automatic recurring subscription payments, which removes just one more administrative hassle from the aviation world.

The ILAS awards winners for 2017 were confirmed by the Committee at their meeting on 23rd November.  They are:

No eligible first flight of a homebuilt type took place within the judging year so the Ferguson trophy cannot be awarded in 2017.  This is a matter of concern to the committee.  

 Congratulations to all of the winners