http://www.airborne.com.au/pages/ml_enews_latest.htm

Rob Hibberd <<email>> at Airborne writes:

Complying to Australian regulations is a tough business. To operate a viable aircraft manufacturing business in Australia it is necessary for the manufacturer to also create a viable export market. This is important, if there were no export market there would be no local manufacturers simply because the cost of certification in Australia is prohibitive.

Australia along with the UK has the strictest regulations in the world. Some other countries have their own unique standard that must be complied with before a manufacturer can sell the aircraft and get flight approval. When you buy an aircraft you are also paying for the associated costs of certification. Some manufacturers have a higher level of compliance than others, depending on which countries they sell to.

Airborne is audited by the CASA (Civil Aviation Safety Authority of Australia) on a regular basis. We have also been audited by some of the stricter overseas authorities from countries we sell to. Some of these government authorities have even traveled to our factory from the UK, Israel, and recently South Africa. They audit our manufacturing and QA system, and also check our CASA reporting procedures.

The whole Airborne range is certified. Testing is documented and signed off by an independent government approved engineer, often CASA staff witness our testing themselves. This is not the case with all standards, in many countries the manufacturer simply signs a document to say they have completed formal testing. There are no government audits!

There is no other standard in the world that comes close to the level of reporting required by the Australian and British Authorities. Note: Australian acceptance under new sport pilot rules does not mean that the accepted aircraft has jumped through the hoops that Airborne has, in fact none to date have except UK Section S certified aircraft.

Airborne continues to reinvest profits into achieving world wide certification and manufacturing excellence. The Airborne range is currently sold into 32 countries. Once we start to sell our aircraft into a new market customer service has to be maintained for that region. Customer's do not put up with bad service and these days the Internet allows customers a voice that may have not been heard in the past. This can be a good thing but beware of the self opinionated expert when seeking advice, they are fairly easy to spot.

Some misconception's

Ever heard or read that microlights or trikes are not good to fly in the middle of the day in unstable air? The fact is we tow hang gliders up in the middle of the day in amongst booming thermals in inland Australia and many other hot climates. Out of all the ultralight types flying, microlights or trikes have made more flights around the world and halfway around (Europe to Australia) than any other. You certainly cannot pick your conditions on such trips. The latest only a couple of months ago saw Richard Meredith Hardy and blind pilot Miles Hilton Barber fly from the UK to Australia in some of the harshest conditions one would want to encounter.

A note on safety.

Fly inside the aircraft's flight envelope (see the placard of limitations) and you will not have any issues. They are tested to 6g positive and 3g negative. In straight and level flight you pull 1g, in a 60 degree bank you pull 2g. No Airborne microlights have ever been proven to have suffered a structural failure whilst being flown within the aircraft's flight limitations.

Since the implementation of our new manufacturing system we believe we can claim to have the most reliable back-up and parts supply service available in this industry today. The servicing of 32 countries needs a good system and Airborne has invested a considerable amount of time and money installing a state of the art manufacturing system (Visual Enterprise). Visual, used by many larger manufacturing organizations, is already starting to pay off and we are continually seeing improvement to our customer service and manufacturing efficiency.