Category QF32 Story

Royal Aeronautical Society

Stop Press – Thursday 28 November The evening was a great success with my son Alexander and I meeting over 120 engineering students and 180 RAeS members. Everyone was especially pleased to met and hear Carolyn and Derwyn Jones, passengers on the QF32 flight who also addressed the audience.   Their daughter Nia Jones joined […]

Bio-Mimicry of Shaking Dogs

See also QF32 Biomimicry Richard Hammond’s Miracles Of Nature Biomimicry You don’t have to be a dog lover to be awe struck by this video of dog shaking themselves dry. These seemingly simply movements generate up to 70 G accelerations that “centrifuge” the hair 70% dry in just a few seconds. Why is the QF32 […]

Resilience and Teamwork at the IPC Alpine Skiing World Cup

Re·sil·ience Webster definition:  the ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change Richard’s definition:   The synergy of human confidence, passion, courage and intrepid determination needed to survive and to conquer adversity IPC Alpine Skiing World Cup In my roll as the Patron of Disabled Wintersport Australia,  it was my (and Coral’s) pleasure on […]

Giving Back – Disabled WinterSport Australia

I am pleased to be the first Patron of Disabled WinterSport Australia (DWA). DWA is the National Sporting Organisation that has provided accommodation, equipment and ski training for people with disabilities at Australian ski fields for 35 years. Her Excellency the Honourable Quentin Bryce AC CVO and His Excellency Mr Michael Bryce AM AE held a […]

Byron Bay Writers’ Festival

The beautiful coastal retreat of Byron Bay means two things to me: A week after the QF32 event, when I was exhausted, my friends Simon Ford and John Connolly took me to Byron Bay to help me relax, escape the media and to try to teach me how to surf!       Byron Bay has […]

BioMimicry, Red Kites & 101 Club

BioMimicry BioMimicry is the study by biologists, scientists and engineers of the mechanisms and strategies of the living world, with the aim to apply them to human machines. Predators must be tougher and faster than their prey, so creatures on top of the food chain such as raptors and sharks  show us where we can adapt […]

QF32 and the Golden Circle

In relation to the actions of the pilots and cabin crew, the final ATSB report provides excellent detail about most of WHAT happened.  The critical “HOW they happened” and even more important “WHY they happened” were not included in the report as the outcome was already known and the investigators believed that these analyses would […]

ATSB Final Report on QF32

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has released the final report of its investigation into the QF32 flight of 4 November 2010. Taking 966 days to produce, the 305 page QF32 report is the largest investigation the ATSB has ever conducted using resources from over 10 organisations spanning at least seven countries.   The QF32 repairs […]

Stories of two great Australian Adventurers

Explorers and adventurers take enormous risks. At the time when these intrepid souls embarked on  their quests, most people considered that the cost of the risk outweighed the benefit of the discovery or record.   It’s only when the adventurists returned successful that the doomsayers and critics turned to supporters. What would our world be […]

Social Media kills the Golden Hour

Crisis, Social Media and Citizen Journalists There is a saying that if the media is reporting your story, and if there is a hole in the story, then someone else will fill that hole if you don’t.   And if someone else fills it, then they’ll own it, forever. Many crisis managers take advantage of […]