Sunshine Coast’s Mike Becker of Becker Helicopters had the privilege of sending one of his students solo yesterday only minutes after the student had received his student pilot licence from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority



Suncoast Christian College year 11 student - Morgan Vidler - turned 16 yesterday and as such was legally entitled to pilot a helicopter solo under the regulations - the Buderim teenager unofficially is Australia’s youngest ever solo helicopter pilot

A cropduster pilot was seriously injured and transported by ambulance to the Townsville Hospital after the unidentified aircraft he was flying impacted the ground during what appears to be a normal low-level operation



Media reports have the crash occurring around 1345hrs near the Bambaroo State School at Bambaroo between Townsville and Ingham in Far North QLD

An auction of Piper manufactured 2 and 4-seat pilot training aircraft is to be held at the main terminal building on Archerfield Airport May 10 2011 commencing at 1000hrs



On offer are 3 Piper Tomahawks and a 4-seat Piper Cherokee that had been used previously by Flight Training Australia and more recently by the AV8 Flying School - prior to that the machines were operated by the now defunct Arena Aviation previously Air Training Centre