A pilot and passenger have died when the kit-built Bede BD-4 they were in crashed and caught fire after what appears to be a forced landing into a field adjacent to the airport



Media reports have the aircraft encountering difficulties shortly after take-off from the Mundubbera airstrip in central QLD - the pilot may have lost control in trying to return to the airstrip after an engine failure



Emergency Services personal indicate that there was an explosion and that it had set fire to the paddock

The pilot of a home-built 'Canadian Home Rotors' Baby Belle helicopter is in a critical condition and his female passenger seriously injured after the helicopter they were in crashed into a cane field near Ayr around last-light yesterday



67-year-old Neville Walker - the owner of a Burdekin engineering firm - had just taken off on a pleasure flight when his helicopter lost power and crashed



"She was thrown about 20 metres in front of it as it rolled while he stayed with the main part of the chopper to the end"

Archerfield warbird enthusiasts - Randal McFarlane along with real-estate marketing specialist Kim Rolf-Smith - are in the process of developing a new airport in the Lockyer Valley around 50-min by car from Archerfield



All aircraft hangar sites on offer will have freehold title with taxiway access to the 1230 metre paved runway - "construction is set to begin in early 2012"



The design is for a "master planned aviation community" airport and as such does not require the site owner to have any further buildings erected other than the hangar