Tell us about your last flight

[Old Koreelah]

15 hours ago, Thruster88 said:

It was fly your Thruster to work day at Cowra airport today. Mate and I have a nice pair of matching singles.  I was surprised how economical the 2 stroke draggy machine was, same fuel use as the turbo diesel ute, 44km by road, 16nm by air.

What’s that ag biplane? Looks to be turbine powered.

[Thruster88]

16 minutes ago, Old Koreelah said:

What’s that ag biplane? Looks to be turbine powered.

It is a Grumman G-164 ag cat with a Garret turbine conversion. The operator likes them because they can fly slow and turn tight in the hills and with smaller paddocks.  

[NT5224]

Anybody ever done this? 

 

I feel really dumb!

 

On Sunday my wife and I were refuelling at Batchelor prior to a flight over Arnhem Land when we were distracted by a problem with the bowser.

 

My wife was up on the wing with the hose and I was stabbing buttons on the Avgas bowser.

 

About 30 minutes into the flight I turned to my wife and asked if she had put the fuel caps back on. She said 'no, I thought you had'.

 

I couldn't recall doing it, so told her we had to turn back for safety... After an hour we landed back at Batchelor and found both fuel caps correctly fitted!!!

 

I take responsibility for this because I was in the left seat at the time ( my wife is also licenced),and  its definitely unerving when it happens! Makes me wonder what else I might be missing...

 

Price of growing older?

 

Alan

 

 

 

Edited March 22, 2022 by NT5224

[facthunter]

If you are aware of the possibility, you are 1/2 way to correcting it. IF you get distracted go over  what you were doing (double check) at the time. I know others have done what you have and I commend you having the guts to post it. Nev

[Flightrite]

Easy fix. I put all my fuel Caps on my seat until they are needed to fill the hole/s in the wing, pain in the ass it is ………BUTT😂

Had one left of my A320 many years ago, got a message from ATC b4 we lined up, fuel guy has yr cap in his truck!

Edited March 22, 2022 by Flightrite

[IBob]

4 hours ago, NT5224 said:

Anybody ever done this? 

 

I feel really dumb!

 

On Sunday my wife and I were refuelling at Batchelor prior to a flight over Arnhem Land when we were distracted by a problem with the bowser.

 

My wife was up on the wing with the hose and I was stabbing buttons on the Avgas bowser.

 

About 30 minutes into the flight I turned to my wife and asked if she had put the fuel caps back on. She said 'no, I thought you had'.

 

I couldn't recall doing it, so told her we had to turn back for safety... After an hour we landed back at Batchelor and found both fuel caps correctly fitted!!!

 

I take responsibility for this because I was in the left seat at the time ( my wife is also licenced),and  its definitely unerving when it happens! Makes me wonder what else I might be missing...

 

Price of growing older?

 

Alan

 

 

 

I've had nearly similar but could have been worse.

 

And there is that pattern again: a set routine that is normally reliable........... is disrupted in some way part way through..........and so not reliably completed.

 

What I have tried to take away from my own experience is this: if my routine is disrupted, go back and start over.

[Thruster88]

Had a fellow RV owner who also likes slow aircraft drop in today.  The setting sun with stubble burn smoke was beautiful, farm life. 

 

[red750]

This topic should be called "Tell us about your most recent flight". It would be a real pity if each post was actually someone's last flight.

[Mike Gearon]

King island today. French island to Tyabb for life jacket then south. I’ve been looking south from French island for 12 years. Today was the day to fly it. Well, calm early and it changed to windy later.

 

Cloud  looked like it was going to clear and I had a turn around plan the moment it didn’t look completely okay. Very relieved to hear central talking to pilots and finding out the cloud was burning off.

 

50 minutes at gs144kn TAS130. Coming home a lot longer! 

 

2 regional were coming in at the same time. I heard central reporting my position and arrival time (same) and then one of the jets contacted me on CTAF. They were really good. We just agreed it was my first visit to King Island and I’d dawdle down the coast  doing a bit of sight seeing. Hence the green squiggle on way in. I then spotted the second on final for 10 and made it easy to spot the airport. 20kn cross was interesting with the Pipistrel’s large wing. Just kept the airspeed at 70kn and first flaps only. Return to French island wasn’t much better. It handles the cross as long as 2nd flaps aren’t engaged and speed is.  Way too much drag from those long flaperons for 2nd setting in turbulent cross wind conditions for corrections.

Next time will fly in company and hire a car with overnight stay. 

 

[Flightrite]

My last flight, well it is the title of the forum😂

I hate being a pax, (especially with an 18 month old kid sitting on mums lap next to me screaming!) I feel like a fish out of water!🙁

Miserable WX in SY today!  

[Flightrite]

4 hours ago, Mike Gearon said:

King island today. French island to Tyabb for life jacket then south. I’ve been looking south from French island for 12 years. Today was the day to fly it. Well, calm early and it changed to windy later.

 

Cloud  looked like it was going to clear and I had a turn around plan the moment it didn’t look completely okay. Very relieved to hear central talking to pilots and finding out the cloud was burning off.

 

50 minutes at gs144kn TAS130. Coming home a lot longer! 

 

2 regional were coming in at the same time. I heard central reporting my position and arrival time (same) and then one of the jets contacted me on CTAF. They were really good. We just agreed it was my first visit to King Island and I’d dawdle down the coast  doing a bit of sight seeing. Hence the green squiggle on way in. I then spotted the second on final for 10 and made it easy to spot the airport. 20kn cross was interesting with the Pipistrel’s large wing. Just kept the airspeed at 70kn and first flaps only. Return to French island wasn’t much better. It handles the cross as long as 2nd flaps aren’t engaged and speed is.  Way too much drag from those long flaperons for 2nd setting in turbulent cross wind conditions for corrections.

Next time will fly in company and hire a car with overnight stay. 

 

That’s very brave😉👍

[peterg]

4 hours ago, Mike Gearon said:

King island today. French island to Tyabb for life jacket then south. I’ve been looking south from French island f

Have a quick look at Bass Strait Special Procedures

[Mike Gearon]

10 hours ago, peterg said:

Have a quick look at Bass Strait Special Procedures

Yes, thanks for that. I did drop into a flying school and spent time with one of the instructors familiar with the crossing. Discussed weather and procedures at King Island. The crossing procedure you’ve referenced also helps. I’ll lodge flight plan next time maybe or sounds simpler to just report to Center after departure and at arriving coast. They certainly weren’t busy yesterday.
 

The Pipistrel’s 17:1 glide at 9500ft is approx/ roughly 25NM. Ditching at sea would involve pulling the chute at say 1-2000ft. Center certainly knew about the unverified VFR flight as they talked with the two incoming transport aircraft. 25nm at 70kn best glide is say 20 minutes. That’s enough time to talk to Center and discuss glide direction and perhaps shipping to ditch nearby.  I was surprised at the number of different vessels and oil platforms along the way. 
 

Out at 8500 and return at 9500. You’d be really pissed off with the regulators if the engine went out on a 8500 elevation that could have been 10500. It’s very nice in the states to fly at your chosen elevation subject to oxygen requirements. Those 2000ft at 17:1 represent some 5 or so NM if my maths correct. 34,000ft divided by 6000 . Yeah, you’d be pissed off a couple of miles short of a flat sandy beach! Who was it decided 10500 wasn’t available? You’d definitely want to meet them and discuss.

Note…. I had no reception on King Island. Optus. Definitely have to put a Telstra card in dual sim phone for country operation. I purchased one and too cheap to activate the 60 dollar a month plan. Might have to find it and activate.

 

Departing aircraft heard my taxiway call and told me he’d left on 35. Those guys were helpful and friendly on way in and way out!

 

I think I did okay in decision making after hearing this in calling I was returning to apron. That was when I found no chart or option to work out taxiways etc because of Optus and AvPlan wasn’t feeding me anything new. Note to self…..always sketch the whole thing with taxiways as well,as elevation, radio notams etc… I’d become a bit too reliant on the iPad.

 

anyway, I proceeded again. Called taxi on 10 because I was sure it was having landed on it. Turned left on 35 Not sure if it was a taxiway. Decided it was a runway being wide and long and all went smoothly from there.

 Next time will fly in better weather. Had a full rudder correction and had to pickup taxi speed yesterday after landing. Not ideal but it is bass strait! 
 

My daily view and in fact right now… you can see why it’s tempting and no, I don’t want to bob around in bass strait. Will repeat with due caution and maybe 3 islands over a few days.
 

[pmccarthy]

I print out a paper flight plan and a route map in colour (have a colour laser printer) for every trip, just in case of no Telstra. Easy to do in Ozrunways. 

 

[Thruster88]

I have the ERSA and relevant maps downloaded in my samsung / ozrunways, no coverage no problem.

[facthunter]

At 105 you are in what's called transition level where you go from area QNH to 1013.2 and vice versa on the Altimeter subscale. Under some conditions you don't get the required vertical separation.

  Using a Ballistic chute at sea with strong winds can have adverse effects.  It's not called the Roaring Forties for nothing and Bass straight weather can change rapidly. Nev

[Garfly]

4 hours ago, pmccarthy said:

I print out a paper flight plan and a route map in colour (have a colour laser printer) for every trip, just in case of no Telstra. Easy to do in Ozrunways. 

 

A good idea, but more because of 'no iPad' than 'no Telstra'. 

Maps / docs would be on the device and GPS needs no network.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 9, 2022 by Garfly

[Mike Gearon]

8 hours ago, Thruster88 said:

I have the ERSA and relevant maps downloaded in my samsung / ozrunways, no coverage no problem.

I had this exact conversation with a fellow pilot over lunch. Will do so!

[pmccarthy]

6 hours ago, Garfly said:

A good idea, but more because of 'no iPad' than 'no Telstra'. 

Maps / docs would be on the device and GPS needs no network.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Agreed, I meant no iPad. Have lost it due to overheating more than once.

[Mike Gearon]

10 hours ago, pmccarthy said:

Agreed, I meant no iPad. Have lost it due to overheating more than once.

I always have the iPhone and iPad open as part of a checklist.  iPhone connected to Bluetooth BoseA20  as another communication method when in range. Wish the iPhone had dual sim like android. Optus and Telstra. Have to settle for Telstra card in iPad. iPhone backup to iPad with overheat/ battery problem in mind AvPlan or ForeFlight open on iPhone. . Yes, also lost the iPad to overheat. Definitely not reliable and don’t want a cooling backing fan or such. Already enough going on.

[GraemeK]

On 09/04/2022 at 9:58 AM, facthunter said:

At 105 you are in what's called transition level where you go from area QNH to 1013.2 and vice versa on the Altimeter subscale. Under some conditions you don't get the required vertical separation.

  Using a Ballistic chute at sea with strong winds can have adverse effects.  It's not called the Roaring Forties for nothing and Bass straight weather can change rapidly. Nev

Also the transition level in the US is, IIRC, 18,000ft - so instead of encountering the transition layer issue at 10,000 you get it at 18,000.

 

Selection of transition level is at least in part dependent on the height of the rocks in that country (or in some places, that part of the country).

[facthunter]

In certain conditions you can create unusable airspace in the vertical context creating a transition Level where ever it is.  Incidently ABV FL 210 is classified IFR.. If you are separating people vertically they all must have the same reference. Ie BARO and kollsman scale set  the same and the Instrument (altimeters) checking within tolerances specified. Nev

[Mike Gearon]

On 10/4/2022 at 5:53 PM, GraemeK said:

Also the transition level in the US is, IIRC, 18,000ft - so instead of encountering the transition layer issue at 10,000 you get it at 18,000.

 

Selection of transition level is at least in part dependent on the height of the rocks in that country (or in some places, that part of the country).

That’s true. Here’s an example. I flew through here Nebraska to Arizona. Well, a little further south and a little lower. Still pushed well above FL105. It’s terrain.
 

Still remains a fact that somebody or group of somebodies sat around a meeting table in Australia and set it at FL100 when it could so easily have been compromised at half way to USA 29.92 1013.2 …FL140 and above.

 

I wonder if I can call Melbourne Center as per 1.2.1 non mandatory radio call with position, tracking, type and POB and request east FL105 1013.2 qnh until descending to the bass strait island of choice? Say 10nm off the coast at Anglesea it’s only 20-25 minutes flying time to King Island at 130kn Not worth having scheduled reports. Definitely worth the extra glide height if 2000ft available.

 

Re deploying a chute over Bass strait. That’s interesting. First, one would hope to not be flying in gale or near gale conditions. Second. Conduct a sea landing as if landing normally, that’s how it’s done right and at minimum speed above stall obviously. Still going to be a hard forced stop and just how hard is unknown.
 

Even in windy conditions based on flying paraglides  and you fly within the parcel of air regardless of its speed so it’s the same deal right. Your aircraft under a chute doesn’t know about its horizontal speed until contact with the surface. likely to be say 20kn or less and the waves would be travelling with you in that direction.

 

I don’t think it’s helpful to examine too deeply or you’d never take off in the first place. I think the risks are manageable with IMSAFE and all examinations of weather and aircraft prep with Bass Strait obviously a higher risk due to ditching/ hypothermia. 

[kgwilson]

A comment on your Last Flight.

 

One day you will walk out to your hangar knowing it is your last flight. or, One day you will walk out to your hangar not knowing it is your last flight.

 

You will not do both.

[sfGnome]

2 hours ago, Mike Gearon said:

I’m amused (call me shallow) by a couple of waypoints near Alamosa - “Bloke” & “Aches”. I can identify with that… 🙄