Whats your worst mistake..?

[motzartmerv]

Don, so i take it reading fate is a hunter is your worst mistake then??..But seriously, take from it what you will.. i know im getting a lot out of it..

 

cheers;)

 

 

[Mazda]

Mat, currently there are 3 ways. Yes, 45 degree mid downwind at circuit height giving way to cct traffic. Overfly midfield xwind (at 90 degrees) at circuit height. Or a straight in approach if established at 5 miles.

 

At Camden there are local considerations. 3 legs of the circuit must be flown so straight ins can't be used. There's a cross strip and gliders on the normal 'dead side' and ERSA actually states there is no dead side, so joining midfield crosswind can be problematic if the other runway is in use or gliders are active.

 

 

[motzartmerv]

Yep.. I deffinatly stuffed up joining where i did, i heard and saw a cessna turning downwind so i wanted to be in behid him and i also heard the other acft doing a touch and go and thought id have heaps of time b4 he was on me, but alass, i underestimated his climbing ability ..i had a visual on him the whole time so it wasn't as bad as the guy made out, but yep, my fault..

 

cheers

 

 

[Mazda]

You've hit the nail on the head there! If you were watching him, you were not going to run into him, and if he had you sighted (which he obviously did) he was not going to run into you!! I don't think he should have given you such a hard time actually.

 

I was a pax in a C172 the circuit (base, 06, number 2 following something on long final) there one weekend (tower active) when a C182 inbound from Mayfield flew past the aircraft I was in, to the left, same level, maybe a wingspan away. The worst thing was that I don't think he saw me. :confused:

 

 

[motzartmerv]

Yea, probably had something to do with the numbers painted on the side instead of letters;).. Most guys(and girls) at camden are pretty good and aren't anti ultralight, but i have picked up on a few that seem to think we are a bunch of cowboys...Actually im starting to get to know the voices on sydney radar aswell and there's one bloke inparticular who seems to not like us at all.. The other day on my way up to maitland i did the usual thing i do and reported to radar when i was near hoxton and gave intentions to turn right for the lane and requested traffic.. The 'lady' controller was very helpfull , giving me the traffic and gave me contsant updates on where the other guys were, she didnt cancell radar services untill i was well out of the lane and tracking north the YMND, but on the way back i got a grumpy old fella who sighed when i made my request and quickly gave me the traffic and cancelled services immediatly..The frequency was very queit at the time so its not like he was overworked.. Didnt even ask me to squark ident.. I heard him talkig some (ga) blokes past each other and really stuck with them untill they had each other sighted...hehe..awell, what can ya do hey,

 

cheers

 

 

[Mazda]

That's interesting - so you are using flight following? Generally are you given a good service? It's no use to me as I don't have a transponder (which of course means I don't show up anywhere as SSR traffic!!)

 

Normally when flying up that way I'll listen to the BK ATIS and call BK tower with intentions (as per AIP flights in proximity to GAAP and ERSA BK). That only applies within 3nm of the zone boundary though - so inside Hoxton & Prospect. I then get all the traffic inbound/outbound BK.

 

 

[motzartmerv]

yes, normally they are quite good...i prefer to do it that way rather then keep switching freq , i just stay on sydney radar and they keep me clear of the inbound outbound stuff from bankstown and also keep me informed about other traffic up the lane..( ususally)..I havn't had a problem doing it that way (to date) and they are usually very helpfull..I think by staying on syd radar it just feels better knowing i can hear all the traffic rather then just that into and out of bankstown, and like i said, radar keep me heads up with those acft..

 

cheers

 

 

[Guest TOSGcentral]

I guess I have made my share of mistakes, fortunately none were terribly serious – or did not amount to much anyway. But the following account may provoke a little thought on training systems and the environment in which mistakes generate themselves.

 

The time was back in the mid 1960s and I was a young, recently taught glider pilot desperately trying to accumulate any flying experience I could. This meant a lot of circuits as we had not been taught to soar (no instructional skills there to do so and very poor performance aircraft so the instructors were inhibited from self improvement as well).

 

I was flying a pre wWW2 Grunau 2b single seat wooden glider from an RAF operational bomber base in Germany. There was acres of room and in fact we only used half the available space – winch launching on the grass alongside the main runway when the squadrons were stood down over the weekends and holidays – other than the quick readiness alert aircraft that were manned 24/7. bombed up and could be airborne in less than 2 mins.

 

From the height we were getting from the winch launch the flights were very predictable – about 1.5 mins of free time to practice turns and then the remainder spent in the circuit work – especially in calm conditions that I was in at the time.

 

On one flight however it all went ‘strange’ but did not seem to from where I was sitting. The flight went much as normal except that I could not get around the circuit. I flew the standard pattern but found myself landing about 200 metres short of where I was supposed to be putting it down. That was of no real consequence in safety terms because we had half a mile of unobstructed mown grass to land on. Going around the final turn at about 100’ probably was serious but I did not know much about that and less about how to prevent it happening

 

But this was serious stuff because the aircraft had skids, not wheels, and took some manhandling over distance!

 

The duty instructor was suitably outraged and administered the then standard application of ‘instruction via punishment’ while explaining that I was incompetent and could not fly but driving the winch for the rest of the day would fix all that. In short I was grounded and did not know what I had done wrong – other than I obviously had done something. I was well aware that I was incompetent – I had less then ten hours total flight time and most of that was solo. But it was the winch for me, not into a two seater to educate me, and certainly no post flight de-briefing or discussion as I was supposed to ‘know’.

 

In hindsight, based on my later experience, what probably happened was that I was caught in sinking air and did not realise. We had been taught ABC style circuits and could not deviate from them. The judgemental aspect of training was virtually non- existent.

 

I had simply run out of height in the circuit and had not been either taught to recognise this nor what to do about it. Even if I had been so taught I wonder if the powerful inhibition due to the non-wheeled glider, of turning in early, so that I had adequate safe turning height, and landing well up the airfield would not have anyway dominated my thinking and I would have pressed on.

 

The good old bad old days perhaps. From those days I came out with a burning resolve that I would instruct and none of my students would ever go through what I went through. It took me a further 18 months to teach myself to fly properly and then I met the shock of finding that the instructor courses were little different from basic training – so I had to teach myself to instruct as well.

 

Those days are long gone now but I wonder how much of the attitude persists even if the environment has improved?

 

Overtones of dealing with mistakes punitively rather than educationally? More along the lines of pointing out incompetence rather than searching for the reason. Punishment (in one form of another) instead of saying “hey that was a bit off-beat, let’s talk about it then have a fly and look at it!

 

That sort of punitive instruction does still exist. It is not many years past where a guy was forced to walk across the Caboolture airfield by his instructor and view the wreckage of a Lightwing that had really stuffed a landing. He was told – “See that is what happens if you do not do exactly what I say, when I say, so learn from it!â€Â

 

He did learn from it! He came to me, became a very steady and competent pilot (despite being assured that he would never fly solo) and indeed became a very dear friend of Kay and myself.

 

Please guys – do not put yourself down by your mistakes, but learn from them and get assistance from people who can help if you do not understand really why the mistake was made.

 

Aye

 

Tony

 

 

[motzartmerv]

Good on ya Tony...Exellent stuff, i must say i look forward to your post's... Its strange, but i think some of the younger instructors i know and have flown with seem to be a bit like you say, but the older ones seem to take the better approach, education rather then punishment or scawn, but my experiance is limited to a handfull fo instructors so this may not be the case industry wide..

 

I have done a few hours in winched launched gliders in QLD, and i have to say, it was one of the most exiting things ive ever done in the sky.. The launch was simply breathtaking and i believe the skills i learned with regards to judging angle distance and so on still help me today in my powered flying.. If any of you RAA guys havn't been up in a glider then get ye to a gliding club post haste, its a real blast and the skills taught are universal...

 

cheers

 

 

[crazy diamond]

I've made waaaay too many to list and am still here go figure but this guy sounds luckier than some! http://www.alexisparkinn.com/photogallery/Videos/flightassist.mp3

 

 

[Guest dracer]

wow that link is amazing, he came real close.

 

i flew a chopper about 9yrs ago across country with the pilots leg broken after a failed ski trip in NZ.

 

now that was what i call scary.

 

 

[motzartmerv]

crazy diamond, that was chilling:sad:..Would like to know the full story on how he ended up in IMC..

 

 

[Guest ramcam]

I stalled an aircraft with wet wings. Wow did it give me a shock. Had to come down and change my jocks

 

 

[motzartmerv]

S:censored:T..!!!

 

 

[crazy diamond]

There's a bloke who owns an Aztec VH PFD who I think will be pondering this right now "Getting busted at Jandakot in the Aztec with 77 MILLIONS BUCKS worth of drugs....".

 

 

[Ben Longden]

Now THAT is a complete Ffffflaming big mistake.

 

-Not the getting caught bit, but the thinking of doing it and then actually doing it.. What a complete wally.

 

Ben

 

 

[Guest Fred Bear]

VH PFD

 

Power Driven Aeroplane with tricycle-retractable landing gear

 

2 Piston engines

 

Manufacturer: PIPER AIRCRAFT CORP

 

Model: PA-23-250

 

Serial number: 27-4432

 

Aircraft first registered in Australia: 05 August 1970

 

Full Registration

 

Registration holder as of 18 May 2007

 

SANTOS AVIATION PTY LTD

 

24A Cook Street

 

TEMPE NSW 2044

 

AUSTRALIA

 

Registered operator as of 18 May 2007

 

SANTOS, Jamieson Andrew

 

PO BOX 1971

 

TAMWORTH NSW 2340

 

AUSTRALIA