From the Log Book

[Methusala]

Wasn’t a cherry red one, was it?

No. It was cream and based at Wedderburn Kaz.

[red750]

Wasn't this one was it?

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

Aeronca!

 

(Doh! Wrong thread)..

[Yenn]

I was flying my Thruster back from Childers to Rodds Bay, not a very long trip and Monduran was on the way. There was low overcast, about 1000'. Afriend had decided to fly part way with me in his C150 and he was gone way ahead of me after take off. I had a GPS which gave me time to destination and ground speed.

The GS looked pretty slow to me so I called up the C150 and he was surprised to see what the wind was and he was way above me.

I decided to stop at Monduran and fill up from the can I carried as I knew the tank would not get me home.

After takeoff at Monduran I had about an hours duration of fuel and the GPS was saying an hour to go. I decided I would keep going and even if I got over half way, I could be back at Monduran before running out.

GS was hovering about 25 kts and I kept comparing time to destination to fuel available. Flying as low as I could to keep the headwind down I was watching the GPS which would say 40 mins to go, then 45 mins to go. I have never experienced such a strong Northerly wind, before or since.

It was a very funny sensation, watching the time to destination getting longer sometimes. I was within 10 miles, before I reckoned I would not have to return to Monduran. One good thing was that with the strong wind I would be able to land just about anywhere, maybe even be going backwards.

[facthunter]

Flight planned out of Sydney late one evening close to midnight, DC 4 freighter for Melbourne . VERY Strong S/ SW winds forecast but NIL icing. Another plane ( a DC-3) from another Airline didn't have enough fuel tankage to make it so they went back to the Pub.. Just south of Canberra we copped the biggest load of Ice on the Airframe and props you could imagine. The vibration from the unbalanced props made it so you could hardly read any instruments and even at full available Power and only 110 knots we were still going lower and were 1.000 feet below LSALT, when miraculously we encountered clear air and some of the ice started to ablate and she started to fly again. Getting out of the Plane after arriving Melbourne a piece of Ice half the size of a bucket fell off the centre of the windscreen and missed me literally by inches.. Bloody thing was still trying to kill me.. Nev

[Guest Machtuk]

I was flying my Thruster back from Childers to Rodds Bay, not a very long trip and Monduran was on the way. There was low overcast, about 1000'. Afriend had decided to fly part way with me in his C150 and he was gone way ahead of me after take off. I had a GPS which gave me time to destination and ground speed.

The GS looked pretty slow to me so I called up the C150 and he was surprised to see what the wind was and he was way above me.

I decided to stop at Monduran and fill up from the can I carried as I knew the tank would not get me home.

After takeoff at Monduran I had about an hours duration of fuel and the GPS was saying an hour to go. I decided I would keep going and even if I got over half way, I could be back at Monduran before running out.

GS was hovering about 25 kts and I kept comparing time to destination to fuel available. Flying as low as I could to keep the headwind down I was watching the GPS which would say 40 mins to go, then 45 mins to go. I have never experienced such a strong Northerly wind, before or since.

It was a very funny sensation, watching the time to destination getting longer sometimes. I was within 10 miles, before I reckoned I would not have to return to Monduran. One good thing was that with the strong wind I would be able to land just about anywhere, maybe even be going backwards.

 

You are not alone there with a time getting greater and therefore less fuel upon landing (sometimes eating into FR!)

Had a few of those out over the Pacific at night thinking I should have stuck with truck driving!? The trick was to 'make fuel' as 'Facthunter' would know?

[red750]

Doesn't only apply in flying. I left Vermont for Dayleford one day with 236 km showing on the Distance To Empty gauge on my AU Falcon. Once I had done few km's on the freeway the DTE started to climb, and continued to do so till I started to climb the hills near Bacchus Marsh. Pulled into the motel carpark in Daylesford, and the DTE read 234 km. No fuel stops along the way. 2 km Vermont to Daylesford??

[kaz3g]

Wasn't this one was it?

 

[ATTACH]51889[/ATTACH]

That’s an Auster

[red750]

Sorry, I lost the thread. Thought we were talking about Austers. Just reread the posts.

[Old Koreelah]

...The trick was to 'make fuel' as 'Facthunter' would know.

I'm intrigued, Machtuk. Is this some trick kept secret by heavy metal drivers?

[Admin]

I'm intrigued, Machtuk. Is this some trick kept secret by heavy metal drivers?

Machtuk requested to be removed from the site so he will not be replying

[onetrack]

Re the relieving oneself in the air - I have a friend in California who owns a Citabria. He's mid-50's and has a son, 19, at the time of the story (a few years ago)

He takes his son with him on a cross-country ride to a couple of States away, about a 4 hr trip.

He gets up to serious height, and the son starts saying, "Ooooh, Dad, I gotta go! I shouldn't have had that big greasy hamburger and shake, right before we left!"

 

Dad is bit short-tempered at the best of times, and starts berating him - "Why didn't ya go before we left? It's taken me 20 minutes to reach cruise level, now you tell me you gotta go, and now you want me to descend, find an airstrip, and then get back up again, losing a heap of time, and burning a heap of gas! You're just going have to go in a bag right there, and throw it out the window!"

So he finds a plastic shopping bag in the 'plane, and son fills it up with a huge No. 2. He duly hurls it out the window - whereupon, it promptly gets caught around the tailplane!!

 

Dad is downright livid by now - he reckoned the stench in the 'plane was unbelievable - and then he had to chuck a pile of aerobatics, trying to dislodge this huge bag of poo! It eventually dislodged, to his great relief.

I laughed and laughed when I read his email, he tells the story much better than I could. But one thing's for sure - son goes to the toilet before they take off, every time now!!

[Butch]

Machtuk requested to be removed from the site so he will not be replying

More info please Ian .

[Admin]

This is a great thread so let's keep the stories going

[Red]

About 5 years ago now, I was flying from Plockton in north west Scotland intending to get to Isle of Bute before dark, the weather closed in and with visibility over the water getting poor I decided to make a precautionary landing, by this time light was dim and had rain on the screen, I turned back towards land and selected what looked like the only bit of level field around...it was only as I flared to Land that I could see the grass was a tad long

 

Picture taken the following morning, safe landing but how to get back out?

 

 

Well the Farmer was very helpfull and after 2 days spent in the Local Pub, he returned to tell me his neighbour had cut me a 200 metre strip so I was able to fly off and continue my journey back to Wales

 

 

I didnt know at the time, but the rocky hill in the background is an Ancient hill fort believed to be the capital of the ancient kingdom of Dál Riata

[pmccarthy]

So you were ok t fly after two days in the pub?

[old man emu]

Doesn't only apply in flying.

 

For cars, that's pretty typical when you consider how much fuel is used in urban with frequent starting off from traffic lights. If I use the freeway from Campbelltown to Milperra on the way to Bankstown Airport, a distance of 22 kms, the distance to empty shown can increase by up to 10 kms. That's driving at at a steady 2500 RPM, or about 110 kph. The further you go at a constant RPM, the greater the range of the car.

[facthunter]

I'll tell you of a flight I did NOT do and just as well.

A mate of mine and myself went to Mudgee from Newcastle and somehow it ended up that we were going to fly an Auster that I think belonged to George Campbell, and had not been flown for quite a while. I'm always pretty fussy on preflights and noticed some sawdust on the ground near the left door so wondering where that could have come from, unzipped the inspection panel on the underside surface of the wing and found the spar half eaten through by rats. The "gods" were looking after me that day as they have quite a few times during my flying experiences. .Nev

[Yenn]

A recent flight. In Feb I took my RV4 down to Maryborough and the chap intending to buy it drove up from NSW. The sale was dependent on a demo flight.

Looking at him I reckoned I had better check W & b, he reckoned he was 100kg, which would put me slightly over max weight with the fuel I had on board, also I m sure the balance would have been out, so no flight for him.

We had a big storm overnight and it was still lingering, low cloud and skuddy rain. A Cessna Caravan came in, dropped off its passengers and departed. Weather still poor, but improving. Later the cloud seemed to have lifted, I reckoned there was 1000' all round close to the strip, but denser cloud to the SE.

I decided to do a circuit, just to demonstrate that the plane would fly and away I went. All looked good still good visibility beneath the cloud ahead, but next thing I am in that whispy stuff below the cloud, I have plenty of visibility just slightly downwards, but ahead no horizon. The only thing to do is descend and at this time I am going over houses, the altimeter reads 500' Round I go and I can see the airstrip, Over the river and back to a low base leg, no time to do anything except land the plane, taxi in.

The buyer said I disappeared from his view before I turned and he didn't see me again untll I landed.

I was well and truly fooled by the sight picture of the clouds, the ceiling looked higher than it was because I couldn't see that there was a great depth of those whispy tendrils hanging below the visible cloud. I hate skud running, because the temptation is to be as high as possible, which puts you in just the situation I found myself in. Luckily Maryborough is fairly flat and doesn't have any high obstacles.

[kgwilson]

Date 23rd December 2001. Flight - Hamilton NZ to Nelson NZ. EET 2.9 hours. Aircraft Piper Cherokee Archer PA28-181 Rego ZK-UFS

 

I got the weather & the forecast was good but it was an overcast day all the way to my turn point at Levin to cross the sea. We were heading to my Parents place for Christmas & UFS was loaded with Christmas presents & my wifes gear. I told her the suitcase was too big to get in the cargo door in an effort to get her to take less but she just chose 2 smaller suitcases. We got out to the club at around 9:00am & I was feeling quite pleased that I'd managed to get there by then even though my plan was to be there at 8:00am. The top of Mt Pirongia (3146 feet) to the west of the airport was in the cloud & the Metar & TAF confirmed cloudbase at 2800 feet. Fully fueled, preflight done & Sarwatch lodged we took off & headed for the coast around the southern side of the mountain & flew down the Kawhia harbour & turned South.

 

The flight was great going down the coast and we turned at the beginning of the Taranaki bight & I set course for Stratford across rolling farmland and west of Mt Taranaki (8261 feet) most of which was in the cloud. I turned Southeast and followed the coastline again & contacted Ohakea airbase to get clearance through the Military zone & bombing range. As luck would have it a family friend Derek was the controller & most people on the base had already gone home for Christmas. After a quick chat & clearance we continued until Derek came back & advised there was an unidentified aircraft on my tail & was gaining on us. As he passed I could not read the rego as requested but knew it was a Mountainair Partenavia. Derek just said "Yep I know who it is, we'll sort this out later". I never did find out what happened.

 

Derek transferred me to Wellington control & I advised I would be turning at Levin for the 55 NM sea crossing to the Southern end of D'Urville Island at the top end of the Marlborough Sounds. On a fine day the scenery here is quite spectacular with all the fjords with little bays and holiday homes, steep bush covered hills rising from the sea, little sandy beaches and boats going in all different directions. Wellington confirmed the weather was OK & I'd be in Sunshine once past D'Urville. It was pretty murky & there was not much of a horizon. I was unable to see Kapiti Island about 15NM to the South but was not concerned.

 

Leaving the Coast at 2500 feet after putting the lifejackets on we headed for the Chetwode Islands, my next turn point. After about 10 miles the cloudbase began to lower and it started raining. In front was a wall of grey and the horizon had disappeared entirely. Eventually at 300 feet with not much forward visibility I called Wellington & appraised them of the situation. I got vectored to a new heading and was patched through to a commercial about 15,000 feet above. He told me there appeared to be an occluded front line that I was originally heading in to. ATC kept giving me position reports & then said I'd be in the clear in a couple of minutes & I should be able to see Ohau point about 3NM on my left. I couldn't see anything & I asked Liz to find it on the Map. It seemed to take forever & we couldn't find it till I suddenly found it but it was on the wrong Island. I'd become totally disorientated & was looking for the point on the top of the South Island when actually it is on the North Island. A few seconds later we popped out in to the clear. I have never felt so relieved & blurted it all out to ATC that we were out in the clear.

 

He just said "Where do you want to go now" & my response was immediate "Omaka". This is an old fashioned square paddock aerodrome near Blenheim a few miles to the east of Woodbourne airbase. I knew where I was and headed for Queen Charlotte Sound, Picton & down the valley to Omaka. Every few minutes ATC called & asked how I was going & eventually transferred me to Woodbourne CTR who just cleared me to Omaka to land as required. Omaka has runways like a Union Jack & coming overhead I noted a Glider right in the middle of all the crossing runways so decided to orbit the field till clear. There was no other traffic at the time. I don't know what they were doing but the glider wasn't moving, there was no tow vehicle there or seemingly on the way & then Liz announced I feel sick after several orbits. I thought F#%@ this & landed on the grass near a runway, glaring daggers at the Gliding mob who were still fluffing around their still stationary glider.

 

We went in to the clubhouse & I mentioned this to one of the blokes & he just said "Yeah don't worry about them, just land anywhere". As it happens the grass was not long and the ground smooth. If I had any idea this was normal practice I'd have landed straight away rather that almost wear Liz's breakfast.

 

Anyway we got a lift into town & had a nice lunch & then an uneventful half hour flight to Nelson & a great family Christmas. Actual flight time was 3.6 hours.

 

P.S. After Christmas I made a special trip up to Ardmore & bought a Garmin GPS.

Edited April 2, 2020 by kgwilson

[facthunter]

Plenty of good scenery over there on the "Shaky Isles". Flew into Auckland and Christchurch in the 60's. You changed the frequencies on the DME's and ours wouldn't work. Hokitika was a reporting point into Christchurch and looked lovely from 8,000 feet. Said to myself "must go THERE, one day".

Eventually did just near the Wild Food Festival time the year of the big Christchurch Earthquake. Nev

[Geoff13]

A recent flight. In Feb I took my RV4 down to Maryborough and the chap intending to buy it drove up from NSW. The sale was dependent on a demo flight.

Looking at him I reckoned I had better check W & b, he reckoned he was 100kg, which would put me slightly over max weight with the fuel I had on board, also I m sure the balance would have been out, so no flight for him.

We had a big storm overnight and it was still lingering, low cloud and skuddy rain. A Cessna Caravan came in, dropped off its passengers and departed. Weather still poor, but improving. Later the cloud seemed to have lifted, I reckoned there was 1000' all round close to the strip, but denser cloud to the SE.

I decided to do a circuit, just to demonstrate that the plane would fly and away I went. All looked good still good visibility beneath the cloud ahead, but next thing I am in that whispy stuff below the cloud, I have plenty of visibility just slightly downwards, but ahead no horizon. The only thing to do is descend and at this time I am going over houses, the altimeter reads 500' Round I go and I can see the airstrip, Over the river and back to a low base leg, no time to do anything except land the plane, taxi in.

The buyer said I disappeared from his view before I turned and he didn't see me again untll I landed.

I was well and truly fooled by the sight picture of the clouds, the ceiling looked higher than it was because I couldn't see that there was a great depth of those whispy tendrils hanging below the visible cloud. I hate skud running, because the temptation is to be as high as possible, which puts you in just the situation I found myself in. Luckily Maryborough is fairly flat and doesn't have any high obstacles.

 

So after all that, did he buy it? :)

[Jerry_Atrick]

A bit of background: When we moved (for me, back to) Melbourne in 2003, I was effectively grounded as it was an expensive place to live on one salary and, well, my partner isn't too keen on any form of flying, anyway. So, to keep entertained, I would "play" MS flight simulator and more often than not fly the default Mooney. My son, around 9 months old would watch me, and maybe at 18 months was flying himself (and not doing a bad job). On my 40th birthday, we went to Tocumwal for the weekend to celebrate, staying at the Coachmans Cottages (I think they have changed now). I managed to convince my partner to let me go for a "joyflight" so I took my son to John Williams aviation, which I knew had a couple of Mooneys. Upon entering the hangar, John and I introduced ourselves and my son instantly recognised his fleet, pointed to them and proclaimed, "Mooney". John was a little stunned by it and complimented him on his aircraft knowledge.

 

Fast forward to October 24, 2010, and my son had just turned 8 years old. We moved back to the UK in 2006. I have yet to get back into flying, but am still "playing" with MS FSX, as his he. He is a prickly and stubborn so-and-so and was getting on my nerves a bit; so my partner suggests I take him away for an overnighter, I book some hotel somewhere for the next weekend and warn him that bad behaviour will result in it being cancelled. By Wednesday, we cancelled it. A couple of weeks later, he has a week of reasonably good behaviour, so on the Saturday morning, I jump onto one of those last minute booking sites and score a night at the Crown Plaza, Marlow Bottom for about £50. Fantastic.. So we hurriedly pack and off we go.

 

The next morning, we awoke to a cold, but crisp and gin clear British winter's day. We hop into the car, but being a Sunday in a semi-rural area, there is not much happening. We found a park and had a kick of football (soccer) and then when bored of that, I thought, Wycombe Air Park (Booker) is not too far from here, so rang the missus to ask her if she would mind if we went for a joyflight. She was very hesitant (as she still thinks those tiny aircraft just randomly fall from the sky), but I reassured her that the flying school there was only until very recently British Airways Flying Club, had superbly maintained aircraft and the instructors were second to none. She agreed, so son and I drove to the aerodrome.

 

Thanks to the relatively new EASA and its regulatory fight to put private GA out of business, flying schools could no longer give joyflights on their approvals (they basically needed a full charter service AOC); I didn't know this and when I asked if we could book joyflight, I got a very stern look from behind the desk and was told in no uncertain terms they don't do them anymore. When I inquired why, the response was given but I was offered as an alternative a trial instructional flight. We looked up the booking sheet and there was a slot available at 4pm. It was 11am now. Darn it, 5 hours to wait, but as I still hadn't returned to flying, I was prepared to wait it out.

 

After driving around, singing silly lyrics to the tune of a well known TV commercial at the time, interrupted by a fine roadside services lunch of McChucks or some such similar cuisine, we drove back to Booker a little early with the idea of stopping the cafe overlooking the grass runway where gliding takes place. The cafe was closed, so we whiled away our time looking at the aircraft arriving and taking off. With about 15 mins to go before our slot, we walked in and started the process.

 

We were assigned an instructor and after introductions, he guessed correctly who the student pilot was. It was quite funny, because he literally raided the every cushion from the two sofas and a desk chair. Armed with them, a clipboard, map and headsets, he looked a sight with all his accroutments wanting to egress from his clutches as we walked across the apron to the PA28, refusing my offer of assistance. He placed 3 of the large cushions under my son and two behind his back and asked an instructor returning from another lesson to take the excess baggage back to the club house.

 

The instructor and my son pre-flighted the exterior of the plane and then the interior. The instructor went through everything and my son absorbed it all. Then the instructor fiiddled around, but finally got my son to a point where he could reach the control column comfortably, but his legs dangled and could not reach the rudder pedals:

 

 

 

 

I hopped into the back (yuk!) and the preflight commenced. Soon we were taxying for 24L, which is grass. Remeber, my son is 8 years old and during the taxi, he asks if he can take off. I thought to interject to make it easy on the instructor to say no, but before I could make a decision, the instructor calmly says, "Yes.. I will operate the rudder - you can do everything else.. By the way, what are you going to do?"

 

I was gobsmacked. The boy not only went through the throttling up and at 55kts, raising the nose, but also answered he would check the airspeed is alive and the DG is pointing in the runway direction. "Very well, let's see how you do!"

 

Lined up and with clearance to take off, it was the first time ever, I thought of really asking the ol' fella upstairs to have mercy on us. But the little fella, with his right hand, nurtured the throttle towards the firewall, checked the DG and called airspeed alive. At precisely 55kts he pulled back on the control column and the PA28 almost rivaled an F/A 18 pointing towards the sky. "Maybe not so enthusiastically" said the instructor as he nudged the control column forward a little and called my son having back control.

 

Darn it, he was showing me up! He was bang on 79kts and a little over 550fpm climb and I am sure the centreline was in line with his rear-end.

 

Well, the instructor gave my son instructions, and he dutifly carried them out. turns, ascents, descents etc. He was pretty good and held altitude and heading better than many experienced pilots. Here's a medium level turn he was executing:

 

We would continue and he would ask questions, follow instructions, and without any correction from the instructor (at least none that I could remember - of course the instructor would be on the rudders when required).. The instructor, however, did deny his request to try a stall - maybe they are forbidden in TIFs...

 

As we flew over Blenheim Palace (I think), he did ask if we could land on the driveway and visit. I think the insructor would have liked to:

 

And the boy could not ask enough questions:

 

 

 

Finally, and too quickly, the bimble came to an end.. The instructor allowed the boy to come within about 50' of landing before he took control. Of course, the instructor was talking the boy down, but he had the speed and rate of descent nailed... Bad photo and more than 50' above the ground, but you can see the boy clearly has control:

 

We landed and taxied back to the cliub house. As he was under 14 (EASA increased it from 13, though would not have mad a difference ion this case), he could not log it, so they presented with with a TIF certificate and a symbolic log book entry.

 

He was on a buzz; I was on a buzz, too.. I knew I would have to start saving for his flying lessons (though, he wold have to contribute). I raced home to show the missus the photos and when we arrived, we already had some friends visiting. As they left, I had to apologise for not letting them get a word in edgeways as I vividly recalled every moment of that flight...

 

Sadly, he lost interest in flying at around 14 (saved my a bucket); I think the gene that kicks in with distractions started... But, it looks like now, at 17, he is getting the bug again...

 

Sorry about the quality of the photos. A bad workman always blames his tools and I am blaming the Blackberry I had with me which was old school even then..

 

JA

Edited April 3, 2020 by Jerry_Atrick

[spacesailor]

Fantastic !

spacesailor

[facthunter]

I recall one time I had a very "natural" pilot who you would only have to show him once and he always got it straight away. He wanted to DO spinning in the DH82 this day. It was at Rutherford in the mid 60's and a typically HOT Maitland day..OK so up we go to about 3500 and I demonstrate. Tigers go into and out of spins easily. Some Blokes could recover them on a specified heading... HE does one, and climbs up again, another, then another etc then at 4(or 5) I'm getting a bit green by this time with the heat and the petrol fumes and reckon I'm about to lose my lunch but I'm in the front cockpit and he's going to cop it and worst of all...Know I'm airsick so I said "I've got it. I will show you a sideslip" and put it into the steepest wing down slip I could muster and lent out the side and did what I had to do. Didn't even get any on the plane AND He didn't know or I'm sure it would have been "brought up" (Sorry couldn't help THAT one.) at the debrief. Nev