Phil Perry

30th / 31st May. . . Absolutely deserted airfield. Nobody working on un-locking down aircraft,. . . Weather Beautiful. . . no occasional visitors . . .only three volts used on the Hand held radio. . . Most Odd. for one of the (Formally) busiest LSA airfields in the County. . . Old mate phoned to ask If Id fly with him in his new toy ( A Eurofox ) I said, Sadly mate. . .NO. I'm not current for one. . .and I've never flown the type for two ( Not that the second bit wold have stopped me. . .as it is very similar to a Kitfox, but with a bloody Nose wheel) So. . .. Altogther, a very sad weekend MIND YOU .. Eldest Daughter has invited me to a BBQ in her back garden on June 2nd, since the Govt. have now relaxed some of their rules to allow this, AND that it is also my Seventieth birthday too. . .. and ( I gather ) that I shall be allowed to consume unlimited Alcoholic comestibles all day . . . Whatz not to ;like a lot . . .? Although she baulked at allowing my Old Mate Neville (Ex SAS ) to parachute into the garden and have a pint. . . Neville God Bless him,. . was one of the original developers of the' HALO' jump. But died in 1996. . . Taught himelf to fly a Flexwing Microlight in an afternoon,. . .and then found his way 50 miles to Our airfield,. . .here e were having a barbecue in the fog. . . . They just don't make them like that anymore.

I've seen a few of Greg's videos lately ( Nothing much else to do in the Lockdown ) I thought initially that he was a bit full of himself,. . .but after a few vids I warmed to his professionalism. . . He flies an Obsolete private Jet, ie, made by a division of Beechcraft which cl;osed down and was taken over by another conglomerate. . . It is an 8 seater, which he flies regularly as single pilot. . .helped no doubt by his experience in F16s in the Gulf wars. I like all his avionics 'Toys' and wish I'd had that advantage when doing my instrument rating. . . this stuff makes it a bit on the easy side Bear in mind that in the USA, Jet A1 fuel can vary in price between $2.30 to $8.20 per gallon. . . This vid is a quick flight between Florida and Indianapolis. . .

Whilst all of us Pilots can't fly,. . . Until uncle Boris says it's safe,. . . Have a look at some really CRAZY EXCITING Air Traffic Control on the approach to the 2019 SUN 'N' FUN fly in at Lakeland, Florida, with Jaime and Kevin, who own a Twin Cessna 310. They have their own youtube channel called '310 Pilot' Their flight videos around the USA show the differences between the flight procedures and those here in the UK. Both Jaime and Kevin are Chicago Tracon Air traffic controllers, But Jaime DOES NOT WANT TO BE A PILOT ! ! So She Does get a bit worried when things get this incredibly busy. . . ! ( Extra information : In the US, Avgas costs around $5.28 per US Gallon,. . .Their C-310 uses between 10 and 13 Gallons per hour, depending upon altitude and mixture setting. . FOR EACH ENGINE. . .It cruises at around 180 Knots. . . non Turbocharged)

Surprising as it may at first sound,. . . I personally did one hundred and thirty five successful engine out landings at Bacchus Marsh Gliding Club in the 1970s.. . .one of which was driving a tug aircraft,. . (.when it ran out of petrol )

Exhausted stretcher bearers from the 3rd Australian Division rest in the mud and drizzle of Broodseinde Ridge, during the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele), 11th October 1917. Remember these men with Pride.

'World's Oldest Flyable aircraft' (?)

Here's another one Mr. Thruster Sir,. . .this time with the delectable Jaime on board doing the radio stuff. . . (Jeeeze. . .she is one gorgeous Air Traffic ontroller. . .)

Kev demonstrates all the modifications and general instrumentation on his forty year old Cessna 310 after having an Autopilot update. Might be interesting for new pilots. . . ( Part 2 of this flight )

Nice (Two part ) video from Jaime and Kevin, Both Air traffic controllers (310 Pilot - youtube) flying down from Chicago to Texas in their 40 year old Cessna 310 to have some new avionics installed. . .nice couple,. . great Banter. . . Second half of our VFR flight down to Mineral Wells, Texas for the installation of our new Genesys/S-Tec 3100 autopilot. Air Traffic Control gives us a shout out and a Baron pilot mentions being on YouTube after being issued traffic on us. We end the video with a tour of the S-Tec factory

I've never encountered any mention of Anti Stall strakes on this model Sir,. . . .I shall have to ask.

Display at the Shuttleworth Trust museum, Old Warden airfield.

I didn't know that Jaime was a Kanuck. . .

I've been watching their channel for around a year now mate,. . . since being retired I have A lot of time on my hands and can't afford to fly as often as I'D LIKE. Since they are both professional Air Traffic control officers, they explain a lot of the stuff from both ends of the circuit, which is good, They also seem to be really NICE people. . with a young family,. . although I suspect that Kevin's eldest Son, who is 15 Yrs of age, may be from a previous encounter. .. but I could be wrong there. . .don't like to pry. Since Uncle Boris closed my Airfield for the foreseeable future. . . ., I can't play ATC ( Air / Ground radio ) for a while now,. . so I'm relying on the Interwebbythingummy to assuage my boredom. . . . I hope that others on RF enjoy the posts, and I'll keep on posting them until Scott starts posting more 'Flying Around' trips. . .which are Most enjoyable. . .

"Difficult to spin a Cessna with Full Flap' ? ? ? ? ? A C-150 / 152 can be a really nasty bugger if you take the mickey with it with fairly full tanks and get too slow on the coffin turn. . . they bite very quickly. I have demonstrated this manouvre to students, and friends who own the type (And 172 / 182 etc ). .. over the last 35 years. . . Always at a safe vertical displacement above mean ground level ( But you knew I was going to say that. .. or I wouldn't be here. . .) They always appear totally shocked when it does it's thing. . . . So I have to wonder what happened to proper flight instruction on what was a very popular training aircraft ? ? ? ( Rhetorical ) Perhaps we should tell them to buy an Ercoupe,. . .wIth insufficient Up Elevator travel to stall the wings. . . ? ( Phil Perry. .. not an instructor any more, and only 890 hours on similar type )

I wonder why a lot of the Youtube comments mention Mrs Kevin ?. . .a mystery that. . .

Further correction,. . .Kevin works his Wife on ATC, so she is Still an active ATC person, as of late 2019 (sorry ) . . .. . Kev flies to Burlington in snowy condx, to get the bloody heater fixed. . .and works Wifey on the radio. . .

I made an error above, Kevin is a serving Tracon ATC operator at Chicago O'Hare. . . .the pay Must be good for him to be able to afford to own and operate a Twin, and a hangar at a premium controlled airport ( Aurora, Illinois ) and all the IFR toys he keeps adding to the panel. . . ( I never knew that Ilinois was so 'FLAT' ) He has a Youtube channel called '310 Pilot'. . seems a nice enough bloke,. . .but I never got Birmingham or Manchester controllers talking to me on first Name. terms. . .!( sobs ) Love his videos of flying around the Bahamas. . . He is living the Dream that I was never able to afford ! ! ! ! ! ( Shoulda Worked harder and stayed single yer whingeing twot )

Jaime and Kevin 'DO' Oshkosh 2018. . . She's an Ex- air traffic controller, but he Does take the Pi$$ out of her a bit. . .

Jaime and Kevin are both Ex-Air Traffic Controllers, although Jaime is not a pilot. I've never heard ATC like this, but then again, I've never flown in to a major U.S. Aviation event. . .

As an adjunct to the story; I had hired the aircraft from Halfpenny Green airport, some 120 NM South of Blackpool, I was just dropping of 'pregnant Lady' on the way. . I had to hire a battered looking C-210 to complete the journey, otherwise wait for 24/48 hours to continue, as there was no maintenance service available on a Sunday afternoon. . . and no other 4 seat hire aircraft available. . . And after having previously experienced problems in the past ( In Australia ) with C-210 retractables,. . I was, rather less than enthusiastic. . . ! ! ! But it all worked out OK. I was the archetypal 'CAPTAIN WORRY'

To be honest Turbs,. . I really WAS Crapping myself there, as I'd got Three Pax, including a Pregnant one,. . .so Technically four pax. .. Added to this was the fact that I had previously hired the same aeroplane for more than twenty flights to and from the Isle of Man, (usually for the TT races,or the Manx Grand Prix ) and it was always in good order and very well maintained, albeit fairly old and well used.. . (( I believe that it is still on the line today. . )) The thought of having to get them all out of the cabin in a hurry, in the event of a crappy landing filled me with dread, especially the pregnant one, who was a last minute addition to the passenger manifest. . . And in the case of THAT particular Piper airframe, . . with only ONE bloody door to exit the scene, and a fairly large passenger in the right hand seat; this added to my stress somewhat . . . I was very glad that this course of action was not required in that instance.

Mentioned this years ago on this Hallowed Forum ( Thanks Ian ) I had a 'Two Greens' U/C indication on downwind for Blackpool airport (UK ) The aircraft was an 'Oldish' PA28 R200 Arrow 3. I aborted the approach and ATC suggested a fly by at low level in front of the tower so that they could have a look. They confirmed that my right Main wheel appeared to be fully down, but the gear door was missing. I just didn't have a green light to indicate down and Locked. Longer story shortened, I landed 20 minutes later with a rescue vehicle following me, but the Undercarriage remained fully deployed. That was the ONLY ever Gear indicator lamp failure that I have ever experienced in 49 years of defying Gravity.