Phil Perry

Hi Ben. . .yes indeed. . .a veritable Vindaloo of stuff hereabouts . . It has puzzled me a little as to why lifelong professional pilots would wish to continue aviating following retirement. At my local Aero club, there are a number of chaps who are doing just this, one of whom not only flew A-320 for a living, but was also a weekend assistant CFI at a GA / Microlight airfield in the South of England for recreation prior to moving OOP NORTH near to where I live. . . . His lovely Wife calls him 'Captain SILLYSOD' ( Flying never blew her frock up apparently ! ) One is a Powered Hang glider owner, the others own and fly various microlight three axis and flexwing trikes. . . We also have a current 747 cargo captain who likes really basic STICK INSECT aircraft. . . Welcome Sir.

A few days ago, My email notification showed this weeks most popular topics from RF. There was mention of a C-210 crash somewhere but when I clicked on this to read it, the site wouldn't show me and said I had to log in first. . I had inadvertantly deleted the email, and could not find the report in accidents and incidents. Any ideas ?

Not a silly picture ( Sorry ) This is one from a bookface group named 'UK SMALL AIRFIELDS' and taken by Goff Moore. Very atmospheric don't you think ?

Question : Does a fly do a half loop or a half roll to land on the ceiling ? When I was a young impressionable bloke, that very question caused a group of us to spend an entire long weekend consuming excessive amounts of alcoholic voice lubricants, in order to solve this important aviation conundrum. We never did come up with the answer. That's because we didn't have the internet. A quick google pointed me to a video in which some bloke informed me that they do neither. In fact the fly flies normally near the ceiling, extends its front legs above its head and grasps the ceiling (with a sticky substance secreted on its feet), then uses momentum to flip itself upside down and grasp with the other feet.

Off Topic Marty, but for some reason, I thought of you, when I saw a 2 seat Spitfire ( I think it was the Dragon Mk9 ) fly fairly slowly over Lichfield in Staffordshire,. . .it made a couple of runs, apparently taking pictures of something on the ground as the pilot whanged it into steep turns four times. . .it wasn't near the war memorial at Alrewas,. . , so no idea what it as doing there. Typically,. . camera left at home,. . and camera phone left plugged into home computer for wifi. . . ( sorry ) Phil.

I've been flying various types of trikes with many different wings and power units ie 447 to 912s since 1992. I have only heard of a 'Wing Clap' twice. The first was caused when a crossbar ( control Bar ) bolt was not fitted with it's wing nut, or if it HAD been, it had come off due to NO safety ring being attached. The second was the fact that the aircraft was struck from the rear by a Cessna 152, which had drifted across from a parallel runway on the pilot's second solo go around. The First example resulted in a single fatality. This was described as a serious rigging error. In the case of the collision, the instructor managed to spiral the wreckage to a safe landing, with minimal injuries to both himself and his student. ( Regrettably, the student in the C-150 did not survive the ground impact. . . The collision had occurred at approx 400 feet AGL. ) A structural failure of the kind described, must be VERY unusual, and therefore needs serious engineering investigation.

I know a guy like that. . .known him for thirty five years.. . . always the maverick. . .loves low level beat ups in his Vans. . . and illegal IMC flying thru mountainous regions in Europe. . . Law of averages says that one day. . . .

https://player.vimeo.com/video/354768535?app_id=122963

Aimed at the curious layman perhaps. . .

After reading the Pickle Fork thread this morning,. . I noticed this on youtube.

Glider crew involved in 'Unusual' Landing https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/.../glider-pair...

A glider outlanding in a paddock is a forced landing though, but easier and safer than a power plane. A Gliding Instructor at Bacchus Marsh once stated that every glider launch was always the harbinger of an 'interesting' outlanding 'with malice aforethought'. . ?

*GIGGLES. I think we ought to rename this 'Forced' landing descriptor to what the incident reports are actually describing . . ie, UNPLANNED ( Neccessary, but often most inconvenient ) landings ! ! ! Regularly practicing Glide landings is a highly sensible excercise to ensure a better response in the event of an unplanned one. .

*GIGGLES. I think we ought to rename this 'Forced' landing descriptor to what the incident reports are actually describing . . ie, UNPLANNED ( Neccessary, but often most inconvenient ) landings ! ! !

Extracted from GASCO safety news Nov 2019. 11 SUCCESSFUL FORCED LANDINGS - WOW! No less than 11 forced landings are reported in the AAIB monthly bulletin for October 2019 and none of them involved serious injury, let alone a fatality. Can it be, your compiler wonders, that UK GA pilots are at last getting the message, which is that when an emergency such as loss of power suddenly occurs you must give maximum priority to keeping the thing flying. Never mind upset passengers, controllers asking for a change of squawk or a growing realisation that you are not going to make the selected field, keep the angle of bank moderate, fly the plane all the way down and you will probably walk away. READ MORE

I am not now, nor have I ever been a deliberate Larrikin,. . .but I admit that I have, on a number of occasions, allowed a front seat passenger to handle the controls of a light aircraft, albeit briefly. 'Some' of my instructors, as well as many private pilots at the time have said. . 'Everybody Does that' . . . ( The 'Time' to which I refer was in the early 1970s ) I am not defending this practice in any way. . . neither am I going to apologise in retrospect for having done it, like choosing the wrong person for a lifetime partner,. . what has happened cannot be EASILY changed some decades later .

I believe that the S1 had the locking tailwheel, as it was much easier to land on a hard rwy, than the S2,. . .My instructor mentioned this, although you are stretching my memory now DJP. . . being an old fart and all. . .I'd been flying Keith Hatfield's Tigger, ( VH-TIG ) and then an Auster 6 ( VH-ARX ), for quite a lot of hours,. . .followed by a C-180, which had a lot more energy and was 'Interesting' in crosswinds . . .! Having only One runway at Berwick ( 12 / 30 ) gravel,. . .crosswinds were a daily occurrence which had to be mastered or no flying was possible. My old friend David Squirrell, Instructor and Cropduster flyer extraordinaire. . .Taught me all manner of horrible approach and landing exercises in crosswinds, for which I shall be eternally thankful. . . he even sent me solo in his Pawnee,. . .promising to do unspeakable things to me if I bent it. . .R.I.P. David. The C-180 helped me when I transited to the Pitts. . . .but with the Pitts (as I am sure you know) ,. . .the experience as a tap dancer and Rock Drummer came in handy, especially landing at Moorabbin . . .with it's very Hard runways. In the early days following my return to the UK in 1983, I found a Pitts S2 owner who allowed me to play with one of his many toys for a couple of years. . ., for just the fuel used . .!. I regret that he died in a Harley Davidson Motorcycle accident where some French Farmer reversed in front of him in central France, but that's another story. As is the one about G-Loc'ing myself with a microlight pilot as a Pax. . . another time for that tale . .

One lazy 1970s Sunday, I flew into Bendigo in a C-210 +2 pax and noticed a Cessna Taildtragger ( 180 I think ) upside down on the grass off the side of the runway. . .there was no one on the bloody radio (as usual ) [ YES - Nowadays, you all use CTAF, but then, SOME airfields had Tower / Air Ground live comms,. . which was the case with Bendigo, Mildura and many other stations,. . .Others used 119.1 unicom. . . I never found out how that had happened. . .and batted away my Friend's Wife's fears by telling her that it was an old wreck that the airport firemen used for practice emergencies. . . .Must be a story there,. . .but never heard it. . . . Got some photos of us all at a Chinese Cafe of some sort, quite near to the airfield,. . .must get Son in law to scan them for publication on here. . .( oh the horror ) MIND YOU. . .the buttered King Prawns in teriyaki sauce and Fried Chicken wings in Singapore batter were absolutely incredible. . . .but that's another story

I recall that condition in a Pitts S2 intensely. . .AAAND at the same airfield Too !!. . .albeit in 1973. . . . Oddly enough,. . I didn't have a problem with the Pitts S1. . .?. . .less swing moment for lower passenger weight perhaps ?. . .dunno . . .not an Aero- Maths man. . .

'OLD BEN' the young pilot experiences another East European aircraft. 600 Kg. ( 26 minute video ) Another Cessna Lookalikey ?