Reality Check

I, like many of my colleagues are being driven to distraction by the incessant, uninformed, gullible and just plain stupid media/public/relatives questions and opinions on the very unfortunate Germanwings incident last week.

I won't relive some of the absolute clangers that I have heard professed as "gospell" on what we do for a living. Suffice to say can so many seemingly intelligent people be so uninformed?

Patrick Smith at Ask The Pilot obviously couldn't take it any more and set about righting a few wrongs so please world, in the interests of accuracy, read his post at the link above and learn what we really do.

This quote from Mr Smiths excellent article very accurately sums up how we all feel -

"I am not sure what to say. For pilots, that a colleague may have intentionally crashed his plane and killed everyone on board, is not only horriffic but embarrassing, offensive and potentially stigmatising to the entire profession".



Safe skies.

Another Day At Work

Thanks to OutdoorGaz for finding this link. This is a really well put together video of the Air Tahiti operation.

I just wonder when the fun police are going to jump on this filming while at work.....?

In the mean time, enjoy.

Cheers.

Why You Can't Use Electronic Devices On Aeroplanes

A mate sent me this beauty last week. 

The funny thing is there is a little bit of truth in the flight attendant's answer.

https://youtu.be/JYAq-7sOzXQ

CollegeHumor's Favorite Funny Videos

Cheers.....

(I caint turn orff me pacemaker.......)

Punching On......After All, Its Boxing Day

Lots more flying to be had today with a double crossing of the continent. If we had gone in a straight line and for another 3 hours we would have been in Los Angeles!! Well, actually we would have been swimming, out of gas......but you get the gist.

 Some cool sights today with multiple crossing traffic high above Leigh Creek.

A QANTAS 767, 1000ft above us and going slightly faster. It was so close we could see the rivets on the underside of it!

Then, at the same time an A330 came the other way, 1000ft higher again. (And yes, this is legal)

How good are modern aircraft navigation systems? Here we all were, over the middle of the country, on the same track and all exactly aligned by GPS. This is the reason dilligent attention needs to be paid to altitude separation by both pilots and air traffic control!

Halfway through the day and the sun is setting to the west of Brisbane.

The moon going down behind the cloud at 39 000'.

Just a few days until new year and I am hoping (needing) to get out on a bike before the calendar winds down to the 31st. Until then, there is always this to get me by.....

Hope you Boxing Day was a relaxing one.

Cheers.

Aerosexual* !!??

There was no time for riding of any sort last weekend. I finished work late Friday afternoon then jumped in the car and drove. And drove. Then I drove some more, eventually rolling out the swag at midnight in a moonlit paddock at Premer. Up at 5:45am, I drove some more.

The reason for this cannonball run? Well it was time to pick the kids up from my parents place and bring them home for school. The reason for the tight timeline? I wanted to spend a bit of time where I grew up before turning around for the 1100km (690mi) trip back home.

A few days before I left an email announcing an aircraft showcase (flying day) at the Temora Aviation Museum landed in my inbox. With the weather forecast looking to be pretty well perfect I decided to drive the extra 300km(190mi) round trip to Temora as they were planning on flying their fighter aircraft, some of which are the only airworthy examples in the world! And located right in the heart of sleepy, small town New South Wales. How about that for timing!!



The kids were keen to go and Dad has always had an interest in aircraft so there was no shortage of companions that could poke me with a stick to keep me from nodding off at the wheel.

We arrived to a glorious winter's day in Central West NSW with a temperature of about 15C (59F) and zero wind. Is was absolutely calm. Perfect flying weather.

First up was the CAC Boomerang, an aircraft rushed through development into production in the dark days of WWII when it looked like we were cut off and would be over run by the Japanese. As a fighter it was pretty third rate for the time and luckily we did not come to rely on it as a batch of P-40 Kittyhawks made it through from the US just in time. Still, it is a pleasure to watch an original example in action.

Next to fly was the Gloster Meteor. This was pretty much the Allies first operational jet fighter that entered service around July 1944. It is very impressive to see this immaculate example fly as the gentle whistle from it's two Rolls Royce Derwent engines sounds very low performance when compared to modern fighter jets. The "blue note" from it's cannon shell ejection ports, located under the nose, adds to the haunting melody.

The Cessna Dragonfly flew next. While the museum's aircraft are mostly types specific to Australian history, in that our Air Force operated them at one time or another, the Dragonfly was operated by the US Air force in Vietnam.  It has phenomenal performance for a jet of it's size and age.

 

At the controls of this two seat aircraft were David Lowy, the museum's founder, champion aerobatic pilot and son of one of Australia's richest men. With him was ex RAAF pilot and now Red Bull Air Race pilot Matt Hall (and apparently a top bloke according to the ex RAAF guys that I fly with). They threw the Dragonfly around the sky, trailing smoke which whipped into a vortex by the aircraft's wingtip vortices, hung in the still afternoon air forming bizarre shapes that had my kids marvelling at the smoke as much as the routine the aircraft was being put through.

Last to fly was my personal favourite, the Mk XVI Supermarine Spitfire. Unless you have been living under a rock since the 1920s this aircraft should need no introduction at all.

One of the most beautiful fighters ever to enter production, the sound of a Rolls Royce Merlin growling past will bring a lump to your throat. Personally, I prefer the sound of the Mk VIII that the museum also owns, but it's engine is in the US for a rebuild, so the latter model Mk XVI with it's supercharged Merlin flew today. Very impressive and worth the trip to Temora on its own!

The kids had a great day out as well, enjoying the sun, the action and the hotdogs with tomato sauce.

Oh, and the reason for this museum being located way out here in central NSW? Well, Temora aerodrome was one of many Empire Air Training Scheme airfields where thousands of Allied pilots were trained during the war years.

The reason they chose Temora over the others? "Apparently", when the founders approached the councils operating the other former EATS fields they were giving a long list of demands and red tape to cut through. When they approached Temora Council they were thrown the keys to the aerodrome and told "there you go"! Not sure of the actual truth behind the story, but this is the one I choose to believe.

With the flying over it was time to head for home with my little sidekicks. An overnight effort saw us back in Brisbane for them to prepare for the return to school and me to work. Yay......

*Aerosexual- A derogatory term applied by professional pilots (who are strapped to an aircraft more than they deem healthy or necessary) to their colleagues that spend their spare time messing around with aircraft. Do fishermen go fishing in their spare time?

In my defense, my hobbies are mountain biking and motorcycling, but remember, we all got into flying because we loved aircraft........

Solomons Sojourn

Today's work consisted of heading up to Honiara, the capital of the Solomon Islands. Being my first time into Henderson, as is customary practice, I was accompanied by a check pilot to familiarise me with the particular intricacies of the route.

 

As an amateur military history buff I was pretty excited to be going to the site of a MAJOR conflict in the Pacific War during WWII. Guadalcanal, along with New Guinea was basically where the Japanese were stopped in their island hoping campaign across the Pacific, with the intention of cutting off Australia from it's ally, the US, and even though I would not have time to look around, just seeing the area with my own eyes would put so much into perspective. The campaign was made into a movie back in 1998. The Thin Red Line was one of the first "realistic' movies made about the Pacific War(sorry Duke, but Sands of Iwo Jima is just a recruiting flick in comparison) and as a result, very disturbing.

Located on the island of Guadalcanal, Henderson Field is the name that was given to the airport way back in 1942. In the convention of the day it was named after a US Naval Aviator killed during the Battle of Midway. The runway today is aligned exactly as it was back in the '40s, just longer and sealed for jet operations.

The water in the background is Sealark Sound. Known as Ironbottom Sound because of the amount of shipping that lies on the sea floor, it must have been a horrendous place to be in 1942 as the ships we are talking about aren't just little tinnies or supply ships. Cruisers, destroyers and if my memory serves, a big ass battleship. Please read the Wiki page (above) on the battle as it is yet another of the almost forgotten Pacific battles that really was vicious and decisive. Our HMAS Canberra, a heavy cruiser, lasted about "as long as a snowflake in hell" during the battle.

Anyway, we cruised up at 37 000 feet and would have been immune from Zeros at that height and speed.  Coming over the island at 15 000ft to ensure terrain clearance we threaded our way between two cumulonimbus(CB) which I have a sneaking suspicion are permanent features on the high ground.

The airport is on the other side of the island and we were approaching from the same direction as the Japanese troops had back in 1942 as it turned out. While this path looked ugly, these tropical storms are usually quite benign just to either side of the anvil(head) and we had a smooth ride through that cloud. Just don't try it under the build-up!

Overhead the field at 10 000ft isn't the normal approach profile of a 737, so gear and flaps were thrown out and we glided steeply down in an arc to the north, over Ironbottom Sound, to finally re-apply power at 500ft and land on runway 06 to the north east.

Facilities proved to be the expected third world fare, barely adequate and run on pacific time.

Looking back toward the high ground, it was looking a tad damp. I can't imagine trying to trudge through the rainforest covered hillsides on almost no food, trying to keep a weapon serviceable and find someone to fight all at the same time.

The Solomon Airways Airbus had a cracked windscreen (it happens from time to time) which they were in the process of changing out, so we inherited another seventy or so passengers for our return flight.

By the time we departed the CB had slid along the ranges toward the south west and our southerly departure track was relatively clear.

After a comfortable two hours and fifty minutes we were back in "wintery" Brisbane and the 31C (88F) warmth of Honiara was a distant memory.

Today proved to be very interesting and I would love to return to have a closer look around and examine some of the historic sites. While the Solomons isn't the safest place to hang, I think it is getting it's security concerns under control thanks to a peace keeping deal that has been running for most of the last decade.

So, somewhere else I have to go when I have the time......? Definitley!

Super Heavy

There are different classifications for aircraft types, mainly for wake turbulence separation. Most of these separation standards have been established through bitter experience.

I operate in the Medium category (Large in the Wiki page) and being up to 79 tonnes (174 000lbs) anything lighter than us had better not fly too close behind. And so the pecking order goes up to Heavy, then Super.

There is only one aircraft in the Super category at this time which is the Super (Ugly) Airbus A380. They are not sure what separation standard to set, time and distance wise, behind one of these puppies. For the time being they are erring on the side of caution. And so am I. I don't want to be the first person to find out I was following too closely!

The video below was shot at Sydney (YSSY) this morning. It is only smart phone vision, but you get the idea.



Home now after five days on the road and actually looking forward to mowing the lawn, chasing the kids around and riding some 'cycles!

A Pinch of Skill and a Dash of Luck

This amazing scene involving a LOT Airlines Boeing 767 (Bloody big Jet) occurred today in Warsaw.



Kudos to the drivers on a tidy job. It even looked like they kept it on the centre line!