Saturday, November 25, 2006

A seedy joy flight

Flight hours: 0.6
Study hours: 0
Aviation Reading: Killing Zone: How and why pilots die

As you can see, the flight was of short duration. Matty had planned to go flying with me on the Friday after his dentist appointment, however due to low cloud, we decided to make it the Saturday for a better viewing experience.

The departure was set for around 12pm via SMS, the only issue was that Matty, who is usually quite prompt on replying to messages, was not to be heard from. I decided to try calling a few times, but was not successful.

At around about 1pm, I was planning to head out for a flight of my own, perhaps to fly up north to meet an instructor whom I have been thinking I want to use to complete my aerobatics training. These thoughts were interrupted with Matty calling to say that he just woke up and he would be over in an hour.

One hour and forty five minutes later, Matty arrived safely. The reason for the sleep-in was that the night before saw him polish off a keg of beer. Good work. At this stage, I was secretly wondering if I still have passenger sick bags in my flight kit. Affirmative.

I pre-flighted the plane and before we knew it, Matty had successfully performed the take-off. Heading towards the coast, we overflew some of the surfing beaches that Matt uses, but before too long, the steep turns had him feeling a bit queasy and he mentioned that he was faded (read: tired) and seedy from the night before. Oh well, looks like we will cut the trip short.

I requested clearance into Sydney airspace and was given a complex set of clearance instructions, along with holds, that allowed us to see a greater part of the city and surrounding areas.

"Track Long Reef, Manly, Spit bridge, one thousand five hundred, hold overhead and to the east of spit bridge and await further clearance".

At Spit Bridge, "Track direct Chatswood, 1500 and await clearance for left turn to track towards city".

At Chatswood, "Make left turn and track towards Darling harbour, 1500, single orbit approved overhead Bridge, between Darling harbour and the Opera house, North of Circular Quay".

After the orbit, "Would you be wanting a track direct west, north of Parramatta river?"

Yes please! I asked the controller to say hello to Paul and wished him a G'day, The airswitch showed 0.5, probably the quickest scenic flight I have taken from Bankstown to the City and back.







Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Avalon Airshow Planning

Flight hours: 1.2
Study hours: 0
Aviation Reading: Killing Zone: How and why pilots die

A friend of mine, Pauly along with myself and possibly a few others are planning to go to Avalon airshow in March 2007.

Paul is an air traffic controller here in Sydney and he at one time rated as a multi-engine command instrument instructor. The ATC work suits him much better and I would have to say that I enjoy the fact that he is a controller as I can catch wind of new procedures, learn how it all operates within Australia and also get to know the people who can give me better clearances for scenic flights etc. Excellent!

Seeing as I don't take many photos of things, I also invited Trieu to Avalon. We will most likely go on a trade day as there is less crowd and the airshow is usually condensed, so you don't have to hang around to see the entire show.

A fellow podcaster, Steven Pam from http://www.houndtv.com fame, contacted me through my podcast a while back and we may use Avalon as a meeting ground. Steven's background is in photography and aviation appears as a significant part in his online collection.

Paul and I are not sure how long we are going to stay in Melbourne along with how we will get there. Perhaps I should take my aircraft? We will have to wait and see.

As for flying, Trieu and I had a classic boys night last Saturday sans Alcohol. This included a crazy session at the gym, pizza, movies and a flight around Sydney at dusk/night. The pictures are not up to the normal Asian standard according to Trieu, but I will see if some are acceptable for posting.

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Night VFR Instruments

Flight Hours: 2.9
Study Hours: 1
Aviation Reading: Killing Zone: How and why pilots die

Note: This event occurred around early-November

A few days ago, I was booked in to complete a component of the Night VFR rating, which is instrument flight, instrument failures and unusual attitudes with recovery based on instruments only of which some may be failed (by covering the instruments up) at certain times.

One of the other members of the syndicate is an instructor at a Bankstown based aviation college, so I decided to transfer my integrated CPL training over to that school.

I arrived earlier than required as the session would start after closure of the fuel trucks and I also wanted to inspect the aircraft before last light to make things easier.

I taxied the aircraft across the airport to the college and met up with the instructor. After a quick chat and seeing as last light would be over 35 minutes away, I decided to bang out some crosswind circuits.

Doing circuits as the sun is setting is interesting at times when the sun is directly in your eyes, but it was nothing that intermittent use of sunglasses couldn't fix.

Finishing the circuits, I headed back to the college for the training brief. I was to take off visually and once 3nm from the airport boundary, I would be under the hood for the next 2 hours.

During this time we went over some instrument flight, quickly getting more complex such as failed vacuum pump (no Attitude Indicator or Directional Gyro), No instrument or cockpit lights, climbing and descending turns to a certain altitude and heading, whilst determining my exact location on a chart using two differing navaids and if needed, broadcasting on the appropriate CTAF frequencies. No sweat.

We then covered unusual attitude recovery under the hood along with covering the instruments completely from my field of view and flying towards an area with no lighting to see what night visual effects can occur.

The training was coming to an end and finished up with some circuits at Hoxton Park before heading back to Bankstown.

Friday, November 17, 2006

South Korea

Flight hours: 1.2
Study hours: 0
Aviation Reading: Killing Zone: How and why pilots die

My company just hired a new IT Manager for South Korea, Joung-Ho, who we brought over to Australia so that he can meet the team and learn the intricacies of the company.

On the second day of his orientation and training, the weather was quite good, so after my training time with Joung-Ho, I asked if he would like to fly around Sydney in a small aircraft. At first he didn't understand even though his English is great, then I said "I am a pilot and would you like to fly around Sydney?"

He explained that in South Korea, there is no General Aviation at all, so he didn't grasp what I was saying straight away. I also grabbed Michael and the three of us headed out for a Sydney and Victor one jaunt.

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Simulator Training

Flight Hours: 1.2 (Simulator)
Study Hours: 0

Note: This event occurred around mid-October

As part of the NVFR training requirements, it is better to learn on the ground with an approved synthetic trainer where it is cheaper and you can pause the session to go over items.

My simulator training involved general instrument flight, tracking navaids and practicing intercepts. For fun we even covered some instrument approaches along with random and frequent equipment failures.

Tracking (not homing) to navaids I find easy. The only issue for me was that I would take around 6-10 seconds to create a mental picture in relation to my position from reading the directional gyro and VOR in order to execute random intercepts. I will want to get this down to a second or two at most, although a greater understanding of where I am on a chart would help reduce my mental lag.

I found the simulator work fairly simple, probably due to the frequency of my childhood flight sim usage along with my Xbox/Xbox 360 l33t skillz.

Monday, November 13, 2006

Aerobatics 101

Flight hours: 0.9
Study hours: 0
Aviation Reading: Killing Zone: How and why pilots die

Note: This event occurred around late-September

After having a chance to contact people after being away for some time, I rang Greg from the SAAA Chapter 11 to say hello and catch up. Greg was the previous chapter president who happens to have his ear to the ground in many things aviation related.

During my phone call, Greg asked if I would be interested in flying in an Extra 300L with Richard Wiltshire as there was an available spot. Richard is the current Australian Aerobatic Champion and State Unlimited Aerobatic Champion.

On hearing this, I immediately accepted and looked forward to the weekend. After a briefing, I jumped into the aircraft and we were soon in a zoom climb for take off (I don't have my tailwheel endorsement as yet). Richard handed the controls over to me and I was immediately surprised that the aircraft was so nimble.

The aircraft danced around the sky for a few minutes whilst my hand adjusted to the necessary small control inputs and by the time we were in the training area of Sydney I had the aircraft under finer control. The Extra has an incredible roll rate of 360 degrees per second, which means if you hold the control to the left or right for a second, you would have completed an aileron roll.

Richard was great, he allowed me to do any and all of the maneuvers I could possibly imagine, such as the hammerhead (stall turn), loops, rolls, inverted flying, spins (normal and inverted), snap rolls and all variations and combinations I could manage on my own.

Richard also took over and kept up a non-stop commentary on what he was about to show me including how to perform knife edge flying, tumbles and other moves that I cant remember because the ground and sky were swapping places in all geometric planes far too quickly for my mind to determine the maneuver.

If you are in Sydney and would like to fly in a very nimble aerobatic aircraft with a top-notch aerobatic pilot, give Richard a shout via his website www.extraaerobatics.com.au

Now I want to get my aerobatics endorsement!

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Night VFR Nav

Flight Hours: 3.3
Study Hours: 1

Note: This event occurred around mid-October

I was given the following route to plan for my first night VFR nav:

YSBK - PAA - YPEC - YCNK (Circuits) - MQD - CAA - HBB - YSBK

Simple enough, track the lane of entry, follow the coast north until Aeropelican, swing inbound to Cessnock for some circuits. After the circuits, track to a VOR followed by an NDB and practising intercepts at both navaids, then finish off with a direct track to Sydney for some orbits around the city before tracking home.

The first few circuits at Cessnock where okay but could be much better. I'm generally hard on myself with flying skills so that I keep at it them until I am comfortable and proficient. Because of this, I ended up wanting to keep doing circuits which saw me complete around 10 touch and goes before continuing the navigation.

With less light available, the landing perspective takes some time getting used to, however after a few circuits, things looked and felt much better. Happy with this, I tuned in the navaids and tracked to the VOR followed by the NDB.

After the last navaid, I headed towards Sydney, requested airways clearance and proceeded to do some orbits of the harbour, then the city and a practiced missed approach at Sydney airport (it's great to have a good friend who works for Airservices (the air traffic controllers within Australia). After frolicking around the city, I took a direct track back home.

Sydney at night looks amazing so after my NVFR check ride, I will have to take some photos.

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Night VFR Circuits

Flight Hours: 3.5
Study Hours: 0

Note: This event occurred around mid-October

Now that I have access to an aircraft, it will be much cheaper for me to chase
endorsements and ratings. A school rental + instructor runs upwards of $250 AUD with taxes applied. By using my aircraft, an instructor only costs between $60 and $85.

I did find a neat trick with flying training in Australia though. Sign a form stating that you will pursue your commercial rating (CPL) and you can fly GST tax exempt. This takes 10% of the price away, which at least provides an extra incentive.

A night rating (NVFR) is the first new rating that I will complete. The rating provides me with greater options if the weather is going to pose a problem during daylight or if I am needing to leave earlier or later than planned. Before I get a chance to use it for weather related issues, I will probably be instrument rated, but none the less, I could let my IFR recency slide, but still have Night VFR options and the ability to fly scenic at night.

My only obstacle was to find an instructor who would be willing to teach NVFR-SE. Not many instructors in Australia seem to be interested in teaching single engine night VFR, however I believe you can mitigate the risks by thorough and smarter flight planning, managing not to go over areas that provide little option for emergency landings without a proper light source. An engine doesn't know whether it is day or night, although it usually performs better at night in the cooler air.

Funnily enough, it is either the young instructors or the very old war pilot type instructors who seem to enjoy providing the training and rating check ride for NVFR. Flying at night is great fun. Smooth air, completely different viewing of the same items, especially scenic flights around cities. The rating also resets my BFR time.

My first lesson involved circuits. I had only a few hours in a C172 by this stage, but landing a 172 is nothing compared to a Sundowner, Sierra or Mooney. The 172 is a piece of cake most of the time and greaser landings are fun to rinse and repeat.

The perspective at night is quite different and I noticed the cockpit workload felt like it was higher few the first few minutes, but that isn't really the case. By the end of the hour, the instructor felt confident enough to provide me with a solo night circuit endorsement along with telling me to plan a NAV with circuits at other airfields.

Monday, November 06, 2006

Shiny Headset

Flight hours: 1.2 (Simulator)
Study hours: 0
Aviation Reading: Killing Zone: How and why pilots die

"Imagine a headset so comfortable you may forget you're even wearing it! You'll think it was designed for you personally. Made from new, handcrafted materials that refuse to sacrifice lightweight comfort [and provide] long term durability….

Now imagine it's yours - the new X-11 ENC from David Clark."

I actually don't have my own headset. Let's rephrase that. I have a headset, but I do not "own" it. Michael (the work colleague I flew with on the previous weekend), was a student pilot well before I was. He was in limbo with flying training when I decided to get my license, so we established a temporary trade of his David Clark H10-13.4 headset for an AGV motorcycle helmet of mine. I would commence my flight training using his headset and Michael can race his Subaru WRX with my helmet.

That trade continued to be in place for over 6 years as Michael never picked up flying training again. Now that I have the Cessna, I cannot possibly let all passengers who fly with me to use one of the spare old headsets we have in the rear baggage compartment. Using an old headset can ruin the experience some.

I decided to check out the ANR headsets and made my decision on procuring the new X11. Now one lucky passenger on each flight can use my old (trade) headset, whilst I use the X11.

It weighs only 12.1 ounces and has a music input which means I can listen to some tunes/podcasts whilst I am flying. The good thing about it is that the music cuts out for a period of time whenever it detects a carrier signal on the listening frequency.

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Syndicate: 2010

Flight hours: 0
Study hours: 0
Aviation Reading: Flight of Passage

When I joined the syndicate, one of the owners was introducing me to the way things operated. I queried him on how bookings are made, which I discovered was via email to all owners and first-in, first-served.

Seeing as I try to make everything I do in my role within I.T. as automated or simple as possible, I immediately asked if they had considered using a website that could be the recording point of bookings. He said they may consider it and he would put it to the other owners.

I saw that as the green light to fully code the site using PHP and mySQL.
It provides us with:

  • Booking Management
  • Maintenance Tracking
  • Reports
    • Pilot Hours
    • Hours per month
    • Trending the 100 hourly inspection
  • Photo Gallery
  • Medical and Rating tracker (for currency and renewals)
  • Contact information of the owners
  • Newsletters
  • Share-a-ride posting
  • Weather briefings
  • Submission of flight plans for our more common flights

I host the site myself (WAMP) and purchased a domain name for the site which is the tail registration. Naturally the site was accepted and voted as the only means for bookings along with recording maintenance etc, thus moving the syndicate further into the internet age.

That blue line represents our 100 hourly that is rapidly approaching.