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!

Sunday fun

Flight hours: 2.5
Study hours: 0
Aviation Reading: Flight of Passage

I have never taken my parents out for a flight, period. Now that I have my own aircraft, that was bound to change soon enough and it just happened to be a Sunday scenic flight.

On the Friday, it didn't look like the flight would occur at all this weekend. A low pressure system had quickly come through the Sydney basin, bringing with it a SIGMET for significant turbulence below 10000ft and wind from the south at 28 knots gusting to 38 knots.

A few years ago, the three GA airfields in the Sydney area, Bankstown, Camden and Hoxton Park, were sold by our government to a private business holding. Three companies were made for the ownership, BAL (Bankstown Airport Limited, CAL (Camden) and HPAL (Hoxton Park).

This business has great plans for the airfields, most notably, raising the rates by up to 200% within two years (far above the rates that market appraisal deems appropriate), closing down the north to south facing runway at Bankstown and closing down Hoxton Park completely in 2007 to develop the land for the property market. The Hoxton Park residence owners along with people who cannot afford to stay at Bankstown have to move to Camden, which is quite a drive from Sydney even with the new motorway.

With the closure of the Nth-Sth runway at Bankstown along with the imminent closure of Hoxton Park's 34/16 runway, this removes all nth-sth runways within Sydney and effectively provides no ability for general aviation aircraft to deal with a strong southerly wind that may crop up. Well, that is not entirely true. If a light aircraft making its way to Sydney found that the crosswind for Bankstown or Camden was above their aircraft's certified maximum crosswind component, they would have no choice but to divert to Sydney international airport and in the process becoming a financial nightmare for the pilot to pay landing and movement charges along with being a major inconvenience.

With the closure of the Nth-Sth runway at Bankstown, BAL has sold off the land that the runway previously occupied and we now have housing and commercial development encroaching the airfield. You have to wonder how long it will take until the crosswind incidents increase dramatically or an engine out after takeoff results in an emergency landing into someoness house.

My aircraft was available for the entire weekend, so I informed my parents that we could take our flight on either day. Saturday turned out to be quite gusty as well, so we hoped that conditions would improve by Sunday.

Sunday morning was suitable for flying, a manageable 12 kt crosswind and some moderate turbulence below 5000ft which was forecast to reduce as the day progressed. Michael, a work colleague and a student pilot, knew that I was flying so I arranged that he could meet me after taking my parents so that we can go for a spin.

We flew to north of Sydney to take some photos of my sisters house and then proceeded to track to Sydney harbour for orbits of the city followed by a leisurely flight down to Wollongong along Victor 1 (a VFR track to fly the Sydney coast).

After dropping my parents off at the airfield, Michael was soon to arrive which saw us do a similar flight over the city however, instead of Victor 1, we headed to Hoxton Park which was our training airfield, to practice some crosswind landings before returning home.