India and Podcasting don't mix

Flight hours: 12 (via Human Mailing Tubes)
Study hours: 0
Aviation Reading: Flying

I believe India is jinxed for actually getting a podcast out. Working long hours, broken equipment and the Windows Vista audio drivers I'm using are not recording as well as they could. L.A.M.E Lame lame.

Appreciate the man-handling of my bags and the outcome to the microphone I was going to use whilst travelling. Slightly functioning through only ear piece, damaged head band, inability to clip the earphones into the holder and a crackling mic when recording. Joy.



I will endeavour to push out one of the planned episodes this week on my normal recording rig. Stay tuned!

Crazy Air Deccan

Flight hours: 2.2
Study hours: 0
Aviation Reading: Plane and Pilot

I survived getting to Goa and returning to Bangalore, however feel the need to highlight the actual experience.

Air Deccan have certainly revolutionised the low cost carrier concept. It's really an unreliable airline as far as schedules and seating are concerned, but at least they did SMS me the fact that the plane had been delayed... twice.

Booking the tickets were fairly simple besides the fact that they don't take foreign credit cards online. So I had forced my newly minted IT Manager of India to pay for all of the 3 tickets on his Indian credit card. I did pay him back!

We were supposed to leave at 2:45pm, which was bumped on the same day to 3:30pm, no big deal, but on the way to the airport another SMS arrived saying 4:45pm.

After check-in, We waited quite awhile in a fairly dirty and old lounge area of Bangalore airport. There was a power point to charge our laptops and do some emailing and net surfing. Bonus.

Boarding time actually became the departure time. So at 4:45pm, we handed in our ticket stubs and jumped on a bus. The amount of pushing and shoving on the bus was unbelievable. I had to step up and use my size a number of times. I was wondering why everyone wanted to be near the door of the bus instead of spreading out and sitting down.

When we arrived at the rear of the plane for boarding (there was also another bus at the front of the plane), it became apparent why people were striving to stay near the entrance. When the bus came to a halt, there was a mad free-for-all dash for the steps of the plane. The reason being, there are no seating allocations.

I managed to secure seats and two lucky people had to leave the aircraft for not finding one in time. I wonder if the ticketing people at check-in learnt to count.

The seating space is incredibly small. I'm 6'4" and it was small enough that the person in front would not be able to recline and my legs had to be suspended in the air by raising my knees in order to fit in the seat. Oh look, a few small Indians are seated in the exit aisles and they don't want to swap seats. I hope you get trampled in an emergency.

1.2 hours behind the already changed schedule and we were airborne.

The flight was fairly non-eventful, however two things caught my attention. One being that the hostess on a number of occasions during the flight, provided some advertising for the airline and its services over the intercom.

The other being that people have the ability to "bid" on items that are normally sold in the back of the in flight magazine. The headrest cover in the seat in front had the prices on it, showing the product RRP and the minimum bid amount. The idea is that you fill in your name, seat number and bid on a bid sheet and hand it in.

Depending on the number of items available, the x number of highest bids, win those items and the winner must pay for them before the flight has terminated.

Crazy Air Deccan.

Goa

Flight hours: 0
Study hours: 0
Aviation Reading: Flight Safety Magazine (Australia)

I have been in India for almost 3 weeks and it is very apparent I am lacking two favourite activities... Flying and not working.

The flying component consists of two things:

1) Actually taking an aircraft for a flight, I wasn't impressed by the aircraft available in India (no wonder many Indian's do their flight training in places like Australia) nor the hoops I would have to jump to be allowed to take a "semi-wrecked" aircraft for a flight. I did see some nice looking ones on the flight line, but was unable to locate the owners.

2) Finishing the recording of a podcast for my show. This has been a little harder as I almost totally lost my voice in the first 10 days. I managed to get a sore throat before leaving for India and it progressed into Laryngitis from all of the talking I have been doing at work. Hopefully after this weekend, I might be able to get one released. (Thanks for all the fan mail and no, I have not been killed or kidnapped in India).

When I arrived at the office in India, it was at the same time as another employee from overseas. I could hear a Russian accent speaking American English. After quick introductions, we have been hanging out and going out on the town in Bangalore.

Did you know? for the last few years, Bangalore pubs/clubs shut at 11pm. They get busy at 10pm-10:30pm. You do the math. By curfew, I mean lights on, music off, police or security inside to escort everyone outside and then clear the crowd from the street. It is madness.

Being annoyed at this, I planned a holiday trip to Goa, a long string of beaches where the law is more relaxed and people come to party!

There is a public holiday in India on the 26th of January (Just like Australia day at home, but I will not be having lamb, I have been lucky enough not to get an Indian food enema/Delhi Belly etc thankyou very much, I'll have my lamb back in Oz). Due to this holiday, I planned to take a half day off on Thursday before the public holiday and a full day off on Monday. This saw me plan for a full 5 day holiday in Goa for both of us. Good Times! I Like! (In my best Borat voice).

Arezo, a co-worker from my Sydney office, is also arriving in Bangalore on Thursday night, so she booked a flight for Friday and cancelled training on Monday to give her a 4 day holiday in Goa.

So, the only flying I will be doing so far is in a crazy local Indian airline. I hope to take some pictures of me arriving safely in Goa. Perhaps I should fly the plane?

India

Flight hours: 22 (via Human Mailing Tubes)
Study hours: 2
Aviation Reading: Killer Caldwell

I haven't done any GA flying in the last few weeks as you can see. I have been thinking about it though and occasionally looking skyward.

The reason for this short hiatus is that I was over in Western Australia (thanks to Virgin Blue), for the Christmas break. I stayed on a homestead near the edge of Perth civilisation and dreamed about the possibilities of having a property with my own landing strip. One day.

We left Perth in the afternoon on NYE and landed at 10:10pm in Sydney. Just enough time to get home, change clothes, grab booze and fireworks and head out to Matty's house party. We arrived at 11:30pm. Yay!

The first week of 2007, I'm finalising my plans for the 5.5 weeks of work in India. I'm in contact with an aero club in Bangalore, so hopefully I can get some air sightseeing done.

I will be podcasting in India, albeit on inferior equipment and hopefully will get to release two planned episodes.

My flight to India via Qantas (for the frequent flyer points), would have seen me arrive in Bangalore around 3:30am. That wasn't going to happen. Instead I'm flying Singapore airlines and now arrive at a more respectable 11pm.

Going to 'The Dish' (Parkes)

Flight hours: 3.3
Study hours: 0

Note: This event occurred during October

Preface: The plan was to fly out to Parkes and go visit the dish. The only preparation outside of flight planning was to ensure that the radio telescope was open for tours. Hilarity ensues.

Guest writer: Wade Beattie AKA Turtle

It was an ordinary day, besides waking up late next to a few empty bottles of Bacardi Rum. Today we were going to fly out to the dish, the same radio telescope that was used in the movie 'The Dish'.

Getting out to the airport, it was the first time I had seen a light aircraft up close. I was surprised at how cramped you could get inside a small plane when you pack a couple of motorised scooters. Also the fact that weight and balance can be an issue and that the windows opened... Cool.

Geoff's preparation of the navigation logs, fuel, charts and instruments seemed complex, but he assures me that anyone can learn. Before pulling the aircraft out of the hangar, I was shown how to perform the first daily inspection, a detailed check of the various aircraft systems and flight controls.

We taxied out to the run-up area and had discovered a rough running engine when only using one magneto. That was soon sorted out by leaning the engine and running a slightly higher rpm.

Before long we were airborne after a crosswind takeoff, which I found interesting as when we gained altitude, the plane was turned into the wind by a large degree, yet we were still flying straight ahead.

We flew west over the Blue Mountains and initially the bumpiness and hangover started to gain control. Soon after, the air smoothed out and everything was 'plane' sailing. Geoff never tired of me speaking as a captain or randomly yelling out "Contact!".

Approaching Parkes, we flew over the airfield and the windsock was swinging in different directions up to 180 degrees making it harder to pick the best runway. I was a little worried as when I asked the captain what we were going to do because of the changing wind, his reply was "Not sure, I think I need to use a lifeline and phone an instructor. Can you pass me the phone? We didn't cover landings in training".

After a smooth landing, we parked the plane and prepared the scooters. We were using the scooters to get ourselves around town. The airfield is about 6 kilometres from the town centre and we found out that the road to get there was a highway. Perhaps we should have booked a taxi!

Leaving the airfield on our scooters, stunt driver Geoff decided to navigate himself over a cattle grate at full speed. In the process, the scooter partially disintegrated when the rear wheel was forcefully ripped off the scooter after it was launched skyward from hitting the first grate.

The scooter came to a sliding stop, sparks being generated from the steel frame sliding along the bitumen, with Geoff perfectly balancing on it. The engine was still producing power and the rear wheel flicked up into the air, over Geoff's head and bounced down the road. To put this into perspective, Geoff is 6 foot 4.

He turned around to face me and cut the engine. Now we had to find the wheel and I had to manage to not crash my scooter by the fact that I couldn't stop laughing. On quickly inspecting the scooter, we found we could fix it if we could get some tools. Amazingly the chain had not broken.

Taking the scooter back to the airport, we found an aircraft mechanic and borrowed some tools so that we could start our repairs. This involved bending the frame straight, removing the rear brakes and re-inserting/re-tensioning the rear wheel.

One hour later we were back on the highway, but only after we lifted the scooters over the cattle grate. Travelling along the open highway at 40 kilometres an hour, we soon reach the town centre only to find that my scooter now needed a service, the clutch was no longer supplying power properly to the rear wheel.

After borrowing more tools and fixing my scooter as best we could, taking the better part of another hour, it was time to think about flying home. At least we know how to find Parkes and that scooters were impractical for this airport. Perhaps we should spend a night or leave earlier in the morning so that if we have to conduct ad-hoc repairs, we have enough time for a tour as well.

Flying back home, Geoff let me fly most of the way back. I had trouble with altitude and directional control initially, so that we were heading south instead of east, but this was fairly short lived and I felt relaxed at the controls.

Geoff performed a wing over near a Sydney's Warragamba dam. Wingovers are fun. Back at Bankstown, we cleaned the plane and put it away.

Still looking forward to seeing the dish.

Brisbane Scenic and the flight home

Flight hours: 5.2
Study hours: 0
Aviation Reading: None

Wade and I decided to take a leisurely scenic flight around Brisbane and the islands before I had to finalise my preparation to depart for Sydney.

There is a published VFR track that takes you south of the city, over to Stradbroke island, tracking north to Moreton island before crossing water to the west for Bribie island and finally now being north of the city, returning to Archerfield.

There were some interesting colours to be seen, the coast and islands looked great from the air. Pity about the low cloud which reduced picture clarity.



During some of the island hopping, I decided to provide Wade with a taste of what a zero G environment feels like. Seeing as I still had the sound recorder hooked up, I decided to record the experience. You can listen to it here (Warning: Contains Explicit Language).

On the return trip to Sydney, I decided to re-record most of the radio conversations again for my Student Pilot Training podcast listeners. This is because I totally screwed up major portions of the radio conversations on the first trip by failing to ensure that the unit was able to record at the correct volume and also because I needed better settings to transfer the recordings to my laptop.

The weather ahead looked like it wanted me to make a diversion back to Byron Bay, where my friends Bill and John were still staying. No drama, diversion adventures crop up occasionally when flying light aircraft.

The cloud cover was getting increasingly lower than forecast and I had to transit the Gold Coast Class C airspace at 1,500 ft, whilst dodging small areas of rain.

The cloud cover was lighter and higher when passing Byron Bay, which saw me climb to 6,500 ft. Visually ahead however, the clouds looked broken to overcast, below my current altitude, covered the entire horizon and extended one hundred miles or more.

I didn't want to find myself above an overcast and unable to descend when needed. Calling up Flightwatch, I was informed that Sydney has unlimited VFR. I decided to fly VFR on top, using the breaks in the cloud every few minutes to maintain visual tracking along with using navigational aids to backup my track made good.

Passing Coffs Habour, the clouds started to clear over the coast and I was able to maintain 6,500 ft for most of the trip home.

The Bankstown ATIS on my return had the wind at 05010G20KT. That means the wind was coming from 50 degrees, at 10 knots gusting to 20kt. The ATIS broadcast crosswind maximum was at 18kts, 3 knots higher than my Cessna 172's crosswind limitation.

The landing was quite interesting, having to adjust the aircraft at all stages of the circuit for landing. The flare, landing and roll out all required correct crosswind technique, otherwise it may have been an unhappy landing.

Flying between Sydney and Brisbane is quite fun in terms of the radio work, the number of differing airspace areas and the different weather patterns you may encounter. I would recommend it to any private pilot for flying, radio and decision making experience.