The Stallion and the Hen

Flight hours: 1.3
Aviation Reading: Aviation Magazines

It was just one of those nights.

I went out on the town with a few friends and before I knew it, plans were in place for later that weekend to take a few chicks for a flight around Sydney.

Backing up a little... My ANZAC flight went swimmingly and I will also be able to squeeze a few more flights in before the hundred hourly.

Back to the story. A tourist (Roberta aka The Italian) and the local hosting the tourist (Liana aka Mother Hen) would be blessed with a magical flight before winter wonderland arrives.

The weather was great and as I was preparing to get them into the aircraft, they both decided they need to go to the toilet (is that from excitement or fear?). Off I take them across the airfield and apron to the toilets (I don't happen to have any near my hangar).

On approaching the city, I was told that due to navigational beacon testing, I would be unable to get over the city for at least thirty minutes. What a perfect opportunity to head south on Victor 1 before returning for a round 2 and closer look of the city when testing was complete.

During the phases of Victor 1 on both South and North bound, I took the girls through Zero G a number of times.. They loved it! I didn't record the girls laughing during Zero G as they weren't funny like Wade, who screams like a girl. (You can find the sound file in a previous post).

Back to the city I was cleared to take them into the harbour. It looked great in the afternoon sun.

A few orbits later, we headed back to Bankstown for a greaser touchdown despite the worst possible visibility from the windshield and the afternoon sun glaring on it. I could barely make out what height the aircraft was in relation to the runway so instead, I opted to land by looking out the side window. Can't wait to get that windshield replaced!

Special VFR

Flight hours: 0.3 (air switch time)
Study hours: 0
Aviation Reading: Killing Zone: How and why pilots die

The weather forecast looked promising at the start of the weekend and Saturday was a great day to fly. As I was still a little tired from a previous big night out, I decided to postpone and go flying on the Sunday.

The weather changed overnight and by morning, a broken to overcast cloud cover rested at around 3000 feet. The weather was calm with almost no wind. I decided to take the flight anyway, bringing someone along for the ride. The plan was to do a simple CBD orbit and the low altitude Victor 1 route under the clouds.

Pre-flighting was a breeze and I pulled the plane out of the hangar, had a fuel truck fill her up and then started to taxi for the run-up bay. The ATIS reported visibility at greater than 8km below 3000 feet at that time.

Soon after, we took off and straight into fairly crap visibility above 1000 feet. I would have estimated a distance of around 6 kilometres by this stage and in haze. It certainly looked much better from the ground, just not great for photos.

As we approached Parramatta and then started for Pennant Hills, I told my passenger we will reschedule this flight for another time due to visibility, which by now, was more like 5 kilometres, still legal in the VFR sense as I was clear of clouds, however it could easily deteriorate further. I started a descent and swung the aircraft towards Prospect to go back to Bankstown. I did however manage a small diversion to allow my passenger to take a photo of their apartment.

The visibility in the area of Prospect and looking South-East to Bankstown must have dropped to around 3 kilometres. The ATIS was still reporting the original weather.

After my inbound call, I was needing to reference the instruments a lot more to ensure I was on track for joining downwind on 29R. I also was utilising my colour GPS, which is a much quicker way of confirming instruments along with landmark identification.

As I joined the extended downwind, the tower informed of a new ATIS, which was now Special VFR with a visibility of 3 kilometres. I was mid-downwind when the call was completed and soon after, the landing was a greaser.

On other news, the plane has only 10 hours to run before the hundred hourly maintenance release expires and we all know what this means... Prepare for financial rape! Engine replacement, windshield replacement along with most of the aircraft panels.

My next flight will be on ANZAC day and I am sure this flight will be the last before it's massive maintenance.

Sydney Jaunt

Flight hours: 6 (3 via Human Mailing Tubes)
Study hours: 0
Aviation Reading: None

I finally managed to get some time in the air and not just my usual RPT flying, yes folks, I took my plane for a spin.

It ended up being a very late afternoon flight and very pleasant. I let Ajanta control the aircraft at times and she did quite well... that is if your discount the screeching of excitement at various times.

We flew over the harbour and Johnny Howard's Kirribilli residence a few times before heading back into an excellent sunset. I will post photos when AJ gets back from New Zealand.

AJ decided to extend her trip downunder up to her maximum 3 month visa limit (she has been continually extending her trip since it originally was only going to be for 3 or so weeks) and now she has decided to move to Australia. Until that time, her visa tourist day count needs resetting, so she flew over to New Zealand for a couple of weeks so that when back in Oz, the count will be zeroed off again.

The plane has around 45 hours left until its hundred hourly, which also coincides with the engine and windshield replacement along with some insurance work on the hail damaged areas. Time to buckle down on the money saving.

Hail!!

Flight hours: 3 (via Human Mailing Tubes)
Study hours: 0
Aviation Reading: Aviation Safety

So much has happened over the last few weeks, this thing called life is getting in the way of my aviation adventures. At least I'm still having an adventurous life. If only I can put the two closer together. Hmm. Possible, but not for a while.

I still haven't had the time to get a podcast episode out. This episode is actually an interview with an Airservices Australia Air Traffic Controller. We need to record a few sections again and after mixing, voila!

A few weeks ago, my aircraft was parked at Bathurst when a storm came through and dumped large hail stones everywhere. The aircraft did take some damage, luckily all cosmetic, although it does reduce the value of the plane.

It was decided through different discussions with insurance and my mechanic that when the engine gets replaced (The engine is reaching TBO), it would be a good opportunity to replace the main canopy (windshield) along with replacing or repairing the hail damaged panels.

Because of the large amounts of money needed for engine replacement and repairs, I have significantly reduced my flying time so that my wallet still has a little bit of weight to it after I get financially raped.

For maintaining currency I'm going up for a spin during this week, just a little jaunt around Sydney with someone I met in India. She is going back home to the US in a week, so best we get this done when the weather clears.

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.