Tell us about your last flight

Thanks for posting that , I especially liked the good landings. Great video work.

I just buzz around the mountains east of San Diego with my buddies for one hour then we return home for some fuel and ice cream.   Flight of four, three F-18s and my RV-3. 

That other link didn't allow the whole series to play.

Paste this into your browser's address bar if you want to watch the rest of the trip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=videoseries

Hi Scott. . . I just finished watching your Gulf Safari and what a wonderful window onto a Starkly Beautiful Country it was. . . .  I flew the Gulf country in the 1970s, and landed at some of the places featured. . .  It used to scare the Poop out of me, wondering what would happen if the donkey in my C-180 decided to give up the ghost in the middle of nowhere !   I got lost a coupla times, but Darwin ( and other stations ) Flight Service ( and others ) on the HF got me out of the poop. . . .  No CTAF back then. . . Nor GPS, Nor Telstra. . .just  paper maps and Shortwave Radio. . . ( ! )

Made a comment about Tommy  Emmanuel's  Guitar playing on part of it too,. . it HAD to be him. . I recognised his style. . ( Lovely Bloke too ) .  The whole thing was  Most informative and educational.

 . . I Love your First Officer, She is very Switched on and I am sure you are proud of her input.

Phil.

Hi Phil:

I saw your comment on the Gilberton video. When I saw the signature, I guessed it was the same Phil Perry from the fora here. Thanks for watching and thanks for your feedback.

Yes it is Tommy in that and other videos. Both versions of Countrywide in that video are Tommy playing, one with an orchestral backing and one solo.

WRT flying over tiger country and what it means for the "donkey in front" LOL, it can be a little scary at times, but flying with a group helps with the nerves a lot. I'm not brave enough to attempt these sorts of trips on my own and I'm very grateful for the support of my fellow Puk Airlines members.

Another upside of group flying, is that every night is like a party while we're on tour. Our core group is very close; like a family. We get along very well and have a really great time.

The group photos of you all enjoying  the evenings was Excellent Scott. . .you being in a similar age group to me ( ! )  the enjoyment was Obvious Sir.   My flying club also engage in such activities, , ,although we here in the UK do not have such a wonderful country to explore, with controlled airspace everywhere !   Not only this, those beginners without the funds to buy a transponder are often left out of the group flyouts, which is a shame, but in the Buzzzzzy airspace in the UK, it really IS becoming a sensible requirement nowadays. . . A Basic transponder here in the UK, ( Mode S ) costs more than I paid for my first aircraft when I came back to the UK in 1983  !

Due to retirement, I have had to drop my Instructor. I'R, Twin and light Helicopter ratings as my pensions couldn't finance all the Revals. .. so what I do now is 'Blag' flights with those who are still working commercially as 'Experienced Ballast' which I find is loads of fun, but without the Cost responsibility, ie, I pay half the fuel bill / Landing fee,  and occasionally pay for a breakfast for the Victi,. . .er,. . Owner/ Pilot friend . . .

Add to this the odd 'Ferry' job ( cough cough ) and I still get m share of Flying. . . I hope that , in my advancing years ( 68 now ) that I may continue to fool the Avmed bloke as to my fitness to lift into the luft as Pee One.

Question,. . .may I post a link to your videos for my Internet friends in the UK Please ?

Kind regards,. .. 

Phil.

Question,. . .may I post a link to your videos for my Internet friends in the UK Please ?

 

Kind regards,. .. 

 

Phil.

Just got my editing computer serviced and this is a flight done not long ago and with an N3Pup that is hand started.

Late reply Scott, sorry about that. . . . 'Other Pressures and stuff' LOL

When I discovered 'Microlight Aircraft after returning to the UK in 1983,. ..  it wasn't long before I started a 'Long Range desert Group' of Lunatic fliers who went on safaris around the UK.  Now the UK is pretty Tiny, versus the Barren Badlands of OZ, but when you consider that our cruising speeds were of the 50-60 MPH variety, this made the scale a little greater in reality.

We were regarded as 'Outlaws' by every major and even medium airfield in the UK, which made our options for landing / refuelling etc, very SPARSE.    Very Few licensed Airfields would accept microlights, which were mainly, though not all Flexwing Trike types.. . .even though I insisted that they all carried VHF radio, which caused some astonishment at the odd field where we were actually ALLOWED to land and refuel,. . .usually because the controller on the radio did not know what our Aircraft types were when we requested permisison to land by radio. . . . . 

Airfields with fuel only served up AVGAS which we 'COULD' use, but it was horrendously expensive when compared to the Mogas we all operated with. . . ie, we all used 80/87 octane Pink Four Star Petrol. . . mixed with Two Stroke Oil . . . . .. Unleaded petrol (Also 100LL Avgas )not being around at the time. . . Avgas was great, but it seriously dented the wallets of those on a budget at around Double the cost. . .

We used to have to plan these Safaris well in advance, locating Farmers with flat bits of land for fuel  / camping stops but it worked out very well for a few years,. . .until the mainstream airfields gradually awoke to this new Fuel / Cafe revenue stream and I am glad to have taken a part of this evolution.

Several of the farmers who helped us set up proper strips and facilities for this burgeoning Flying pastime, ad benefitted greatly from diversifying their farms. . .

We now have 'Microlight' / SLA machines which are faster and less costly than G.A machines. . .and there are vanishingly few sites which refuse to accept low energy aircraft at all. . . You can now land your Sportstar or Jabiru at Brmingham, Manchester, or Gatwick International nowadays, IF you are transponder equipped, and can afford the landing and Handling fees ( ? )

Not surprisingly,. . .not many folks actually DO that. . . .

That brought back memories, Phil.

In 1979, I imported a Pterodactyl kit from the States, & built it in my shed. No microlight schools on the Isle of Wight in those days, so I taught myself to fly it from nearby farmers' fields (which were way too small). Eventually got to fly it ok, so went cross country. 

I took off an hour or so before dawn from my home paddock on the Island, as I wanted to try night flying. I flew to a mate's house on the Isle of Sheppey. Somewhere north of Brighton, I needed to refuel. I found a little village with a recreation ground on top of a little hill, and opposite it was a petrol station. I landed on the footy field, and unstrapped the fuel tank. Carried it over the road and filled it with mogas from the pump, plus my stash of 2-stroke oil.

By the time I got back to my plane, half the village had turned out. It was a very noisy direct drive system, and microlights were all but unknown in those days, so they'd all turned out to see this strange flying machine. One guy struggled to believe I'd come from the IOW that morning. I took off between the 2 sets of goal posts, & managed a double arm wave to the masses as I headed north east, into the increasingly murky weather of a front, as it happened.

Made it to the Isle of Sheppey, but after my arrival sad to say my 'Dactyl was in more than one piece. But that's another story. . .

Quite a few of my contemporaries landed by motorway fuel stations to refuel. And I once landed in a field by a pub just down the road from Popham Airfield to ask the way. Everything seemed so much simpler in those days: no licence needed; no inspection or build regs; and initially, the only instrument I carried was a Ventimeter for an ASI.

Aye, but it were fun!

Bruce 

Lovely story Bruce. . .

On the whole, I think that we developed a pretty good set of Regs and Guidelines to make our hobby a safe one, and it is interesting to see that many of these are being relaxed to some degree, with the 'Single Seat Deregulation' ( SSDR ) path which is now available for some of the earlier types, with little modification required, Although I'm not 'Overly' happy with the fact that NO Permit to Fly inspection is required following first acceptance of a type into this regime. . . .I HOPE that owners won't take this as carte blanche to operate deathtraps, or generally not maintain their machines to a safe standard.

If there are any serious incidents in this regard, I can foresee Airfields refusing Landing permission across the board for All  SSDR operators.   We will have to see how this all works out.

I wish there were more guidelines and less regs. I suppose when the swat team turn up and shoot you for not conforming to a safety reg, that's ok.

( different Bruce here, I'm from South Australia )

I wish there were more guidelines and less regs. I suppose when the swat team turn up and shoot you for not conforming to a safety reg, that's ok.

( different Bruce here, I'm from South Australia )

Most of what you are calling regulations are benchmarks for your defence; if you were complying you are not likely to be found negligent.

Ssssimple!

It's very very simple in Australia; if you are negligent and you hurt someone you will pay the costs involved.

Most of what you are calling regulations are benchmarks for your defence; if you were complying you are not likely to be found negligent.

 

Ssssimple!

SSSSSSSimple !

Only joking ! I pay thousands of dollars for insurance every year. My public liability insurance company will only pay if I'm not proven negligent, if I'm negligent they don't have to pay up. What's the point of insurance ?

Fitted in a nice flight to Koumala and back via Sarina.  The rain showers caught up with me about 5 miles from home.  Was not too heavy and just the last 5 miles saw the cloud low; was ok other wise had an alternate just behind me to land and wait the shower to pass.

Just a pleasant sunset flight down the Northern Oregon coast.  Landed at a seaside strip where the treeline provided a welcome block to the strong East crosswind, just in time for touchdown.  Narrow enough to keep me on my toes! Still stretching the envelope in my first tail-dragger..

From a November flight from WA to SA ......Nullabor and the "bight".

Bonnie Doone at mid day today. Flew YKTN to Mansfield and back, with a look at Lake Eildon.

Just a pleasant sunset flight down the Northern Oregon coast.  Landed at a seaside strip where the treeline provided a welcome block to the strong East crosswind, just in time for touchdown.  Narrow enough to keep me on my toes! Still stretching the envelope in my first tail-dragger..

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Bonnie Doone at mid day today...

"...Ah, the serenity!"

Weather was perfect for my traditional New Years morning 'Greet the Sun' flight.

This time over Somerset Dam, SE Qld.

Take-off at first light and climb to meet the sun at 5000ft.

Sure is a better way to start the new year than with an aching head under the pillow.....

Yesterday morning two of us had a good tailwind out to Lightning Ridge.

Rottnest Island, morning, first of January 2019.

Beaufort Inlet, west of Bremer Bay on WA's south coast. 

The water in the inlet looks higher than the ocean. 

Would make an interesting spectacle when it "lets go".

Thursday was a terrific flying day!  Victoria’s southern coastline, and the Phillip Island racetrack were at their usual splendour.