Tell us about your last flight

[facthunter]

Do they have night flying at Cowra?  Nev

[red750]

A winglet eclipse.

[Flightrite]

12 hours ago, Thruster88 said:

On the way home from Japan in an Qantas A330 last night. Waited till the moon set behind the winglet at 4am est. Phone did a good job to get the shot. Might have to fly the thruster tomorrow. 

 

Now your photo brings back memories👍Over the Tasman a few years ago, Eastbound.

Edited April 23 by Flightrite

[RFguy]

Today was goign to be a skill  build / challenge Short field TO practice in Xwind.

Cowra departure, 2pm flight. PA28, 20 gallons on board and me. OAT 24. windy up high.

Short field TO practice with pure X wind at Young. Young (YYNG) is known for its swirling challenging winds. 

It's something I need to work on, only done a couple in the past year.

Flaps 25 , get it up to full smoke and let the brakes go.

TO roll, into wind at Cowra, gusting to 10 kts on the nose . Woops ! she wants to fly at 35 to 40 knots (instead of the usual 65) . lifts off unexpectidly  with big roll wobble -    I  hold it in ground affect until it accelerates then off we go. lesson #1 refreshed.

It's thermal bumpy down low,  windy mountain bumpy up high. Not much fun.  NOT a 'never flown before ' passenger day/  .... I nav myself  the 31nm   down to Young on the VNC , go into circuit, bumpy, 10 kts pure crosswind on AWIS, not much for the PA28 but holding off the drift feels like about 15 kts on final. Ditch full flap (40).. I want to land a bit airspeed faster with a bit less drag so the decay is not as quick...., so   back to flaps 25 . I hold the approach nicely stabilized.  uneventful landing bit fast not all that pretty but OK...but needs work...would get about 5/10 from judges on the fence .....  backtrack for the departure. 

maybe some trim change for this TO. .... Normal 0 flaps TO, generally trim a fair way back. I usualy set the trim so   It will fly off when its ready, consistently and well behaved.  IE it just flys off, hands off around the TOSS (60-70 kts  weight dependent ) when its good and ready.

But this time, after being caught a bit unaware, trim the nose down a bit more. Short field TO...   a bit of left roll in  with the X wind.  bit gusty. But this time I am ready for a bit of excitment when its time to fly....... again it jumps off the ground before I am really on top of it,  woh boy  !

If I had not anticipated to unruley behaviour, then I could have  put a windtip on the ground ......careful with that roll you have in - needs to be moderated and be ready for the leap off the ground ...  and replaced with some rudder  to hold centreline on departure a bit earlier

Land back at Cowra, perfect greaser into 5 kts down the runway.

 

Takeaways  :The flaps 25 TO is more like a leap off the ground rather than a nice steady rotation and liftoff.  That probably reflects my incorrect pitch / trim  input during the TO roll . TO with pure crosswind with LOTS of lift dialed in , (with  lift off speed about 40% below usual)  in needs LOTS of attention. The roll (wing a bit down into the wind) needs to come out early and rudder in as soon as the aircraft is flying ....and held close to the ground in ground effect under we reach TOSS (65-70 kts) .

 

Edited April 24 by RFguy

[turboplanner]

9 minutes ago, RFguy said:

Today was goign to be a skill  build / challenge Short field TO practice in Xwind.

Cowra departure, 2pm flight. PA28

Which P28 model?

[RFguy]

Archer, 180hp, non-tapered constant chord wing.

[turboplanner]

37 minutes ago, RFguy said:

Archer, 180hp, non-tapered constant chord wing.

Piper Archer, 180 hp, non-tapered constant chord wing is a PA-28-180

(PA-28-181 - the 1 denotes taper)

 

The PA-28 family is a big one and they fly differently: https://www.pilotmall.com/blogs/news/piper-archer-the-reliable-family-flyer#:~:text=The family of aircraft which,and PA-28-160 Cherokee

 

[IHC150]

Been out enjoying this fantastic flying weather. 😃 Only downside around NE Vic and Southern Riverina is all the smoke from farmers burning off in their paddocks or fuel reduction burning in the bush. All necessary stuff but a bit of a pain some days when visibility is reduced. Anyhow, still getting some quality time in. Here's a video from last Friday when the young fulla and I flew up to Porepunkah for an fun day together. PS - yes he out fished me! 🥲 

https://youtu.be/gOzmMPj8OZc?si=SIyGDPpa3ZiaMcDW

 

[kiwiaviator]

Blue skies and light winds in central NZ during the weekend made for great flying conditions. I loaded the dog and camping gear into my J230 and we headed across Cook Strait to the largest island in the Marlborough Sounds. There is a 700m all weather strip there on public land. The Gopro footage shows 4 minutes of overflying the strip, joining right base, a curved approach over the lagoon and landing https://youtu.be/cqxe-e4-tjY?si=aPP9t_dKOQlucCI-

A FlightRadar screenshot also attached for those interested in the route (approx 1 hr from NZMS my home field)

 

[Flightrite]

Beautiful island/s NZ👍 Wellington however sure is a challenging drome on a windy day!

[planedriver]

8 hours ago, kiwiaviator said:

Blue skies and light winds in central NZ during the weekend made for great flying conditions. I loaded the dog and camping gear into my J230 and we headed across Cook Strait to the largest island in the Marlborough Sounds. There is a 700m all weather strip there on public land. The Gopro footage shows 4 minutes of overflying the strip, joining right base, a curved approach over the lagoon and landing https://youtu.be/cqxe-e4-tjY?si=aPP9t_dKOQlucCI-

A FlightRadar screenshot also attached for those interested in the route (approx 1 hr from NZMS my home field)

 

kei te hae ahau  (for Aussie's, i'm envious)

[facthunter]

The "shaky Islands Land of the wrong white crowd and tricky winds"  .Makes better pilots. Nev

[planedriver]

Whether wrong, or long, white clouds, they'd have to learn to adjust to their conditions which i'm sure would be a challenge to some. So you'd be spot on again Nev.

What you might think is a wheel wobble on landing may just be the Island shaking it's fist again, but it's always prudent to check.

Edited May 7 by planedriver

[RFguy]

Went flying yesterday, while only 10 kts on the ground from the east , much more once  in the air , needed 10 degrees to hold off the drift .....  Got to destination , a known bumpy AD to shoot a few Xwinds  ,AWIS said 11 kts and pure Xwind... this AD is in a shallow valley..... and I was so shaken up  on final on both passes due to very uncomfortable turbulence I found had no appetite for putting the plane down once over the threshold.  Did two.    So I went back home. and listened to another airplane go into the same AD and  go-around twice and then choose the opposite direction..... I guess they got down.

 

landing in same Xwind component  but at Cowra approaches are smooth if when windy and landing in same Xwind like it was a non event....perfect nice 10 deg flap flare and landing. was demonstration  grade !

 

This was a specific flavour of turbulence I have encountered rarely

There really are different flavours of turbulence, aren't there.... Some more uncomfortable than others.

 

Clearly, more work required more often.

and I was quite surprised to be so shaken up in the circuit that it severely affected my appetite for landing. It's not scary. the airplane is not going to break and the airplane is not goign to get tossed upsidedown. It's just very uncomfortable, creating adrelaline, anxietry etc etc ***Does a human body get better with this when it's of a certain flavour ???????   .  anxiety levels were still running after back landing at CWR.

Edited May 7 by RFguy

[facthunter]

It's adrenalin. Normal stress reaction. It wakes you up. Learn the causes of turbulence and be alert for it.. It CAN toss you upside down and do all manner of things..  Nev

[RFguy]

Hi Nev, thanks for the comments . I got tossed in the jabiru  90deg to the ground once,  that wasnt fun.  

Some people would say what do you put yourself through it ?

 

Well, I beleive all good pilots are compelled to confront their demons.  It's no fun though.

 

And Young  with its rising ground around the AD and hills is full of demons. If my adrelaline hadnt been so high, I would have had another go from the other direction, different hills affect the other end.  But I'd need ot be on my game when climbing out through the demons at the other end.

 

 

[facthunter]

There's recommended techniques for the most SAFE ways to maintain control and not stress the Plane in rough Air.. The way weather is changing in flight turbulence will become a bigger concern to Aviators. . Watch out for dust devils without the dust. .   Nev

[pmccarthy]

Fosterville gold mine, the richest in Australia. Passed over on the way up to Pyramid Hill today.

[BrendAn]

On 08/05/2024 at 12:59 PM, facthunter said:

There's recommended techniques for the most SAFE ways to maintain control and not stress the Plane in rough Air.. The way weather is changing in flight turbulence will become a bigger concern to Aviators. . Watch out for dust devils without the dust. .   Nev

so explain to me why, when i read aircrafts specs they recommend a higher maneuvering speed at max weight and a lower speed for lighter weight. i thought an airframe would get stressed more in turbulence if it was carrying more weight. 

[Garfly]

36 minutes ago, BrendAn said:

so explain to me why, when i read aircrafts specs they recommend a higher maneuvering speed at max weight and a lower speed for lighter weight. i thought an airframe would get stressed more in turbulence if it was carrying more weight. 

On that topic I found these useful:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3M4k6ChQL4

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeRU9leiS5k

 

Edited May 16 by Garfly

[BrendAn]

On 16/05/2024 at 9:43 PM, Garfly said:

On that topic I found these useful:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3M4k6ChQL4

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeRU9leiS5k

 

really good explanations. thank you.

[Blueadventures]

Nice flight from Palmyra (YPYA) down to the Central Queensland Gliding Club (YMMD) for the weekend. Winter is on the way as 6 degrees in mornings. Good clear skies. Davo put on great feeds for all.

Edited May 20 by Blueadventures

[ClintonB]

Does this count, wasn't at the controls, but was at the pointy end of an A380 for the best commercial flight I have ever been on.

We treated ourselves to business class for a holiday SWMBO won to the Maldives, second part was in A330 which was just as nice.

Coolest part though was the twin otter seaplane ride to the island, 40 mins of the best views at 3000ft. Wife didn't like the noise and smells but I was in aviation nirvana 😀

[ClintonB]

Couldn't load the video of take-off,

But some of the views.