Tell us about your last flight

[Old Koreelah]

Just came across this local flight:

[onetrack]

She doesn't look at all amused!

[Thruster88]

Beautiful weather this weekend for fast and slow flying, most crops around the area are patchy from to much rain, better than being to dry.

[NT5224]

Departure this morning from Robin Falls international.

 

After clearing the strip of roos, my Boy watches on as I do my run ups, but loses interest at the prospect of some 'stick time'  of his own 🤣

 

Takeoff  illustrating my standard 'Baghdad Corkscrew' departure circling  up to 1500ft before setting out  over Tiger Country.

 

Alan

[Mike Gearon]

Enjoyed watching the dog and the take off. Very cool. Landings please! That’s an interesting strip!

 

I’ll share my tail of woe from yesterday. At 350 hours and 35 IFR hours I was feeling confident. Actually thought about following IFR with commercial. Then yesterday happened.

 

We almost always take off 17. Easy read back… at or below 3500, maintain runway heading change to 124.0 taxi echo via alpha to 17. All the radio stuff that used to feel impossible now easy across 5 frequencies from atis to clearance to ground to lincoln tower to Omaha departure..

 

Instructor decided we’d do an intersection departure from 18. Completely threw me. On my own I’d have been heading up 17 after actually reading back the 18 instruction. I was remembering hold short 17 and was headed to do that. I’ve learned to leave the mistakes behind. We all make them. Biggest mistake I’d been making in the past was dwelling on them instead of getting ahead of the aircraft. 
 

Recovered then because the plans I’d made for cross country couldn’t be done my carefully prepared approach plates and homework were out the window. Thrown a second time.

 

OSH KOSH this coming week. My wife is bravely going to travel with me 4 days after a shoulder operation (boating accident South Dakota ongoing repairs) I haven’t told her the surgeon said she would be too uncomfortable to travel the 9 hours in car. My compromise is half today and stop in Dubuque Iowa. 
 

I’ll work out if IFR continues. I know 2 things. No more afternoon flights. I won’t do banking in the afternoon due to decreased performance. I’m not going to do IFR in the afternoon either. I also won’t fly with a young instructor again with the added bonus I won’t have good landings messed with. Assistance  to float back up from a great landing can be disappointing!

 

 I’m at the stage where I need seasoned instructors to help bring it home. IFR test at 86% and I sit the exam at 90% for a 70% pass. Doable! IFR checkride…. 90% not this year. Maybe back in Oz with Nic in between building aircraft. Mid August back to Oz and Nic and I build very cool aircraft. 
 

Images…. Orange was my screw up turn. Red was the intersection departure we actually made.

 

runway 18 just ahead has one of the presidents 6 aircraft. One of them is always 2 hours from POTUS and yes, you wonder why they’d bother with Trump or Biden.

 

other pic was a boat psssingnthrough swing bridge at Omaha. I gave up and just asked the instructor to fly us home. No point in accumulating IFR hours I didn’t need while really unhappy. OSH Kosh will fix this.

 

 

 

 

[RFguy]

Good story Mike. Failure during drills and practice  is good ! No better way  to highlight our  deficiencies ! 

 

I always have wondered if the high incidence of N-VFR accidents was because it is at people's poor end of the day with regard to concentration, fatigue, etc etc etc.

 

 

 

 

[onetrack]

That's a definite Yes - and it gets worse as you get older.

[facthunter]

Familiarity with one place means nothing at another. Clearances may change at short notice Over load will bring anyone down. If you feel overloaded slow down and pay extra attention to the IMPORTANT things. Clarify any uncertainties. If you change a frequency leave the last one there till the new one is established. You need a system in your head that works everywhere..

 Don't get "thing" about it. Debrief yourself honestly but without beating yourself up.

   Yes it's probably not natural for us to work nights  The worst time is about 3 am but prior rest and how long you have worked matters too and having other worries on your mind.  Single pilot IFR is a high workload at critical stages of a flight. Nev

[Flightrite]

Good story 👍

IFR flying is often easier from a procedural POV, providing you know your stuff and your ride. Plenty of Pilots from the bug smashers to heavy metal have stuffed up whilst taxying and even taking off in the wrong direction! An Arabian A320 took off the wrong way once! (YT vid on that stuff up!) 

we learn by our mistakes, just make sure they’re not permanent!

 

[facthunter]

An overseas Airline took off on the short runway at Tulla to the west. CM2 said "this runway looks short Captain". Skipper , replied "all strips look short  from this cockpit", Scraped the tail hard and cleaned up the lights at the far end. Not sure they kept their jobs. Nev

[Mike Gearon]

Just arrived Dubuque. 6 hours and I did wonder f I should have told that story. Glad I did and very thankful for support. Speaking of which…. Deb did really well. Good padding helped. Osh Kosh tomorrow 
 

 

[marshallarts]

55 minutes ago, RFguy said:

I always have wondered if the high incidence of N-VFR accidents was because it is at people's poor end of the day with regard to concentration, fatigue, etc etc etc.

Amen to that.  I will NEVER forget my first attempt at my NVFR test, even though it was nearly 30 years ago. I'd had an awful week at work and came home on the Friday night feeling stressed and short of sleep.  I thought about cancelling the test, but it was a beautiful summer day and after a cup of tea and a bite I felt a bit better, so decided to go.  Went out to Jandakot and cleaned the windows of my pride and joy, our old Beech Debonair.  Light winds, CAVOK - what could possibly go wrong?  Well, plenty.  Fronted up for the test as the sun was setting and did poorly on the oral questions - just hadn't done enough ground study.  The instructor almost cancelled it there and then, but thought he might as well have a look at me in the air.  I drew up the flight plan, which was as expected - navigate to Narrogin for some night circuits initially.  (Narrogin was picked in those days because it's not far to go, the strip is some way from the town and there were no other lights around).  Smooth takeoff, and first waypoint at Boddington came up under the nose.  I was feeling more positive.  Adjusted heading for Narrogin, and at the expected time switched on its lights with the radio.  There they were, right under the nose.  More positive!  But when we joined the circuit and headed down final approach, things started to unravel.  Down near the ground it was like riding a bucking horse, it was so rough.  There must have been huge thermal activity happening down there.  I wrestled the Deb onto the ground, and as we accelerated away for the next try, I snatched a glance at the windsock - it was standing out horizontal from the mast, at almost 90° to the runway!  Climb-out was terrible - my airspeed was all over the place, but I managed to get up to circuit height, where it was quite a bit smoother.  Second attempt, and all the same only worse.  On climb-out I was chasing the airspeed again, porpoising up and down, and was almost starting to feel disorientated.  I can still remember the instructor's voice in my headphones, almost shouting "Keep the wings level!!".  It felt like I was getting near the edge, so I asked the instructor to take control.  It was incredible, like oil on water - the airspeed stabilised and everything immediately felt normal and fully under control.  I knew it was all over at that point, so we just climbed to a few thousand feet and I took control back and navigated us back to Jandakot in gloomy silence.  Conditions at Jandakot were just as they were when we left - smooth and balmy light winds - so the landing was perfectly fine and easy.  Needless to say, I did a few more night hours with my regular instructor, then did the test again a few weeks later when I was in a much better place mentally - and passed.

 

That was one of the lowest points of my time flying.  It was especially shocking because the training for the NVFR had given me some of the best experiences I'd ever had.  But it taught me never to go flying (at any time of day) if not 100% mentally fit.  It might be over-dramatic, but I have wondered many times what might have happened if I had been solo that night.  Thank goodness I wasn't.

[facthunter]

People telling their real experiences can't be a bad thing. Depends where you do it. I wouldn't bother on Prune.  Nev

[Flightrite]

That’s also a good story other can learn from.  Your instructor is the one who puts a candidate up for test meaning you are ready, that’s not always the case.

[facthunter]

Springing it on  you is a hangover from the war years. I've never believed in that technique myself. In the modern era I can't see the rush  to go solo. If there's any real doubt it shouldn't be happening. Not fair to the pilot or the reputation of the system.  The number of hours to solo  (within limits) depends on a lot of variables and his little if any  tie in with future success. Nev

[kiwiaviator]

I have finally got my J230C flying in NZ. Ex 24-4927 is now ZK-JAB and she experienced the snow covered mountains on Sunday for the first time. A big change from the Pilbara. I reckon I can still hear an accent in the 3300 burble 🙂

[NT5224]

55 minutes ago, kiwiaviator said:

I have finally got my J230C flying in NZ. Ex 24-4927 is now ZK-JAB and she experienced the snow covered mountains on Sunday for the first time. A big change from the Pilbara. I reckon I can still hear an accent in the 3300 burble 🙂

Wow that's amazing landscape, with a good few tigers running around down there.

 

Glad your Jab six pot is still chugging reliably..!

 

Great Rego...

 

How did you get across the ditch? Freight or fly?

 

Alan

Edited July 26, 2022 by NT5224

[kiwiaviator]

12 minutes ago, NT5224 said:

Wow that's amazing landscape, with a good few tigers running around down there.

 

Glad your Jab six pot is still chugging reliably..!

 

Great Rego...

 

How did you get across the ditch? Freight or fly?

 

Alan

Hey Alan

Yes. Its still going well. Needs to with those tigers! Leakdowns 79+/80 all round. We were amazed that the rego was available as there are a few Jabs here. Containerised by Jabiru in Bundaberg then sea freighted. The paperwork to fly it out of Australia was the deciding factor in freight or fly.

[facthunter]

It has been done. Nev

[Flightrite]

Ive done some driving in NZ over those hills (as per my pic y)in heavy metal and the scenery is spectacular, but what’s more amazing is you did it in a Jab, me takes me hat off to ya😉

Edited July 26, 2022 by Flightrite

[facthunter]

Cold air helps all of them to  climb. Nev

[Garfly]

An excuse to have another look at this old favourite:

 

 

[NT5224]

1 hour ago, Garfly said:

An excuse to have another look at this old favourite:

 

 

Thats amazing!  Loved it.

 

Thanks for sharing. Where is it?

 

I'm full of admiration for  the knowledge and skills of you 'proper' pilots and the incredible things you do compared to a mere VFR monkey such as myself...

 

Alan 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 26, 2022 by NT5224

[Garfly]

41 minutes ago, NT5224 said:

Where is it?

That's Queenstown NZ, Alan.  This is a similar one:

 

 

[facthunter]

You need special training and currency to do that at that location. I've done it in a full motion sim and been there as well. When you see how close you are to the rocks it's a bit chilling. Nev