Mike Gearon

Here’s yesterdays landing. Seems made exactly for topic. My newly purchased Virus SW 121. I fly a tail dragger version in the USA with 15m wingspan. This is tricycle with 10.6m wing span. You’d think this would be way easier and it is unless on my bush runway French Island. I’m glad my buddy Trev filmed this. In a strong southerly I had it mastered in the Nynja. Don’t fly over the tree line because of turbulence with a 15kn plus southerly like yesterday. Just come in a little faster…say 55kn instead of 50kn and make a final small turn at the 10ft wide smooth part of runway. Well, that doesn’t look so good when you see the longer Virus wing dipping in right turn. It was about 70kn so a healthy speed for that part. Not so good for the rest. Long wing didn’t want to drop speed and you can see the air brake fully deployed. It was fully out before literally coming over the fence. Today the northern end gets its fences taken out. I’ll reroute the driveway. I’m laying some nice dam mud in the rough spots to create a new 10ft wide runway some 50ft west for a straight in approach instead of having to turn at the last. I’ll drop 10kn out of approach speed and it’ll be beautiful. Hopefully! IMG_8116.MOV

Heck Field Gold Coast to French Island. I knew about Victorian Kilmore gap. The QLD Gold Coast gap to the left of the boobs heading west is a new one to me. Flew home with 2 fuel stops and 750nm over around 8-9 hours in total. Averaged around 115kn GS with various head winds TAS from 132kn down to 120kn TAS at 6500ft Learned during the trip home what a beautiful aircraft the Pipistrel Virus SW 121 is. Level flight barely needing a touch on the rudder or left alone altogether with ball between the lines. Garmin Autopilot really easy to use. Really nice. Easy first landing Moree. 2nd landing Temora not so easy with a small bounce and nose high. I’d left the flaps at the descent zero setting! (They go to negative 5 for 100kn and up. I flew over the Wangaratta area family farm then timed trip home. Turned out to be 50 minutes runway French Island to Moyhu farm runway. Much better than the 4-5 hours car/ferry/ car trip! Going over the range rather than Kilmore gap really comfortable with 15:1 glide safety factor and of course the red handle BRS last resort. Final landing on my own runway I again missed adding flaps. I’d set to zero on descent then moved concentration to air brake. 15:1 glide needs the air brake! Won’t happen again. Checklist and flow will sort as well as not being stuffed at the end of a long journey! Anyway, exciting landing on my home strip because it’s 1000ft of uphill then a crest then 1000ft downhill with a tree line 300ft before the start. (I’m moving runway to both extend a bit and remove the 20 tree line from being a factor. Flaring with zero flaps had the whole sight picture gone. I knew there was a fence to my right and a left cross wind. Otherwise there was just a dashboard and nose with the coast ahead and no useable sight picture anywhere near the aircraft due to the descending portion of the runway ahead of me. During the downhill portion and keeping more to left of the fence And windsock I couldn’t see it again became very comfortable and I stopped considering releasing air brake and go around. Slowed more and then Behringer brakes on those larger tyres (compared to my Nynja) had a very relaxed pull up with 500ft ahead.

Here’s a 5400rpm cruise pushing 110kn. Quite a cross wind component. Some 30kn. Other 2 clips are landing and take off with 15-20kn tail wind on another new French island runway. Runway is an uphill one way operation due to trees, the uphill and surrounding properties. FullSizeRender.MOV FullSizeRender.mov IMG_8035.MOV

Turbo, reading that makes me think everyone should start in gliders. It’s always engine out landings and if we came in under 60kn we’d get a going over from the CFI. Have to retain aircraft energy for sudden changes in the surrounding air. I think particularly so in Phoenix where I was flying with all that sun energy changing conditions throughout the day. I’ve pasted in below your comments re wind shear. Expect I’ll get mine one day and I need to add full power in sudden drop to muscle memory. I’ll look up the rec flier thread on wind shear. I’d rather learn it here than during the event. I expect you’re dropping in the parcel of air with the sight picture changing and a desire to pull up to retain the original horizon and you’d either hold steady elevator or nose down slightly same as a glider in descending air. CFI yelling you’ve killed us. I’ve been there. Permanently burned in image of us skimming the mangroves as we didn’t do the impossible turn and prepared a landing in the black mud. Invaluable! However, the biggest factor that makes engine out landing practice deadly is wind shear. If you've experienced it you'll know exactly what I'm about to say; if you haven't, you'll have many different thoughts on your mind right now including what exactly wind shear is (we have a thread on this from about ten years ago covering the span of these thoughts. Over many years I've experienced two, both times with instructors on board, both on late final. In the first one, I adjusted throttle when I noticed the initial sink, and the Instructor slammed on full throttle as we started to drop like a rock. Left alone, even after years of flying, I would have killed us, but through his action we overcame the shear and cleared the ground. On the second one I slammed on full throttle as I felt the drop.....and beat the Instructor, the top gun who was yelling "we're gonna die" in the forced landing I mentioned before. Nothing like past experience. If you give away this redundancy by practicing engine-out landings, you'd most likely be dead in either of those cases.

That’s surely a failure at the training level. I did King school in USA. John and Martha King teach you to fly in a 172 in little video clips and teach you to pass your written with online exams. (I guess it’s Bob Tait here) Your CFI does the actual flying with you of course. It’s burned into my memory when John King says during a landing bounce “add a little bit of power, you can do a nice landing that way” then he does. Also, that pull back with application of power is crazy. I can’t remember any specific moment I learned this. Probably in soft field take offs early in training when I’d lifted us too early. I have that burned in as well. I can picture it on grass field Wahoo Nebraska. CFI pushed the nose down hard and it didn’t feel scary. It felt safe. I’m always adding power near the ground with thoughts of roll it on, don’t slam it on, right rudder as needed, wings level and keep the nose down. Yeah, I think it’s a training failure. The Lindbergh reference. Awesome. I was a little slow understanding dashboard to horizon/ shore reference in float planes. I was told often enough! Just slow to take it on. I don’t think the instructors tired of telling everyone the Guy from down under does everything backwards.

Hey Brian…..Very cool. I started into one of the YouTube videos on iPad. I’ll watch on the 80” later today to do it justice. Well produced! It’s making me want to keep the Quicksilver I have in Lincoln, Nebraska. KLNK. I’ve just stuck it up on Barnstormers at a bargain price. I’d actually thought about exactly what you’ve done. Take off from the ramp or taxiway. Lincoln Clearance, Lincoln Ground then ground and tower is often the same controller. Just ask if I can go! I will be back there June. Maybe we can catch up! Especially if I keep the QS. Reality is at Lincoln I’d have to get permission to fly it out of there just the once then would need to keep at non towered airport. We will see. I have

Well, you’re not too far from Hays, Kansas so the RANS makes even more sense.

This one. I really like the Nynja. I’ve just missed the refinement of the Pipistrel I have in USA. A Sinus tail dragger. It’s RAA registered. Belonged to the importer and only has 70 hours. I’d wanted a tail dragger and was talked into this with regard to long cross country flights and landing fatigued as I get older. It’s also a good 100k cheaper than brand new. Into the 300’s new. 130kn cruise and 135kn cruise if I lose the tow hook. Probably leave that in place for resale. These are good for 145kn cruise in tail wheel and configured right. Quite a remarkable aircraft. Add on this one a 17:1 glide , factory built, BRS, full avionics with autopilot and its quite an aircraft! I really like the panel. 2 top Center steam gauges. How high up and how fast am I?

Now selling the Nynja I’ve seen and flown. 59k. It’s advertised on plane sales and aviation trader. I have a Virus SW 121 to pickup in QLD in a few weeks. Open to offers so if you know anyone wants a quality build Nynja please have them contact me. Pics yesterday on cross country trip.

Cross country yesterday to Lake Glenmaggie. Return landing. Both of them…60kn and 50kn would have seen it stay on the ground. The dust/ dirt you see is in fact what we’ve discussed. A smear of dirt a few weeks back that’s filled in the cow hoof prints. Laid down and smudged in (railway line smudge dragged behind tractor) and most importantly done when we’d had rain so it was moist and had a chance to stay down and not blow away. Note…I’m saying Easterly in video. It’s SSE. Still, I’ve found a bit of speed over the teatree is more stable. IMG_7870.MOV

Re organic… yeah. Particularly relevant on a commercial project and the gradual decay of matter. Not going to happen! Removed for sure. This is a little more low key and if the runway in 3 to 6 months has dropped 10mm through decay it doesn’t matter. Relating to firmness It’ll just gradually become more firm with time regardless. I absolutely agree re cutting off the bump tops and a bit of filling. My east west should have had this treatment as temp solution. Learning….

Onetrack and Turbo have huge experience. I’d suggest we extract this into a separate thread. How to construct an outback dirt/ gravel and/ or grass airstrip or combine into a thread I’ve not found. I’ve been amazed reading this. I’m going to show to my new best mate pilot buddy on French Island. I respect his privacy so we will leave it at that until I chat about this huge depth of knowledge. It’s the type of thing we’ve spent months discussing and here’s major input! Way beyond what my experience by an order of magnitude. Note on organic matter. This is one of the big deals. A few points. 1. Roundup. Spray it and wait 4-6 weeks. I’d expect a tractor or motor grader to come in and deal with it without the clumping. I’d achieved this last summer with the natural summer die back and early disc prep getting the soil into a nice state that wasn’t too powdery that it would just blow away or be unworkable like talcum powder. Seen that! Just couldn’t get the motor grader in due to his workload March when it was perfectly worked and ready. Try again 2022! 2. Just disc and/ or power cultivator early prep partial working January then when soil damp (March, April) get it prepped and graded and seeded before winter. 2a. Runoff. Flat land definitely gentle camber and shallow drains each side that won’t upset a wayward aircraft..Examples… nose wheel that is put down still holding a crosswind correction and depart the runway (done that in Foxbat) or Tail wheel that’s mishandled (done that too) sloping land. Finally a benefit to slopes! Water is naturally shedding. Runway can have no camber. This is my case minus 2 dips that hold winter water. I’m planning on raising these 2 points at either runway end some 500mm with 300mm pipes x 18m wide. Hazard created to sides of runway at pipe ends offset by them being near each runway end. To judge by An airport I know fairly well the accidents tend to end up mid runway after they’ve porpoised or diverged or whatever wayward plan they undertaken. On both my property and my friends we have a large variation in material. Sandy soil down to say 150mm then clay. I also have basalt rock from cobblestone size to boulder, proper white sand for concrete mixing, black sandy soil and a gravel pit. Could in fact run a garden Center from my property. I’ll put pics here of the various materials. Also relates to what’s possible as Onetrack mentions. I’d never thought of stirring up the clay then mixing back in with the sandy soil. That’s big! During construction of my 1.6km driveway some 10 years ago we did this. Laid down the natural French island gravel/ clay mix with shallow drains each side and it was admittedly a little greasy. We then added 15 truck loads of white sand. Graded it in and had a very serviceable driveway ever since. To defend the Behrends grader blade it has an idle wheel stuck out the back some 1.2m. You then go forward some 2m to the rear wheels. It’s capable of 100kmh driveable surface. However that 3m or so never allows you to get rid of the gentle dips and up slopes. Motor grader is probably triple this and then add laser level and yeah. It can be done. Dips and rises…. They’ve put me back in the air a number of times when accidentally hit just right and I’m learning to ease the stick forward while still protecting the nose wheel and dealing with cross winds. That’s the reason for the bare paddock landing the other day as well as my mid strip upslope and downslope creating another layer of interesting factors. Cross wind turbulence from the teatree and bush block coming in from the north. It’s been a huge learning experience last month or so. Makes me think I’m a better pilot until of course the next stuffed up landing on paved flat runway on a still day then we get an ego check. That of course is what’s so nice about a Tail wheel landing. Just gently plant it down. (Within reason) I’m very grateful to you guys. Please visit when you get the chance. Bring a change of clothes for a stopover. I keep a plastic bag with overnight change, tooth brush and phone/ iPad charger in my aircraft now after being caught out with weather or new plans a few times. We have alternate of Tyabb or Tooradin as required and can get you over to island via aircraft, car barge or ferry. Everything but trains. pics. Southrunway dip holds water and I’m hoping to both take away the south rise and fill the south dip with a pipe to carry water west. Same north end. boulders from property. south dam we extract gravel from and increase water reserve. Win and win. Fire pit floor has natural basalt from the property. Off property are the Castlemaine slate and dromana granite. sandpit. Virtually unlimited supply.

Bloody hell. I’ve been farming and grading since 15 years old. This is a whole new level of experience. I’m really grateful for your taking the time on all this. Those east winds had me trying to grade it in and what you explain was what I’d hoped for. I have a Behrends heavy duty grader. It’s a big heavy bastard and it can dig in. It’s just the clumps on next run and yeah.. full angle and try to get them cleared. I fly for business and family reasons. Family health problems this last time. I can take the ferry or barge. It’s about 3 times quicker to fly and when I’m having family member health problem stress I fly better and arrive more relaxed. IMSAFE is of course relative to your own reactions to stress. Business stress large issue stuff runs me the other way. I don’t fly. Seeing as you’ve gone to all that effort I’ve just taken pics. You can see the intention. Grade outward left and right from a Center. If it’d worked I’d have gradually sent it left and right with a say 10m Center and flown in on it until say March or rain and bring the piled and now more manageable material back. You can see the big pumps where it just piled under the grader and wouldn’t clear (on full tilt) particularly down coast side where the dandy soil grows bracken fern with all that tap root. Hangar is next. I just today decided to put in a 17m wide hangar clear span with 12m depth and middle split raising door. That’ll take the Virus with 11m wing span I pick up,from Michael Coates in QLd soon. Maybe next week or so. It will also take the Pipistrel Sinus in USA when I bring to Australia. Getting engineering spec done now for that 17m span. Pipistrel motor glider here with tundra tyres. It’s flex model goes from 15m 27:1 motor glider down to 12m span with winglets changed out. Still 23:1 glide and 115kn cruise

I have one. Why didn’t I think of that…Even better we have another pilot on the island putting in a runway. I’ve provided my discs to him and he has a good italian mulching mower. You have a good point. I could have borrowed this and not had a bloody great furrow in the way of landing. It’d just knock the tops down amd even fill in a few lows. March/ April depending on season it’ll be cultivated north south and east west then my mate with the grader promises to make it beautiful. I now know I can land in the unprepared paddock. Only did that with slight desperation today and I’d phoned Tyabb to confirm alternate of their east west grass was available if I’d needed it.

Strong easterly had me trying the unprepared paddock. Surprisingly easy. The dirt furrow was an ill advised attempt to peel back the grass and form a temporary summer runway. Grass just clumps under the grader blade and eventually stops tractor. I knew this… wishful thinking I’d get it to work. Will disc and grade at some point. Loads of aircraft fly over. Will have to set an event at some stage FullSizeRender.mov

Yeah, I’ve already had a few. Pretending to be financial institutions warning of fraudulent emails 🙂

I put my Skyranger Nynja up for sale on sportsaircraft and plane sales check this response. I don’t get why they’d benefit from this. I just sent a reply saying a sale via PayPal is never going to happen and they can phone me or give me a phone number. It’s Nigerian I think. Maybe Russian, Chinese or North Korean. What it isn’t is an aircraft buyer. Hi Michael, I am sorry for the late reply due to work. I am still interested in the purchase of your aircraft and I am ok with the price/condition. I am a miner and presently on site. I want to buy it for my holiday as I will be coming home soon. I won't be able to come for the inspection due to the nature of my job but on the other hand, I would like to get something clear, which is" the aircraft belongs to you and I believe I can trust your judgment on this sale. All I want is something perfect for my holiday. I will be paying via PayPal account, kindly get back to me with your PayPal email and account name for quick payment. Furthermore, transportation agents will be arranged for the pickup of the aircraft after payment. I expect your reply soon. Thank you, John

I notice bare feet on the rudders 🙂 Much better than my thick sole runners! Beautiful countryside you fly over.

One of my local airports had a stuck mike or intercom thing going on recently. I could hear both sides for a full 5 minutes. It was almost all a foreign language with English from instructor for radio calls followed by the student repeating. I chose to make my radio calls as if they could be heard and took off. I guess I could have changed to 126.7 ? Next time…. I was proceeding across the bay then decided with low cloud to follow the coast to narrowest crossing point with glide in mind. I then heard foreign language with “right turn” interspersed. I expect the lesson was the other pilot wasn’t far enough from the airport to change direction. That is also an interesting one. If I’d maintained circuit (already well outside the actual circuit) then turned left back over the airport cloud cover was a little too low. I’d also have been doing so with other aircraft almost certainly not in communication…If I’d just proceeded across bay I wasn’t happy with height. I guess this is all why you never stop learning. I add a little something each flight.

Windsock. It’s pretty much a 02 20 runway and fairly good chance it’ll be a 10 to 15kn S to SW. I’m usually in the workshop/ hangar and happy to see pilots visit. I’m currently tiling the 120 sq m hangar floor. It’s my punishment for making 5mpa French island concrete. Okay until you decide to put in a hangar and want to paint the floor…too soft.... only solution is tiles 600x600 ceramic gray tiles.. You’ll want to be sorted as I’ve mentioned by the workshop. There is a 10ft wide area that’s smooth with undulations that timed right will pop you back in the air “surprise!” And you’ll patiently wait to as your aircraft lands a second time or go around. Indemnity… by reading this you accept it’s entirely your responsibility to ensure your safe arrival and departure and my runway could for instance have a big bull hole in it that causes all sorts of difficulties. (Bulls make these to impress the girls) I’ve discovered yesterday after many landings the teatree hides the early site picture on 20. I came in at 55kn and down the teatree line then gentle right turn line up with a total of about 150m from fence line to aircraft gently pulled up in a few more meters. It’s the bloody teatree and my neighbour wouldn’t take kindly to a chainsaw event. There is of course another 250m to 300m of downhill after the workshop. I’m just pushing my skill set for bush field landings. Windsock, finally got that 15kn windsock up yesterday and compared it to Actual. Pretty good. 10-12kn gusting to 15-18kn readable on the windsock. Only reason I was comfortable yesterday slightly pushing the limits on approach. Aircraft pic. Surprised how much baggage one can fit in a Nynja for the Christmas gift run to mainland. Very well seat belt strapped in and bungeed. Minimal weight in baggage area. Still…. Next year my wife can take more on the boat and I’ll fly with less!

Husky popped in today from Tyabb.

Exactly as you mention… a quick glance at the compass… always. I’ve learned this through experience unfortunately.

Yeah, the RV6 will make short work of the 300 or so NM. The blackshape landed with that tiny nose wheel and handled the cow hoof impressions okay. I’ve since filled them in and rolled. My larger wheels were doing okay and I look forward to next smoother departure and landing. Notes for landing… You’re welcome to visit anytime. PM or phone 0488585980. Fly in. Yes, I’m thinking local guys first from Tooradin and Tyabb then we expand. 1. Don’t fly over the houses to east and west (please) 2. Left pattern for both 02 and 20. I tend to let Tyabb know on 128.00 and Tooradin on 124.2 when I’m arriving or departing just in case. Both have flight schools conducting air work over French Island and it’s an overfly for Gippsland traffic likely to monitor these 2 frequencies on the way through. 3. Suggest using the workshop/ hangar as abort point for take offs and landings subject of course to all the flying variables. I’m in the air quickly so tend to just come out of the hangar, turn left and take off. 4. Wind sock. I have a nice 15kn orange windsock. Just have to frame it and mount midfield. Soon… 5. 20 most likely due to prevailing south westerlies. I tend to do a straight in coming from Tooradin. 02 is in a lot of ways easier. No obstructions comin in off the bay. 02 is I’m thinking preferable into a light tail wind with no obstruction on approach from the bay and some 300m uphill then 250m downhill to sort it completely out of power on for a go round. It is unfortunately undulating. Uphill and downhill with undulations. Makes it interesting 🤔 I only just found out the grader driver blacklisted me and never intended to grade it back when I had it finely tilled and ready in March. I’d practically beg on the phone and had no idea I’d been “disrespectful” Hazards of a monopoly on a small island. I can bring in a family owned land grader with GEARON written on the side. It’d be tempting except for the cost of float and barge then tempting again when I drove past the other grader. I’ll try begging again first. Happy to debase myself to save some money and I actually like the guy! The island is fun with a mixed community and loads of bnb options, a winery, a wedding reception place that’s really well done (Mandalay Park) and a quirky general store, Will be happy to share it with fellow pilots. We have a new one on the island as if a few months back and new runway in the works. He hasn’t annoyed the grader driver so we can expect a smoother runway 😊

Yeah, ferry runs to a schedule. Google French island ferry. Some video here of recent landings. The Black Shape you see here is for sale. http://plaaviation.com.au/ It is very cool. Retractable gear, 140kn cruise and a cool sounding exhaust. Same 912 I have and just way better exhaust note! Videos…. My typical landing. (Narrative was for Facebook not for pilot viewing! ) I was surprised to find the cattle pretty much ignore the aircraft including not getting out of the way unless I’m taxiing directly at them. I’ve trained them to be calm and quiet. Nobody herds them. They are called to change paddock and never chased. They are very quietly handled in the yards. So, it’ll be farm by farm and my cattle aren’t “typical” Videos… The Blackshape came in and took off with that small front wheel and did surprisingly well. I’ve since filled in all the little cow hoof holes that shake the aircraft. No grader coming in this year so while the runway is much smoother it’s a challenge to deal with the up and downhill and the gentle rises and falls on both uphill and downhill. . I’m learning… newest was to remember to stop holding the nose wheel off if carrying speed at the turn to downhill. The aircraft will want to fly again if carrying any speed. So, stop holding nose off at apex then gently back on the stick as the downhill run settles and slows. IMG_7681.MOV IMG_7678.MOV IMG_7660.MOV

Good information. Really good! Thanks.