mnewbery
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Posts posted by mnewbery
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One wonders what the conversation directly before the flight sounded like.
On a slightly unrelated note, I am finding the wind in Toowoomba difficult to come to terms with. Some days it's gusty or just windy and on very few days its dead still. The wind seems to roar during the night.
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Can't wait to see the simulator for _that_ one...
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I contend that airbus pilots are nothing more than voting members, the other three being the computers.
Same argument would apply for F-22 pilots
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Tom Tom sells an app. My wife refused to use it and instead bought a Navman. Horses for courses. In car navigators are optimised for that job only. Riding a motorcycle, I tend to scribble some notes down and tape them to the inside of my screen or stop and pull out the iPad. Is this possible on an Apple iPhone or iPad ? -
Ten news reports a/c missing with 6 POB between Monto and Caboolture.the registration mark shown on the TV was VH-UXG.
This is a De Haviland DH-84 dragon registered to Des Porter.
The alarm was raised shortly befor 3pm this date.
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I'm sure there will be plenty more photo opportunities like this coming up. Darling Downs is throwing some great vistas this time of year. Because its ssoooooo flat you can see the weather (good or bad) coming from miles away.
Photo notes
Trevor Bange and Phil on the left upgrading some wiring in the background.
Drifter 24-0787 undergoing main landing gear refurbishment. The airframe is suspended by a hoist, the wheels are lying on the ground under it. "Retractable Drifter" anyone? :D
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The continuing BS saga of the Williamsdale airfield
Smells like children overboard...Documents obtained under Freedom of Information show that the officers who provided the advice to Mr Barr apparently did not actually read the studies on which they provided advice.Full post:
TAA friends, its this sort of behaviour on behalf of elected officials of all cloths and rank that really really motivated me to get out of the public circus. Trouble is, in this case, the government may or may not survive the next ACT election (October 20th) but the people responsible for this FARCE will remain right where they are.
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More stuff
http://www.1fieldsappers.org/page/Luscombe
Far as I can tell this airfield was near the village of Long Tan and somewhat near the modern day location of the City of Dat Do. About 35 kms North East of Vung Tao Airport.
Courtesy of Australian War Memorial and others
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More after the link...Luscombe Field was probably taken for granted by most new arrivals to the Task Force area at Nui Dat. An airfield is to be expected in a well developed task force base. Probably the only comments which were aroused were those which questioned the peculiarities of the airfield or those which wondered where it got its name.Luscombe Field was a monument to much more than Captain Luscombe. It represented many aspects of the part played by the Australian Force in Vietnam. It contributed to the connecting link between the Task Force and its supporting units and commanding HQ. It was the 'front door' of 1 ATF through which thousands of men passed, going to and coming from the war.
http://www.161recceflt.org.au/Airfield/luscombe_airfield.htm
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CRAA petitioned the ACT Chamber of Commerce and the ACT Government about using the proposed Williamsdale GA airfield site for just such a purpose - e.g. take NatFly from Temora. Other justifications were used, this was only one of them. The national folk festival and Summernats are both held in Canberra so its not like they don't understand the concept of getting a heap of people in one place and having them camp onsite or use accomodation in town.I'd say Temora is the better site for it. (unless we can find something similar closer to a major population centre)The ACT Chamber of Commerce (CoC) didn't even acknowledge the correspondence about said efforts and feasibility. The ACT Government got caught doing a bit of a boo-boo about the feasibility of such an activity (a GA airfield in Canberra) which I won't go into here. David Edmunds at CRAA has more details about that.
Hooray for both Temora and Narromine shire councils and everyone involved. They get it. The volunteers and proprietors manning the food vans made a bit of coin, local businesses stayed open for a bit longer and people went away happy with what they spent their time and money on. The punters said they would be back next year and will tell their friends.
Conversely, retail shops are empty in Canberra and have been for a while. You'd think that between the CoC and th guv'ment they would be leaping at another event the same size as SummerNats ... and you'd be wrong.
It is left as an exercise for readers to determine why.
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Mmm, alcohol that great social lubricant. This one came up over drinks at Narromine.
The story goes that Dwight Eisenhower mandated that one mile in five of federal highway shall be straight so that planes can land. Lets see what the interwebs has to say about it:
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/publicroads/00mayjun/onemileinfive.cfm
From that article (an excellent read):
Right, so no landing on the highways, only next to them, maybe, if the strips were ever built, which they weren't. The americans now refer to these pieces of real estate as "strip malls". Now the land has no value whatsoever to the aviator, the state or the propietors (*joke*).(...) Under a provision of the Defense Highway Act of 1941, the Army Air Force and the Public Roads Administration (PRA), now the Federal Highway Administration, operated a flight strip program. In a 1943 presentation to the American Association of State Highway Officials, Commissioner of Public Roads Thomas H. MacDonald explained how it worked."A flight strip consists of one runway, laid down in the direction of the prevailing wind, and a shelter with telephone for the custodians at the site and for itinerant flyers in an emergency. Fuel storage facilities are not provided unless airplanes are based there permanently. Instead, oil companies will keep stocks of aviation gasoline at gas stations along the highway and truck it to the flight strip as it is needed."The flight strips were designed for easy access to public highways and to provide unmistakable landmarks that could be followed easily by a pilot. Flight strips varied in size. The smallest — 150 feet (46 meters) wide and 4,000 feet (1,220 meters) long with the length increased by 500 feet (152 meters) for each 1,000 feet (305 meters) of elevation — were designed for tactical aircraft such as medium bombers. A larger flight strip could accommodate heavy bombers such as the B-17 and B-24, while still larger strips were designed for heavier classes of aircraft.
The benefits weren't expected to be entirely military. As MacDonald explained, "The close coordination of our highways and airways is becoming a vital necessity to assist the economic growth of this country."
In that spirit, Congress considered including a flight strip program in the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944 — the law that authorized designation of a "National System of Interstate Highways." However, the 1944 act did not include the flight strip program.
Between PCDU and TAA, we figured it was possible to put traffic lights on a straight bit of highway near your town (any town, pick Sydney for example), clear out the obstacles like overpasses, street lights and greens voters then have the traffic lights pilot activated using the pre-existing PAL system. In the case of Sydney, since the traffic doesn't move anyway, being stuck at a red traffic light for 15 minutes waiting for the 9am REX flight from Tamworth or wherever to fly over your head at boufant height should be a pleasure.
This in comparison to staring at a sticker on the back of a sooty 20 year old HiLux Surf which reads "Horn not working, watch for finger" for the same amount of time.
So the next time you hear some dim witted counsellor drooling over the prospect of turning your favourite airfield into a nursing home/drag strip/gated community/theme park/strip mall, remind him that one day the RFDS or fire brigade is going to need to land in his/her town BADLY and the only place they can find might be the last two miles of straight highway on the edge of town.
If they don't have at least that, tell them to leave the airfield right where it is!
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Hello all TAA friends,
On a whim I decided to visit Narromine on my way north to a new gig. I didn't really have a plan, blanket, somewhere to sleep or anything really. Between 4pm and dark I managed to:
- See and hear great aerobatics (mmm radial engines)
- Heckle the airshow announcers
- Eat a pizza
- Take pity on Bas because he got cornered by someone who wanted to bend his ear in the RA Aus Pavillion thingy
- Find Kaye and Geoffrey
- Buy a sleeping bag
- Get given a pillow (still didn't use it); and
- Get given somewhere to sleep that had a heater in it
After dark we ate then tallked rubbish with the airshow announcers (Steve Visscher and Grant McHerron plus a bunch of fellow travellers who supported them and their work), managed to steal some wine glasses from the bar and go to bed before it got too cold ... or maybe just after. I was more rugged up than most.
So Kaye and Geoffrey saved the day yet again. Now some photies:
1. Real frost on the motorcycle seat. No denying it was cold that night and the night before
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2. Ballonatics making roaring noises at 7am in a vain attempt to get team PCDU and TAA members out of bed. McHerron was already beetling over to the sound desk for some early morning cramming on the acts he was about to announce. Didn't stop him from mentioning that he towed one of the balloons from Sydney and why wasn't he on it instead of finishing his homework? Aww pretty. Who doesn't like balloon flights in the morning? The balloons hit about 1000' AGL and zoomed off over the horizon. Dead calm on the ground still.
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3. Warbirds up against the fence on the flight line on Saturday morning. 'Nuff said
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4. Motorcycle helmet after riding the last 78 kms from Milmerran to Toowoomba just on dark
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Well that's it. I'm stinky and tired. The bike looks just like the helmet too.
Next year, Narromine is going to be bigger again I think although this looked pretty good.
I am planning to go next year already. Just not by bike.
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- See and hear great aerobatics (mmm radial engines)
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And buy a 3rd gen iPad FFS
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3rd gen iPad
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If you are doing iPad or iPhone, I think trialling everything you can lay your hands on would be a good start.
I spent a good chunk of yesterday and today planning with and flying with OzRunways. Happy.
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I checked, nothing appears to be publicly available. Given that you could be in the right seat of a narrow body jet for as long as it takes for your captain to retire, I'd say two years of operational flying all over south east Asia, Australia and the middle east is a fair trade.
285SQ has the simulators, 37SQ does the tactical flying including co-operation with other forces.
PM me if you have specific questions. I'm not the guy but I may know who to ask.
PS We had an A330MRTT do a touch and go here in Canberra today. From Amberley! Callsign Dragon03
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Yes it's a rubbish format but it'd early days and CASA has admitted that. Complain to CASA maybe? Although I'd want to be willing to provide examples of formats that I _do_ like while I'm at it. No trees were harmed etc etc so that is a good thing for CASA, us and the elected green officials who hate aviators. Correct me if I'm wrong. In time I'm sure the format will be sorted out, because CASA employees like to keep their jobs too
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http://www.casa.gov.au/scripts/nc.dll?WCMS:STANDARD::pc=PC_91346
If you want to take it to the 'reading room', maybe just print it first ;-)
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Carbon based error? As in the jab was functioning correctly prior to colliding with a cable?
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Using the magic of Excel, I can tell you that for paying passengers, the same-same point for profitability is between 300 and 350NM for these types. The maths is icky, PM me if you want a copy of the spreadsheet I used. The GA10 is more profitable for the shorter missions such as skydiving. Note I was being generous by awarding the PT6A-34 a sfc of 0.5 lbs/hp/hr. Unit on the left is litres burned per kilogram payload at MTOW.
For the brown box brigade, we have this:
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GA10 Rolls Royce model 250 B17 ~400SHP continuous, SFC 0.7lbs/shp/hr
Kodiak P&W PT6A-34 ~750 SHP continuous, SFC around 0.6lbs/shp/hr (maybe 0.5 if you are careful)
Of course the Kodiak will climb like 'the proverbial' and out perform the GA10 on a hot day. You are gonna pay for it at the pump. If the operator is getting paid per seat rather than per kilo and not using the Range/TODR/Climb rate performance, the GA10 wins to the tune of 70-80 L/hr. To FL140, the Kodiac will take 10+ minutes and the GA10 will take
14 minutes. (33 litres vs 26 litres at MTOW) So the jump pilot will burn an extra 7 litres per load in the Kodiak.
Trumped? Really?
Yet Another Fatal Crash
in Aviation Enthusiasts
Posted
One ABC local news reporter Tom Forbes interviewed someone next to a sign that had NRAC on it. The interviewee indicated the crashed aircraft had already completed two circuits after a normal inbound call.
ABC website article:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-11-09/plane-crash/4362834