Mutley Eugenius

Here's another one. A preflight safety briefing that's more fun than the usual... I will rotate at 60 today. If the engine cuts out on the way, If I still have some tarmac I'll just pull the power back and brake once I'm on the runway. If I'm airborne when my engine goes, I'll kill power and bring down the nose. If the fence is still far, We'll come down where we are and with flaps I'll touch down where I chose. If it dies while my glide-range won't yield, and I can't make it back to the field, find a park with no trees within thirty degrees kill all power, and fuel should be sealed.

Aye, Paddy! Hic.

Glad you're enjoying it - I am too. I crack myself up sometimes. I may have some more soon.

No haiku, I can't speak japanese. But here's a fun fable for pilots who should master radio technique. Not that this has ever happened, of course! A new pilot came to Moorabbin, and found ATC constantly gabbin'. He turned off his COM, squawked 'My radio's gone', and landed with peace in his cabin. But the possible chance of collision was increased by his silly decision. Other planes in the circuit now had to rework it. He'd messed up their pattern division. And once he got down on the field, and his radio was suddenly healed, the CASA man said "ATC was misled!" Now his license is being repealed. So beware of the havoc you're wreaking if you fly in Class D without speaking. Learn the radio procedure your instructor will feed ya, and get on the mic without freaking! Thank god for the Irish! Mutley Eugenius

Yeah, but they can do it a lot faster than I can, and as we know, clean configuration commercial craft can create considerable conical currents. My old CFI flew behind a 747 a little too soon in s 172, and the twist was so violent that it cracked the windshield from the right wingroot all the way across to the nose. I'm not scared of it, I just think I'll wait till its time comes and I have gotten a lot more accustomed to towers in general. Plus, I don't fancy spending my fuel and engine-time money on taxiways that are longer than all of Moorabbin's runways combined. Not to mention the exorbitant landing and parking fees!

Yes you're right, there will be differences for each locale, and that's the beauty of those VPGs from CASA. I really like them. I won't be flying in Class C for some time (measured in years, unfotunately). But I think I would be inclined to experience Class C for more than just 9 hours (which is how much I logged at Moorabbin before writing that) before I felt game to do anything so detailed. There is quite a lot more to it to know, I'm sure. But I like to maintain that nothing is impossible, where I am concerned. Maybe I'll fly in Class C next week, who knows?!

Yes, sadly even with my own ASIC I wouldn't be able to get a tower tour. Shame.

Yeah, your probably right. But every Airspace Classes document I've seen has some mnemonics, and although I have the classes down now, I didn't have them all down so well before I started doing this. So I thought I'd share it as an educational tool. It's not a full and complete rundown of every one of them, but it may help a bit for some.

Terriffic. I'm traditionalliy TIC too.

Youbetcha! God, I hope I'm not wasting my intelligence. I'll be worrying about that a lot now.

I'm trying to figure out what you mean, Nev... Tone my IQ down, or turn it up?

Australian Airspace Assignment Alliteration Class A = Almost anything anywhere above 18 angels altitude AMSL, and also alternate areas and altitudes as advised. Any access above announced altitude automatically advocates acquisition of absolute ATC authorization, and above all, assumes an adequately approved aircraft. All accelerations approved. ATC alerts all aircraft about avoiding any adjoining aircraft as appropriate, avoiding any accidents anywhere around ATC antenna area. And adjacent afar areas, airmen actively avoid all alternate aircraft. Alert: atmospheric attributes aloft are adept at attenuating awareness and affect an airman's accurate altitude, attitude, and area ascertainment abilies. Class B = Basically biggest busiest Boeing base built, bounded by broad blue band. Big businesses boasting big budgets. Bulky behemoths boldly blasting by; beginners borrowing Beechchrafts, Barons & Bonanzas better beware before being blown broadside by British Airways backblast! Better Be on Best behaviour before breaching border. Basically, 'B' block best be bypassed by being below & beyond boundary. But breathe better, Big Brother Britain basically banished 'B'. Class C = City center, chiefly catering cross-continental commercial carriers. Class C comprises concentric cantilevered cylinders, containing consistent communication & coordination coverage. Corridors conveying commercial craft constantly converge causing congestion. Controllers command continuous course correction & counter-collision coordination. Current clearances & complete clearance compliance compulsory. Common call channel contains constant chatter; consequently, correct call-sign & conversational conduct crucial. Craft captains & copilots can contact controller concerning 'clear of cloud' clearance. Cessna & Cherokee crews could consider circuit chances continuously challenging, compromised, or completely cancelled, considering clean configuration commercial craft can create considerable conical currents. Careful! Check circulars containing current cautions. Class D = Decent domestic destination, doubtlessly distractingly dense. Diagram depicts dotted diameter/dimension demarcation. Dedicated directors dictate directions, distances & demand diligent duplex-dialog. Definite do's & dont's during drop-in (disapproval does denotes delay), descent, downwind, dual-drilling and departing. Do due duties directly - don't delay. Decontrolled daily during darkness denoting different designation? Dunno. Depends. Class E = Everywhere else each earlier explanation effectively excludes, except ensuing entries... Class F = Federal flight fellows forget 'F', finding further forms futile. Class G = Generally graded 'Go Guys, Go!' Gas guzzlers, gyrocopters & gliders galore. Government granted ground guidance gone. Garmin glass gear's great; GPS gives good general guess. Get GrandDad's Grumman Goose going & growling, give gas, gear-up & go great guns! Happily handcrafted to hang in hangars & halls, hopefully it helps. Mutley Eugenius.

No wuckers fellas, Wait till you see my next one on how to remember Airspace Classifications!

I think we've digressed.

That's fascinating, about WWII. The bike technique is awesome, because if the block is crowded, as mine sometimes is, there are things that distract you that you have to handle, be aware of, and get back to your routine. You have to look left, center, right on every turn, and you can 'follow red Toyota on early downwind', fit into the traffic pattern and everything. I'v even had to go-around, because that kid from next door was standing in the middle of the rroad.

I decided to build one at home once, the whole thing - cabin, motion base, surround sound, 3d screens, the whole bit. Within about 10 minutes I had decided not to.

Yeah, but that would have to be one real good sim! I mean 3D vision, motion-base & everything. I was in one of those for military Huey helicopters. It was so real, the coily hand-held mic cable was jiggling from the vibrations of the turbulence. They tilt the whole cabin backwards, while tilting the cockpit view downward, to give you the feeling of acceleration as you give it forward stick. Now that's real! But that's serious megabucks simulators - not Microsoft FSX at home.

Yep! I'm always talking to myself anyway - it's the only way I can be assured of intelligent conversation. And by the way - flight sims are fantastic for instrument nav practice to get from A to B via as many points as you want, and they can really build up your skills for the reality of passing all your tests. Just exit the game as soon as you get on final - there isn't a home simulator made today that is any good for landing practice unfortunately, the skill for a real landing is not something you can get from a sim. Those programs never get the nose to horizon and peripheral vison right, My bike does awesome landings though - I put a plywood jump outside my house to simulate the final jolt. It's awesome.

Fascinating, I can just imagine what your backyard must look like. Luckily, most pilots don't have to do complete coverage of the aerodrome. Here's a thought, maybe you should practice SAR patterns, and apply as a volunteer FIRESCAN or BIRDOG pilot! At least you'd get all the lawn done!

I thought I'd give you a technique which I have been using for my flying, and my instructor thought it was brilliant. Instead of just chair flying, which I was doing, I decided to go one better. I get on my bike and ride around the block. The street outside my house is the runway, and the block is the circuit pattern. So by just riding the bike I am using my normal balance skills, feet and left hand riding, and on the way I literally say out loud all of the procedural steps all the way around the circuit using my right hand to go through the motions of the steps. I think some people think I'm nuts but now, because they see me talking to myself and waving my hand around the time, but by now some of them know what I'm doing. Nevertheless, it's a great trick, it takes about the same time to ride around the block as it does to fly a complete circuit, so you get all your timing and pacing in sync, and it really tests your ability to remember all your procedure points. It's a very recommendable technique. My instructor thought it was fantastic.

Thanks Guys, I was all set to take a tour of the Moorabbin Tower, I knew that visiting them would totally take my nerves out of the picture. But right before I went... Tower gets a security level increase and shuts down all tours. Friggin ISIS!

Radio Communications in Class D Airspace What to Expect Could also be titled, 'Everything you've ever wanted to know about VFR radio communications in Class D. controlled airspace, but were too afraid to ask.' Or: 'Save $1000 on Flight Training' Okay, so you want to learn how to talk to a Control Tower. It's actually not as hard as it may seem at first. I speak from recent experience, when I had to master flying in and out of Moorabbin Airport, in Melbourne. As a student pilot, I was always accustomed to the pilot controlled CTAF broadcasts, having done most of my training at the little Bacchus Marsh country aerodrome. When I went to Moorabbin to do more training there, I had to find out quickly how to operate in Class D, and at first I thought it would be too much to master quickly. But with lots and lots and lots of homework, lots of instruction and a number of hours of training flights, within a week I was doing just fine. So I suppose another subtitle for this article would be 'Getting from Bacchus Marsh to Moorabbin, intellectually.' Usually when you're learning Class D radio procedures, your instructor will give you an abbreviated little printout a couple of pages long with a list of examples of typical calls made in Moorabbin, but not a lot of 'WHY'. These documents are good for an instant concept of it, but I have decided to write this article for anyone who wants to know the reasons behind all the different points, because strangely, I couldn't find any step-by-step type of educational material like this already in existence to learn from. So I made a lot of mistakes! Wanna know what they were? Read on. So this document is a resume for myself and anyone else who wants to read it, of all the things I learnt from instructors, publications, and experienced in practice while earning my competencies of flying in Class D. I will say that reading this and mastering the techniques given here will enable you to totally understand the transition from pilot controlled to tower controlled airspace, and could easily save you around $1000 of dual flight time, because you will not need to be trained on it by your instructor either on the ground, or on the fly. And, you won't make all my mistakes! It can also save hours of internet searches and reading random pages from this and that, because as far as I have so far found, it's all here. I sure wish I had read a write-up like this before I trained last month, I would have saved at least a grand. Actually it's amazing that I am still alive today to write this, considering what I didn't know when I started training there. So read and learn! CLICK HERE TO READ THE WHOLE PDF... https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/29841971/RADIO%20COMMUNICATIONS%20IN%20CONTROLLED%20CLASS%20D%20AIRSPACE.pdf IT COULD BE WORTH IT!