Getting Ready for Sim Flight “EuroFun”

Posted on January 3, 2009 by Falcon124

I’m doing some flight planning in preparation for our next session in the simulator at Flight Experience. This time we’re going to do the following run:

LOWG (Graz, Austria) to LIML (Milan, Italy) to LFLY (Lyon, France – Saint Exupery airport) to LOWI (Innsbruck, Austria)

We’re going to do a zero-viz CAT III landing at Milan and the famous approach into Innsbruck. It should make for a fun session and we’re due to be in the simulator on Monday evening. With luck I’ll have the report and photos loaded within a couple of days.

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Freaky ADIRU Behaviour Near Perth

Posted on January 3, 2009 by Falcon124

As some of you may be aware, on October 7th 2008 a QANTAS A330 traveling from Singapore to Perth was about 154km west of Learmouth, West Australia when it entered a rapid descent, causing unsecured items & people to float up in the cabin, leading to injuries on board. The aircraft declared an emergency and diverted to Learmouth.

The ATSB has released a preliminary finding that states that a fault in one of the Air Data Inertial Reference Units (ADIRU #1) led to the incident. Investigations are continuing and QANTAS have instigated changes in their procedures should the symptoms appear again.

Well, guess what, the symptoms have appeared again! On Dec 27th, a QF A330 going from Perth to Singapore had a similar ADIRU problem in a similar part of the world (this time about 650 kilometers south of Learmouth). Fortunately the crew were able to enact the revised procedures and disconnect the systems, avoiding any upsets. They then decided to return to Perth.

The ATSB says it’s too early to draw conclusions but they note that it is the same problem and also that it occurred in a similar area to the previous incident. As such, they will include this incident in the investigations being performed for the Oct 7th incident which should produce a factual report about mid February.

One of the more interesting aspects of the Oct 7th incident is that the potential was raised for possible external influence on the ADIRU due to either portable electronic devices on board (laptops, mp3 players, etc) or from the Harold E Holt Naval Communications Station near Learmouth (there’s also a Wikipedia article on the comms station).

The situation gets even more interesting if you note that a Malaysian Airlines 777 had a similar ADIRU fault back in 2005 (PDF) in roughly the same area. Of course, the 777 has a different ADIRU, different software and the problem was traced to failed accelerometers and a software fault, but still – very interesting.

Hmmmm – I wonder if the military have been experimenting with something and accidentally zapping ADIRUs every now and again? (cue X-Files theme…).

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Yup, more accidents this year

Posted on December 30, 2008 by Falcon124

Yes, there have been more light aircraft accidents in 2008. Sadly, the author of this article appears to be trying to link the rise in Recreational Aviation to the increase, throwing in comments about maintenance being done by non-CASA certified engineers and how RAAus wants to increase the weight of aircraft it is allowed to govern.

Suffice to say, I submitted a comment to the newspaper:

Hi,

Is Paul Bibby trying to imply that RAAus is the reason for the increase in accidents this year? An interesting concept given that the aircraft involved in the 4 most recent crashes were in no way RAAus aircraft but were, in fact, covered by CASA and their maintenance, monitoring and training regimes (2 x Cessna 172s, 1 x Lake Buccanneer and a crop duster). Further, the two mid-air collisions in 2008 (Moorabbin and Bankstown) both involved VH registered aircraft that were covered by CASA, not RAAus.

So, while over half the fatalities were in the 0 – 2250 category, how many were actually weighing less than 544kg and thus governed by RAAus instead of CASA? It is also important to compare the number of fatalities against the number of hours flown. It may be that there are more deaths because people are flying more but that, over all, we’re having fewer accidents per thousand hours, etc. Paul’s report doesn’t supply that information.

Fewer regulations are not necessarily indicative of a lax safety attitude. In fact, fewer regulations that are easier to learn & follow often lead to a safer environment. It seems of late that CASAs view on air safety is that we’d be safest if no-one actually flew. RAAus has been working hard to safely get more people flying once again and it is no surprise that the Recreational space is growing while the CASA controlled flight training environments are shrinking.

The increase in aviation related deaths, while still tiny compared to Australia’s annual road toll, is a trigger that we should be reviewing our procedures & processes in general. From this review we can determine where it may be necessary to educate to address common factors or revise procedures.

Combining information about increased fatalities with references to RAAus having fewer regulations and wanting to increase its area of control only serves to make me wonder about Paul’s motives in writing this story.

Cheers,

Grant

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Two more light aircraft accidents :(

Posted on December 29, 2008 by Falcon124

Two more light aircraft accidents have occurred in Australia, taking the total since Christmas Eve to 4. The first involved a light plane hitting a concrete tank then crashing. The two men on board were injured and some additional information reveals it was a Lake Buccaneer. Indications are that it was probably doing a precautionary landing in a field when it clipped the tank. Ouch…

The second accident was a crop duster crash that killed the pilot & sole occupant. No real news available on that one as yet.

Four accidents almost as many days may not seem like much to some but in Australia that’s a fairly high number. While there may be the odd accident here and there, lately there seem to have been a few (mid air at Moorabbin in August, mid air near Bankstown in December, other incidents in between, now these two and the ones around Christmas Day). I don’t have links to all the details at the moment but the number of incidents does seem to be on the rise.

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Christmas Aviation Accidents in Australia

Posted on December 26, 2008 by Falcon124

Seems a couple of light aircraft have gone down in Australia this Christmas. Both involved C172 aircraft, the first one carrying two men and reports say low cloud & rain may have contributed. The second one had a single pilot on board who hit powerlines and crashed.

While these reports are from general media and may not have all the facts, initial review leads to speculation that the first may have been “scud running” due to “press-on-itis” and the second may have been due to low flying. If so, it makes these accidents doubly tragic as they could have been avoided.

It’s important to read and learn from the ATSB safety reports as well as those from the FAA. Typically in aviation you don’t get a chance to learn from your mistakes (many being fatal) so it’s important to learn from the mistakes of others.

I’m counting on good flight training (practical & theoretical), learning from studying accident reports and generally asking myself “How will this look in the news?” to help me learn good judgment when flying. Of course, I’m really safe in my flying at the moment – I haven’t got the time or money to go flying – small consolation…

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In the Mountains of (Simulated) Madness

Posted on November 19, 2008 by Falcon124
Once again Carlo and I have spent an enjoyable evening in the Flight Experience B737-800 simulator here in Melbourne. We have a lot of fun flying the sim like it’s the real thing – well, OK, mostly like the real thing: some of our PA announcements would raise eyebrows even on SouthWest and a real 737 doesn’t have “Speed up time” functions for those bits in the middle of long legs. But aside from that, we really do try to fly it like it’s for real. Grant flying into KDEN
The sim had just undergone an upgrade and general maintenance session earlier this afternoon so we were the first people to use it after it had been signed back to the company. Given that tomorrow it has a busy schedule of paying customers, we figured it would be a good idea to put it through its paces tonight and confirm all was OK. No, honest, that was our reason. Don’t you believe me?
Carlo reviews the approach to KASE For this session we decided to fly around Colorado and then do a night landing into Las Vegas to see how mountains and the strip looked after the upgrades. I put together a route that would start in Grand Junction (KGJT), fly into Denver (KDEN), then head into Aspen (KASE) and finally do a longer run out to Las Vegas (KLAS).

Learning from the mistakes and hassles we had last time (when we flew around Hawaii), I had all the route legs prepared on a single sheet of paper to make loading the Flight Management Computer (FMC) easier. I also had check lists prepared in a small format print out (A6 size?) and was a lot more familiar with the systems this time round.
We started the session parked at KGJT with the cockpit turned on and ready for us to start. We programmed the FMC, verified it all and then I did the take off, turning on the autopilot not long after we were in the air. On the way out we enjoyed some good views of the mountains in the area, although it was a little hazy and not totally clear. During the run to KDEN, we reviewed the approach and tweaked a few parameters to give us a good run into the landing. I took over from the autopilot a few way points out and handflew onto the localiser before pulling off an acceptable landing on R/W 07 using the VASI lights to help me get my approach right. It wasn’t great (a little high, floated and went long), but it was WAY better than my abysmal attempts at Kona.
Once we were parked at a gate we reprogrammed the FMC and reviewed the approach into Aspen. This would be interesting as it is a visual approach at altitude and surrounded by mountains. This time it was Carlo’s turn, so he taxied us out to R/W 08 and we left KDEN with a hard, climbing right hand turn to get us onto the course I’d set up.

It’s not far between KDEN and KASE so we were soon getting ready to run the approach, descending and slowing down as we commenced the turn onto runway heading. Carlo flew us in for a good landing despite being a bit high & fast at the start of the turn. We pulled up reasonably well and turned in for the terminal.

Finals into KASE (Aspen)
Another FMC reprogramming session had us ready to leave KASE and head for KLAS. Carlo did the take off and we had another climbing right turn on departure although this one was a little wider as it took us around a mountain. We were watching the peak on our right as we slowly climbed above it, even with a good climb rate.
Approach route into KLAS Once established on our course towards KLAS, we engaged the autopilot and reviewed the approach. After a few adjustments to the speed & altitudes, we set the autopilot to fly based on the FMC, not the MCP controls. At this point we “cheated” and engaged the “fast forward” system, putting the sim on 8x normal speed. Gotta love that function on a long flight.

Soon we were at top of descent and not long after I was taking over control for the landing into Vegas. As I came around onto the initial point for the ILS, I could see the runway in the distance so I switched over to making a visual approach. This landing was better than any yet and I had us nailed on glideslope (according to the VASI) for most of the way down. I must admit I got a bit of a shock when Carlo told me that the autothrottles were off and we’d been easing down with the engines just above idle. Ooops. This could explain why I was a little low on approach at the end and wound up touching down fractionally short of the preferred touch down point. Oh well – for me it was a bloody good landing so I was pretty happy with that.

After landing we taxied to a gate, shutdown and then switched everything off, leaving the sim ready for the customers tomorrow morning. It was a great session and I feel like I’m improving, although I have a very long way to go before I’ll be confident with the systems, the FMC and handling the beastie itself. We both made mistakes and need to review our CRM and processes (“What do you mean we had no auto throttles????”) but things are getting better.
Like the last session, we had the cockpit video system recording us but, sadly, this time it stopped not long after departure from KASE. Instead of recording to the hard drive and then being burnt to a DVD, it was set to burn direct to DVD, so it stopped when it ran out of space. DOH! We also had Live ATC playing in the cockpit thanks to Carlo’s laptop, although that had a problem with its ‘net connection and dropped out part way through. It certainly did help add to the experience while it was working.

A full set of photos can be found at my photo gallery. Meanwhile, we’re already talking about the next session – this time we think it’ll be somewhere in Europe.

 Las Vegas at night
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Lilydale Airport Airshow (Yakkity Yaks)

Posted on November 16, 2008 by Falcon124

On Saturday I was taking Kitt out to the Yarra Valley for a “Hen’s Party” winery tour (the “Buck’s Party” was last weekend – paintball – I’ve still got bruises) when I spotted a sign saying that Lilydale Airport (YLIL) was having an airshow. Neat! As I was thinking I’d better lock the date in to be there, I realised that the damned thing was happening TODAY!

Our route from Melbourne to Yarra Glen took us right past the airport (the road goes just south of the threshold of RW36) and after some frantic looking between the road and the airport, I did confirm the presence of a good lineup of aircraft. After getting Kitt to the meeting point and seeing her off with the other ladies (note: Hen’s parties are SCARY!) I ran a quick errand and then high-tailed it back to the airport.

On arrival I noted that there was no one taking the entry fee so I figured it must be getting close to the end of the day (it was 3pm by the time I got there). I walked in and started checking out the aircraft on display. The announcer was talking about Dick Hourigan’s Mustang (a license built and slightly modified P-51 manufactured in Australia during WWII) which was in the process of taxiing out to take off. Last time I saw this Mustang was at the 2002 Albury Airshow (scroll down the linked page to see photos of it) and it sounded great just taxiing in the distance. I didn’t bother with photos as I figured I’d get them when he came back in so I just enjoyed the take off. He did a low downwind pass then came back around a bit faster (and was that a tad lower?) for the upwind pass. Damn I love the sound of a Merlin! After that pass he left the area (which seemed to surprise the announcer a little) and that was the official end of the show.

Just as I was wondering who I’d have to talk with to get onto the flight line for some good photos, I realised that they’d dropped the barriers and we were allowed out with the aircraft. Wow. You have to appreciate that.

There was a huge line up to check out the Soko G2A “Galeb”, a Yugoslavian jet trainer that’s designed to operate from grass runways. Still flying under its Yugoslavian registration, it certainly did draw a crowd. As the only jet aircraft there it was like being the prettiest girl at the dance. Most people wanted to get their photo in the rear cockpit (mostly kids) and the pilot was on the wing helping them out. I managed to get some shots in the front cockpit and had a quick chat with pilot while this was going on. He’s been invited to the Avalon Airshow which is great as he’ll probably be parked on the warbirds tarmac where I’ll be working. Excellent!

I’ve loaded the photos I took into my photo gallery for you to enjoy. There were a number of aircraft there, including at least 3 Yaks. I just wish I’d grabbed a couple of shots of the Mustang in flight – oh well, maybe it’ll be at Avalon along with a few others like the 2007 show.

Some of the aircraft on display included:

  • American Champion Super Decathlon (VH-JIR)
  • Auster J1N (VH-SAH)
  • CA18 Mustang
  • CA22 Winjeel (VH-EDA)
  • Cassutt Racer (VH-MXA)
  • Cessna 206P (VH-TCZ)
  • Cessna 337A (VH-NFW)
  • Extra 300S (VH-XTR)
  • Pacific Aerospace CT4A (VH-CTV)
  • Piper PA22 (VH-RDB)
  • Stinson L5B (VH-CDF)
  • Soko G2A “Galeb” (YU-YEA)
  • Yak 50 (VH-BYJ)
  • Yak 52 x 3 (VH-RED, VH-YKK & VH-YLG)

There were other aircraft there, of course, including a few helicopters and lighties in the static area. After chatting with some of the folks working airside I headed out through the flight school to find out what the reason was for the airshow (“Oh, we just do them now and then”). After a quick chat I returned to the car and spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out with a friend who flies for Global Ballooning. We sat on his veranda and chatted as the afternoon drew to a close and a light aircraft practised aerobatics overhead. Not a bad way to spend a few hours.

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You Might Be a Pilot when…

Posted on November 15, 2008 by Falcon124

Stephen Force over at the Airspeed Blog asked a bunch of us on Twitter for signs that might indicate you’re a pilot. Between our responses and the comments, it’s a pretty comprehensive list and well worth checking out for a bit of fun.

My comment about having a personalised license plate on your car that only another pilot would recognise was included (yay!). I wanted to get CAVOK but someone based at Moorabbin (YMMB) has that one. Next choice was LAHSO or SIMOPS but Kitt & Nykolai said it was too pilot geeky for the RX-7. Oh well – maybe I can get that on the next car…

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Hypocritical Australian Government wants to filter the Internet

Posted on November 11, 2008 by Falcon124

Please excuse the non-aviation related post, but the hypocritical government here in Australia wants to implement an Internet filter to “protect the kiddies.” This despite our prime minister having recently told the Chinese government to suck it up and not be afraid of the Internet’s openness. Pure hypocrisy.

I’ve already started to take action to ensure my representatives are aware of how stupid this idea is. If you also believe that this is a crazy idea, feel free to take action and tell the Australian government why. Even if you’re not an Australian, let them know how stupid they look from overseas.

OK – time to go back to dreaming of flying…

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Dinner Flights

Posted on October 25, 2008 by Falcon124

Here in Melbourne we have at least one DC-3 based out at Essendon airport (YMEN) that’s operated by Short Stop Jet Charter. They have it available for winery tours, joy flights and dinner flights. It’s not uncommon to hear it out on a good night flying a group of people around the Port Phillip Bay area & over the city. It’s a beautiful sound and I’m very pleased that these guys are able to keep it in the air.

Actually, it’s in the air right now and I’m listening to it as it flies around the city, passing over us here and there. The house is quiet as everyone else is asleep, but I’m working and the drone is soothingly wonderful, triggering thoughts from my past.

I have very fond memories of being in the right place at the right time while hanging out at Bankstown airport (YSBK) in Sydney and helping with the DC-3s that were parked there. Working with Captain Jack Curtis to taxi one that needed to be moved due to some works being done. This involved pumping the hell out of the wobble-pump to get the engines primed & started then sitting in the copilot’s seat and watching out the window to ensure we didn’t chew up any cones. Another time I went along as we taxied from one side of the airport to the other, wound up sitting inside and chatting while the aircraft was used as a backdrop for a photoshoot, then taxied it all the way back. During an airshow at Bankstown in the 90’s I was cleaning the DC-3 between rides and helping to guide people to & from the aircraft plus wheeling the steps in & out. Later I helped walk the wing when we had to bring one out from the static park to replace the one giving rides after it’d gone U/S. When the airshow itself started, I got to sit on top and watch the show – best seats in the house.

Many years and a few countries later, I was at Moorabbin (YMMB) in the dark at 5am on the Royal Victorian Aero Club’s flight line preparing our assigned aircraft to go on RVAC’s Dawn Patrol when I heard that beautiful drone once again. I called it and we all stopped to listen for it. Sure enough, a set of lights could be seen flying a distant downwind, rolling onto base and then coming in to land in the dark. As it came over the threshold we could confirm it as the old Ansett DC-3 and didn’t it look beautiful. I caught up with the crew just before the pilot briefing for a quick chat about people, places and so on. Magic moments.

I would really love to learn to fly the DC-3 at some point as it’s a beautiful aircraft and we need new pilots to help keep the old birds flying. Maybe I’ll head over to the USA to get a type rating via Dan Gryder and the HERPA DC-3. I didn’t realise this option existed until I heard about it on Aero News and listened to Stephen Force doing his SIC rating.

For now, I’ll just looked forward to the day when I’ll be able to spare some $$$ to go on one of Short Stop’s dinner flights. Of course, I’ll be wanting to spend the flight on the jumpseat in the cockpit instead of in the passenger chairs (who needs food – just let me do the flight up front).

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