This is what it is like landing into an Int'l Airport

[paulseawind]

This is what it's like. Given a command and repeat it back.
But I never had so many instructions before. Always just simple. I have never been told to adjust my speeds. DVT can comment a lot further than I can.


Airbus A-380 First Landing at SFO.....NOW THIS IS REALLY WORTH WATCHING.

The pilots sit away from everything, no yoke, etc. Captain pulls up a keyboard once in a while to enter info but the plane does most of the work. It seems extensively automated. The air traffic controller gives them heading, altitude and speed, and they dial it in. Pretty interesting.

Pilot's View: Airbus A380 approach and landing at San Francisco. [VIDEO]

 

[Steve Rossell]

The secret of ones expertise is to not let the average punter know how complicated it is for their experience to be seamless.

If that makes sense.

 

[paulseawind]

The secret of ones expertise is to not let the average punter know how complicated it is for their experience to be seamless.

If that makes sense.

I had an experience 3-4 years ago. A friend asked me to fly his girlfriend's parents from Darwin to Crab Claw Resort and we'd all have breakfast and he'd shout my brekky for that.
Since I knew him well I said Sure! We all met outside my hangar which was very close by the hangar my friend's RV-6 was stored in.
An RV-6, while being a great run-about was only a 2-seater.
So he needed someone to fly the parents and I had a 4-seater.

Anyhow, I met them and said "I am your pilot for today". So cool to be able to say that.
And I added I will fly you to Crab Claw and then back here again.
They agreed that was OK.

My friend got his RV-6 out and I got my Cherokee out and we did the deed.
I had gotten into the process of pre-advising passengers about the upcoming flight.
I would talk to them before they boarded.
With the Cherokee 235D there is only one door. I said I will endorse you (whomever sat in the front next to me) on that door and show you how to operate it.
Sounds simple but it was necessary to cover that ground.
I'd get in and then they'd be last in and I'd make them show me how to operate the door.

Anyhow, and this addresses SR's point, we took off from Darwin and headed west over the harbour to Mandorah. After that, I was out of controlled air space so I could do what I wanted with only a small set of rules governing me.

I took it down to 200 feet which is illegal but I didn't really care because I love low level and I said we are at 200 feet at 200 kms per hour. I knew they'd remember that.

I chatted to them (this is all thru the onboard intercom because we all had headsets on).

I climbed to 1,000 feet to go across the water via Quail Island and Bare Sand Island and so on and gave my usual Tour Guide spiel.

Then I proceeded to Crab Claw and it's dirt strip that I had used many times and I talked to them about why I was going out there to come into there, etc.
I always approach Crab Claw the same way. Come in from the south west and take off back into the south west.
It's easy. Never had a problem with that. In either the Cherokee or the RV-4.

So, I told them all along what we were doing and why and they seemed to be OK with that.

It all worked well and I had a great morning flying people I had never met before and I haven't seen them since. But I know my friend and that validated it for me.

A good case of showing your expertise and sharing it with others.

 

[Steve Rossell]

Fair call PSW. Just for the hell of it I might say that I've always felt more safe flying in light aircraft both fixed wing and helo's than i do in the big buggers. I've completed HUET several times over the years which I find great fun and thankfully have never had to put the knowledge or experience to the test.

p.s. I've always enjoyed low level flying as a passenger. Am i correct in remembering that a helo pilot once referred to it as "map of plan" flying?

 

[paulseawind]

Fair call PSW. Just for the hell of it I might say that I've always felt more safe flying in light aircraft both fixed wing and helo's than i do in the big buggers. I've completed HUET several times over the years which I find great fun and thankfully have never had to put the knowledge or experience to the test.

p.s. I've always enjoyed low level flying as a passenger. Am i correct in remembering that a helo pilot once referred to it as "map of plan" flying?

Sorry. I am unable to respond properly to that question because I have never heard of it.
I just do what I do at the time.

It's great to hear you like the light ACFT. I'd say at least 20% of the Australian population would never get in a light ACFT. Of the remaining 80%, some would enjoy it and others would be suffering in silence. The NT Govt ex-Darwin has a policy of only hiring twin engine ACFT because it makes the staffers feel more secure.

But one has to live on the edge where they can. Otherwise, they are taking up too much room.

To get into a 428kg aerobatic ACFT and take off and fly it is a huge blast.
Consider that. 150 knots at 1,000 feet above ground level. On a Sunday morning at 7:30am.
That's 280 km/hr. It really wakes you up.

Then there's the landing.
You come in at 70 knots (130 km/hr) and slow it to around 50 knots (92 km/hr) for the touchdown.
It stalls at 40 (74 km/hr).
Huge fun.
I like to come in low and slow which is very dangerous because if you have engine failure there is nowhere to go. You have to trust the engine. That's why I like Lycomings. They are quite excellent. But low and slow makes for a smooth landing. And with a tail-dragger you are landing on 2 wheels and effectively do not have any steering. You need to be on your toes literally and if you start to lose directional control (that happens every time) you have one quarter of a second to respond otherwise you lose it and you'll end up in the bushes on the side of the strip. Awesome stuff. You must use the brakes for steering. Ask me how I know all this. It's because I have been off the strip a few times and one learns the hard way.

And, last year someone with a backpack motor and a propellor came came flying past my place. I got photos.
Now, that would be totally awesome but I'd want to test that motor thoroughly first. Then I'd do it. In fact, I tip that I will be doing it in 2016. I love being in the air. It's nice up there. A peaceful perspective of things.

 

[Markit]

I never, ever fly in anything with less than 2 stewardesses. You wanna see what I had for dinner and breakfast? Put me in a small flying coffin.

 

[Steve Rossell]

25 years ago I had the privilege of being a passenger in a SF.260 for a 1/2 hour session over some Californian desert with an air-force vet' in a mock dog-fight with another Marchetti.
What can I say but PHhhhh@k!, what an experience.
Loops. barrel rolls, stalls. As old mate said, "the whole 9 yards" or as some of us Aussies might say, "a burger with the lot".

Younger and fitter then so the contents of my stomach stayed put and at times of the maximum 'G's' being pulled felt the curious sensation of "the blinds coming down" which was a black line coming down over my vision on my way to blacking out only to be saved from such a fate when released from the said forces of a manoeuvre.

It may not be for everyone but it remains one of my highlight experiences in my life. You'd never get me to go bungee jumping though, that sh!t is just plain dangerous.

 

[paulseawind]

25 years ago I had the privilege of being a passenger in a SF.260 for a 1/2 hour session over some Californian desert with an air-force vet' in a mock dog-fight with another Marchetti.
What can I say but PHhhhh@k!, what an experience.
Loops. barrel rolls, stalls. As old mate said, "the whole 9 yards" or as some of us Aussies might say, "a burger with the lot".

Younger and fitter then so the contents of my stomach stayed put and at times of the maximum 'G's' being pulled felt the curious sensation of "the blinds coming down" which was a black line coming down over my vision on my way to blacking out only to be saved from such a fate when released from the said forces of a manoeuvre.

It may not be for everyone but it remains one of my highlight experiences in my life. You'd never get me to go bungee jumping though, that sh!t is just plain dangerous.

Too funny, SR.
I think you got lucky to go with a senior flyboy to do all that stuff.
And fantastic that you regard it as a life highlight.

I can handle about 6 barrel rolls/loops and then I have to stop.
I started an Aeros rating several years ago - we were doing it in an RV-6 and I was in the RHS but doing the flying.
First lesson we just did Aileron rolls which are fairly docile.
Next lesson we progressed to loops. The idea is not to stall upside down at the top of the loop.
On one of the loops I was taking too long to pull it over and the smell of AVGAS filled the cockpit and that made me feel a tad queasy.
So we headed back with me telling my brain over and over to not throw up. The brain controls all this stuff.
After the de-briefing later I went home and didn't book another appointment. I have enough 'knowledge' now as to how to do it.

I also used to go with a mate in his Harvard and we'd do barrel rolls, but not many.
He is a dear friend and had some license restriction for a while so I'd be there to validate the flight, as I have the quals to fly that thing. I've had a drive from the back seat but nothing much really. If you are from Darwin and you have heard that big radial engine at around 07:30am on a Sunday morning, that's the one. We used to disturb the church goers!

BTW, the cockpit - if it's an all-girl crew they don't call it a cockpit. They call it the box office.