Schofields Flying Club Ltd - 1 Tower Road Bankstown Airport 2200
(PO Box 200, Georges Hall, NSW 2198 AUSTRALIA)
Phone: +61 2 9773 3611 Email: mail@schofields-flying-club.com.au
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SCHOFIELDS FLYING CLUB NEWSLETTER - SEPTEMBER 2005 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Welcome to the September 2005 edition of Schofields News. There are the usual plus some new features - President's Notes by Mike Allsop, X-Files X054 (part 2) by Anthony Coleiro, Tips, Tips and More Tips by Paul Daniels, 2004 Kimberley Tour (Day 15) by Grahame Smith, Pilot Officer Prune by Latrodectus, Learning to Fly in Australia (Part 2) by Chris Hobbs, Technology and Our CLub by Peter Blackbourn, and The Last Word from Latrodectus. As well, there's the usual administrivia that you've come to expect. So, read on and enjoy! NEW MEMBERS FOR AUGUST 2005: Welcome to Gerald Goodwin, Alan O'Mara, Robert Lascelles, Nick Pappas, James Browne, Paul John, Sebastian John, Colin Meade and Mitsuharu Sakurai.WORKING BEE: Our next Working Bee is on Sunday, 4th September. There are a number of jobs that members can help with on the day. So come and have a fun time with us at YSBK when the focus of our attention for this activity will be our garden and its landscape. More... ANNUAL FLYAWAY 2006: The Recreational Flying Committee proudly announces the presentation of details of the Annual Fly Away for 2006 on Sunday 4 September at 4:00pm at the Clubhouse. Munchies and drinks will be available after the show. Please phone to advise of your attendance. SEPTEMBER AVIATION NIGHT: Make a note in your diary for our next Aviation Night to be held at the Club on Saturday 17th September. We are fortunate to have as our special guest the Police Air Wing. One of their representatives will provide a fascinating insight into their operations which are based at Bankstown Airport. More... CONGRATULATIONS to Harrison Brown on the arrival of his new parents, Janina (née Galliani) and Ben, on Thursday 4 August at 3.30pm. Stand by for photos and a full report in the October Newsletter! JULY DUTY PILOT DRAW: The Volunteer Duty Pilot Monthly Draw for June ($50 free flying) goes to Nev Harris and Russell Cameron. Congratulations! DIARY DATES: The Club has a number of social and flying activities planned for 2005. You can check full details on our Coming Events page. Below is a summary of the programme for August and September 2005:
NEXT FLYING COMPETITION: For our September competition at Warnervale on Sunday September 4th, we are going to practice our standard Instrument Flight, Forced Landing and precision circuit with spot landing except that the instruments will be "failed" for the precision circuit. More... | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fellow members, it's really great see the growth of activity in our corner of GA. The doom and gloom often reported on by commentators certainly does not seem to apply universally to all participants in GA. Sure, things are "different" today compared with the industry in years gone by, but many of these differences are positive. At Schofields we continually strive to overcome or accommodate the newer pressures imposed on our industry, and to work with other aviation participants to see that these imposts are at least equitable. It is no use pining for days when all this stuff was "free" (eg landing charges) just as it is no use wishing there were no tolls on city motorways. Our attitude is to work towards the most favourable outcome in any changes to our business environment (either "best" or "least worst" depending on your point of view) - and move on. We all want to fly, fly well and enjoy it without breaking the bank, and that what we aim to provide. 
One of the positive aspects that our "club" is able to draw on is the generosity of volunteer labour for many functions which add to the amenity of our business. Duty pilots on the desk at weekends, volunteers helping with the maintenance of the clubhouse and its grounds from time to time, aircraft washing programmes, this newsletter, our website etc are all functions which would otherwise have to be either contracted out or not done at all. Of course our volunteer labour helps to contain our costs to a certain extent, and allows us to put investment back into our fleet. Any small business owner could attest to the value of "free labour" in helping to maintain the presentation of the business and attract customers in comparison to letting it run down.If you are not already a volunteer, just give the club a call and register your interest in helping out from time to time. Whether your skills are in the garden, in the kitchen, on the end of a hammer or behind a desk we would love to have you join us for our various working bees. The next one is September 4th, so if you are free of Father's Day commitments, come along and have some fun around the Club. You could even treat yourself to a flight at some point during the day as well to make it all worthwhile. 
By the way, we have scheduled a BBQ for our volunteers on September 24th as a mark of appreciation - call the club to advise your ability to attend. And thanks!As a club we are focussed on providing a welcoming, supportive and fun environment for our members to enjoy flying as a continuing recreation alongside providing a strong professional training environment. We are fortunate in being able to provide this wider social dimension to our flying activity beyond that which a "school" alone can provide. That being said, in a town as big as Sydney we realise not many of you can simply "drop by" for the fun of it, so we want to make it worth your while. You will notice that there is a busy calendar of Club events this coming month, and I would encourage you to make the effort to join us. In addition to the working bee on Sept 4th, we will be holding a presentation on our intentions for the 2006 Flyaway that afternoon. We have an Aviation Night on Sat 17th with our guests from the Police Air Wing, and we have a "flyout" to Williamtown and the Fighter Museum on Sunday 18th. All this is made possible by the efforts of our various organisers on the committee plus other helpers - that is what makes our Club the special place it is, and we hope to see you soon. Keep flying! Mike Allsop President SFC | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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X-FILE X054 - PART 2 - NORTH AMERICAN X-15 - ANTHONY COLEIRO | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
CONTINUED FROM LAST MONTHThree airframes were built for the program. The first two X-15's were fitted with a pair of superimposed XLR-11 motors of 8,000 lb of thrust each, as the XLR-99 motor was not ready yet. First flight took place on 10 March 1959 strapped to a converted B-52. No release was made on this flight just testing of systems in anticipation of the drop. First release came on 8 June 1959 when test pilot Scott Crossfield flew the X-15 as a glider. He also made the first powered flight on 17 September 1959 in the second airframe. The third airframe entered the test program and this was fitted with the originally intended XLR-99 rocket motor. This engine was fed by 1,200 gallons of anhydrous ammonia and 830 gallons of liquid oxygen in two tanks; all this fuel being used up in just 90 seconds! As the engine was being ground run before its first flight, it exploded blowing the tail off and damaging the airframe exposing Scott Crossfield to an estimated force of 150g! While repairs were carried out, the second airframe was fitted with the new motor and this combination of airframe and engine flew for the first time on 15 November 1960.
On 9 November 1962 the second airframe was damaged in a landing accident. The aircraft was rebuilt and its fuselage was extended by two feet, fitted with two external fuel tanks to give the aircraft increased engine running time from 90 seconds to 135 seconds and it was given a heat resistant silicone based surface coating to cope with the extended period at high speed. This became known as the X-15A-2, the ultimate X-15.The possible noise and stress hazards from space flight was tested for on 27 October 1965 when the X-15 was flown to an altitude of 72.5 kilometres and a speed of 5,595 km/h, 5 external microphones were used to gauge noise levels. On 15 June 1967 the X-15, at an altitude of 227,000 ft (69 kilometres), reached a speed of 5,744 km/h, the flight took nine minutes (flights generally lasted only this long). The X-15 was fitted with an Apollo spacecraft photometer. The photo's taken of the Earth's horizon during the flight were used by NASA engineers to establish guidelines for navigational systems for the Apollo project. On 15 November 1967, on the project's 191st drop the only operational fatality occurred. The rebuilt third X-15 was destroyed and its pilot killed when the aircraft re-entered the Earth's atmosphere in the wrong attitude, control of the aircraft was lost. The X-15 was on a descent from 261,000 ft (79.5 kilometres) at 5,631 km/h in a steep attitude; the aircraft entered a spin and the nose yawed through 90° at a speed of Mach 5.2, the aircraft disintegrated. Wreckage was strewn over a distance of some 16 km. 
In December 1967 the X-15 reached a speed of Mach 6.72 (7,295 km/h) but on landing a hole was found to have been burnt in the leading edge of the ventral fin. It was believed that the burn occurred due to a hot spot that had developed due to aerodynamic disturbances and from a pylon mounted test ramjet installation.The Garrett Corporation planned to develop hypersonic ramjets to be tested on the X-15. The engines would have propelled the craft from Mach 3 to Mach 8! The engines would have been installed under the aircraft and would have run for approximately one minute due to the limited supply of hydrogen fuel. This idea along with fitting the aircraft with a delta wing and utilising the aircraft as a satellite launch vehicle never came to fruition. By the end of the program, 199 flights were made accumulating 30 hours between the three aircraft in period just spanning nine years earning some of its 12 pilots astronauts wings (flights at altitude greater than 80 kilometres). There was meant to be a 200th mission but it was cancelled due to bad weather. The X-15 flew to a peak altitude of 354,200 feet (107.9 kilometres) and a maximum speed of Mach 6.72 (7,295 km/h), the fastest and highest-flying aeroplane ever built. It provided valuable data for the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo manned space missions, laid the foundations for lifting body research and in the end, space shuttle technology. We would not be where we are now without the X-15. The last flight of the first X-15 built was in the belly of a freighter on its way to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC and the second, is now housed in the USAF Museum at Dayton Ohio. Both of these places I have had the privilege of visiting. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Illustrated Ency. of Aircraft - Orbis publication Aircraft of the National Air & Space Museum - Smithsonian Institute Wonders of the Pima Air & Space and Titan Missile Museum - Pima Air & Space Museum United States Air Force Museum - Air Force Museum Foundation Inc. Aircraft - Dec 65, Aug 67, Dec 67, Jan 68 - The Royal Aeronautical Society Australian Flying - August 1990 - Aerospace Publications P/L Air Progress - Dec 67, Sep 69 - Condé Nast Publications Inc. Aeroplane Monthly - May 1998 - IPC Magazines Ltd. Flight International - 9 January 1969 - Iliffe Transport Publications Ltd. Anthony Coleiro | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The question is: would the SVK inlet manifold pressure system work better at high power setting or low power setting or doesn't it matter? If you think you know the answer email it to me at paul.daniels@sydney-flight-college.com.au or fax it to the club on (02) 9773 4644, addressed to me, by Thursday 15th September. Everyone who provides me with the correct answer will go into a draw and a winner will be selected for a $50 voucher towards their next flight. That's it for this month. Until next time, enjoy our skies! Paul Daniels Flight Instructor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Days 15 - Monday 14 June - Broome Our first full day in Broome. We had a reasonably full schedule with a visit to Willie Creek Pearl farm in the morning and later a sunset camel ride on Cable Beach. At the appointed time, two mini buses arrived at the Seashells Resort driven by the congenial Rocky and Julieanna. We motored through the sandy countryside along the coast north of Broome for about 30km to the pearl farm. The farm is set alongside the glorious turquoise waters of Willie Creek a short distance from the Indian Ocean. 
Hostess and lecturer Kristy welcomed us and set about providing a detailed and lucid account of the mechanics and artistry of cultured pearl seeding and farming. Her demonstration included numerous references to actual pearl shells and pearls all of which were handed around for inspection.In the meantime, Rocky had been busy preparing damper and golden syrup for the guests. Following the demonstration we were treated to damper and a welcome cup of tea. The damper was sweet, moist and hard to resist so - everyone had a piece or three. The lovely Julieanna then accompanied us down to the 'creek' which was really a largish bay or inlet off the Indian Ocean. There we boarded a covered flat-bottomed boat and were taken for a short trip around one of the farms. Julieanna demonstrated how the pearl shells were drawn up from the water in their pod nets, extracted and cleaned of barnacles. This is a labour intensive industry. At certain times of the year, the many thousands of shells have to be cleaned every three weeks or so. The pearling industry is very important to Broome. It is restricted to about 16 licencees, produces about 10% of the world's pearls but about 80% of the world's large quality pearls. Following the boat trip, we were escorted to a show room where several members of the tour were tempted to buy some nice pearl earrings and other jewelry. Later arriving back at our splendid Broome accommodation, we were reminded that Hal Dyball's horse, 'Outback Prince' was due to race shortly. So it was a mad dash for radios and or the pub to watch it on satellite TV. Hal and his passenger Neil Morley had left us at Cape Leveque a few days earlier to return to watch this race in Brisbane. As you might imagine, most of us had placed a bet or two on the horse. Thus it was with great anticipation and excitement that we listened/watched Outback Prince galloping around Eagle Farm. He ran about 3/4 of the way back for most of the mile race but in the straight put in a might effort and managed to win by a short head. Many smiles all round and a few drinks to celebrate. 
About this time Renee Wilcockson, our delightful travel agent from CountryLink back in Sydney, joined us. She had flown in from Sydney to join in the last part of the safari. Renee was tired after her long flight but nevertheless excited at the prospect of things to come.Much later that afternoon, we all walked down to the northern end of Cable Beach to take part in a sunset camel ride. Some members had a little difficulty finding the correct location on the beach though I'm not sure how they missed the twenty odd huge camels with scarlet red saddlecloths. Mounting up on these slobbering beasts was quite a feat made somewhat easier by the strict supervision of the camel boss. Soon we were off at a slow pace, cantering north along this famous beach. As each camel was tethered to the one in front, navigation and driving was a 'no-brainer'. The major challenge was simply hanging on. As we turned for home a mile or so up the beach, the sun slid spectacularly slowly down the horizon over the Indian Ocean. Our long shadows, cast up along the water line, bobbed in time with the gentle clip-clop of our camels. Ride over we adjourned to the Cable Beach Bar on the grass overlooking the beach for a few nibbles and drinks. These were supplied courtesy of the Club from savings accumulated from various discounts garnered during the organization of the flyaway. Grahame Smith | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nine months before the Battle of Britain began, Bill Hooper, a young "lapsed medical student" like many of his English countrymen, then too old to be conscripted, had volunteered to serve in the RAF. It was only matter of weeks after Great Britain had declared war on Germany. Bill's election to fly with the RAF was in much the same mood as the many cavalrymen who had formed the nucleus of the Royal Flying Corps in WW 1. At that time the RAF needed Gunners for the "heavies" like the fighter-bomber Bristol and Blenheim aircraft and Bill completed gunnery training June 1940.From the time Bill volunteered for duty he kept what he called his "Doodle Diary" which included drawings of cartoon-like figures. This led to the creation of a nameless, egg headed, mushroom nosed Pilot type in cartoon form, and drawn to highlight pilot mistakes Bill heard about. These drawings amused the fighter pilots as they viewed them in the crew room or sitting on the grass beside their aircraft awaiting the next alert to "scramble" and take off to meet the enemy. Bill made enough drawings to fill an illustrated book of hints and tips for fighter pilots from lessons learned before and during the Battle of Britain. 
About this time a WW 1 retired Army Captain, Anthony Armstrong Willis, was commissioned as a Pilot Officer in the RAF. He had been an associate editor of 'Punch' magazine, and he was asked to edit and rewrite training material written by service specialists for a proposed, 'light hearted' Training Memorandum, with the acronym "TEE EMM". Armstrong asked Bill Hooper to illustrate the document using the character, P/O Prune, from his notebook. TEE EMM with the first Prune drawings was published on April 1, 1941. Bill used April 1st as Prune's birthday and picked 1922 as his year of birth. Nobody, least of all Bill, knew at the time, that first issue of TEE EMM which introduced Prune and his antics to the entire Air Force, was the first step in creating a legend that would forever be part of the RAF history. Ground crews, in particular, loved Prune. 
Pilots would never admit making any of the major blunders Prune committed in the cockpit, but many of them remembered instances when they would have said, "there but for the grace of God, go I." Prunamania spread.The "Orders" created for Prune became worldwide. The MHDOIF (the Most Highly Derogatory Order of the Irremovable Finger), in other words, the recipient of this Order had his finger where it shouldn't have been and was not following correct procedure. Although TEE EMM publication was classified it was inevitable that a copy or two should have found their way into German hands. Bill Hooper received a citation from the German Captured Documents Department in Berlin for the Iron Cross to be given to P/O Prune for destroying so many allied aircraft! Fortunately P/O Prune and his betrothed WAAF Winsum, and the rest of their colleagues created by Bill Hooper, will never die. They live in the memories of thousands of men and women who have flown in the RAF, and Commonwealth Air Forces, and those Air Forces of Britain's Allies during the war. They think back with nostalgia and emotion to those days in the 1940's when a nondescript, dim-witted, cartoon character created so much laughter and helped ease the tension for fliers when it was most needed. Latrodectus | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
CONTINUED FROM LAST MONTH
Another surprise was the way in which we were taught to avoid controlled airspace. In Ottawa we tend to talk to the controllers, get a transponder code and then fly freely across airspace delineations. In Sydney we were taught to pick our way carefully around the controlled airspace: "make sure that you keep the pipeline on your left", "don't climb above 1500 feet until you cross the second railway line". Once, coming back from a familiarisation flight with an instructor, we were monitoring Sydney Radar (equivalent to our terminal control) when they called us blind: "aircraft flying south west at 1500 feet in the VFR corridor, you are close to the XYZ restricted area, suggest a turn to 180". A useful feature of the Australian system was being able to enter flight plans over the web: something that we have been promised for some time here in Canada. For one of our flights, Laurie and I struggled for a while with the 11 hour difference between local time and Zulu time before entering the correct search-and-rescue time but on the wrong date. Clearly some human reads these flight plans because we had Melbourne Centre on the telephone before we departed to check that we really didn't want search-and-rescue for 24 hours after our expected time of arrival.
My familiarisation flight took place with scrappy cloud at 2000 feet and 8 to 10 mile visibility. The instructor, Rodney, said that, given the normally excellent Sydney weather, very few Australian VFR pilots would fly in those terrible conditions. Laurie and I hadn't noticed that the conditions were bad.The BFR turned out to be a mini-flight test, something all Australian pilots have to undergo, eponymously, every two years. Following some ground questioning, Laurie and I had to complete some landing and takeoff distance and some weight and balance calculations and then fly a 50nm cross-country with air exercises on the way back. The only problem was the secrecy with which the aircraft's balance arms were treated: instead of being able to do a nice balance calculation we had to use a complex chart which seemed to require a PhD in weight-and-balance calculations and which hid the actual mechanism of the calculation. We managed it and feel better for it. Rodney told us that one of us was going to make a trip to Wollongong in the South, the other to Warnervale in the North. I drew the Southerly straw and planned the trip to Wollongong. The only problem was picking the way between the bits of controlled and restricted airspace. On the way back I had to demonstrate a 20nm diversion to a totally invisible point called Picton and do a couple of steep turns and stalls. The engine "failed" three times on the flight: once on downwind at Wollongong, once, rather nastily, at 150 feet or so climbing out at Wollongong and once at altitude on the way back. I then had a rather disgusting meat pie from the local garage while Laurie completed his BFR, flying to Warnervale. On neither trip did we actually touch wheels at the destination airport since almost all Australian airports have landing fees! Fees actually don't stop at landing: ATC charges IFR flights at so many dollars per km! 
We then booked an aircraft for a day later in the week with the intention of flying to Parkes, a town lying to the West of the Blue Mountains and immortalised recently by the film "The Dish". My son works at the dish (Radio Telescope) and, although he was in Sydney at the time, we thought it would be nice to see the Blue Mountains from above and get an idea of what lay beyond them (when we got there Laurie said that it reminded him of Saskatchewan. (This is apparently not a negative comment.)Sydney has been suffering from severe drought for the past two years. This was evident during my trip to Wollongong where three large reservoirs were, from the map, obvious way-points. As we flew over, it was clear that the water levels were very low in each. Well, we broke the drought! When we turned up for our flight to Parkes there were clouds in the sky! In fact the cloud bottoms were somewhat lower than the mountain tops. So we decided to stay along the coastal strip instead and fly north to Maitland in the Hunter Valley (a wine-producing district) but even here we were a little uncomfortable when we were told that a student had just cancelled his commercial flight test which was to have taken him to Maitland because of the weather. Laurie and I studied the forecast again, helped by another friendly instructor, Michaelle, but we couldn't see anything that was worse than broken at 2000 feet. So we set off with our wives in the back for a stimulating flight to the Royal Newcastle Aero Club in Maitland where we read the NOTAM about kangaroos possibly on runway and had an excellent lunch. As we picked our way around Class C airspace and enormous military zones, we were again reminded of how much airspace the Australian pilots have given up: very reminiscent of the USA. CONTINUED NEXT MONTH (Chris Hobbs is the Senior Ground Instructor with Rockcliffe Flying Club in Ottawa, Canada. By trade, Chris is a telecommunications engineer. He started flying gliders in the mountains of Central Wales, and since coming to Canada has acquired his Commercial Licence and Instrument Rating. Chris is also a part-time Flight Instructor at the Rockcliffe Flying Club and is the author of Learning to Fly in Canada). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
When I joined the work force as a bank junior back in the late 60's, I used to calculate the cost of foreign bank drafts by long hand. If you worked at a large branch this was somewhat easier and done using a mechanical calculator. Crank the handle clockwise to multiply and counter clockwise to divide. Good stuff back in its day. Take a quantum leap and fast forward nearly forty years to today where smart technology is all around us. There are many examples of this at the club, the most recent being our wireless network capability for access to the internet.With the pace of change that we now see with technology especially Personal Computers, it does not take long for sound working equipment to become redundant, yesterday's model - sound familiar? PC's that are only a few years old and in good working order are quickly superseded by newer faster models. 
For those members who have been to the club over recent times they will have seen new monitors for our NAIPS PC's. These were kindly donated by members who upgraded to LCD monitors. Over the next month or so I will be donating my fathers soon to be replaced PC (not yet 4 years old) to improve support of our NAIPS service corner.It seemed to me that replacing the home PC is not uncommon and I would guess many of our members may have similar hardware gathering dust. Perhaps like my good old dad you could consider putting it back to work for the benefit of our members. If this is the case and you have some hardware that might enjoy a second chance of life at our club, I would be most grateful if you could provide some operational details to me either by email or simply give me a call (link to my contact details). With instructor training and standby needs, a small bank of operating as well as reserve stock units would be ideal. Finally, Video and DVD equipment have seen a similar fate over the years, so any suitable equipment from these technical corners would also be candidates for a second chance at life. It's the support from our members that makes our club the success it is. Peter Blackbourn Director of Club House Services & Events | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
PREFLIGHT ALTIMETER CHECKS: Bankstown aerodrome elevation given in the ERSA (29 feet) is the highest point on the landing area (i.e. the runway complex). The elevation
given in the DAPS (IFR Departure and Approach Procedures) is the height of the aerodrome reference point (ARP) and for Bankstown is 21 feet. (The ARP for Bankstown is about half way along taxiway Victor, the eastbound section of the southern parallel taxiway.) For a VFR flight, the pilot is required to set the QNH reported on the ATIS and check that the altimeter reads within 100 feet of (say) 25 feet (i.e. between -75 feet and +125 feet). If the reading is outside this range, the altimeter is
unserviceable and the aeroplane must be considered to be unairworthy. The faulty altimeter must be placarded unserviceable and the error noted in the Maintenance Release.AEROBATICS: There is no portion of the training area specifically allocated to aerobatics. Nevertheless aerobatic flying must be confined to a designated flying training area and it is not permissible to conduct aerobatics outside the training area. CAR 141 applies. 'SOLE MEANS' GPS: If GPS can not be used to satisfy the alternate planning requirements, why are alternate minima now shown on the IAL/Jepp GPS Approach plates? 'Sole means' is not possible for equipment that only meets the TSO-C129 standard. 
TSO-C146 equipment is now coming on the market (for example, the Apollo CNX-80) and this has permitted a review of existing requirements for alternate aerodromes.
It is possible that application of the new standard will occur towards the end of 2005 and RNAV (GNSS) approach procedures (with alternate minima) are being developed so that they can be used if and when the new standard is approved for application in Australia. (At present, the Apollo CNX-80 is treated as a TSO-C129 receiver.) Some references are CAAP 179A-1(0) and Flight Safety Australia July 2003.VFR ALTERNATE AERODROME CRITERIA: Another favourite PPL(A) flight test oral question: Under what conditions do you need to plan for an alternate aerodrome for a VFR flight? AIP ENR 1.1-88 para 72.2.13 requires that "for flights by aeroplanes under the VFR (day or night), the alternate minima are a ceiling of 1,500 feet and a visibility of 8 kilometres". If the TAF for your destination forecasts more than 4/8 cloud (i.e. BKN) below 1500 feet AGL, or visibility less than 8 kilometres, then you should have sufficient fuel and daylight available for you to divert to a suitable alternate aerodrome. If the forecast indicates INTERmittent or TEMPOrary deteriorations then you don't have to plan for an alternate provided you have sufficient resources to be able to hold for 30 or 60 minutes respectively. FEEDBACK AND CONTRIBUTIONS: Well, that's your newsletter for this month. With your help (in the form of contributions, photos, etc.) it should be possible to produce a newsletter every month. Don't forget to check the latest news on the Club's website at www.schofields-flying-club.com.au. Contributions, comments, feedback, and (polite) suggestions to latrodectus@schofields-flying-club.com.au. THOUGHT FOR THE MONTH: 'Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity' - Oprah Winfrey.
Latrodectus |
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LEANING THE MIXTURE: The Club has long had a policy of not leaning below 5000 feet. The rationale being that the cost of the higher fuel consumption is more than offset by the saving in maintenance of burnt valves caused by incorrect leaning. Henceforth, the policy will be to lean the mixture at 75% power or less, at and above 5000 feet. The mixture is to be fully rich during takeoff, landing, climb, whenever there is a change in altitude and whenever an increase in power is being effected. During cruise, the mixture is to be leaned to "Best Power" - NEVER "Best Economy".© 2003 Schofields Flying Club Ltd. All Rights Reserved.