Improving safety

Flight safety is everyone’s top priority. In general pilots tend to be risk-averse and conservative in nature. Sure there are always a few idiots but in general we prefer to keep our planes intact and ourselves alive.

There have been many studies carried out in many different countries and many millions of dollars spent all with the singular purpose of improving flight safety.

In the light of such extravagant expenditure I feel it is only right that I do my bit. So I have carried out my own study, based on direct observations of a number of years and I’m pleased to tell you that I’m now in a position to report my findings.

The single most effective way of ensuring a safe and uneventful flight is………..

To remove all instructors from aircraft effective immediately.

You see I have noticed a direct correlation between there being an instructor on board and the likelihood of the engine mysteriously quitting on you!

Ok, you got me. This might be my not so subtle way of complaining about the fact that I was happily in the circuit, after a reasonably good flight in which I’d easily demonstrated my ability to land the plane after an engine failure. I was quietly contemplating my last abomination of a landing (seriously out of practice) and how I was going to claw the next one back when I see Bob’s hand dive for the throttle. I’ve never managed to win the hand slapping battle-of-the-throttle, so I resign myself to the inevitable, trying to get it on the runway in one piece.

I manage, but it wasn’t pretty.

Normal pilots don’t do this….

… I grumble as I set up my HASEL check for the airwork that Bob has persuaded me to attempt.

Secretly I’m a little bit proud of the fact that even though it may well have been 6 months since I last attempted one, my steep turn was easily within test standards. I’m even prouder of the fact that although I’m about to attempt the dreaded stall, I’m not scared. I can’t say I’m looking forward to it but the fear has most definitely gone.

I pull back on the controls muttering “normal pilots don’t do this. They take off, fly to airports. Eat pancakes and then come home. None of this stalling crap”

Bob doesn’t seem to care about “normal pilots”; JPM is a tad more sympathetic, reminding me gently of just what a none event a stall actually is in this plane. I’m half expecting Bob to tell me that I recovered too early but it seems that he’s satisfied.

We move on to the next manoeuvre. Just as it has done so many times before, the engine mysteriously quits and I’m left mulling over my choices of field.

There are a fair few likely candidates around. Bob shrewdly makes me state very clearly just which one exactly it is I’m aiming for.

The approach is by no means perfect but I recognise relatively quickly that I’m too high and widen out my approach to accommodate.

We make it easily. Again not bad considering that I reckon I have, at best, a fifty-fifty track record on my forced approaches.

Happy that I seem to have remembered just how to fly one of these things, we head home for the circuit.

Tigger takes flight.

I haven’t flown in the left hand seat for a good few months now. It isn’t until I firm up plans with Bob to get me back and current again that I realise just how much I’ve missed it.

Despite the heat of the day (a hot and humid 30 + degrees) I barely notice the discomfort until we climb on board and Bob comments “Welcome to the Cessna greenhouse!”

It takes me a few minutes to get into the flow of things, I’m too used to the view from the right hand seat and my checklist doesn’t flow as easily as it once did. I don’t care though, just unbelievably excited to be back behind the yoke again.

I give a mental chuckle as the hot, finicky fuel injected engine takes what seems like an eternity to kick over and start. Idly I’m wondering what’s worse, having to faff around with carb heat or the inevitable summer vapour lock.

Anyways we get her started and I talk to ground, glad to realise that my radio work is still as sharp as ever, despite my jaunts to unicomed airports and their casual conversations over the airwaves. As we taxi to the runway Bob gently chides me for riding the brakes. I, of course deny all such knowledge of that particular action whilst sliding my feet surreptitiously down the pedals.

I’m already having a blast and we haven’t even left the ground yet. We line up and I smoothly advance the power. I check that we are generating full rpm and apply the slightest bit of back pressure on the controls. It is summer and I need to let her come up and off the runway in her own sweet time.

She does and we climb away, my face beaming as we leave the runway behind us, I reach down and then the grin temporarily fades a little…

...”crap…no rudder trim!” I curse, reaching for a control that isn’t there.

“right rudder” Bob reminds me as we yaw away.

“yeah, yeah I guess I’m going to have to use my legs then” I laugh.

As we head out to the practice area, I’m like a kid in a candy store. “Weeeeeeeeee!!! This is fun”  I’m bouncing up and down like Tigger and its getting hard to tell where my enthusiasm ends and the bumps of day time thermal heating begin.

Obviously Bob decides he’s had enough of this overabundance of enthusiasm and sticks me under the hood.

Guaranteed to shut me up!

And I’m back…

Yep, apologies for the lack of posts. It isn’t as if I haven’t been doing a tonne of flying related stuff. I’m just finding writing incredibly difficult at the moment.

But I’ve had enough people bugging me about the lack of blogging that it is going to be easier to write than come up with more excuses!

So expect some blog posts in the coming days. Not sure if they’ll be up to my usual standard (whatever that is) but at least they should be enough to keep people off my case!

Young Eagles

Another busy Saturday, aviationwise but very much worth it.  Along with S and E, I spent the day volunteering at the Oshawa Airport’s Young Eagles Event.

More info on the event and the Young Eagles here and here

Expect a few blog posts but for the moment here are some pictures…

LFE totally rocking her Hi Vis Vest!

Planes on the apron, loading up

Marshals doing Marshally things

Off for another flight

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Fuelling up

The topic of fuel has a reasonable amount of ground school time allocated to it, because it’s kind of important. We are taught to check for water in the fuel (bad thing), metal bits in the fuel (also bad) and finally the colour of the fuel.

Again this isn’t a fashion item, different grades of fuel are dyed different colours, so it is relatively easy to tell if the stuff that is in your tanks is going to make the engine purr sweetly or blow up in your face.

The Cessna 172s I fly use 100LL grade fuel, which is dyed blue. At a pinch they’ll also just use standard 100 fuel as well (LL stands for low lead) which is dyed green.

Anything red in the tank is bad  as is anything clear or straw coloured.

There are things about fuel that they don’t tell you in ground school though, like the fact that if you get it in your eye that it can dissolve your contact lenses.

They also don’t cover the important topic of pilot fuel.  Pilots run on two types of fuel, Brunch and Butter tarts. Sometimes both at the same time.

For the former it is well know that no matter what time of day they land, most pilots will, when given the chance, order brunch. I’ve been at flyouts where the kitchen has had to send out for extra eggs. 

Airport destinations are not picked for their runway lengths, configurations or conditions but for the quality of the restaurants. Any change in ownership is investigated and reported on at length.  If you run a restaurant at an airport then you pretty much have to consider every customer as a potential “mystery shopper”, they WILL be filing a report.

As for the butter tarts, these are essential. The best location for the purchasing of said baked goods is usually a hotly contested topic.

They are used to top up blood sugar levels (often to near diabetic coma inducing levels), bribe dispatch, make peace with mechanics and a thousand other things.

Either way pilots simply don’t function without them.

Ok, I didn’t actually start writing this post with food in mind. I actually meant to talk about my first foray into refuelling an aircraft or at least helping S

Guess that’ll be another post then!

Your plane

“my plane” I agree, resting my hands lightly on the yoke.  I peer intently over the nose, realising that I probably should have raised my seat slightly ( a lot actually) but in this seat I’m more used to adjusting my seat so that I’m out of the way of the controls, as opposed  to actually needing to reach them.

Anyway I’m in the right hand seat so my sight picture is well and truly messed up anyways.  I’m in an unfamiliar plane, in the wrong seat and heading towards a plethora of airports I never knew existed, let alone have been to before.

Despite this I’m strangely calm, really not that concerned.  I can see Oshawa airport in the distance. The plane is flying reasonably straight, despite my best efforts and S is more concerned with prodding his IPad than screaming in horror.

E (S’s significant other) is happily dozing on the back seat. So no criticism there either.

I’ve got the airport in sight, S is handling the radios and I’m trying to make sense of my joining instructions.  I just want to ensure that I’ve got the right runway in my head.  S is a patient teacher and reminds me to double check against my Heading Indicator. I appreciate the reminder but I’m having a hard time seeing the instruments.

Nothing is in the right place from this seat.  The altimeter is visible enough, as is the tach. The HI is hiding and the ASI is somewhere I’m having a hard time seeing as well and I’ve only heard rumours of a turn and slip coordinator.

None of this is a major issue though.  It’s probably good practice for me not to be instrument fixating.

While I’m focusing on the airport in front of me, I also spare a brief moment to marvel at how the hell instructors manage it. I mean Bob could tell when that ball was even a quarter away from the centre. I can’t even see it!

No time to worry now, I hand the plane back over to S for landing.