08 September 2013

CLUB COMPETITIONS DAY 2

Sunday 8th September

So, day 2 of the club comps; bombing and liferaft dropping.

DXP with pilot's door removed ready to go

My first flight was in the back of C-172, DXP acting as dispatcher for Richard who was first up for liferaft dropping.  This is a team event with pilot and dispatcher needing to show a bit of co-ordination.  The dispatcher sits in the back behind the pilot with two weighted canvas bags beside him/her which simulate a deflated liferaft.  The pilot flies a low level circuit (500' agl) and on downwind tells the dispatcher to, "Prepare liferaft", the dispatcher places the first bag on his/her lap and reports, "Liferaft prepared".  On final the idea is to descend to 200-250' agl (higher and it's points deducted; lower is a disqualification for that run).  Once set up the pilot calls, "Stand-by" whereupon the bag is held out of the open door, the dispatcher hanging on (quite hard in the slipstream) until the pilot calls, "Drop", the guy/gal on the bag lets go and down it goes, announcing, "Dropped".  Then climb back to 500' and repeat the procedure.  These two drops were consistent (only a few metres apart) but well short of the target area :(

After a short break I was up in WAM for bombing (dropping a plastic coated small beanbag out of the open window) with air judge, Charlotte.  This was somewhat of a disaster, really.  I descended below 250' on my first two finals runs which is -50 points and a disqualification. At least on the third and final go I kept my height correct at 300' +/- 25' but the bomb was well off target.  To cap it all my landing back onto 25R was not one of my best.

Feeling very humbled, I ambled back to the clubrooms to find the air judge for liferaft dropping, Russell sitting around with no takers.  So, give it a go, I thought, can't be any worse than the bombing effort. So, off in DXP which I had never flown before (it is privately owned by a club member and being used today as club regular JGP, which I am well used to is in maintenance).  DXP took some getting used to - not as much power as WAM or JGP, only 20HP less but felt more with three up (Russell, self and dispatcher, Andrew plus the rafts). Our first run aborted as a go around (control tower call).  The next two? - at least I didn't DQ myself and was bang on just over 200' agl but was too far to the right (North) for both my drops and, to add insult to injury, my landing back on 25R was a real mess; round out too soon, blip of power, floated for a bit before touching down an unacceptably long way down the strip.  GRRR!  OK, the wind by now was 15 gusting to 25Kt but it was pretty much straight down the track and no excuse!  Safe, but a pretty piss-poor effort really.

So, a couple for the learning curve there (starting near the bottom for both exercises so the only way is up).  I was jolly cross about the bombing effort but, there's always next year, and I am consoling myself with a glass of Syrah while writing this.


07 September 2013

NEW HALL OF FAMERS

Having a bit of an aviation blog "session" at the mo', so time for a Hall of Fame update.  Two additions, one from each World War, and both should need no introduction but a few words on each would be appropriate, I think.

Captain Albert Ball VC, DSO(2 bars), MC: from the "first lot", transferred to the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) from the Sherwood Foresters having earlier paid for his own flying training getting this done in the early morning before military duties (having had an engineering interest from an early age).  Although rated an average pilot during training he rose to become one of the top Allied aces of the First World War.  He was killed in action on the evening of 7th May 1917, Lothar von Richtofen (the Red Baron's brother) being credited with shooting him down by the Germans but this is unlikely, it being more probable that Ball crashed after becoming disoriented during the dogfight after flying into a thundercloud.  His final tally was 43 aircraft and one balloon destroyed and several unconfirmed "kills".

Wing Commander Guy Penrose Gibson VC, DSO, DFC: came from a somewhat atypical background, his parents separating when he was only six years old and his mother subsequently a victim of alcoholism. Albert Ball was his boyhood hero. Having initially been rejected by the RAF (possibly for having legs too short!!) he was accepted in November 1936, and, after learning to fly under civilian instructors, he commenced his RAF career in early 1937.  The rest, as they say, is history.  He became arguably the most famous bomber pilot of the Second World War, leading the Dams Raid (Operation "Chastise") in May 1943 (after previously completing 3 tours of operations; interestingly, the middle of these on night fighters with 5 confirmed "kills") and was later killed in action flying a pathfinder De Havilland Mosquito on 19 September 1944.  Having read a bit about him he sounds a somewhat intense sort of character that I, personally, would have had difficulties getting on with (as did a number of his contemporaries) but that is common to many high achievers and he certainly deserves his place here.

CLUB COMPETITION 2013 PHOTOS

As promised, a few photos from today's comps........

"WAM" clears the "fence" at 25L threshold

"WAM" lands under the scrutiny of ground judge, Euan

Striving for the grid

Ladies' Circuits, anyone?

Lindsay in UFS about to touch down

CLUB COMPETITIONS - DAY 1

Saturday 7th September

Well, despite the rather poor weather forecast (showers and westerlies) the competitors and judges managed a full day of flying.  I had entered myself for Senior Landings, Gentlemans' Circuits and Non-instrument Circuits for today and arrived at the club just before 0830 where things were just getting underway.  The wind was around 300ยบ at 7-8 knots (and steadily backing around to the Southwest during the morning) so Grass 25L was our nominated runway for the competitions and the first thing to do was set up the grid.  As the first person there in a suitable vehicle (small SUV) I was volunteered to drive the car onto the airfield to pick up the cones and sheet marker for the landing grid layout and transport them over to 25L (the white sheet is laid out beside the runway at the mid-point of the grid - it is visible from 500' agl - the cones on each side aren't until you are pretty much on the ground!).  Now I know what it is like to be in the Fire Vehicles driving around the field.  Lights and hazards on and driving dead slow looking out for moving aircraft.  The tower asked us to pick up some rogue plastic which was quite near the runway so, having dropped the gear off, I headed down to the western end of the perimeter to pick up what turned out to be a supermarket bag.
Having re-parked the car I donned a high-visibility jacket and took my place on the grid for a bit of ground judging and photography.  The cloud base was around 2500' so marginal for the forced landing comps but the two guys competing in C-172 ZK-WAM went first and completed the exercise despite brushing the clouds (so it seemed from the ground).
After that I was next in "WAM", first to go for Senior Landings with instructor, Andrew as air judge.  This is judged from late downwind with the turn onto base, the speed for the base leg (I had nominated 70Kt) and short finals (65Kt) and then landing as accurately as possible on the runway grid.  Within the central 10 metre length scores 50 points and goes down 10 points per 10 metres short or long of that.  There is an imaginary 1 metre fence at the threshold (40 metres from the first cone marking the start of the grid) that you have to clear as well.  I flew the first approach OK right up to very short final where, as I was a bit high (I thought) I closed the throttle and dropped a little faster that I anticipated and, although I cleared the fence I was short and only just landed on the grid (10/50).  The next approach was much better and the landing near perfect just beyond the centre "cell" for 40 points.  OK, 50% average for those two - will have to wait for the air judges assessment.
After a couple of hours "on the grid" - the weather getting steadily brighter but windier - it was time for the sausage sizzle lunch and then up in the air for non-instrument circuits with air judge, Charlotte.  A fellow blogger, flyinkiwi, has described what this entails in great detail in one of his recent posts so I won't go into it further here.  Briefly, this is a challenging exercise; with the instruments obscured from the left-hand seat one has to fly an accurate circuit and achieve an acceptable landing.  We ended up doing three circuits instead of two as we had to extend a fairly long way upwind after the first touch and go and Charlotte said she would not mark that circuit.  I survived but wasn't too happy with my performance.  Charlotte told me I was consistently high on downwind and I got too slow on short final on the first circuit and was warned about it (a disqualification, perhaps?).
Then, after a bit more time on the grid getting chillier as the wind increased, it was "Gentlemans' Circuits" (sounds as though it should be flown in a vintage aeroplane from the 1920's or 30's such as a Tiger Moth - especially as there is "Ladies' Circuits" as a separate competition).  I think this was my best performance, certainly air judge, Hannah, was quite complimentary, and, also, the wind was getting gustier so I was particularly pleased to have a glimpse at my landing sheet after (it was on the top of the sheath of papers I trotted back to the clubrooms with) - a "30" and a "40" - not bad at all.
So, a tiring but satisfying day.  The first time I have entered the Club Comps and I am not expecting much - just happy to appear to have been competitive. I shall have to wait until the Club Dinner in 4 weeks to find out how well I really did.  I will sort through my snaps shortly and publish a few in a separate post. Tomorrow it is "Bombing" for me (I haven't entered "Liferaft Dropping").  More fun!!