Tailwheel Travails - Lessons Four & Five

I promised more on my ham-fisted attempts to learn to fly a tailwheel aircraft. It's been a while but here we are. In the meantime I've been flying tamer aircraft - ones with the third wheel on the other end. I've also been doing some time in the right hand seat which is fun. Just as an aside: as I understand it there is no "command" seat in the Australian regulations. You just have to be able to reach all required equipment from the seat you are in. But a big word of warning: some people find it relatively easy to fly from the right hand seat and others don't. So until you know and until you are confident in a range of conditions, don't try it without an instructor. I've done a bit now in a range of aircraft and I like it, but I still want more time with an instructor.

So to the tailwheel. This time we've been flying a slightly different version a Zlin Savage Cub, rather than the Classic we were flying before.

First lesson back was a brush up on 3 pointers and general handling, just getting my hand back in really. For those of you new to tailwheel flying the 3 pointer is where all three wheels land at the same time, it's sometimes called a "full stall" landing (though as Langewiesche points out it isn't necessarily stalled on landing). That's because you are doing what you would normally do in a nosewheel aircraft - holding off in a nose up attitude. With a tailwheel aircraft they are basically finished flying when they settle and they have very little tendency to want to bounce or start flying again. They're also generally flying quite slow. That means if anything goes a little squirrelly - as it can - it does so at a slow speed. That's kind of comforting.

The problem is that because you are going so slow you are a bit susceptible to crosswinds. You don't have the lateral control to stop the aircraft from weather-cocking into wind and you may also be a bit prone to wind shear - stopping flying before you planned to!

Langewiesche on this subject says: "The three point landing is not the only way to get an airplane down. It is not even the best way."

This is where the "wheel landing" comes in. The late Pip Borman once told me - in typically blunt Pip style - "If you can't do a wheel landing you can't fly a taildragger". So we moved on to wheelers.

How do you do a wheeler? Not to bore you with the mighty Langewiesche, but he says it better than me:

Coming in with a good deal of speed, break your glide so that the airplane shoots along level, half a foot or a foot above the ground. Then, when the spot arrives at which you want to make ground contact, simply push over forward and "plaster" the front wheels on. Then as you feel the ground, keep right on pressing forward on the stick so as to hold the ship on.

Sounds easy doesn't it? Well it is and it isn't. We started by choosing a higher approach speed and first stage of flaps. That means that the aircraft is in a high lift, modest drag configuration. We came in and did just as the master suggested - flew along level just above the ground using small amounts of thrust as necessary to keep the aircraft airborne. As we reached the end of the strip we powered up and went around. The idea was to learn to control the aircraft in the attitude in which it would land - a flying attitude, and to learn to visualise the actual height we wanted to fly at. It also gave us a chance to judge the inevitable 90 degree crosswind.

Having done that a couple of times we then came around for real. This time the idea was to minimise the sink rate and to kiss the ground. Unlike Langewiesche our idea was to let it settle and then to pin it by pushing the stick forward. The problem of course is that when you do a three pointer you progressively pole back to arrest the sink rate. You can't do that in a wheeler. So instead you have to very finely judge your height and very gently fly it on. That's counter-intuitive to all of us pilots who are used to flying tricycle gear.

So the inevitable happens - you bounce. Not much but you bounce. Here it's a case of just letting it settle again and getting that stick forward. With the stick properly forward, even though you have flying speed, the wing is at zero or negative lift angle of attack. It is "pinned" to the ground. You can get on the brakes quite hard and then slacken off as you slow down.

After a few of these the bounces got less and my judgement improved. Now it was time to go for a full flap wheeler. This meant that to keep the aircraft flying a fair bit of thrust was needed - we were behind the curve. So we came in with plenty of throttle and just held off the ground a few inches. Closing the throttle slightly allowed the aircraft to sink onto the ground and then I just poled forward to hold her there. You can use thrust at this point to maintain control and keep the tail up.

That's the thing about a wheeler, you can just keep pushing forward as the aircraft slows. You need to do that if you want to keep the tail up. As you slow you eventually lose elevator effectiveness the tail gently settles into a three point attitude.

These were fun landings. I really got a kick out of them and I can't wait to do a few more.

The other thing that's happened is that my tricycle undercarriage landings have improved as well. I reckon everyone should have to fly a 'dragger at some point in their training.

Note: Stick and Rudder: An explanation of the art of flying. Wolfgang Langewiesche, McGraw-Hill Inc, 1944, 1972. A book every pilot should read.

Recreational Aviation Governance in Australia

In Australia we have a very effective legislative regime for recreational aviation - what used to be called ultralight aviation. CASA - the safety regulator - has delegated organisations to undertake the management and oversight of recreational aviation.

In the case of traditional ultralight aviation this role is undertaken by Recreational Aviation Australia (RAAus), the old Australian Ultralight Federation. You must be a member of RAAus to exercise the privileges of your pilot certificate.

Rec aviation has become extremely popular and RAAus has grown phenomenally over the last few years. Membership increased 13% in 2006, 12% in 2007, 8% in 2008 and almost 9% in 2009 to stand at around 9,180.

This has created some interesting challenges for RAAus. The two most important challenges that I see are:

• Enhancing governance to reflect the changed scale and nature of the organisation; and
• Ensuring that the activities of the organisation reap the available economies of scale.

Let's look at each of those. RAAus has grown from a small, easily understandable organisation to a large and increasingly complex organisation over recent years. The governance and management demands have changed and with them the demands on management and the Board.

RAAus has a Board of 13 which is elected on a representative basis. This doesn't represent best practise in corporate governance and raises a number of issues:

• The Board is too large to be manageable and effective;
• The Board meets only twice a year - too little to effectively oversight the organisation;
• Representative boards involve a fundamental conflict of interest. Board members have a general responsibility to act always in the best interests of the organisation as a whole. At the same time the voters who elected individual Board members often have regional or sectional interests which may be at odds with the interests of the organisation as a whole (see Note);
• Representative Boards do not ensure that the organisation has the best possible Board members and often lead to a lowest common denominator outcome from elections (see Note)
• Representative Boards do not give the organisation the ability to seek professional directors to serve on the Board. This prevents the Board from effectively ensuring that it has the requisite expertise amongst its membership;

NOTE: To be clear I am not suggesting in any way that any past or present member of the RAAus Board has acted in conflict of interest, nor am I saying that any past or present Board member has represented the lowest common denominator. I am simply highlighting that the current system supports the occurrence of both of those things.

There are further issues of growth which also touch on Board roles and responsibilities. The most important of these is the transition from a Board that is intimately involved in every aspect of the activities of a small organisation to the role of a Board of a larger organisation which must focus on governance and oversight of the activities of the organisation.

An example at RAAus is that the Ops Manual gives Board Members specific powers with respect to operational matters. This is entirely appropriate for a small organisation and increasingly inappropriate for a large, complex organisation (like RAAus) with competent employed staff.

The difficulty with dealing with these issues is that neither the Board, nor membership has any real incentive for tackling them. For the membership, any meaningful change will see a reduction in the representative nature of the Board. For Board members there is that issue and also a reduction in the absolute number of Board members. What is certain is that governance challenges will increase unless action is taken. In that respect CASA has an obligation to seek constitutional change at RAAus as a condition of its continued delegation of oversight to RAAus. At a minimum the required changes are:

• Board elections to change from regional voting to national voting;
• Board to change from 13 elected members to 5 elected members;
• Creation of a selection committee (see next point) to select and appoint 2 professional directors with specific required skills who are not members of RAAus;
• The selection committee would consist of 2 representatives of CASA, 2 members of RAAus not Board Members, and an independent Chair all appointed by the Minister;
• Professional directors would have a two year term with one of the initial appointees to have a 3 year term so that only one appointee is due for replacement in any given year;
• Board meetings to be increased to 10 a year with at least 3 of those face to face;
• Review of the Ops Manual to ensure that Board Members no longer have operational roles unless they hold another role (such as a CFI) that requires operational activities.

These changes are a first and urgent step on the way to improving the governance, Board effectiveness and financial viability of the organisation. These changes will allow for much more effective Board performance, a skilled Board and effective strategic direction and oversight of staff.

Once those changes have been undertaken we will have a Board that is in a position to direct a review of the organisation and its operation. As RAAus has grown there is little evidence that the per unit cost of doing its business has fallen as it should have. This means that too much money is spent on administration (issuing certificates, renewing them, etc) and therefore too little is available for safety, operational and technical oversight and indeed employment of suitably qualified management.

Food for thought for RAAus and CASA

The Days of Christmas - Number 9 - Google Me Dead!

I was just doing some run-of-the-mill tasks in my digital life and I stopped short: how fundamental is Google to the way I run my digital life? How much does Google know about me? How ubiquitous is Google?

The answers to those questions are really something to make you pause for thought. Hands up if you have never used Google or any of its services. I bet there isn't a single hand up, in fact there can't be - you are reading this blog by kind favour of Google, they offer the service that I use.

My guess is that Google "knows" more about you than any other organisation or person in the whole world (please read the NB at the bottom of this post). They have your email running through their systems, they have your thoughts on their blogging system, they "know" what you search for; if you use Latitude they "know" where you are; if you use Google maps on a GPS equipped device, they "know" where you are...

There is another side to this though. Google is pretty fundamental to my digital life:

• If you want to read RSS on the iPhone, in my view the simplest way is to manage your RSS feeds in Google Reader and read them on the iPhone in something like Newsstand. That's what I do and it's fast and simple. But of course Google "know" what RSS feeds I subscribe to;
• The quickest way to search the web on the iPhone is with the Google iPhone app. I use it every day, and I like the way it also gives me direct access to Google apps. But you know the tagline here...;
• Here's one for the pilots. Do you want a simple, cheap (free), flight tracking app for your iPhone? As long as you are in mobile range Google Latitude does that for you. You can make your friends aware of your exact location...and Google of course;
• Google Calendar is the best way of managing shared calendars, if like me you don't have a corporate network and calendar server. The functionality is good and the iPhone calendar app allows you to synchronise direct. Now they "know" what I'm doing and when and probably with who!!
• The best thing about Gmail is IMAP. That makes life so simple if you access your mail from multiple devices. It keeps everything nicely synced and once you've read an item in one place, every other place knows its been read. Very nice...and a great reason to let Google "know" what you are saying to who;
• Google Maps is just about the most used app on my iPhone. Where's a particular shop, show me a picture of the front door of that address, show me the way to go home, show me the traffic on the way...But in a way it's the most worrying. Do I want a picture of my front door on the internet for all to see?

That's just a sample but you get the idea, there's also Earth, and YouTube that I use a bit.

So my bottom line is that Google makes my life a hell of a lot easier than it might otherwise be. I do have genuine concerns however about the information that I "give" to Google in return. It's the same old story. Your concern about that is going to be directly related to your view of Google. If you see them as a benign force for good, then you probably aren't concerned that they "know" about you. If you see them as like any other corporate titan then you are probably substantially more concerned.

NB: Please be aware that I am NOT suggesting that Google pries into your email, your search history or any other information about you. Nor am I suggesting that they do anything improper with the information which flows through their systems. I simply don't know what if anything they do with that data. My point is that all of this information flows through their systems and is capable of being used in a way that you may not care for.

The Days of Christmas - Number 8 - Live to Fly Another Day

Changing subjects entirely for this day of Xmas: Human Factors in Aviation.

If I have one thing I'd like to see in 2010 it's for all of us who fly light aircraft to realise that it's us, and generally us alone who cause crashes, and then to act to fix that. It was this realisation that spurred the whole development of Human Factors and CRM in heavy aircraft flying. It's long overdue that we get the same benefit in light aviation. Sadly we still get human factors derived crashes in RPT operations. This recent crash in Vanuatu is an example. The pilot flew the Islander about 7% overweight and misjudged the aircraft's climb performance and its clearance from a ridge. Realising that he would not clear the ridge he slowed the a/c and tried to land amongst the heavy timber. The pilot and one passenger died and there were some serious injuries amongst the other pax. Weather does not appear to have been a factor.

I think that, at the initial and commercial training level, too much emphasis is placed on "human factors" such as how your ears work and how altitude affects us. Not enough emphasis is placed on decision making, situational awareness and threat and error management.

Try this: think of the last 3 aviation accidents that you have personal experience of or which you know well. Now ask yourself "what was the underlying cause of that accident?" I think it will be a salutary experience. Rarely if ever will the primary cause be structural or mechanical failure. Yes engine failures do happen. But a fair proportion of those are due to things like fuel starvation or exhaustion - both almost always down to human factors.

One recent ATSB report appears at first glance to be a structural failure. However closer reading suggests that other factors, human factors, probably played the major role.

I can't think of a single crash that I have seen or known about that wasn't driven by the person at the controls.

To understand that is really important. It means something vital for my safety and for your safety: If we are the cause of our crashes, then we can do something about not becoming a statistic. If we change the way we manage threats and errors and we enhance our own situational awareness and the way we manage situations then we are less likely to be the subject of a crash report. I reckon that's something worth doing.

If you want to explore HF further then here's a simple starting point. Google will find plenty more for you.

Stay safe and live to fly another day.

Coastwise

Tuesday was a beautiful day, nice and sunny, hot and with a ESE breeze to keep us cool. My daughter and I decided to go down to the coast and cruise about to see the sights. That also involved navigating around a CTA step - 1500-5000.

The first leg was at 2,500 and it was a little bumpy, nothing major but just enough to let you know that summer is here. Our first turning point was a bit of an inconsequential hill. From there we went direct Torquay and then coastwise towards the Rip. It was the perfect flight for a perfect day.

The sight of the water however made my daughter speculate about flying to Tasmania. Now there's an old saying that computer games are for those who don't have the imagination to fly a tail dragger. Well all I can say is that thoughts of flying Bass Strait in a single engine light aircraft are for those who have never experienced up close, cold and wet.

I've made that trip a few times on small sailing vessels. Once we got caught in a SE gale and spent 8 hours hove to and wondering whether the next ship would run us down. It's not pleasant. We do it for fun but who knows why?

Soon enough it was time to turn and head for home. The return trip was just as good, we hit the airstrip straight off - how's that for navigation we said.

The icing on the cake was that the thermals got my daughter late on final and into the flare. She didn't make a perfect landing like she usually does. There is a god!

How is it that a little flight like that gives you so much pleasure?

The Privileges of Parenthood

It's interesting how you learn things about yourself. Don't tell anyone, but I've just worked out that I have some control freak tendencies. Only in certain areas mind you.

It was a beautiful day yesterday, not too hot - probably low 20s, and only a little veil of high cirrus in places. My daughter and I were set to go off flying for a couple of hours. The idea being that she would be PIC (that's pilot speak for Pilot in Command) for one leg and I would be PIC for the next. She did the flight plan and the walk around and the first leg was hers. I found myself sitting in the right hand seat fidgeting and squirming. She is a very good pilot, it wasn't about that, it's just that...well I don't know what it was really. I suspect I just like to be in charge!

We had a lovely flight north to YBDG, did a couple of practice go-arounds, and landed. But not before I'd been sharply told to hold my peace in the circuit - thank you!

We had a comfort stop and I did the walk around before setting off. She-in-the-right-seat is a very good map reader and navigator. She wasn't in the least bit impressed with my course holding or my attention to navigation. I felt like I was flying in the LH seat for the first time and that I had a crusty old QANTAS captain in the right hand seat. I was urged to return to my course a couple of times and generally had a strong sense that I wasn't performing to impress.

I finally did manage to find the destination - I don't know how, given all my failings, and then I stuffed it up and had to do a go around! The second time around I managed to get the aircraft somewhere near the ground. That of course meant that I had to land it - another thing which, in the opinion of the RH seat, I am sorely deficient at doing. However this time I pulled off a gentle touch down which literally caused raised eyebrows from the other seat.

Perhaps my skills are improving and one day she will be satisfied!

Seriously though this is really enjoyable flying. We each have pretty high expectations of ourselves and of each other. Flying together pushes each of us to perform better and to push for ever better standards.

This isn't about showing off to each other - far from it. In fact it's about learning from each other and striving to operate safely and to a high standard. It's one of the privileges of fatherhood that I thoroughly enjoy.

Don't Pull!

When I started to learn to fly gliders, over 35 years ago, I had drummed into me the importance of avoiding a spin from the final turn. It was a not uncommon happening and pilots were killed regularly. The conventional wisdom was that it happened when you were low and slow, when you were trying to stretch your glide. You tried just a little too hard, maybe used a little too much rudder as the nose began to drop through the turn and voila you had stalled.

Recently I had a box seat as someone pulled hard turning final. I watched the airspeed decay and saw the stick approaching the "stall stick" position. I called "watch you airspeed" then when I got no response I said "don't pull, watch your airspeed". Finally when there was still no positive action I "pushed" and the pilot then responded positively.

This was a powered aircraft. We were neither low nor slow when it started and there were no other factors that would have generated a need to "pull". It was a shallow turn, balanced, and there was no sudden sink. So why did the pilot pull like they were in a 60 degree bank, and why did they seem so unresponsive to the situation?

A friend recounted a similar story to me. He is vastly experienced, has been flying almost as long as I've been alive, and the story was almost exactly the same, albeit the reaction was quicker.

So why did they do it? I'm certain that there was no ground reference illusion stuff happening, despite the FAA's fondness for the concept. This was plain and simple: they had the aim point firmly in the centre of their attention, they were neither low nor slow and yet they pulled, and pulled hard enough to matter.

I expect the aircraft to be sinking at that stage, all the way from base turn to landing, the aircraft is sinking. It's losing 1000' usually during that period and I expect that to continue during the turn to final. It appeared to me that the pilot was having none of that, they wanted the aircraft to fly a level turn and they pulled to get it.

Is there something strange happening out in training land that I've missed? Don't people subscribe to the three As of final approach: Airspeed, Aspect, Aimpoint? Aren't they aware of the stall stick position and the importance of never getting there - especially turning final? Don't they practice descending turns? Don't they think about using power to manage descent rate?

I'd love to hear what you think about this. I'm becoming convinced that it's not just "low and slow" as the conventional wisdom would have it.

iPhone for Pilots - ThinkDigits

ThinkDigits is a great application if you're a pilot. What's more, it's the brainchild of a very smart guy in Melbourne - made in Australia! Initially it's hard to describe what ThinkDigits is, partly because it's an entirely new class of application as far as I can tell.

I think the best way to describe ThinkDigits is as a "mind-mapping calculator". You create mind maps which are actually "flows" of calculations or "calculation models". This is quite interesting in itself because it lays out the logic of solving the problem in a visual fashion so that you can think through it. What's more it's easier to audit than an Excel spreadsheet and easier to use.

The simplest way to show you what ThinkDigits does is to work through an example. My first example is calculating crosswind component - let's imagine you get the ATIS and think "ooh that's a big number". You'll more than likely be interested in knowing the crosswind component. There are of course rules of thumb for doing that and the whizz wheel but ThinkDigits does it pretty nicely as well.

First I created three "bubbles" to take the data inputs: Rwy direction; wind direction; and wind speed. You create these bubbles by typing a number in the keypad and then dragging the result to the page. Then you can format and label the bubble. In order to update the value in a bubble you simply type a new value in the keypad and drag it over your existing bubble.

OK we've now got our data values, now we want to calculate the answer, which in this case is the crosswind component.There are a number of steps to do in order to get there. ThinkDigits has a wide range of functions built in, including trig functions. My first step was to created a simple "calculation bubble" which subtracted rwy direction from wind direction. To do this I "dragged" the function key across to the page and in the menu that popped up I selected the function (subtraction) and the various format options I wanted. Once the calculation bubble was ready I simply dragged wind direction across to it and when the bubble "pulsed" I released the wind direction bubble. A window opened and I selected which "slot" in the calculation I wanted that value to fit into (the first one). I did the same for the rwy direction but attached it to the second slot. The calculation bubble now showed me the "relative" wind direction. Next I created a new calculation bubble to convert the relative wind direction in degrees into radians. This was simply a matter of creating the bubble, selecting the radians function and connecting my last calculation bubble as the input. Each calculation bubble shows the current result of the calculation it's doing.

Next step was to calculate the sine of the relative wind direction - another calculation bubble and join the radians bubble to it. Finally a cacluation bubble for the "answer". This bubble is labelled "Crosswind" and it takes the wind strength and the sine of the relative wind direction and multiplies them. Giving a crosswind component in knots with negative values for left crosswinds.

I like it because I now have a little visual calculation page that doesn't strain my tiny mind. I have bubbles for each of the three required inputs and I simply put the values into those bubbles and I get my answer.

What you can't see in this screenshot is the the intermediate bubbles that calculate relative wind direction, convert it to radians and calculate the sine. They are all there - you can see the connectors running off the page - and you can scroll to them with one flick if needed!

I've constructed a similar page for headwind/tailwind component and I'm working on one for density altitude.

The punch line to a long winded story is that I really like Thinkdigits. It appeals to my visual nature, it's much more powerful than you first think and it is simple to use. What's more it now has a facility that allows you to share your models with other ThinkDigits users. You can find ThinkDigits in the app store and their homepage is here.

Death & Destruction - Update

In this post I set out the poor performance of New Zealand's transport accident investigator. That was on 6 September. Somebody must have read it because on 9 September this article based on an interview with Bevan's family was published.

Shortly thereafter I was informed that the TAIC has promised the final report on 1 October. I'll keep you posted.

Round and round, round and round...

It's part of every pilot's life - flying circuits. When you start your training you go off and do straight and level, climbing and descending, turns... but what you are really waiting for is to get back into the circuit and start going...round and round.

By the time you have gone solo you are sick of going round and round, and then after solo find yourself doing some more of it! It's one of the things that doesn't go away, it's there the whole time you are a pilot.

I've come to love flying circuits. The transformation happened at some stage during my training and it's stayed with me. I remember one beautiful evening, the sun low in the sky, the convective disarray of the day all but gone, flying 500' circuits and practising engine failures. I would climb to 500' and then at some random spot close the throttle and glide back to land. I suddenly realised that I had become "good enough" at this that it was fun. It wasn't a burden and in fact it was Zen-like in its simplicity and pleasure. Some circuits I would glide in, turning, turning, almost below hangar height to roll the wings level just as I touched down half way up the strip. On others I would bring the aircraft in with a steep sideslip and straighten things out just in time to flair. I could have gone on and on but the light intervened. The last landing was like feeling for your slippers on a dark morning...I know the runway is just here somewhere, hold her off, hold her off...I knew it was there!

I used to go and practice forced landings on a little dirt strip. It had a few little quirks. On final at the north end there were a couple of large trees, you needed to work out ahead of time which side you would fly of each tree. The strip was pretty short and had another little trap. Just in the touchdown zone at the north end the strip fell away about 30-40' quite suddenly. You would flair and then realise that you were getting higher and higher off the ground! The idea was to come in very close to the end of the strip and try to get down on the ground before the strip dropped away. The problem was that the fence was exactly on the threshold of the strip! It was marked with some white rags, and just waited there for the unwary.

The process went something like this: Cut the power overhead, aim for base point at 1000' then turn final at 500' (but you were always lower). The ground fell towards the strip so you would leave the first tree to the right as you turned final, leave the second tree to the left, aim for the threshold, using everything but power to get the aircraft to the right spot. Watch that fence, in fact watch it all the way until it passed safely under your wheels and then concentrate on getting the aircraft down on the ground. Now go and do it again!

The other thing about circuits is that you only get one landing per circuit (none of us bounce our landings do we?) so in that way it's like practicing a golf swing. You hit the ball and if you get it wrong you have to do it all over again, you can't correct it after its gone.

There's a new aircraft on line where I sometimes fly so this week I went with my daughter and we both got signed off in it. It was a beautiful day and the grass airstrip looked so enticing. We both have quite a few hours in this aircraft type so it was a bit of a formality. My daughter hadn't flown for a few weeks so it was a chance for her to brush up. She is the master of the landing. She has beautiful hands and feet for a pilot, a really deft touch and all of her "ground proximity" flying is a pleasure to watch. I on the other hand could best be described as "agricultural" in my flying. It works but it sometimes ain't pretty!

Flying the Savage Classic though has done wonders for my landings. They are much softer and more graceful than they were, not at all the arrivals they can be. My daughter on the other hand stuffed up her first landing. This reversal of fortune was so unusual that I gleefully filed it away for future use!

It was only the one landing that she stuffed up however. After we'd each flown a few circuits (what do you call them in North America?) we happily headed home. She said thoughtfully, reflecting on her few weeks break from flying "you don't ever forget, it's just that you need some practice". That's what currency is about I guess.

Picture credit: Wikimedia Commons pic by Sciacchitano

iPhone for Pilots - Pocket Weather

Yes I know that you can get the weather through NAIPS, but there are a few other things you can't get there - like the BOM weather radar. That's where Pocket Weather (AU) comes in. It's from Shifty Jelly and costs $2.49 or free for the lite version. Pay the money!

This is the main screen - a weekly forecast for the location of your choice. The "Locations" button at the top left takes you to a view that allows you to choose an existing location or to set up a new location from any of the sites that the BOM has data for. You can choose which sites you want the forecast, observations and radar from and then save the choice - it appears on the Locations page as a choice.

In the main page the little icon with a green "i" in it gives you a pop up with the detailed forecast for that day and if there are any warnings then a red icon with a "!" in it appears - clicking the icon again gives the details. The radar icon on the centre right gives access to the animated BOM weather radar that you chose in the Locations set up for this location.

Clicking the "Radars" button on this screen allows you to choose the range of the radar and if there is doppler wind radar at that site you can choose that as well.

Back on the Locations screen you also have buttons for National Radars that gives you access to a composite national radar, an animated synoptic chart and an animated satellite view. You also have a tides button that allows you to choose a location for which you want the tides - the view is a very nice tide graph that includes sunrise and sunset as well as tide height. Landing on the beach anyone?

I think Pocket Weather is the bees knees, there's lots more in there than I've discussed including a choice of four skins - shake the iPhone to change them. The thing for me is that it's a great situational awareness tool. Often when you are flying VFR you want to know things like "how fast is that crap moving in from the west?" or "what's behind this current belt of showers?". Pocket Weather is ideal for that sort of question. Have a look at it - you'll probably like it!

Death and Destruction

If you look around the aviation world you find a strange phenomenon: many of us pore over accident reports like ghouls. Indeed in places like Australia the authorities publish what is jokingly known as the "Crash Comic". I you look over here at Aviatrix you will find that she not infrequently talks about the results of crash investigations. I'm a sometimes compulsive reader of both aviation and marine accident investigation reports.

The reason for all this interest is to understand what happened and to ensure that it never happens to us! Accident investigation has also been useful in pointing the way for aviation safety. For instance the focus on human factors, CRM and the like was born out of a growing understanding that it was the human in the cockpit who was the weak link in many occurrences.

Most countries have an organisation that is mandated by legislation to carry out the investigation and reporting function. Increasingly in recent years these organisations have moved to having multi-modal responsibility, rather than just aviation.

New Zealand has the Transport Accident Investigation Commission to do this work. As TAIC's name suggests it had multi-modal responsibility. It's purpose (according to its Statement of Intent 2009-2012) is:

The Commission’s purpose, as set out in its Act, is to determine the circumstances and causes of aviation, rail and maritime accidents and incidents to avoid similar occurrences in the future.

What it doesn't mention in that purpose, and indeed anywhere else I can find is the most important word "timely". I don't know whether this is chicken or egg: either the Commission doesn't mention timely because it is not part of its brief (and it should be); or it doesn't mention timely because it would be embarrassing. And embarrassed the Commission should be.

New Zealand has a small population, estimated at just over 4 million last year by the CIA. The TAIC has currently 49 accident investigations for which it has not yet published a report. Some of those date back to 2005. As far as I can determine it published only one aviation accident report in 2008 and none so far this year.

It's no use reporting on accidents years after they happen. Mainly because the "same" accident could happen again, and maybe again whilst we are waiting for the report. Accident investigation and reporting is time consuming and often cannot be rushed. However it does not appear as if the TAIC has even subscribed to the increasingly common approach of publishing an "interim factual report" 1 month after the accident. Australia, the UK and the US all seem to be doing this now. At least it gives us something to go on.

Number 35 on the TAIC's list of accidents under investigation is the accident that killed my cousin. On 17 February 2008 he was killed when the aircraft he was flying collided in mid-air with a helicopter. Both occupants of the helicopter were also killed. My cousin was 17 years old.

The TAIC has slipped the date that it says it will deliver the accident report at least 3 times that I know of. His grandmother expected to have a report in March of this year. No report. Indeed this morning the Commission's website says:

Report unlikely to be completed before: Aug 2009

Well they're at least right about something, given that it's now September 6.

Why can't the TAIC get off its backside and clear its backlog? Maybe it lacks the staff, maybe it lacks the will, maybe it lacks the management capability that it needs to lead a decent response. I have no idea. What I do know is that it's about time it got on with its job in a timely way for the sake of all of the people who might be affected, the families, the pilots and mariners and train drivers and not least the travelling public.

iPhone for Pilots - NAIPS for iPhone

This post will be one of several on this theme, and it's unashamedly focused on Aussie pilots. Others may find it useful but the applications I talk about will be Australian. There's plenty of info on US applications elsewhere.

The first application I want to talk about is of the "you can't leave home without it" variety. In fact I think that's literally true if you have an iPhone. It's called NAIPS and its written by Rowan Williamson. Search for it on the App Store.

This application gives you access to most of the functionality of NAIPS on your iPhone. The interface is nice and clean and the application is fast and simple to use.

This is the main screen for a location briefing. All of the elements from this screen will be familiar to people who use the web version of NAIPS - except for the button labelled "Common". This is one of the great things about the app - it remembers where you've been and you can just click and load past locations. In just the same way as you can with NAIPS you can type in a location (YMML for instance) or a forecast area (30, 21 whatever) in each cell. When the briefing comes up you can choose to save it. Again a really nice piece of functionality that allows you to quickly access often used briefings. You will need your own username and password for NAIPS. This is free and simple from Airservices Australia.

When you retrieve the saved briefing you have the option of clicking the update button to get a current version of the saved briefing. The application does support sideways viewing so you can get the full width and bigger text. (What do they call that sideways viewing on the iPhone?)

There's lots more including an alternates briefing. But simply do yourself a favour and go and spend the $7.99 AUD. It will be the best money you've ever spent.

Rowan is working on the capability to submit flightplans from NAIPS. That will be absolutely the icing on the cake!

Rowan's website.

Footnote: I see from visiting Rowan's site that the first part of the flightplan submission functionality should be available any day and that there's some exciting new stuff with charts coming.

The way a day should be!

Tuesday was a dodgy sort of day in Melbourne. As I headed for the airport at 0700 it was raining and looking generally crap. Check in was easy and Sherry - the captain on the flight - did a good job of getting us to Sydney, smoothly and on time.

During our descent we popped out of the cloud at around 8,800' and serendipitously just about over the little airstrip I was eventually heading for. That made me feel positive about our chances of flying. The ARFOR was for a trough to approach from the west with showers, rain, low cloud ahead of it. Maybe some TSRA.

When we got on the ground in Sydney it was raining and the vis progressively worsened. Maybe this wasn't going to work. The weather radar (search on the Apple App Store for Pocket Weather AU if you are in Aussie) showed a great band of rain across the Southern Highlands but it was clearing to the east and appeared to have nothing following it.

An hour later and we were at the Mittagong airstrip (YMIG). Its 06/24 1200 metres of sealed strip at an elevation around 1,840 feet with a row of hangars. It was a WWII training strip and is now run by the Berrima district aero club.

The surrounds are a little tricky - the strip is in a hollow with higher ground in several directions. The wind favoured 06 but with a left cross wind. Final approach to 06 has some high ground so you sort of follow the terrain down as you approach. I tended to aim well into the strip as there was a little curl over going on final with some sink.

I love flying the Storm Century 5XL - it's a wonderful aircraft, a LSA with a cruise in excess of 120 knots TAS. It handles so smoothly and responsively, a great roll rate and very light control forces.

First flight we headed off for some upper air work, stalls, steep turns and a general fly about. There was scattered cloud at about 5,000' so we stayed just under that and had a barrel of fun!!

Returning to the strip was a little different. Some mechanical turbulence, a little sink and some xwind. Nothing major but enough to make you fly the aircraft.

The next flight was in a way even more fun. My passenger just loved the aircraft, after we had been flying around for a bit we headed back and then he said "can we just keep doing this for a while longer?". A man after my own heart - there's nothing better than just flying around (except perhaps, as Rattie said, messing about it boats).

Finally however we had to pack it in and get into the car to head back to Sydney airport. I managed to change my flight so that I left almost as soon as we got to the airport. 80 minutes later I was back in Melbourne. So from YMML in the morning and back to YMML in the evening all within 12 hours with some great flying at Mittagong in the meantime.

Isn't that how every day is supposed to be?

Tailwheel Travails - Lesson Two

We've been put off a number of times by the rubbish weather - wind, rain, more wind.
It looked as though this was going to be another miss. The forecast was 18G32 with a front coming through from the west. When I first arrived it wasn't flyable - a nasty squall line from the NW and the wind just as forecast. We waited a while and there, miraculously was a clear spot.
I started up, taxied to the run-up bay and then down to the end of the runway. "You're taxiing pretty well" from the back seat. Well thanks for that, all of a sudden I feel like I can taxi this demon! Two things contribute to the sudden improvement: first I always look over the nose and don't let anything continue that I haven't specifically instigated and approved. Second I work on the basis that this aircraft will keep doing whatever it's doing and probably do more of it unless I stop it. So when I start a taxi turn I don't use much rudder and then I give it some counter rudder to keep things seemly. All of a sudden my taxiing appears half professional.
Lined up on the runway, open the throttle, tail up and we're airborne. The problem is that out of apparently nowhere there's a squall line obscuring the far end of the runway. We turn immediate left and by the time we are at 500 feet the strip has disappeared behind us. There'll be no circuits today and we may miss our lunch!! Away to the west we can see for miles but to the NW it is completely closed in with a big ugly squall line.
We climb and do a couple of practice forced landings. With the wind at 1,500' blowing about 35 knots all the action takes place right above the intended paddock. The Classic instills absolute confidence in these situations. This is proper flying, the best fun you can have sitting in an aircraft. You know when you are sitting in an aircraft and it is so responsive and predictable that you can set all thoughts of flying and deciding aside and just do it? You don't have to think, you don't have to second guess the aircraft you just execute the plan. That's what forced landings are like in the Classic - the thought is the deed and everything goes how you intended it to.
Meanwhile the squall line is getting thicker and heavier. We are in no danger - in fact we are in clear, smooth air, with the sun shining and able to see for miles to the west. We've got a handful of alternative places to roost - local strips, other airports - so we don't even feel anxious except that our lunch will be getting cold!
We decide to explore the flank and the back of the squall line just to see how thick it is. Wherever we go we stay away from the cloud and make sure our back door is firmly propped open. We wander around the back and side of the line, looking for a way forward. At one point it looks like we can run straight home, but as we proceed it becomes clear that the cloud and rain have completely blanked off the ground where we want to go. We roll around in a lazy turn and head for the sunshine again. Our tanks have plenty of fuel and the flying is such good fun anyway. There is no hurry, no anxiety...except that we hope someone has put our lunch in the oven!
As we loiter on the flank we see another hole appearing. We can get in but leave our back door wide open. We slow down and drift downwind staying in the clear area. A couple of turns to slow us down and then there ahead of us the hangars and airstrip. The downwind end of the strip is still wreathed in rain and cloud but it's clearing by the second. We join and set off downwind. As we do the last of the squall line moves away and we make a flapless approach. This strip is notorious for a bit of a curl over on final in this kind of wind. Apart from a couple of little gusts it's all pretty placid, into the flare, and as I touch down a crosswind gust gets under one wing. I counter with some aileron, a little bounce and we're down. I concentrate for the taxi and realise I can still do even that.
This has got to be the best flying I can remember for a long time. Pure flying for the sake of flying, in an aircraft that makes me grin widely just thinking about it.
The best bit: two plates of lunch, covered with foil sitting nicely in the oven keeping warm!! I'll be back for more - flying the Classic that is.
Part 1 of Tailwheel Travails and a brief review of the Classic.

Slow Travel

For once everything had gone to plan. Melbourne - Hong Kong a brief stopover and then Hong Kong - Rome overnight. This is my favourite flight - arriving at either 0650 or 0710 depending on the season. Uncharacteristically I'd managed a good night's sleep on the flight and arrived feeling rested. I'd also begun to perfect the skill of travelling slow and I arrived feeling not only fresh but relaxed.
The crisp January morning was something of a shock - stepping out of heat stricken Melbourne into single digit Rome was challenging. I drifted through the airport with barely a nod from immigration and disinterest from anyone else. A short wait and onto the Leonardo Express. It always reminds me of the North Coast Mail - the train that used to rumble down the North Coast of NSW collecting blokes with beer, sheilas with dogs and various others with bongs and dope. The Leonardo Express lacks the colour and the carriages are better but it still rattles and shakes and the engine sounds just like the Mail.

Roma Termini is a favourite of mine, despite its fascist style and the pay to pee loos; it has something about it. The early morning winter light, the steaming breathes of the passengers and the bustle. I bought a ticket on the all stops to Naples then grabbed a coffee and slice for breakfast. Life was looking up and soon enough we were on the track again. The trip to Priverno-Fossanova was only 50 minutes and then I was met with warm greetings by an old friend.
It was 2 years since we had seen each other so there was plenty to talk about. First stop was the factory to check on progress but soon enough the familiar question: Mangiamo? Why not? For some reason we never discuss where we're going for lunch. Giovanni decides and off we go. I know where we're going when we get there.
After 30 or so minutes we arrive at a little restaurant. It's beside a drainage canal and set amongst open fields. In the '30s this area was drained, on Mussolini's orders, and turned from swamp to productive farmlands. Wherever you travel on this little coastal strip the drainage canals are a reminder of this.
We parked the car and strolled in the bright winter sunshine for 100 metres to the grass airstrip. Two people were lying in the sun near a little airplane waiting for us. Giovanni introduced them: "This is Giovanna and Mauro." I shook hands and then realised that I had seen this aircraft before. In December 2 years ago I had seen this aircraft in the factory with "Giovanna e Mauro" scrawled on the firewall in marker pen. "He delivered it to us on 24 December" they said, nodding towards Giovanni.
We strolled arm in arm to the restaurant and ate a leisurely lunch. Giovanna and Mauro had travelled in Australia. We talked about the world, business, flying, life, Italy, food and the difficulty of being married to American women. Finally the lowering sun made it necessary to make a move.
We strolled back to the airstrip. This leg back to Roma was Giovanna's turn in the left seat. They strapped in, taxied out and ran up for departure.

Then out of nowhere a Hughes 500D arrived to disturb the peace, make several approaches, hold up departure and then leave.

Finally they departed climbing away in the broad sweeping turn into the soft light of the winter afternoon and we walked off to the car. This set the tone for the next 2 weeks, work, food, friends and flying. Only in Italy.

Zlin Savage Classic - First Impressions

I flew the Classic a week or two ago - it's a copy of the old Piper Cub.

The one pictured was a photo I took in Italy, the one I flew was in Australia. They were initially designed in Italy I believe and are now manufactured by Zlin in the Czech Republic. In Australia this has been called the Savage Cub but it is officially the Savage Classic.

They are sold as a Light Sport Aircraft in Australia. MTOW in LSA config is 560kg which gave about 263kg of useful load.

The aircraft is powered by the Rotax 912ULS and has a Woodcomp wood grain style prop.

The first impression is of a very, very well constructed and finished aircraft that's great fun to fly. It's very simple - a small, well laid out panel, with an XCom radio slung under the edge of the panel.

Stick is central, throttle is to the left, just where your arm/hand fall. Below that towards floor level is the flap lever it's the old "handbrake" style. It requires a little effort to pull flaps on, but the biggest issue for me was being able to reach it. To quote the man at the clothes shop (Henry Bucks for the Melbournians) I have "a long back, short arms and a fat neck". So I found that when the seat was all the way back - which I needed - I had to loosen my left shoulder strap in order to be able to (just) reach the flap lever.

At middle height on the left and back beside the seat is the trim - a toothed quadrant with a lever on it. Pull the lever towards you, pull or push to set and then let it go and it engages with the teeth and stays where you put it. Trim was quite aggressive - one notch at normal cruise made a big difference.

I'm a novice tail wheel pilot so ground handling was an initial challenge. However visibility is very good and after a while it all began to fall into place. The toe brakes are very effective.

Once at the end of the runway it was simply a case of feeding in power, gently picking up the tail and we were flying. I have no idea at what speed - my eyes were fixed on the end of the runway - but I would guess at something between thirty and forty knots. Acceleration was very quick at close to MTOW. First stage flaps were used for take off and Vfe is 60 knots for first stage and 50 knots for full flaps.

Climb after flap retraction was 60 knots and about 850fpm. The nose was sitting just below the horizon and the fun was really starting. This aircraft translates every action to the seat of your pants. Great fun to fly.

Levelling off the first thing that takes some getting used to is the very low nose attitude for S&L. The horizon is well up the screen by the time you are settled into your 85 knot cruise at 4900rpm or so.

Slow flight simply required increasing back pressure until finally the Classic stopped flying with the needle hovering somewhere between 20 and 25 knots. This aircraft was equipped with VGs and they are tremendously effective. I think that the speed was pretty accurate and not the result of positional error at the high AOA.

Wing drop was virtually non-existent and buffet was similarly all but absent. The aircraft is very well behaved at the stall but not telling you too much either.

Turns require a little rudder and very little back pressure for even moderately steep turns. Again the tendency is to climb until you get used to the low nose attitude. Visibility is great with the centre section of the wing having a perspex panel.

Returning to the field the aircraft was remarkably loathe to lose height and we used a couple of moderate descending turns to soak up some height. The Cub showed no sign of wanting to drop its nose or tighten the turn - all very placid.

It was in the circuit that the aircraft showed its true colours. It is docile, highly predictable and well behaved. Approaching base turn we cut the throttle and as the needle dropped past 60 knots we put out first stage flaps. Trim fairly far back - and now the trim is much less sensitive - and the aircraft sat solid as a rock at 60 knots. Easy to manage and not at all busy.

Indeed the one thing that I found unusual was that there was no sense that this was a draggy aircraft - this despite the various struts and bracing wires. It didn't require heaps of height or power to keep it flying.

Turning final we slowed to 50 knots and got full flaps out. Trim almost right back and again the aircraft is highly stable. However there was no sense of high sink rate - unlike a Tecnam in this configuration.

Over the threshold round out, throttle closed and just keep coming back on the stick. My first landing - with some encouragement from the back seat - was an absolute greaser of a three pointer. And that's the only landing I'm telling about!!

Again I have no idea about the speed I landed but the aircraft was easily managed on roll out with little dabs of rudder to keep it tracking. The one thing that got me on a couple of my landings was the fact that you are actually sitting quite high up. I kept thinking the ground was further away than it actually was.

I had the very strong impression that this is an aircraft that would really respond when you wanted to squeeze it into a little, rough strip somewhere. Even on a first flight I felt like I was really communicating with and being communicated to by the aircraft. Just the kind of thing that would inspire confidence if you are near the limits.

Overall first flight impressions: A simple aircraft that's really nicely built and finished. You could have a very great deal of fun in this aircraft. It reminded me so much of the very simple aircraft of the past. No fancy instrument panels, everything simple and manual. An absolute joy to fly.

I'll have one to sit in the hangar alongside the long distance cruiser that flies 40 knots faster. That really is the only downside - unless you count not being able to see your significant other whilst you are flying along.

This is the manufacturer's site: Zlin Savage Classic