Owen Zupp and Jabiru J230D

On today’s Flying Podcast we’ve got a pilot from ‘down under’. That’s Owen Zupp.
A couple of years ago, Owen flew a single engine light aircraft around Australia. I remember hearing about Owen’s exploits on the great Australian aviation podcast Plane Crazy Down Under so when Owen contacted me offering to come on to the podcast I jumped at the opportunity.
For his day job, Owen is a 737 pilot for a major Australian commercial airline company - no prizes for guessing who that might be - but in his spare time he puts his passion for aviation to good use. Not only has Owen written a book on a WWII RAF pilot but he’s also flown a Jabiru aeroplane around his homeland in order to raise money for an excellent cause; that being the Royal Flying Doctor Service. As these adventures spike my interest, it was primarily this project that I wanted to talk to Owen about.

Listen to Episode 55

First up though, I asked Owen about his flying background. With both of his parents in the RAAF and his dad flying over 200 missions in the Korean War, it’s hardly surprising that Owen developed a love of flying from an early age. He went solo at 16 years of age and started his career in aviation as a charter pilot, flying instructor and various other posts before finding his way into the airlines; starting work with Ansett.

In 2010 his plan to fly around Australia came to fruition. He’d long been planning the trip and it coincided nicely with the 100th anniversary of powered flight in Australia, incidentally flown by Harry Houdini. Owen also wanted to promote aviation in his homeland and, at the same time, highlight its accessibility to the general public who often, like here in the UK, see it as an elitist activity. In order to make the whole project an Australian affair he decided to use the Jabiru J230, built at Bundaberg. En route, Owen would be raising funds for the RFDS, the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Here in the UK it’s hard to imagine how important a service this is for those living in the more remote places of Australia. All in all he’s raised over $10,000 for the RFDS; so a wonderful contribution to this essential service.

Owen with Jabiru and RAAF FA-18

Owen says that he picked the Jabiru as it was designed and built in Bundaberg, Queensland. And not only that; Bundaberg was the home town of one of Owen’s boyhood heros - Bert Hinkler. If you’ve never heard of Bert Hinkler his story is a truly fascinating one. If you have a spare moment, Google ‘Bert Hinkler’ and check out his incredible life in aviation.

The Jabiru J230D is a factory built aircraft. It shares the airframe with the 4 seat J430 but, as the 230 has only 2 seats, it has plenty of room for the baggage required for Owen’s long distance jaunt. As you can imagine, such a trip over largely uninhabited areas or indeed open-ocean, will require lots of safety gear and the Jabiru proved a capable beast for the job. As Owen says, he flew over sea, desert and fairly cold areas too but the Jabiru didn’t miss a beat.

Owen in his Tiger Moth

The trip itself launched, not surprisingly, from Bundaberg. The route was anti-clockwise and took Owen over approximately 7500 nautical miles, clocking up 75 hours of flying time. Although the aircraft had an endurance of something over 5 hours, he usually confined himself to legs of 2 to 3 hours, where possible; landing at regional aerodromes, farm strips and even major international airports. In my ignorance I asked Owen whether Australia could be characterised as having population around the edge and nothing but sheep in the desert interior. In fact I wasn’t far off except that it’s mostly cattle in the out-back due to the lack of grass. I had imagined that flying over such vast areas would be quite boring but Owen reckons that there’s quite a bit of variety of landscape and that is what made the trip so incredibly beautiful for him. Listening to him describe the trip from Broome on the coast with its azure sea and white sands in to the desert area of the Pilbara made me feel very envious. Not quite like my trips to Caernarfon.

As I mentioned, Owen has turned his hand to writing. When his first airline employer, Ansett, collapsed, Owen went off to university and discovered his love of writing. Since then, and even though he didn’t stay unemployed for long, his work has often been published in aviation magazines and he’s even turned his hand to writing books. His first book, ‘Down to Earth’ is the story of a WWII fighter pilot and Owen is working on his second book at the moment. If you’d like to know more about Owen or would like to read his excellent aviation blog, you can start by going to:
http://www.owenzupp.com

Owen’s long term goal is to fly around the world one day and this trip was a great starter experience. I look forward to speaking to Owen again soon to find out what his next great aviation adventure will be.

Victor XL231 'Lusty Lindy'

When most of us grow slightly older, we fritter away our disposable income on a small sports car or a Harley Davidson. The aviation geeks amongst us may even buy a share in a light aircraft to satiate our love of all things that fly. But Andre Tempest has taken his love of planes one step further. A few years back, when the RAF was disposing of its fleet of Victors, he put in a sealed bid and found himself the owner of a full sized V-bomber, designed to deliver the UK’s nuclear deterrent to somewhere in the Soviet Union.
I was interested in hearing why anybody would want to own their own Victor so, on a brilliantly sunny, spring day, I went to visit Andre and ‘Lusty Lindy’, as the aircraft is known, at Elvington, near York.

Listen to Episode 54

Obviously, my first question then, was why did he want to own a Victor. It seems that, like me, he was very impressed by seeing the UK’s V-bombers in action when he was a young lad visiting air shows but for him the Victor was his favourite. As Andre says, the aircraft was totally unique in its design and really ahead of its time. Having fallen in love with the aircraft he took the opportunity to buy one, by sealed tender, in 1993.
This aircraft, XL231, was built by Handley Page at Radlett in Hertfordshire and was delivered into service in 1962.

Andre Tempest with Victor XL231

Having bought the aircraft, the RAF delivered the Victor from RAF Marham to Elvington Airfield in Yorkshire, where Lusty Lindy now resides. Andre jokes that any warranty on the aircraft expired immediately after change of ownership and the delivery crew even took the chocks away with them when they left.
Having originally been part of the UK’s nuclear V-bomber force along with the Vulcan and the Valiant, this Victor had eventually been converted to tanker use, as K2 prototype, at Woodford in 1972.
In 1977 XL231 was returned to the RAF and it joined No57 Sqn at RAF Marham in Norfolk in time to be put on static display at RAF Finningley for Her Majesty The Queen’s Silver Jubilee Review.
The aircraft saw active service overseas in both the Falklands conflict and the first Gulf war.

Cockpit of Victor XL231

As the Victor K2 tankers reached their fatigue limits, at only 6500 flying hours, they were pensioned off, with only 3 going into private hands.
As mentioned, Andre keeps the aircraft in as near flying condition as possible and it’s based at the Yorkshire Air Museum, Elvington, near York.
Andre and his team of dedicated volunteers spend much of their spare time maintaining the aircraft. They run the engines up every 28 days and they do taxi runs, down the enormous Elvington runway, less frequently. They do actually prepare the aircraft for these taxi runs as if it was going to fly, says Andre. So you can see that he and his team are truly dedicated to keeping XL231 in tip-top condition.
As we sat inside the cramped cockpit doing the interview, Andre said that keeping the aircraft in its current condition isn’t vastly expensive but the taxi runs do consume enormous amounts of fuel so he’s always looking for sponsorship to help cover costs.

Victor XL231 'Lusty Lindy'

After our chat in the cockpit we had a quick walk around the aircraft and Andre pointed out some of the key points that made the Victor unique.

It is a really imposing and, even now, a futuristic looking aircraft. It does look quite menacing in line with its proposed mission in life. The aircraft was built by Handley Page and the design team headed by Godfrey Lee however, as Andre pointed out some of the design ideas came from the Germans with their plans having been ceased after WWII.

Andre hasn’t confined himself to the maintenance of Lusty Lindy at Elvington. He has been instrumental in the restoration of several of the other aircraft on-site such as the Fairey Gannet, the Buccaneer, the Hurricane replica and the Spitfire replica. He was also involved in repainting the Douglas DC3 at Yorks Air Museum.

If you have an interest in the Victor or its tanker ops you should read Vulcan 607 which detailed operation Black Buck, Britain’s bombing raid on Port Stanley Airfield during the Falklands War of 1982.

The book is fascinating on so many levels. It shows, I think, how we British may not do things well in terms of planning or budgeting but we do perform brilliantly under pressure.

The story of how the tanker fleet was brought back, virtually from the scrap yard, is amazing. And on the other hand, the bravery of the tanker and bomber crews who flew the mission is inspiring.

To follow Andre and his Victor you should either find him on Twitter or read his blog:
http://victorxl231.blogspot.co.uk/

Vans RV 9a

In episode 51 of Flying Podcast I spoke to Andy Draper of the Light Aircraft Association about building your own aircraft. To get a broader appreciation of what the association does I was pointed in the direction of Brian Hope, editor of the LAA’s magazine ‘Light Aviation’.
First off I asked Brian to give me a potted history of the LAA. I knew that the group had previously been the PFA - Popular Flying Association - but I wasn’t aware that they’d had a previous incarnation.

Listen to Episode 53

According to Brian they were actually formed just after WWII as the Ultralight Aircraft Association and were tasked with looking after pilots who’d bought ex-RAF aircraft and those that were building pre-war planes such as the Luton Minor. He went on to explain that the French played a big part in the growth of home-building with the development of the VW air-cooled engine for use in aircraft.
The market continued to grow throughout the post war years with better kits from France and the US until the 1990’s which saw a rapid influx of new kits from the likes of Vans, Jabiru, Tecnam and all manner of other companies.
Having been the PFA for many years the association became the LAA in 2006. They saw the new name as better representing what they were now doing in the light aircraft world.
The LAA has around 8000 members and Brian reckons that there are approximately 2600 aircraft airworthy, in the UK, at any one time. On top of that there are something like 1500 kits/aircraft in the process of being built and another 800 where the build process may have stalled.

In addition to home-built aircraft, the LAA also oversee vintage aircraft. Brian explained how the rules governing type certification were relaxed and many older aircraft had been given permission to fly on a permit. Nowadays aircraft must have a type certificate holder but if there isn’t a company around to take responsibility for this certification or a type responsibility agreement then those aircraft types become orphans. They can then come on to an LAA permit to fly. Brian mentioned that deHavilland have recently relinquished the type certificates for many of their older aircraft types and so they too can now be granted permission to fly under an LAA permit.

Luscome Silvaires

In Brian’s opinion, the LAA’s core responsibility is to make general aviation more affordable by enabling people to not only build their own aircraft but also to undertake the maintenance of that aircraft. By overseeing these activities the LAA can ensure that flying is done in a safe manner.

The LAA don’t train pilots ‘ab initio’ but they do have pilot coaching schemes where they train pilots to fly aircraft that they may never have flown before eg. tail-wheel aircraft or planes with constant speed props. They also coach pilots to fly from farm-strips. I asked Brian what would happen if say, for example, a pilot had just bought a single seater aircraft and wanted training on that type.

Light Aircraft Association

He explained that they could arrange for training to be done on a similar machine. So if someone had bought a single seat RV3 they could do the training on a two seat RV4.

Other than the above the LAA also offer courses in construction and maintenance. Many builders are not engineers and may never have been involved in aircraft construction. Typically, there are courses in: working with aluminium or wood, electrical wiring and engine maintenance.

Christen Eagle

Brian had been closely involved with his local LAA group. These groups are known as Struts and they not only have a social function but also give members a place to meet other LAA pilots and builders. The struts may also arrange fly-ins and fly-outs for their members and Brian reckons that the flights away to various airports are particularly helpful for less experienced pilots.

Currently there are a number of agreements with foreign countries to allow permit registered aircraft to fly over their territories. Flights to those countries that don’t have blanket agreements can usually be arranged with an email. This is all very useful nowadays as Brian says many of the newer kits are far more advanced than the usual training fleet aircraft and are quite capable or flying great distances and even around the world.

The LAA are quite active in campaigning for the rights of GA pilots. They represent GA pilots in discussions with EASA and the CAA to make sure that general aviation can be safeguarded in the UK. Brian believes that all pilots should be a member of at least one of the GA aviation bodies, and preferably the LAA, in order to make sure that their rights are maintained and protected.

The Light Aircraft Rally had floundered a little bit in the early 2000’s. In 2006 there wasn’t even a full national rally but now they have agreed a deal with Sywell Aerodrome and the rally is now a highlight of the GA flying scene. In 2012 the rally will be on at Sywell from 31st August to 2nd September and Brian says that they’re expecting over 1000 aircraft to be flying in. For more details of the show, have a look at the LAA web site:

www.lightaircraftassociation.co.uk

Brian himself owns a 1957 Jodel D117 which he says has enabled him to fly ‘on a shoestring’ and has taken him all over Europe and even up to Scandinavia. He says that there are aircraft to suit the needs of every pilot from those that just want to potter around their own airport to those that want to travel the globe.

As I said earlier, Brian edits the LAA’s magazine, Light Aviation, and it is well worth a read. For me it’s all about grass roots aviation and almost justifies the membership fee on its own. So have a look at their web site or bob down to Sywell for their rally and see what the LAA has to offer.

Goodyear Blimp 'Spirit of Safety'

Today’s Flying Podcast finds me sat on the deck outside of Melvin’s Café at Barton Aerodrome.
It was a typically beautiful Spring evening in Manchester, the sun was just beginning to set and the Goodyear Blimp was about to depart. They were off to film a football match from overhead for Sky TV at the Etihad Stadium.
I took the opportunity to grab a few minutes with Chief Pilot Mark Finney before he saw the airship off on its flight.
Although it started out as a quiet night it soon got noisy with the police helicopter arriving and then, believe it or not, an Army Apache helicopter too which never happens at Barton.

Listen to Episode 52

My first question for Mark was ‘how did you get into flying blimps?’.
Mark says that he only took the job on a temporary basis until he found a more conventional commercial flying role but that was 12 years and he’s still flying blimps today!
Mark has a UK CPL (AS) and also a US airship commercial licence. He spends much of the year on the road, and has flown blimps in many countries around the world. ‘You must enjoy travel’ says Mark, if you’re going to be an airship pilot.

Gondola of Goodyear blimp at Barton

Blimps are actually airships but, as Mark explained, there are several types of airship. There are rigid airships, like the early Zeppelins or the English R101, which have a rigid skeleton holding the envelope in shape. There are semi-rigid airships, like the newer Zeppelin NTs, which have an internal structure but also rely on the gas bag to maintain the balloon’s structure too. And lastly there are blimps which don’t have any internal structure and rely solely on the pressure of the gas inside to keep the blimp’s shape.
In the Goodyear blimp there are helium filled gas bags and also air filled bags. The air bags, or ballonets, are pressurised and de-pressurised in order to keep the ship under pressure. In this way they should never have to vent the valuable helium as it expands when warmed during the day.

Goodyear blimp taking off from Barton

A typical flight will firstly involve planning. A blimp is very susceptible to weather and can only be flown in relatively calm weather under VFR conditions. Thunder storms and snow, for example, are two things that a blimp pilot must avoid at all costs. The other key element that requires a great deal of thought before flight is the weight. The blimp is flown slightly heavier than neutral so it will sink if all engines fail. The team also have to take into consideration the cooling or heating of the gas during the flight and hence the altered lifting capacity of the envelope and they also have to consider the reduced weight of fuel during the flight. Prior to each flight the ground crew will load lead ballast to get the weight exactly right. The pilot can, of course, drop ballast during the flight to increase lift.
Normally the crew fly the Goodyear blimp at between 1000 and 1500 feet and, on a transit at between 25 and 30 knots.
In the event of an emergency such as the loss of both engines, the captain will jettison ballast until the blimp is descending gently and then look for somewhere to land like a balloon.
This particular blimp has 2 x Limbach, 68hp engines with fixed pitch, 2 bladed propellers. Modern blimps have the more economical and more powerful Rotax 912 engines which also have a reverse mode making landing much more controllable.

For the A60 Plus blimp, like the Goodyear UK’s blimp, they have a total of 13 crew. They have so many because the airship has to be manned 24 hours a day. Mark says that this is the Achilles heel of airships making them very costly to run. They have high manpower costs including 9 hotel rooms per night whilst the team is on the road.

I had noticed that the blimp had had to divert on its way up to Manchester a few days earlier. They had encountered some thunder storms and had diverted to Wolverhampton. One problem with this is that the crew have to arrive well before the blimp. So, wherever the blimp wants to land, the crew will have to have arrived some time before and set up the mooring mast. All very laborious. The same issue arises if the ship has a good tail wind on its journey. This will mean it can arrive well before the ground crew. Again, not good.

Inside 'Spirit of Safety's' gondola

I next asked Mark about the controls that they have on board the blimp and how they differ from a GA aircraft. He says that, as they don’t have ailerons, they don’t have a joy stick, as such, but rather they have a large wheel to control the pitch. They do have conventional foot rudders as per a GA aircraft and most of the instruments are the same. They just have a few more dials to show the gas pressure inside the envelope.

The gondola on this blimp is fairly small and only has capacity for pilot and a maximum of 4 passengers but they usually only carry 2 passengers on normal operations. For tonight’s flight the blimp had a hi-def, gyro stabilised TV camera mounted at the front of the gondola and carried the control hardware inside.
This sort of flying, filming sporting events from overhead, is their bread and butter work, according to Mark, and is what they do best.

I asked Mark what he thought of the future for lighter than air craft. He said that the Goodyear airship was in a niche market and in order to expand the use of airships the amount of labour would have to be reduced. He did, however, think that there was an exciting future in such aircraft as the Hybrid Air Vehicles being developed in the UK at the moment.

After our chat outside the cafe we wandered over to the aircraft to take a closer look at the envelope and inside the gondola. As Mark mentioned the gondola is pressurised by pumping air in to the balonets and this is done with a small, but noisy, engine mounted on the back of the gondola, hence the racket in the background sounding like someone mowing the lawn nearby. As we approached the blimp, which is tethered by its nose to a mooring mast, it was wafting around in the breeze a couple of feet in the air. According to Mark, the mast can hold the blimp firm in winds of up to 80 knots and it would not be unusual for the blimp to stand on its nose in turbulent winds.

In order to climb inside the blimp it was just a matter of pushing down on the gondola until the steps came within reach. Inside, it’s fair to say that it’s very utilitarian and not an executive aircraft interior by any means.

Mark, himself, has covered most of the world’s top sporting events, in the blimp, but says that the most rewarding work was in Kosovo where he was involved in mine clearance with ground penetrating radar.

If you wanted to follow in Mark’s footsteps, the company do prefer helicopter or fixed wing experience. If you have a commercial licence, so much the better but, as Mark says, you MUST love to travel. You will be trained up to fly the blimp, probably getting you an FAA blimp licence first and then getting a conversion to a UK licence thereafter. Because of this investment, by the company, they do insist on you being tied in for 3 or 4 years.

As the aircraft was positioned for take off by the ground crew, I asked mark about how the aircraft was landed. Basically, as the ship has no brakes, it’s flown in on one engine with the other one stopped and acting as an air-brake. It’s then up to the 8 ground crew to catch hold of the trailing ropes and then the gondola itself before steadying the ship and manoeuvring it on to its mast. The art of landing is in the air-speed. A happy medium is required that gives enough speed for controllability via the control surfaces and slow enough that the crew can restrain the ship.

The Spirit of Safety will be seen in the UK this year and they will be finishing their tour filming the 2012 Olympics in London for NBC.

I’d always thought that it would be one of the best flying jobs around, being an airship pilot but I hadn’t really thought about the fact that they spend much of the year, from spring to autumn, out on the road. It seems that all but one of the crew is single. So, if you’ve got no ties, fancy a job cruising around the skies in nice weather and are prepared to sign up for several years then maybe a blimp pilot is for you.

For more information about Mark and the crew of the Goodyear blimp ‘Spirit of Safety’ - G-HLEL - you can find them at:

www.goodyearblimp.co.uk

Andy Draper - Design Engineer - LAA

For this episode of Flying Podcast I was off down to Turweston Aerodrome to meet Andy Draper of the Light Aircraft Association. Andy is the Design Engineer with the LAA and having joined from kitplane company, Europa, he now looks after the modification work for LAA aircraft but also oversees the ongoing airworthiness of all the approved types.
I was interested in finding out what the process was for building your own aircraft so who better to ask than Andy.
If you recognize Andy’s photo on the web site that’s because he was involved in the TV show ‘A Plane Is Born’ some years ago, helping Mark Evans build his Europa kit plane.

Listen to Episode 51

I started by asking Andy ‘why should someone build their own aircraft?’.

Andy says that there are probably as many reasons as there are people, ranging from the immense feeling of satisfaction that building your own aircraft brings through to the simple fact that it’s probably one of the cheapest ways of owning your own aircraft.

Although Andy has an engineering background he doesn’t think it necessary to have anything more than good DIY skills in order to build your own plane. It will be a great learning curve but that’s part of the enjoyment, according to Andy.
And you don’t need a specialist workshop for your project. Many builders complete their aircraft in a single car garage or even inside their own house. Andy, himself, built his Rutan Long EZ in a lean-to and his friend’s kid’s bedroom!

Once you’ve decided to build your own aircraft, there are several options open to you. You can build from scratch, build from plans or build from a kit. The challenge can be as great as you want, really. If you wanted to design your own aircraft, though, the LAA are working on some design tools to help you along the way.

Andy flight testing

With regards to cost, Andy says that a realistic amount for your new-build would be around £20,000 but, if you’re prepared to scout around for second hand parts you can build it for considerably less. The only limits to your imagination are the rules that control what aircraft you can build. The LAA act on behalf of the CAA here in the UK, to control what you can and can’t build. The Light Aircraft Association did, of course, used to be the PFA. They will test and monitor all home-builts even before you are allowed to start building and they have a list of approved aircraft on their web site. The main rule governing self-build, however, is that it must be at least 51% completed by the builder or builders, if it’s a group of you. So, even the so called ‘fast-build’ kits must still adhere to this rule. The LAA also monitor people that build many aircraft and sell them on regularly. The whole ethos of the Light Aircraft Association is that the aircraft should be built for the builders use and not be sold on.

Andy's Long EZ

Perhaps one of the Light Aircraft Association’s main functions is to test and approve aircraft designs and kits to make sure that they meet their stringent requirements. In fact many other governing bodies around the world will only approve aircraft after the LAA have approved it for use in the UK.

Once you have picked the aircraft that you want to build you’ll need to join the LAA and register your project with them before you lift a spanner. They will issue you with a build record book, assuming that the aircraft is already registered, for you to record your build project’s progress. An inspector will come and inspect your build premises to make sure they are up to scratch. Composite aircraft, for example, will require very particular conditions such as temperature and humidity control. Once you’re under way, one of the volunteer inspectors will come and visit, at certain points along the build process, in order to make sure your build is going to plan. For more support there are forums and even local LAA meetings, called Struts, where you can go and discuss your project with like minded folk. The LAA’s engineers are also available to support your build project.

Now that the aircraft is completed, and the build has been signed off by the inspector and the LAA’s Chief Engineer, you move along to the flight testing element of the undertaking. There follows a minimum of 5 hours in the air with the flying being undertaken by either the owner or another experienced pilot. If all goes well the CAA will eventually issue a Permit to Fly and, assuming you’re qualified to fly your new baby, you are free to take to the skies. Maintenance is all down to the owner/builder and the aircraft must be inspected every year in order to renew your permit. If the LAA does become aware of any issues with your particular aircraft they will issue Airworthy Information Leaflets and circulate them to all known owners of that type of aircraft. One of the great things about the LAA is that they are keen to help aviators and not just builders. So in addition to courses on different elements of aircraft construction they also have coaching schemes for pilots of differing aircraft types. You can also brush up on your grass-strip flying or undertake some differences training with the LAA coaches.

If you don’t feel up to building your own aircraft you can buy a second hand home-built or a vintage aircraft that has a permit to fly. If you do decide to go down this route the LAA can provide an inspector to give the aircraft the once-over before you part with your hard earned cash.

If you like more info about the services that the Light Aircraft Association offer, have a look at their comprehensive web site.

www.lightaircraftassociation.co.uk

The control tower at Barton

This podcast came about as a result of a conversation between myself and a fellow Barton aviator, Duncan Armstrong.
We were chatting about our flying experiences and I happened to mention that I’d kept a diary of how my flight training was progressing. As I’m a firm believer in learning from my mistakes I thought that a log of what happened and when, during my time in the left seat, would come in handy as my time as a pilot progressed.

Listen to Episode 50

Anyway, as we chatted Duncan suggested that we do a podcast episode where we discussed our experiences, both during flight training and in our time as qualified PPLs. If nothing else it would be good fun and the listeners may even find some comfort from the fact that all pilots make mistakes at some point in their careers and our experiences may help some of them feel better about their own flying.

Grob 115 at Barton

We discussed all sorts of areas in the podcast from our choice of instructor to the things that we found easy and/or difficult whilst training. One of the most scary elements of learning to fly is radio telephony and the fear of talking to ATC so we had a long chat about our own interactions with air traffic control. We also compared some of our more stupid mistakes made and most importantly, the lessons learned from those mistakes. So sit back and enjoy listening to our ramblings.

Alex Turnbull, Milford Sound

I was contacted by some folks from Wakatipu Aero Club, down there in New Zealand, saying that they’d like to appear on the Podcast. One of their instructors is a chap called Alex Turnbull. He is originally from Morpeth in the North East of the UK and has travelled all the way to the other side of the world to pursue his dream of flying GA in a really interesting and challenging environment.
Quite by coincidence I recently put Google Analytics on to this web site and, after a month, it turns out that the Podcast has been listened to in 48 countries around the world. I couldn’t believe that people in China, or places like Indonesia and Russia actually download and listen to the Podcast but I guess that’s the power of podcasting and the internet and I shouldn’t be surprised to be contacted by aviators in New Zealand.

Listen to Episode 49

Alex flies out of Wakatipu Aero Club which is in Queenstown which is, in turn, situated on the south island of New Zealand. He is currently an instructor at the aero club and also serves as vice president and treasurer.
Originally from Morpeth, in northern England, his early ambition was to fly with the RAF and he gained a flying scholarship with the Air Training Corps which paid for the first 20 hours towards his PPL. Having studied at university for a degree in aeronautical engineering he decided not to join the RAF but to pursue a career in GA. Following a couple of years of working to save money he opted to move away to a foreign country to finish his PPL and to gain his CPL.

Queenstown Airport

Having researched countries with a rich GA flying environment such as the US, Canada and Australia he eventually picked New Zealand. Wakatipu Aero Club proved to be quite attractive as they had a reputation for offering their trainees a position with the company following completion of their CPL so Alex moved there and did just that. Following on from his PPL and CPL at Wakatipu Alex gained his C category instructor rating in 2009 and went on to fly pleasure flights from Queenstown. The training side of the club operates 4 Cessna 172s, a Cessna 206, and a Tecnam P2002JF.

Milford Sound

I asked Alex to tell me the sort of flying they do from Queenstown. He said that they do lots of pleasure/tourist flights into Milford Sound, a fjord on the west coast where they land, enabling tourists to spend time in the area. The rest of the time is spent conducting flight training including PPL, CPL and mountain flying instruction. He went on to describe some of the key elements in mountain flying. As there is such a preponderance of mountains in the country mountain flight training is a key part of the PPL in New Zealand and anyone that wants to fly in NZ will have to undertake some form of training in the mountains before taking to the left seat.

Milford Sound

There are some unique challenges facing pilots at Queenstown not least of which are the mountains. But this challenge also means that there are some superb, scenic flights to be made around the area. Alex takes pilots for flights up river valleys and back over the lake to Queenstown, over the mountains to the coast for beach landings and even out to remote areas for strip landings.

Martin's Bay Strip

It sounds like a great idea to go flying over in Queenstown but if you do there are a couple of routes to getting the appropriate license.
You can convert your current license to a NZ license or get short term validation.
Either way, you will need to get at least basic, mountain flying training.
If you are only going to be in New Zealand for short time it will usually be best to just fly with local instructor like Alex.

As Queenstown is known as the ‘adrenalin capital of the world’, some of WAC’s customers want a more exhilarating experience and WAC is able to offer them an aerobatic flight in their Pitts Special.
Alex is a qualified Pitts pilot and he describes how it’s not the easiest plane to fly, having a tail-wheel, extreme lack of forward visibility and a relatively high landing speed.

Big Bay beach landing

The area around Queenstown looks very much like Switzerland with beautiful mountain peaks and alpine lakes. I’ve always wanted to visit this area and I’d really love to get over to Wakatipu one day to do some flying. If you’d fancy doing the same, check out their web site and give them a call.

www.wakatipuaeroclub.com

Nick Duriez and Mark Knowles, FISOs at Barton Airport

Today I’m visiting my old stomping ground of Barton Aerodrome to talk to one of the guys in the control tower. The chap that’s featuring on the podcast is Mark Knowles and if you’ve ever landed or taken off from Barton chances are you will have spoken to Mark at some point.

The first thing I asked Mark to do was to tell me about Barton, or City Airport, Manchester as it’s often called, and to tell me the type of air traffic control it has.

Mark started by describing the aerodrome. It’s a grass airfield near to Manchester with 8 runways and they operate a Flight Information Service under the title Barton Information.

Listen to Episode 48

Mark works in the control tower at Barton, holding the position of Flight Information Service Officer or FISO. The title is licensed by the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority and enables him to provide an Aerodrome Flight Information Service or AFIS.
I next asked Mark about the training that’s involved in becoming a FISO. He described how you can self study for the qualification. You study for exams in AFIS Procedures, Air Law, Navigation and Meteorology. Each FISO must then undergo a minimum number of hours of practical supervised training, where they learn all the local rules and procedures. They then sit a Validation, and successful passing of this qualifies them for 2 years, after which they will re-validate. In addition, regular competence checks are made to ensure a safe and high standard of service is maintained.

The CAA documents that Mark mentioned are CAP 410 and CAP 427. Links to these are listed below:

CAP 410
http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/CAP410__PARTA.PDF

http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/CAP410__PARTB.PDF

Cap 427
http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/CAP427.PDF

Mark sees the role of FISO at a busy licensed aerodrome like Barton as being the eyes and ears of the ATZ whilst the aerodrome is active.
A FISO at an aerodrome is only allowed to supply a ‘Basic Service’ The CAA describes this as: ‘an ATS provided for the purpose of giving advice and information useful for the safe and efficient conduct of flights. This may include weather information, changes of serviceability of facilities, conditions at aerodromes, general airspace activity information, and any other information likely to affect safety. The avoidance of other traffic is solely the pilot’s responsibility’.
FISOs are not licensed to provide Traffic Service, Deconfliction Service, or Procedural Services. They do, however, issue instructions to traffic when on the ground, at the aerodrome, up to the hold point.
I asked Mark about ‘read-backs’. He says that they are important, not just for the FISO but also for other pilots, helping to build up general situational awareness.

A typical procedure for a departing aircraft would be firstly to familiarise yourself with the ATIS. The ATIS is available from a computer in the control tower and Mark says they would expect a pilot to have this information to hand when they first contact the tower. This information would typically, as a minimum, include the pressure setting and runway in use. The FISO will then give you taxi instructions to the appropriate hold point and this instruction should be read back. Bear in mind that the computer briefing system for the ATIS, that they have at Barton, isn’t necessarily widely available at all aerodromes. It is very much a local procedure for Barton.

Mark and Nick in the control tower

The ATIS is also available on the internet and via a Twitter feed. See the City Airport web site for the ATIS and all other aerodrome info:

http://www.cityairportltd.com

When flying into Barton you should be aware of the local airspace restrictions and inbound aircraft should aim to make their first call from 10 miles out. The web site, again, lists lots of useful data to assist with planning your flight into Barton. The Low-level Route between Manchester and Liverpool’s airspace has some interesting rules. Pilots transiting the Low-level Route should maintain a listening squawk of 7366. You should also monitor Manchester Approach on 118.575 Mhz but this is just a ‘listening watch’ and there is no need to talk to Manchester. Do check the Barton web site for the latest details on this before setting out but don’t let this put you off. I’ve flown the Low-level Route many times and it is pretty straight forward if you keep your wits about you.

I next asked Mark what he expects from pilots that would make his job easier. He asked that pilots observe the PPR (prior permission required) rule. He thinks that it is important that the FISO knows who/what is inbound and when they are due to arrive. This is beneficial from a safety point of view but the initial phone call is also helpful for pilots in that the FISO can give them a briefing on the state of the aerodrome. For me the ATC element of training was perhaps the most daunting so I asked Mark how trainee pilots can get over this fear of talking to ATC. He suggested going to speak to your local air traffic unit. Being very friendly folks they should always welcome pilots who are keen to fly safely and even the busier airports will take time to meet you even if it has to be planned well in advance. As it’s technically illegal to record and play back ATC transmissions - or, according to Mark, even listen to them, he suggests sitting in your aircraft and tuning in to ATC until you get a good idea of what’s expected of you. The FISOs at Barton have a few tools to help them carry out their role but as all of their work is done under VFR (visual flight rules) they don’t have such things as radar or landing aids. If they can see you and you can see them that’s all they need. They do use a Flight Progress Strip Display System which basically lists the aircraft that the FISO is in communication with on a board. Each strip contains the aircraft’s detail, destination, people on board, etc. They have VHF radios to communicate with aircraft in the area and they also have the Aldis lamps, red, green and white, just in case they need to communicate with non-radio aircraft. When I asked Mark what sort of personality type would suit being an FISO he said that FISOs need to fairly relaxed and be able to enjoy the role even though it’s very serious. Being logical is important and flexibility is useful in order to adapt your procedures when things get hectic. They don’t get many emergencies at Barton but they do happen, of course, from time to time. Mark advises that pilots do make a Pan-Pan or Mayday call when in any doubt about their flight. He stressed that they would prefer it if pilots did announce an emergency and not worry about causing a fuss. The FISOs have a check-list of what to do during emergencies, including alerting the airfield fire service or even the local fire brigade. None of the services mind being called out, so go ahead and call that problem. The FISOs at Barton include 3 full time, one part-time and three additional managers who can also act as FISOs when required. The FISOs work 10 hour shifts during summer months and 8 hours in winter. The tower is open from 8am to sunset for all of the year but they cap the late opening until 8pm, local time, during the summer. It’s a great little aerodrome and is well worth a visit. It can get busy at times so do check out the web site and maybe give the FISOs a call before flying in.

Eurofighter Typhoon at RAF Coningsby

As promised, here’s the second episode from my visit, earlier this year, to RAF Coningsby and the Typhoon Display Team. I wanted to see inside the cockpit of the Typhoon and Flying Officer Gregor Ogston was kind enough to spend half an hour or so, explaining what all of the knobs, buttons and dials do. Gregor also explains what the ejection sequence is, which is fascinating to listen to. Following the look inside the aircraft Liam Whelan, the display engineer manager, and Gregor took me round the outside of the aircraft.
If you are REALLY interested in fast jets, and the Typhoon in particular, then this is the episode for you.

Listen to Episode 47

We started with Gregor inside the cockpit of an XI Sqn Eurofighter Typhoon.
They share aircraft around throughout the fleet at Coningsby but at the time of my visit, there were quite a lot of 2 seat aircraft as most of the single seat jets were deployed in Italy. As there’s so much computing power in the jet, they have to connect it to a ground power source in the hangar hence a great deal of background noise on the podcast.

Eurofighter Typhoon Cockpit

The cockpit is all glass with none of the conventional instruments that I’d recognise. In fact all of the standby instruments in this aircraft are computer driven too. Gregor gave me a sort of guided tour around each of the buttons, switches and screens starting to his left and working his way around the cockpit.

Gregor says that it’s a fairly similar layout for any fast jet cockpit nowadays. The consoles on the left and right have quite a lot of switches but generally they are turned on before flight and you leave them in their ‘on’ position for flight and turn them off when you land again. You may have to dip into some of these in certain emergencies, requiring you turn certain things off and back on but the whole cockpit is designed so that the pilot can be hands on throttle and stick, HOTAS, the whole time, looking through the head-up display but occasionally glancing at the 3 MHDD screens. ‘The advantage of that is that you are looking out for other aircraft, hills, or other things you might fly into but there are tactical implications for that as well. That’s the advantage to not having your head down doing things’, says Gregor.

Typhoons on the apron at Coningsby

When we were discussing the throttle I asked Gregor whether, with such a powerful jet, they needed to use re-heat very often. Gregor replied that ‘certainly when they are manoeuvring at high altitude then it’ll be used as required for what ever training sortie they’re doing. For safety reasons at lower levels then, yes but because of the huge amount of noise we try and not use it at lower altitude.

Steve: It seems to perform very well without reheat.’ He went on to say that ‘max dry power is equivalent to reheat on other jets. That’s the big thing about Typhoon, its power. Everyone raves about its power. The other thing is its carefree handling.’ I asked Gregor whether it’s more like operating a computer than flying an aircraft to which he responded, ‘a lot of it is systems’ management with any fast jet particularly with the Typhoon. My experience before all of this was on the Harrier which was a very hands-on sort of aircraft and very difficult to fly in certain regimes. The Typhoon has been designed to be easy to fly and operate so all of this computer management can go on in the background. It is however very user friendly and it’s been very well designed so that although there’s a lot going on, it looks on first impressions that wow, there are buttons everywhere, there are things glowing and whirring away, that once you sort of get to grips with it it’s very user friendly.’

Typhoon landing at RAF Coningsby

It seems that the aircraft’s computer system looks after all modes of flight and even recalculates things like weight and balance as you go. Gregor says that the aircraft is, in fact, so unstable that it is impossible to fly without the help of the computer systems. These same systems also won’t allow the pilot to exceed the aircraft’s handling limits nor depart it from controlled flight. The phrase that kept cropping up was ‘carefree handling’. Having had a long look around the cockpit controls, we talked about the ejection seat system. Gregor gave me a blow by blow account of how the seat works and what the pilot needs to do to avoid injury. The Martin Baker ejection seat is a really fascinating piece of kit and it’s well worth listening to Gregor describe how it works, millisecond by millisecond. Back down on the hangar floor, Gregor and Liam gave me a guided tour of the Eurofighter Typhoon’s exterior starting at the ‘pointy end’ under the aircraft nose. Gregor started by explaining how the 4 ADTs - air data transducers - worked and linked up with the 4 onboard computers. We then moved along to the foreplanes before having a look at the air intake cowls which automatically rotate in flight to adjust the amount of air flowing into the 20,000lb thrust engines. With a total 40,000lbs of thrust that’s being generated by the engines but with a very light aircraft you get a thrust ratio of greater than 1:1, so as Gregor says ‘it goes and goes and goes.’

Liam and Gregor showed me the 13 hard points on the aircraft and ran through the weaponry options on the Typhoon. The 27mm cannon was particularly impressive.
I asked the team where they did their weapons training from Coningsby. Gregor told me that the majority of the sorties are done in danger areas over the North Sea which are only a few minutes flying time from the base in Lincolnshire.

When we got round to the back of the aircraft and discussing the divergent nozzles on the engines’ rear, Liam described a flight in the Typhoon as like the best roller-coaster ride he’d ever had and they both agreed that any pilot that’s ever flown the Typhoon raves about the amount of performance. ‘It will accelerate from about 200kts to the speed of sound in approximately 30 seconds at low level.’ Claimed Gregor. He went on saying that, ‘it will climb supersonically to about 40,000 feet in around 2 minutes. So that’s higher than your normal airliner will fly at. And to think that it takes them about 10-15 minutes to get to that sort of height. We can be up there in a couple of minutes.’

I’d heard that the pilots have a problem descending in the aircraft without going through the sound barrier.
Gregor confirmed that, ‘Because it is so aerodynamic, if you just put the nose down, even at idle, it will continue to accelerate. He went on to describe the 3 ways in which they try to loose height. ‘One is you do it early and you do a very gentle descent so you don’t end up having to put the nose down too far. If, for air traffic reasons you can’t get descent, you can either do a sort of split S manoeuvre where you go to idle, you roll inverted and you do sort of half a loop and that will lose you 4-5000ft and you’ll just keep doing that and the final way, which is alien to most pilots because it involves putting in pro-spin controls. Now as we said when we were in the cockpit the jet physically won’t allow you to depart it when you put full pro-spin controls in. So stick back in one of the corners and full rudder in, the jet just enters a very graceful, tight spiral at about 70 or 80 degrees nose-down and it will do that at quite low speed and you will lose several thousand feet very quickly.’

It was a real treat to be able to have a close up tour of the Eurofighter Typhoon. If you’d like to see the jet close up and maybe see the display team in action have a look at the team’s web site. Hopefully they’ll be back in action for the 2012 display season.

www.raf.mod.uk/typhoondisplay

Scott Beaver

A listener, Scott Beaver, wrote to me recently to say how much he’s enjoying listening to the podcast and in his email he mentioned that he was planning to fly around the world at some time in the not too distant future. I’m always keen to hear about how people go about planning for great flying adventures so I invited Scott along to appear on the podcast.

Listen to Episode 46

We started by discussing Scott’s early flying career. He did his PPL training with Multiflight at Leeds Bradford Airport eventually gaining his licence in 2004.
Not long after he gained his PPL he went over to Florida to do some hours building. He remembers paying $50 per hour at London Aviation who were based at Naples Airport. From Naples he did some long distance flights including one particularly memorable trip down to Key West, a trip that I had also done in 2003. He described his experiences of flying over the Keys, using Flight Following and enjoying the scenery of southern Florida.
After his trip to Florida he went over to Nevada for a holiday and whilst there hired a 172 with a glass cockpit for a few days. He took flights out over Las Vegas, the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon.

PA-22

He really enjoys flying in the States and intends to go back to do some more flying soon.
In 2007 he found himself on holiday in Africa and again he tracked down an aircraft to hire. He found a PA22 for rent near Mombassa along with an equally aged pilot. They flew up and down the coast and over a safari park for an unforgettable trip in a classic aircraft.

Flying over Africa

Prior to its closing, Scott hired aircraft from Manchester School of Flying at Manchester Airport. Having gained great experience of flying from a large international airport he has now moved back to Yorkshire and flies out of the superb Sherburn Airport.

Before we got around to discussing his prep for the round the world trip we discussed his current training. He’s studying for his IMC Rating and flying with Peter Jackson at Sherburn. With its uncertain future, Scott is eager to get the IMC Rating before its possible demise due to European regulation.
He described what’s involved in the syllabus for the rating and what sort of flight training is required. An option for the round the world trip is for Scott to go on to get his Instrument Rating and the IMC Rating is a great introduction for that.
Having discussed his past, in terms of aviation, Scott went on to tell us about his dream of flying around the world. Inspired by Polly Vacher, Scott would like to fly around the globe and to raise money for charity. His chosen charity is Make a Wish Foundation, raising money to grant children with life-threatening illnesses their ‘magical wish’.

Still in the early stages of planning he’s got some long distance flights in the pipeline starting with a trip to Le Touquet in France in the next few weeks.

Scott is thinking of using a PA28 as that’s the aircraft that he’s most familiar with but he’s open to offers if a sponsor has an aircraft they’d like to put forward. He seems to have set his heart on doing the trip in a single engined plane just for the challenge of it. I asked Scott whether he’d considered a diesel aircraft due to the greater availability on Jet A1 rather than an Avgas powered aircraft. Whatever fuel he goes with he’s concerned that many previous pilots have reported that they’ve flown their aircraft greatly overweight on their round the world attempt.

Scott would prefer to do the challenge alone and is planning to get his IR. The alternative option is to fly with an instrument rated co-pilot.

We discussed how pilots cope with the huge amount of charts required for the trip and how potential ‘Earthrounders’ cope with all of the planning permissions, clearances and visas. Scott mentioned one company that helps deal with all of the planning side of the flight. They are Overflight, based in West Sussex, UK.
There’s a huge amount of equipment required including clothing, radios, survival equipment, emergency transmitters… the list goes on. If you add up all of the costs, including fuel, accommodation, landing fees, etc., Scott reckons you won’t get much change out of $50,000.
Scott wants to fly what is known as the ‘Classic Route’ From the UK down through Europe to Egypt then across the Middle East, through India and Indonesia to Australia. From there he would fly across the Pacific to the US then over to Greenland and back to the UK via Iceland. That would include around 80-100 hours over water, the longest leg being approx 17 hrs. The total flying hours would amount to 270 with 35 to 40 stops and covering in the region of 27,500 miles.
Info on other round the world pilots can be found at Earthrounders.

Although the trip will be a great adventure, Scott’s overriding aim is to raise money for his chosen charity so we wish him well. We’ll keep you up to date with his progress.