For the aviation fans

[Spokey]

Back in my PPL VFR hire n fly days, I flew to a customers site in the middle of the desert (research station) in a Piper Turbo with my brand new Garmin GPS, the first commercially available GA one. Its pretty pan flat out there so one's nav has to be good since nothing to reference to (except plenty of pans, and the big hole in Jwaneng) and I was doing just fine guided by the GPS when the frigging thing ran out of batteries, and I had not packed spares. It was the first time I was using it on a  cross country flight.

 

With one of the pax at the holding the aircraft in a wonky straight and level flight I managed to rig DC power to it from a cigarette light socket, and we made it to Windhoek Eros. The next leg is another story.

You gave me a good laugh there! I was instructing in the mid 90’s when more and more students were turning up for nav exercises with their shiny new portable Garmins. I always made sure that they new how to use them correctly and once that was established they would be switched off and good old Charts used. Of course nav over featurless terrain is a right struggle. I bought myself a Pilot 3 back in the day......was a wonderful tool in my PA31 around much of Africa days!

[eddy]

Back in my PPL VFR hire n fly days, I flew to a customers site in the middle of the desert (research station) in a Piper Turbo with my brand new Garmin GPS, the first commercially available GA one. Its pretty pan flat out there so one's nav has to be good since nothing to reference to (except plenty of pans, and the big hole in Jwaneng)

You gave me a good laugh there! I was instructing in the mid 90’s when more and more students were turning up for nav exercises with their shiny new portable Garmins. I always made sure that they new how to use them correctly and once that was established they would be switched off and good old Charts used. Of course nav over featurless terrain is a right struggle.

I Nav-ed the Race for Rhinos air race held at Kubu Island on the Makgadigadi pans in Botswana.

 

No GPS to be used; map, compass, and stopwatch only.

 

It is completely featureless and the maps show the pans in blue as being water, but they were as dry as my booze cabinet in the fourth week of the lockdown so what looked like a landmark was completely indistinguishable from the surrounding areas.

 

We did OK because I flew before GPS was a viable alternative. Some guys in their RVs who had never pulled a map after getting doing their PPL nav tests and spent their lives following the "magenta line", really suffered.

 

One crew from the Kempton Park Flying Club got completely lost (or spent the first morning "unsure of their position" if you believed the conversation at the after party) and got DQ'ed despite their ATPLs.

Edited April 23, 2020 by eddy

[kosmonooit]

You gave me a good laugh there! I was instructing in the mid 90’s when more and more students were turning up for nav exercises with their shiny new portable Garmins. I always made sure that they new how to use them correctly and once that was established they would be switched off and good old Charts used. Of course nav over featurless terrain is a right struggle. I bought myself a Pilot 3 back in the day......was a wonderful tool in my PA31 around much of Africa days!

 

Yes it was about mid 90's, i was about 200 hours. I learn to nav  on cross countries the old school way, actually loved it, it was easy for me. But out over the Kalahari there as few nav aids and just a flat horizon when the batteries ran out.

 

I also had a night rating and fly back from CT once after been stuck there for days with bad weather. ,That was silly. The VOR  (or something)  from Kimberby was out of service and I wasn't wised up to that (should have been) but managed to tune into some radio signal from Welkom,  As we approached GP  the moon was rising ... EPIC. That was pre GPS days.

Edited April 23, 2020 by kosmonooit

[Bonus]

One of my fav. planes coming in to the National Museum of the USAF back in 1990.

Treats the fans a bit first :-)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUPICZk6fSA

[Bonus]

You can have one of your own . . . . 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyQBPB1wnyk

[kosmonooit]

One of my fav. planes coming in to the National Museum of the USAF back in 1990.

Treats the fans a bit first :-)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUPICZk6fSA

The Blackbird was phenomenal in just about every aspect - unlikely we will ever see anything like it again.

[DJR]

All the talk C130s and of days before GPS, reminded me of a story about doing something for the first time on a very dark and very exciting night, from a life long, long ago..............no, it’s not what you are thinking, but it will give you a few minutes off your lock-down sentence.

 

...........The nearly blacked out plane droned on and on, and despite the tension and the discomfort of the webbing seat, it got a bit hypnotic after a while. I was exhausted, but luckily there was enough room to stretch out and I fell asleep. My little team, our equipment and I, were tightly packed in forward along the side and the rear was full of securely wrapped cargo on pallets. Castro, my trusted interpreter and right hand man, 6 foot seven inches tall and built like a tank, poked me awake and said: We'll be there soon. (The irony of his name always make me smile.) How they ever managed to find the invisible “there” in the middle of “nowhere” in the middle of the night, I cannot imagine! The little slice of moon that watched our take-off, sometime well past midnight, was gone and the dark grey plane was invisible in the black inky night. The previously cool-as-cucumber payload team looked somewhat nervous as they strapped themselves in, I suppose, because they knew exactly what was about to happen next! Castro knew as well, which is why he woke me up, but I'm still not sure whether he was being kind or just wanted to make sure I didn't miss out on any of the terror to come.............

Edited April 23, 2020 by DJR

[DJR]

..............When it started, it started suddenly, like the first big dive of a roller coaster! It felt like the floor fell out of my elevator, and just so you know, I don't like roller coasters and I get motion sickness easily! Breakfast tried to push lunch out of the way, but some frantic swallowing got it all back where it belonged! I knew all this would happen because the pilot briefed virgin me, but I was still totally unprepared for it! I knew we would be coming in as high as possible, in the black of the early morning hours, then descend as fast and as steep as possible before landing. I knew the idea was to arrive as unannounced as we could and allow as little time as possible to get shot at, but still, I expected a much more relaxed ride down, not this frightening mad screaming that the plane was making. In my imagination I felt it disintegrate bit by bit and I clearly saw the crater that would be left where we hit mother earth smack on the forehead!

 

But, true to the pilot’s word, and by a little miracle, we didn't end up in a burnt pile of twisted metal because, at the last possible moment, the plane leveled out. Just like the dive, it happened suddenly, without warning! This time my dinner tried to bypass my breakfast, but in the other direction, and vigorous effort was required to prevent dirty underwear! From somewhere water (at least I hope it was water) dropped in my face. The plane now not only screamed, it also clacked, banged, creaked and moaned everywhere. I hoped it was just landing gear extending, not something that fell off! It sounded like a wing or two would surely tear clear off the plane and I am sure some rivets popped in the dark all around us! Moments later we firmly hit the rough dirt landing strip and I saw the dull improvised runway lights flash past the opposite window. There weren’t many and they disappeared in a cloud of dust as soon as they arrived. Thanks to the seat belts we weren't all squished against the bulkhead, because speed got scrubbed off as if we were caught by a massive invisible hand. I was disorientated in the near darkness, but the payload guys were already up and working. The cargo door opened while we were still going. The first cargo pallet left us into the swirling black dust, and then the next and the next, all ending up somewhere between the two rows of dim lights in the dark bush behind the plane. By the time the load bay was empty, we were at the end of the strip, the lights went out, the plane turned around and stopped, engines still running, but now pointing the way we had come. I was in shock, but Castro grabbed my arm and shouted against the noise, in his own language, but I understood and I came alive!...........

Edited April 23, 2020 by DJR

[DJR]

.............In a huge hurry we left through the big gaping side door into the dark dusty night and I didn't know where to next, but luckily I had a massive silhouette to follow! I saw a single torchlight flash, one, two, three times! A big red cross on a round white background. Suddenly we were at our destination and I got a bunch of papers shoved into my hands, some official, some letters to girlfriends, mothers and wives, one an order for Chinese food (really, but that is another story for another day), while my team sprang into action. It wasn’t their first time! I could see silhouetted figures on the landing strip dragging the nearest cargo out of the way in a big hurry. Many hands helped loading and in no time we were back in the plane with our own precious cargo securely strapped down, each one of my team doing what they were trained for. The cargo door started closing, the engines picked up and the plane moved forward while I was still struggling to get strapped in.

 

I suddenly got worried that a pallet full of cargo might have been missed in the dark and was still lying somewhere in our way, but by then it was too late to do anything about it, we were already screaming down the invisible strip between the two lanes of lights that lit up again moments earlier. With an almighty roar and horrid vibrations coming from every part of the plane, we lurched over corrugations and bumps for what felt like an impossibly long way and then suddenly, when I was convinced we were out of runway, got plucked up and into the black sky. I looked at my faintly illuminated watch, could it really be that just mere minutes had passed?

 

This was the really dangerous time the pilot had warned. If they have a chance to hit us, it would be shortly after take-off, so he made us ride an upward roller coaster, this time with a few lefts and rights thrown in also, zig-zag, mixing my breakfast, lunch and dinner properly. Have I said that I hate roller coasters? But I didn't throw up, not that night, because I had taken the best medicine against it – a solid dose of pure terror!!

 

Soon enough, we leveled out and after a while the droning of the plane soothed the adrenaline shakiness out of my mind and my body. Slowly the first light of a new day arrived. First grey, then blue, pink, yellow and orange before it got clear and blindingly white over the peaceful featureless landscape so far below that one could hardly imagine it could touch you, let alone harm you. Our job was nearly done and although I hoped that I would never have to do it again, I knew I would pray for a really dark night, a really solid plane, a really good pilot and a whole lot of luck! And if Castro could be my right hand man, I’d be a lot happier, or at least less terrified!

 

Oh, it is great to be alive!

Edited April 23, 2020 by DJR

[patham]

Today in Australia and New Zealand was Anzac Day, a localised rememberance day for servicemen and women, which is taken very seriously.

 

Because of the various lockdown rules, the normal dawn services could not be held, but we did participate in a driveway dawn rememberance, when people would walk to there driveway to pay their respects. 

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-25/coronavirus-queenslanders-mark-anzac-day-in-wake-of-pandemic/12132618

 

Having an early morning walk just afterwards, I was lucky enough to see a bootleg flyover by a Spitfire and Mustang. Bootleg because the authorities did not want to see such flights go ahead. They were going pretty slow and relaxed, but the sound of those Merlin engines is so distinctive as compared to the normal general aviation piston engines. Goosebumps.

 

Picture is from the article linked - I was nowhere no close enough. I could make out the Spitfire, buy could not ID the Mustang.

[patham]

One more thing on the Anzac Day rememberances today.

 

I cam across this poster someone made on my lockdown walk around the suburb. So here's a topic for a new discussion - who has or had relatives in Bomber Command in WW2? When I have a bit of time I will compose my own distant family history.

[SwissVan]

One more thing on the Anzac Day rememberances today.

 

I cam across this poster someone made on my lockdown walk around the suburb. So here's a topic for a new discussion - who has or had relatives in Bomber Command in WW2? When I have a bit of time I will compose my own distant family history.

Not bomber command, but by old man and one uncle were in the SAAF (maintenance, not flying crew) and were in Eritrea, Egypt, Libya and Italy during WW2.

 

Sadly I don’t have many pictures or stories from these times

[Bonus]

My dad joined the RAF at 16 and was in there for 12 years. He was instrumentation (later became electronics) and served in the UK, Aden, Gibraltor & Cyprus. He mostly worked on the Wellington Bombers that they were using as Recon. planes during the late 50's and early 60's.

[bertusras]

SAA not totally dead in the water, yet

 

[Lotus]

SAA not totally dead in the water, yet

 

It's a sad day when the SAAF can put more aircraft in the sky than SAA.

Edited April 25, 2020 by Lotus

[Spokey]

DJR, great reading your missive there. As you flew in to land in the second part, man........takes me back. We used to fly the big old DC 8 into Basra at night. All lights off and descend as late as possible. Keep the beast high on downwind, I really do not remember but a few 1000 ft agl, then turn final at as rolling wings level, lights on and flare to land........trickey times, but I would not have missed it for anything.

Earlier in Iraq around 2004 onwards we would spiral dive the beast frm 20 000 ft ovehead. Thrust levers idle, flap 20, gear down. If I remember correctly, downwind for landing was around 5000 ft agl.......mental!

Add to that the shite viz conditions and in places like Fallujah ( Al Takadoum airfield, US Marines) there were barrage balloons and everywhere Russian Antonovs climbing out ha ha!