The Russians Are Coming.

Well, actually, they've already left. But they were here.

One of the cool things that happened during the Olympics was the arrival of quite a few Russian built aircraft. We very rarely see some of these birds in North America, let alone Vancouver.



This is the Ilyushin 96, operated by the Russian State Transport company and came with some Russian dignitaries for the games. Rumours had it that Putin was on board, but I'm not sure about that. On further investigation, it looks like it was Medvedev instead.




They did have an advance team come in with an Ilyushin 76 ( a large russian freighter aircraft ) that had motorcade and security gear, but it was in and out so quickly I didn't have a chance to get over and take any pictures. I did get to see it land and takeoff though, that was a treat. The IL76 is actually a lot bigger than I though, I always assumed it to be the much smaller cousin to the AN124, but looking at it now, it is quite comparable.



This one I was very dissapointed to not have been able to see close up, or in flight. Its an Ilyushin 62. Very cool looking aircraft, with 4 engines mounted on the rear, similar to an MD80, but with doubled-up engines.

Like the IL96, once its passengers were offloaded, it took up a parking spot out on Runway 12/30. They parked a couple heads-of-state aircraft out there during the games.

I was actually a little surpised, as they shut that runway down and set up a little military air-base out on the Runway 30 end. This is where they staged the portable hangars for the CF-188 Hornets ( F18's ). My thinking was that if you have the runway all to yourself, with a base on one end where your fighters can be staged, ready to go, why don't you use the rest of the runway to just takeoff on? No delays, waiting for other aircraft to land or takeoff? I suppose in an actual emergency the fighters would get priority, but still, they have to taxi all the way out to the closest departure end. They were sitting on a runway, why not keep it clear and just use that? Runway 12/30 is usually the crosswind runway around here, given our prevailing winds are almost always east-west due to the location of the airport at the end of a valley, alongside the water. Most people around here even call it " the crosswind runway " instead of 12/30 as it is rarely used except in very strong north/south winds, which is very infrequent.

I doubt the CF-188 has any serious concern with anything but the strongest of tailwinds when taking off. I suppose its safer to avoid, but given the rest of the risk management that they accept and deal with as part of their job, I doubt a little tailwind bothers them all that much.




The hangars themselves are pretty neat.

They look to be brand-new, and took them a couple days to set up out on the runway. They are entirely portable, have their own electrical system inside, and open up on both the front and back sides. I imagine this would be handy for a temporary fighter base, as you could open both ends up and start up the jet right inside the hangar and pull out and take off without the delay of being towed out. I suppose you could pull in the same way as well. I never did see them do that though, it was always in and out with the tug and tow bar.




They also set up a pretty elaborate perimiter fence of concertina wire, and had armed gaurds out there as well.

Helio Courier

Saw an open hangar the other day and this thing sitting inside.


I remember seeing these things in the movie " Air America ", but I seem to remember them as being tail draggers.

The pilot was getting ready to take it up flying so I had the chance to chat with him for a few minutes.

This guy has The. Coolest. Job. Ever.

Basically, he works for a major US broadcasting company, and they pay him to fly this aircraft around filming sports events. He does a lot of US Football and of course, they sent him up here to cover the Winter Olympics.

There is a camera operator who sits in the back, working the expensive camera mounted under the left wing.

It was kind of incongruous, seeing all the fancy A-Star helicopters, with ball-turret camera mounts hanging off the front and stuffed with so much high-tech gear that some of the seats had to be removed...and then this guy....

Don't get me wrong, I love it. I think this is a brilliant solution to the problem and most likely extremely cost effective compared to the heli-cam operators.

He also burns AvGas, as this is a piston engine aircraft. From what I saw, he was one of maybe a very small handful of people at YVR burning AvGas during the Olympics. The fuel supplier that provided him with fuel could have easily just given him the keys to the their AvGas truck, the only time I saw it move was to come out and fuel this bird.

Oh, and he can get 10 hours endurance!!! Which he needs on occasion as he has to reposition this aircraft all over the US. At approx 100 Kts, its going to take a while to get across the country!



While they were fueling, I also noticed that he would leave one of the four tanks empty, on the side that had the camera mounted under the wing. I assumed this was to balance out the weight of the camera apparatus.

The coolest thing though that caught my eye was the fact that he has retractable leading-edge slats.

Leading edge slats are a high-lift device, used for changing the shape of the wing to make it more efficient at low speeds.



Most large airliners have them. On take-off or landing, they will be extended, along with the trailing-edge flaps, to change the shape of the wing. On takeoff and after accelerating, the flaps and slats are retracted to make the wing more efficient at higher speeds.

The Helio however, has no use for massive hydraulic systems to operate the slats, so they came up with an ingenious solution.

The slats are basically mounted on sliding rails. When the aircraft is standing still, gravity causes them to fall " out " and be extended. Once the aircraft is moving, and operating in the low-speed area ( where the slats are required ), gravity and the relatively low force of the air hitting them keeps them extended.

If the aircraft accelerates and is no longer operating at " low " speeds, then the slats are no longer required and are in fact hindering further acceleration. The higher air-flow hitting the wing at higher airspeeds however, pushes them up against the leading edge of the wing and holds them up in the retracted position!

I pushed them with my hand and they move very easily, say dishwasher-drawer type of force required.

Sorry, I think that is so awesome. I love a simple engineering solution.

According to the pilot, the retraction / extension speed for the slats is actually the same as the stalling speed for the aircraft.

So yeah, flying a cool aircraft, down low, by hand, over sporting events, all over the US and Canada.

It was just him and the camera operator as well, no support staff or management types hanging around.

Awesome.

I didn't ask, but I imagine he gets a serious amount of flying hours as well.

Handicapped Parking

Saw this happen the other day and had the camera handy to take a couple pics.

A dash-8 sitting on one of the taxi-ways for a long time, with other departing aircraft being routed around it for quite some time. Finally, the dash shuts down both engines and some buses and airport authority vehicles come out to meet it.

Passengers offloaded onto the buses on the taxiway and eventually, the aircraft was towed away.

We were actually using my camera as binoculars it has a pretty good optical zoom, to try and figure out what was going on.



Originally we thought the nose-gear was twisted 90 degrees off centre. There is a nose-wheel steering disconnect on the exterior of the dash-8's nose that you have to pull out when towing it. One theory was that they had forgotten to reconnect, or it failed mid-taxi, causing the nose wheel to suddenly lose directional control.

When we zoomed in with the camera it became obvious this was not the problem.

We spent a few minutes trying to come up with a theory that would fit having to shut down and offload your passengers in the middle of the taxiway and hold up all kinds of operations, instead of simply taxiing back the gate.

This post was actually going to just repeat the same questions we were asking, till I realized I could probably find out.

Checking the photo-file properties I got a date that I took the photo. Using the aircraft type, location and date, I searched the CADORS database and bingo.

Two blown Main Landing Gear tires.

( none of us guessed this.. )



Cadors Number: 2010P0201
Reporting Region: Pacific
Occurrence Information
Occurrence Type: Incident
Occurrence Date: 2010-02-14
Occurrence Time: 2110 Z
Day Or Night: day-time
Fatalities: 0
Injuries: 0
Canadian Aerodrome ID: CYVR
Aerodrome Name: Vancouver Intl
Occurrence Location: Vancouver Intl (CYVR)
Province: British Columbia
Country: CANADA
World Area: North America
Reported By: NAV CANADA
AOR Number: 116196-V1
TSB Class Of Investigation: 5
TSB Occurrence No: A10P0044
Aircraft Information
Flight #: JZA180
Aircraft Category: Aeroplane
Country of Registration: CANADA
Make: DEHAVILLAND - CAN
Model: DHC 8 301
Year Built: 1989
Amateur Built: No
Engine Make: PRATT & WHITNEY-CAN
Engine Model: PW123
Engine Type: Turbo prop
Gear Type:
Phase of Flight: Taxi
Damage: No Damage
Owner: JAZZ AIR LP - AIR CANADA JAZZ
Operator: AIR CANADA JAZZ (5002)
Operator Type: Commercial
Event Information
Aerodrome or runway shutdown
Blown tire/wheel failure
Detail Information
User Name: Samson, Donna
Date: 2010-02-15
Further Action Required: No
O.P.I.: Maintenance & Manufacturing
Narrative: An Air Canada Jazz Dehavilland DH8C operating Flight JZA180, IFR Vancouver to Kamloops, experienced blown tires while taxiing for departure (runway 26L). Taxiway Delta was blocked and as a result up to 5 departing aircraft experienced up to 10 minute delays.
User Name: Samson, Donna
Date: 2010-03-02
Further Action Required: Yes
O.P.I.: Maintenance & Manufacturing
Narrative: UPDATE / Add Info from TSB: A10P0044 - The Air Canada (Jazz) DHC-8-300 aircraft (C-GETA), operating as JZA180, was taxiing for Runway 26L at Vancouver for a flight to Kamloops. The aircraft experienced two blown tires on the right main gear and became immobilized on Taxiway D. Maintenance replaced the # 3 and # 4 right main wheel assemblies. The failed wheel assemblies are being examined by company maintenance in Calgary and TSB will be advised of findings.


In Canada, the Civil Aviation Daily Occurrence Reporting System ( CADORS ) is a great way for NavCanada and other agencies to quickly disseminate information about a safety or regulatory issue without waiting for drawn-out reports, committee's, meetings or royal commissions.

If you do something wrong while practicing Aviation in Canada and someone saw you, chances are you will be the subject of a CADORS.

A CADORS doesnt neccasarily mean there will be any enforcement action. You may not even know that a CADORS about you even exists, unless your friends find it, and post it up on the bulletin board....

Nekko Chan.

Well, we had a death in the family recently.

My little Kitty, Nekko-Chan has gone to the great scratching post in the sky.

A few weeks ago, she simply stopped eating.

A few days went by before we both noticed it, and then we waited for another couple of days, trying to entice her to eat. We changed her food, bought her her favorite treats. Tried keeping the dog well and truly segregated from her. Tried moving her food, her litter, her toys and blankets to different places, with no luck.

Eventually, had to take her to the Vet to find out what was going on.

She didn't seem to be in any discomfort, just a little lazier than usual ( this is a cat, its hard to tell when they are being lazy-er ). The vet couldn't do much, as our car is not really very friendly. In fact, she is kind of mean.

I don't mean it in a bad way, its just that she wasn't much of a touchy-feely-come-pet-me kind of cat. She liked new people to the house, and would even deign to let guests pet her on occasion. Making TLW and I look like fools after we would warn people not to try and pet our cat and then she comes over and rubs up on their leg and purrs.

She was a rescue-cat and I remember the night we went and picked her up from a no-kill shelter run out of a woman's home that TLW had come across.

All the other animals were running loose in the house, the yard, the neighborhood, even. When we arrived to pick up Nekko though, the woman had to go and get her from a seperate area of the house. She told us at the time that it was because Nekko was a little shy around the other animals. I'm sorry, but that was a bold-faced lie. Nekko was probably making the abused pit-bulls cower and wet themselves, necessitating a little time in solitary.

We were given her in a box and we drove straight home. She sat so still in the box and without the usual fussing or meowing that cats in cars will do, that we thought she had died of fright.

We got her home and let out and she curled up in our laps and was very docile for the first couple days. Then, once the shock of the change in surroundings wore off, her regulalr perosnailty came back.

Her name, Nekko, means " Cat " in Japanese.

In Japan, " Chan " is sometimes added to girls names in an affectionate form. Sort of similar to Miss or Missy. Often, the fist name will be truncated and "chan" added on as an affectionate name for a young girl. Julia might become Ju-Chan, Tomoko would be tomo-chan, etc.

She was our Nekko-chan.

You could pet her, if she willed it, for a few strokes. The top of her head only, maybe one or two down the cheek. Touch her tail, her tummy, her back or her sides and she was going to draw blood.

I'm not even kidding. She'd give you a warning growl if you were lucky, but if you ignored that, the next one was a full-claws swipe. I've had grumpy cats before and the worst was a hiss and a swat with claws retracted, to let you knwo they were unhappy, but generally still acknowledging that you as the human were still the alpha.

Not so much with Nekko. She knew very little fear.

Both TLW and I had a couple instances over the years where we were attacked by her. Both times, we would be sitting down, watching TV and she would come full-tilt across the room, out of the blue, and hissing and spitting, take a few swipes at you before racing away. TLW got it in the head/hair once and and we both got it in the ankles as well. Its more than a little unnerving, believe me. That was a few years ago though, whatever we were doing that pissed her off so much, apparently we've stopped doing it.

In any case, the Vet tried examining her and was met with the Claws of Doom and her best Death-Howl. He wouldn t even touch her and asked me if I could hold her for him to examine. I laughed and told him "No.", not without those heavy duty falcon handling type gloves on. Even then, she was extremely uncooperative, to the point where sedating her and keeping her overnight for blood tests was the only option.

One day and a large sum of money later, we brought her home, with the bad news. He thought she might have a fatal, incurable disease. He gave us some antibiotics in the hopes he was wrong and that she might get her appetitie back, but no luck.

A few days later, she was on her last legs. She was practically falling down out of exhaustion and dehydration. One last trip to the vet and now she's gone.



She was not an easy cat to love, but we loved her.

Title.

Wow, so much has happened in the past few weeks. I don't even know where to begin.

In fact, I've been unable to properly string together a post in almost a week of trying. Theres three or four half-baked entries loitering in my edit-bin. Victims of me getting started and running off foaming at the mouth and trying to tell fifteen stories at once.

I'm going to try a new tack, as my usual 8-page run-on rambling entries are actually starting to intimidate me. I feel bad for you, having to read them..

I'll try to post a little more often and a little more on-task. It's hard though , when you have eight billion stories trying to bust out.

I'm thinking I might try and pre-bake a few entries and then go in and " release " them on a little more regular basis. When I get the urge to sit down and churn out some words, I have no problem spitting out five or six pages of drivel. So, instead of sticking one title at the top, I'll split it into six different entries. We'll see how it goes..




First big piece of news..... We're having a baby! Yup, The Lovely Wife is pregnant, three months pregnant to be precise. We've been trying for a while and things finally clicked just before Christmas.



This is one of my younger brothers and his baby. That's me holding Joel and apparently channeling Salman Rushdie.

Excited, Terrified, Nervous, Busting-out happy. I'm trying not to dwell too much on it, as I know there are going to be some major changes coming up, for both of us and the direction of our lives. But I think it's going to be one of those things better handled as-they-come and not to get too worried about trying to wrap a master-plan around everything.

Still looking for flying work, or any other new challenge on Aviation that scratches the itch.

Not that I've given up on finding a flying job, but the reality of my situation, my qualifications, the aviation industry in general, the industry in Vancouver in specific and the economy overall, dictates that I might need to focus on finding something that will build my skills and experience, and at the same time allow me to earn a living.

Since I know that chances are I will be here in Vancouver for at least the next year, I've started looking into a couple new directions.

- Flight Dispatching
Something I've found interesting in the past and would definitely challenge me on a whole new level. Not that my current job isn't satisfying or challenging to a degree, but the level of new challenges and learning on a daily basis are significantly lower now that I have a bit of experience.

- Flight Instructing
This one requires some funding to get an instructors rating, and no guarantee that I will find instructing work at the end of it. I think I would be good at it, given my previous " teaching " experience in Japan, and of course my passion for the subject at hand.

- Para-dropping or other part-time work
I suspect the opportunities here are a little limited, but if I could find something part-time, that would allow me even just enough flying to allow me to keep my skills current, I could tough out a year on the ground a little easier.


haha, there I go off into the wild blue babble-yonder.... I said I would keep it short and on-task....and now it's nothing of the sort...

I'll have a few entries worth of photos and stories about the Olympics, so I'm not going to go too far into them right now. I'm still awaiting the O'Hangover to clear before I can tell if people are calling the games a success or if my prediction of a flop was accurate. I suspect I may have been slightly off....I was surprised, both pleasantly and unpleasantly on more than one aspect of the festivities...

This wasn't the Olympics, but rather the ferry lineup sometime in the last couple years. I thought his performance worthy of note.

Winter Olympics 2010

So, the Winter Olympics are coming to Vancouver. Less than 30 days to go till opening ceremonies and finally things are starting to happen.

I lamented a few weeks ago to someone that I found it strange that there seemed to be a complete lack of fanfare or boosterism going on, with the games rapidly approaching.

I read an article the other day that explains this is their plan. Apparently, they are saving all the PR work for the last couple of weeks before the opening ceremonies. Makes sense in a way, I guess. For the last two years all we have heard about was the negative aspects, the traffic, road closures, construction projects, security and all manner of doomsday scenario's on how we just aren't going to be able to handle it. So, save all the good news for the last couple of weeks and try to put a smile on every ones face when the world shows up.

Unfortunately, they either haven't applied the proper amount of sunshine, or they are directing it to the wrong anatomical area, but I am not really looking forward to the whole thing. I am in a way, I guess, but it's more morbid curiosity than anything else..

My own personal prediction ( you heard it here first folks ), is that these games are going to be a flop. In my view, the best we can hope for at this point is a fizzle. Unremarkable, would be best case in my opinion. My fear though, is that we are going to fail... There seems to be an all-pervading theme of " don't worry, its under control, you'll be told what you need to know when you need to know it. Stop asking questions. "

Which streets are closing? When and for how long? Which buses, skytrains are going to be cancelled / detoured / increased? Are roads to the airport being check-pointed with CATSA minions demanding that I put apple juice in a baggie before going to work? If I walk out of the " secure area " and go outside for a minute, will I be able to get back air-side without going through screening?

And now, how the heck are we going to have alpine events on the local mountains, when there is no snow? A week or so ago we had a " Pineapple Express ". A nice low pressure system that comes from the southwest ( Hawaii ) and brings lots of moisture and well-above freezing temperatures. Like double digits above zero. If its 12 on the ground, 3000 feet above on the local hills, its only around 6 degrees or so. And Raining. Really, Really, Raining.

They announced it on the news yesterday. Warmest January in recorded history.

I saw a picture of one of the local ski hills, the snow base is almost gone and big muddy, bare patches are showing.

We had a meeting the other day at work and went over our operations plans for the event. This is definitely going to be one to remember. So much of our operation has changed and we have less than 10 days to get used to it and smooth out the wrinkles before things start really happening.

We've also got sleeping quarters for the staff, both the local staff and the staff from other locations that are being called in to help out. The thinking is that on the peak days, at least, we will most likely be working 16+ hour shifts and going home to simply turn around and come back less than 8 hours later will not be very efficient.

The two peak periods we are expecting are the arrival and departure crushes. Prior to the official opening ceremonies on Feb 12, all manner of aircraft are scheduled to arrive. We've got everything from smaller business jets to full size airliners bringing in TV production crews, Military personnel, Athletes, foreign dignitaries and of course, the super-rich.

The arrival crush is the " easier " of the two, as most of the people will be arriving kind of staggered, over a three day period. The departure one will be the real deal. As soon as the Olympics are over, everyone wants out. Now.


But, we've got a good crew here. Lots of guys with 15+ years of experience. Even some who took part in the Calgary 1988 Winter Olympics.

Hmm. One sec, google-break.

Wow. it WAS in 1988. 22 years ago. holy crap.

Security is tight, to say the least. I can't really get into it on here ( or I'd have to kill you, and that would suck. ), but trust me, its tight.

Lots of debate about whether its necessary or not, economically feasible or not, etc.

One thing to keep in mind, in regards to the military participation, economically at least, its not very costly at all. Its a great training exercise, with all kinds of real-world problems and challenges that a training scenario simply couldn't come up with. If they weren't practicing and burning fuel here, they'd be doing it anyway in Cold Lake, in Borden, in Shearwater.

Theres a couple of cruise ships parked in the harbour, filled with cops and military personnel. Best of all, they are also filled with the cruise ships regular staff as well. That's right, 24/7 buffet, swimming pool, karaoke, shuffleboard. Tough bivouac!


I've been picking up a little bit of part-time work here and there helping out a local company detailing aircraft. I got an introduction to " Bright Work " the other day.

Any of the shiny bits on a jet, are actually polished aluminum in most cases. It is usually associated with a heated surface, it being where the anti-icing systems that use very hot air from the engines direct the heat to keep ice from forming. The heat is distributed through pipes which have holes in them, running inside the leading edges of the wings, stabilizers and engine inlets. The pipes vary in diameter to keep the pressure uniform throughout its length.

The polished aluminum bits are subject to a lot of stress, both heat, corrosion and friction. Engine inlets and the leading edges of wings and stabilizers are the ones most impacted by bugs, ice, hail, towing crews and errant baggage carts.

There is also the important aspect of keeping a smooth surface, as these areas are the ones most affected by the skin friction drag caused by the meeting of air and airplane. It has been proven that the smoother the surface, the greater its efficiency, through reduction of drag. Something as rough as your average sandpaper on the surface of the wing, for example, might reduce the lift production of the wing by as much as 40%. That's a lot.

So, the polished aluminum bits get polished a lot. You also don't want corrosion getting a foothold in the metal either, so the polishing actually takes off a little bit of the surface in order to remove any oxidation that has started.

Bottom line. A lot of work. Hard work, manual polishing, elbow-grease, awkward places, repetitive work.

We had a report the other day of someone " Twittering " aircraft arrival details on their twitter-page? ( I have no idea how twitter works, so play along.. ) and they caught the attention of the airport authority. Apparently they figure its an employee of one of the FBO's and they are trying to figure out who it is...

With that in light, and the fact that I am going to be pretty busy for the next few weeks, I doubt there will be many updates from me.

Pictures of visiting aircraft are verboten at any time, and there is no shortage of all kinds of security spooks looking to justify their cruise-ship per Diem that I can't really say or post much without risking a grey area....

N'aughties

I saw the term " Naughties " used the other day to refer to the decade of 2000 - 2009. I presume it to be referring to " aught " as a term referring to 01-09, as " teens " are used in referring to numbers 10-19.

I'm not sure if I like the term, but it does seem a little appropriate given the nature of some of the decadence and excess in the last ten years or so, and the fact that we seem to be paying for it now....

Anyhow, onward, upward. Things will be what they will be, not much sense in dwelling on things...

Got the itch to go flying the other day, and finally decided I better do some scratching. Its been a few months since I've had the controls of an aircraft. The holiday season was pretty good to us financially, with myself getting a nice little cheque pre-christmas for some retro pay due for an old pay increase that got missed, a signing bonus on our new union contract and another healthy pay increase for Jan 01 under the new contract.

Most of the extra money went to paying bills, but I managed to get my hands on 135 bucks to go and rent an ultralight from the local ultralight strip and go for a boot.




I could have spent a couple more bucks and rented a 172 or a 152, but the ultralight place had just added a couple new planes to the fleet and I wanted to give one a try. I went for a flight in one a year or so ago and didn't really care too much for it. It felt really squirrelly and difficult to fly a steady course or get the aircraft trimmed out properly. The aircraft I took up this time though was awesome!

It was a little Ukrainian made job ( insert appropriate ukie joke here ), and the name escapes me, but I promise to find out and post it.


The strip is a little grass ( West Coast winter, read: Mud ) strip of 1200-1500 feet or so and a little bumpy.

I went up with one of their instructors, as I'd never rented from them before and a check-out was in order before they will let me loose on just my say-so of my awesome pilot-y type skills.



A neat feature of the plane, it had a Ballistic Recovery System! This is a parachute, for the plane! According to the owner, this is a big wife-seller on the poeple who come in with the typical cocked eyebrow when hubby says he is going to try flight training in an ultralight. If you get in serious trouble, as a last resort, you can pull the handle and a chute will fire out the top of the plane, and bring it to a controlled vertical descent. I'm told most of these systems allow for landing at vertical velocities equivalent to a ten-foot drop. Enough to rattle your fillings to be sure, and bend the airplane without doubt, but possibly a better outcome than other possibilities, depending on the scenario.

I've also heard that these systems are getting a little bit of a bad rap, given their activation in scenarios where it wasn't at last-resort yet and cooler heads didn't prevail. Hard to say, but its nice to have one more tool as a backup.

We ended up leaving fairly late in the day, with our legal daylight dwindling and twilight encroaching. We were legal, but its not hard to be in legal " day " and still have it quite dark out.

Over to one of the local airports for some touch and go's, got to practice my slips and slipping turns as I had a tough time judging power settings for my approach with an aircraft I wasnt familiar with. I like slipping too, and the goal of the day was to just have some fun.

For those not familiar, a slip is used on approach where you are too high ( didnt take enough power off during the approach, or took it off too late ) and power is fully off. If you lower the nose and " dive " at the runway, you will pick up speed. Excessive speed is not going to help you at all, as you will have to then bleed this speed off over the runway before the aircraft will stop flying and let you land it. You may well get to the runway by diving at it, but you will still land waaaaay down the runway while you " float " along in ground effect trying to get rid of all that extra speed.

So, the slip is used by giving full rudder in one direction ( turning the nose of the plane away from the runway ) and using the ailerons to keep the aircraft pointed towards the runway. This ends up making the aircraft sort of fly sideways, presenting a large section of the fuselage into the relative airflow and creating a large amount of drag. The drag slows the aircraft down considerably, allowing speed to drop. If the speed is dropping, the nose can be lowered towards the runway ( it will actually descend quite quickly without the nose really dropping at all ) and you can then " dive " at it without penalty of increasing your speed. This is a simplified explanation, but the end result is a significant rate of descent without an increase in speed. I love the feeling of a slip properly applied and the bottom dropping out from underneath you.

I've had instructors warn against doing this with nervous passengers as they may not enjoy this sensation...

The trick too is to make sure you have straightened the aircraft out nice and smoothly to transition to a normal ( straight, aligned with the runway ) attitude prior to landing.

After a few circuits, we flew over to the practice area to try out a few upper air maneuvers. This thing stalls at 29 MPH...haha! The indicated airspeed approaching the stall dropped off to almost zero before we felt anything. The stall was really gentle as well, no wing dropping or anything, just a little buffet. I actually waited a bit before I recovered as I didn't think it was fully stalled, but apparently it was.

A little slow flight to see if we could make it " stand still " and then hurry up and get home before it got too dark!

Coming back to the home strip, I let the instructor know that this was all him now.

Way too dark for me to comfortably find an unfamiliar, unlit, dark, muddy, short, strip. I told him later that had that been just me in the plane, he would have been getting a phone call from the field where we had done the touch and go's at, because thats where I would have left their airplane!

I also wouldn't have left that late, but I asked the instructor before we left if he was comfortable departing knowing what the light conditions would be like when we returned and he seemed quite confident.

When we called in on the Aerodrome Traffic Frquency ( ATF ), to announce our impending arrival and intentions, one of the other owners on the ground asked us if we wanted a car or two placed along the runway to light things up. We decided to have a look-see first and ended up seeing the strip nicely. It was neat too to see the casual and helpful nature of everyone out there at this strip. Everyone was just out there having fun and watching out for each other. Not a lot of the posturing and too-cool-for-school attitudes that your typical training aerodrome seems to suffer a lot of these days.

The aircraft had tons of power ( relatively, of course ) and it felt very stable in the air. I was quite impressed. It cruised at around 90kts as well, not too shabby!

Comfortable, roomy two-seat cockpit. It even had a " real " throttle setup, which you gripped with your palm on the centre console, instead of the awkwardly placed and goofy-feeling Cessna throttle which is the plunger type, mounted up on the panel. I like to hold the throttle while I fly, and this made it very comfortable, almost like resting your hand on the gear-shift.



One thing I didnt like though, was the combination display for the engine instruments. Everything was digital, with no needles, green arcs, red lines or other visual cues to help with monitoring engine performance. I suppose if I flew this thing on a regular basis, I'd have the nominal values memorized, but its nice to not have to really read the values and simply glance at the needle and the red line to make sure things are doing what they are supposed to be doing.

I understand though that with ultralights, there are quite a few compromises that have to be made in non-critical areas to keep the weight down.

Here's a picture showing a cessna throttle ( the black knob ).



Also visible is my nephews creation which I promised him I would take with me when I go flying. I sent him a couple pictures on one flight, and I need to remind myself to send him some soon so he is reassured that it still goes with me to help land the plane!

It didn't hurt that the aircraft has less than a hundred hours on it as well. Most of the Cessnas I'm used to flying had in excess of 5000 hours...

I'm looking forward to going back to scratch the itch and am wondering what the local instructing employment scene is like for the ultralight guys...



Had a Canadian Forces Cormorant helicopter visit us the other day. On a training exercise and lunch break. I love how these guys " land " on the runway and then taxi over. Its always a little weird to see a helicopter cruising down the taxi way instead of landing directly on the pads. We actually had quite a few do that when we had all that fog last week.



I'm assuming that helicopters would follow the same instrument approach procedures to a runway and then " circle to land " at their intended pad once the airport environment is in sight?



In the case of the fog, I presume they followed the ILS all the way down and since the airport environment wasn't visible, most likely runway lighting only, they had to land on the runway and taxi off?