Flying fambo

Flying fambo People drive across Australia to see some of the best and most remote parts. We Fly. Enjoy

Come join us on our escapades as we travel around Australia in our own 2001 Beechcraft Bonanza A36 from the flight to the trip itself.

30/05/2022

Last bit and most important.

Landing.

Once your up, the next part is getting back down.

Now there are optical illusions and effects I didn’t speak about.

During WW1 pilots at night used to take off and go straight off the end of the runway crashing. This is due to your middle ear. Essentially if you use your eyes and peripheral vision then as you pass the runway lights when lifting the nose as you rotate you suffer from a somatogravic illusion.

This is where you feel you are climbing.
But your not.
Your going straight and level which can only lead to disaster. On take off you have to ignore what your balance is telling you and trust your instruments. This illusion is fatal if ignored.

On landing in remote strips there is another danger called a black hole effect (featureless terrain illusion), it fools you into thinking you are higher than you are leading to a low level approach and again can be fatal.

This is where the lights on the left of the runway help.
Now somewhere fancy like Perth airport has these lights along the side of the runway, approach lights, a ‘bunny’ down the middle to show a centrline as well as radar approach and of course someone who can see your approach and advise you of adjustments.
In the aircraft you will have audible warnings of your height as you descend.

Not in Ravensthorpe.

You have lights either side of the runway, nothing down the middle, you can’t see the strip. No radar, no air traffic control. The closest description is akin to landing on an aircraft carrier at night.

Somewhere like Ravensthorpe you have to rely on a group of four lights on the left called the glidescope. If you have the lights, correct you approach is perfect to land. On approach they should be 2 red and 2 white. 4 white too high. 4 red too low. We use to this combat the black hole effect.

Anyway in this video I was too high which leads to a crappy landing.

But where is the airstrip, what’s your position, height, track? Are you too high to land? On one approach I had to go around as it was a mess. But this is why the need to land needs to be tempered by your need to fly the aircraft safely.

Sometimes it’s just nice to nail a technically difficult landing at night.

I ditched the GoPro on the second flight as cognitively this is an extra that you can do without when trying to keep your focus razor sharp.

Beechcraft Textron Aviation

29/05/2022

Next video.

So after rotation (take off) if doing circuits, it’s normally quite straightforward during the day.

At night it’s an abyss.

Here I am turning onto downwind the alarm is me hitting my 1200ft maximum (Ravensthorpe is 209ft).

Now I can see the lights to my left but only at a glance. I can’t visually tell the angle of me to the runway as I can’t see it only the lights running up and down the sides by eye and therefore need to have eyes on my directional indicator (DI/DG) to keep me parallel and assist in the turns. So again more an instrument follow and approach/setup.

Now for those that are thinking yep you have got time even though I am climbing and turning now I am levelling off and although not at fulll cruise speed (160 knots) I will be crossing 130 knots or doing this at 240km/hr.

Which means the runway is 1.68km I am parallel to it and I have 28 seconds at this speed to have the plane levelled off, done downwind checks, brakes, undercarriage, mixture, flaps (1st stage), engine temp & pressures. Fuel check/tip tank balance. Fuel burn. Radio calls done. Before my next turn is due and also not stray off course or climb climb or descend.

Mentally it is busy and with loss of visual input, tricky to say the least.

Textron Aviation
Beechcraft

29/05/2022

So good old Facebook will only let me select one video at a time.

Furthering along with Night Visual Flight Rules (NVFR) information.

This is me taking off from runway 06 at Ravensthorpe Airport. Wind is negligible 3kt. QNH 1020. OAT11 degrees. There is no direct meteorology conditions and this was taken from visual on site (obviously I checked the area forecast and NOTAMs prior)

The night sky is clear and there is no moon.

How to describe this?

When watching the video remember that after rotation (take off) any input I use on the control column has no visual response outside the aircraft.

As in if we’re climbing you can’t see or tell outside
If we are descending you also can’t see or tell outside
Here’s the clincher, if your turning the aircraft left or right you also cannot see the outside world move.

😬

This is where I wonder where the VFR of night comes from, over a city you can see the city lights and sort your shape out.

But somewhere like Ravensthorpe every topographical feature is black even the sea.
You can see nothing.
There’s no traffic on the roads either.
It’s a completely black canvas.

It’s entirely black no matter what you do.

This is why you have to have a reality check with yourself and focus on those instruments in front of you. It takes a lot to trust an artificial horizon to know if you are going up or down (also your altimiter and vertical speed indicator) inside the aircraft. During the day of course you have visual reference and reassurance but at night it all comes down to those instruments.

You can attempt to look at the lights of the airstrip but seeing them gives no observer bearing to if your tracking parallel or descending or climbing. Again this is where you are focused on the instruments, your heading in relation to the airstrip, your circuit height, in order to keep you as best you can on track for something as simple as a circuit.

I will post the next video to show more in the circuit but I wonder non metro flying like this is more instrument, apart from final approach than visual.

Textron Aviation
Beechcraft

Not updated this for a while.Last night was a good opportunity to get some night circuits in.These are let’s say tricky....
28/05/2022

Not updated this for a while.

Last night was a good opportunity to get some night circuits in.

These are let’s say tricky.

There is a day endorsement called Day VFR.

VFR = Visual Flight Rules and stipulates amongst other things the maximum weather conditions they flights under this ruling can apply to.

Night VFR has sort of similar rules but the endorsement is tricky and normally done near a city.

Well last night I took YLV up.

Clear skies
No Moon
😬

These are some ground shots I got from my iPhone13 pre departure.

I can’t post video and photos will do a seperate post for the video to show you what flying at night is like and why in a location like this it is IFR if we are being honest.

Beechcraft Textron Aviation



Fun flight ✈️ to renew ASIC card.Bumped into Rex Airlines SAAB 340 while waiting to depart and sat on the ground for 5 ...
05/02/2022



Fun flight ✈️ to renew ASIC card.

Bumped into Rex Airlines SAAB 340 while waiting to depart and sat on the ground for 5 mins are they were on descent.

Beechcraft




Off to Esperance to run a few errands.
05/02/2022

Off to Esperance to run a few errands.

After waiting for the 🪂 to land at Jurien and a SPECI forecast begin to clear. Thanks MidWest Aero Club for the on gro...
31/12/2021




After waiting for the 🪂 to land at Jurien and a SPECI forecast begin to clear. Thanks MidWest Aero Club for the on ground cameras which helped us check the clouds going from OVC to BKN to SCT.

Flight to Geraldton was fairly straightforward and Royal Flying Doctor Service WA for holding on runway 21 whilst we got established in the circuit.

After a lazy breakfast in Geraldton. We checked out the aircraft and then made a bee line for Jurien Bay. Our first tim...
30/12/2021



After a lazy breakfast in Geraldton.

We checked out the aircraft and then made a bee line for Jurien Bay.

Our first time here and thanks to Skydive Jurien Bay - Perth for letting us tie down outside the hangar for the night true hospitality!

On our way down from Geraldton to Jurien we passed over Leander Reef to our left.

Off to Geraldton for our first break since pre-covid.Now with Tip Tanks which increase range from 5 hours flight time ...
29/12/2021



Off to Geraldton for our first break since pre-covid.

Now with Tip Tanks which increase range from 5 hours flight time to nearly 8!

Wonderful flight up and thanks to the Dash-8 for letting me do a few touch and gos before departure to Geraldton.

With a tailwind and 172kts speed meant 2.5 hours flight time.

Flash back to three weeks ago when we were cycling around the base of Uluru! like a million years ago now.So beautiful...
31/08/2021

Flash back to three weeks ago when we were cycling around the base of Uluru! like a million years ago now.
So beautiful and spiritual.
I can’t recommend it highly enough.
Fun for all of us. Getting itchy feet… need to make plans….

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