Cape Town Flying Club AGM - 17 September
The Club's Annual General Meeting will take place on Wednesday the 17th of September at 7pm. We'd like to encourage all members to attend, the bar will be open and snacks will be served. Please contact Beverley on (021) 934-0257 to nominate members for the committee!
State of the Fleet
PMY will be back in action in September and apparently it looks fantastic. All other aircraft, including all four Tomahawks are flying.
AAD Expo
The Africa Aerospace and Defence Show will take place at Ysterplaat Airforce Base in September, and will feature a Cape Town Flying Club stand. We have a limited number of trade passes available from the 17th to 19th. If you'd like to be registered for a pass please contact Bev on 021 934-0257.
 The Student Pilot
Contributed by Steve Davies
Steve Davies is busy with his PPL at CTFC with Tony Russel. After every lesson, he writes his impressions and thoughts on the flight. Although initially just for his facebook profile, they make excellent and highly entertaining reading. Every week we will present one of Steve's "Facebook notes"
Escape from the Circuit!
Houston, we’ve attained escape velocity and left the circuit!
During my training up to now I’ve been flying once a week or so - which means quite slow progress. Plus. it took me quite a while to get my landings right. I never was that well co-ordinated!
I started flying circuits in September, and it took until April for me to eventually learn to fly a decent circuit, and to complete my solo consolidation.
Then the weather and personal commitments meant no flying for 4 weeks.
All together that’s so long that I’d nearly forgotten that aeroplanes can be used to do other things besides takeoff, crosswind, downwind, base, final, land... (mix in a few practice engine-failures, glide approaches etc)
So it was a pleasure to prepare for something new: a flight to the D200 practice area to learn how to do steep turns, and to revisit stalls.
Flying out to the D200 does require getting through a fairly complicated airspace. You start on 121.9/118.1 with the Cape Town tower. Initial routing is usually for Kenilworth (the racecourse) or the cooling towers (at Athlone on the N2). First flight we were routed to Kenilworth. My heading to start with was a bit off as I had the sun in my eyes and couldn’t see the racecourse. A hint from Tony was to steer for Constantia Nek. As we approached Kenilworth the tower calls with a “Broadcast TIBA”, so its over to 125.8 and there I announce callsign, type, position, altitude and intentions.
Our intention is to head for Blouberg. But to do that we would like to overfly Ysterplaat. So after a moment we announce that we are changing to 125.6 (Ysterplaat tower) and attempt to call them. There’s no reply - so we just announce our intentions. (Looks like if you want to attack Cape Town from the air, make a note to do so on the weekend).
Once you’ve announced yourself, I reckon its a great moment to take a look around and remind yourself that you are learning to fly amongst stunning scenery. Ahead and to the left is the harbour, waterfront and the city. To your left, Devil’s Peak, Table Mountain and the leafy southern suburbs. Ahead, the beautiful Blouberg beach with the surf rolling in. Maybe you can see some kite-surfers.
So I take a moment to enjoy the view! But not too long, because soon we are abeam the Milnerton racecourse - time to say goodbye on 125.6 and return to 125.8 and announce ourselves there. There’s quite a bit of other traffic, so I listen carefully and keep a good lookout.
For stalling practice we need to get up to 4000ft. We’re still at 1500ft, but we’re now outside the CTR, so I climb to 2000ft. That’s as high as we can go at this point as the TMA starts at 2500ft. Once past Rietvlei and over Blouberg I turn a little right and aim for the east side of Blouberg hill; once past there I aim for the kink in the R27 to stay out of the way of the D200 airfield to the west. As we enter the D200 its goodbye again and over to 124.4.
Past Koeberg and I start another climb - the bottom of the TMA at this point is 4500ft.
Eventually, we’re at the sand dunes and its time for stalling. Which, of course, is when I remember that I really should have re-learnt my HASELL checks... I did look at them again, but certainly couldn’t remember all the different location checks. Tony wasn’t impressed - I will make sure I know them next time!
My initial attempts at a stall had too much aileron input. Actually that stayed a problem for the whole lesson. You are supposed to avoid aileron input in the stall because it can lead to a wing dropping and an unexpected spin. And we’re trying to practice stalls, not spins. I think I’d also forgotten that you need to use elevator pretty assertively to hold altitude until the aircraft enters the stall. Thinking back, I was being rather tentative about it.
Tony demos one and gets rewarded with a left wing drop and a pretty steep descent angle. Yeehaa!
I can’t help wondering how the formal stalling exercise translates into the real world. I guess you learn the signs and symptoms of an impending stall. But the no-aileron stuff: well, if you’re not expecting a stall, you wouldn’t be following that rule, not so? You also get conditioned to connecting a stall with slow flight etc. That’ the most likely, but they can occur at higher speed in a banked turn or with, for example, an abrupt pullup from a dive.
With stalls completed, we descend and its time for steep turns. For our purposes, “steep” means 45˚. Here’s the drill: (1) make a clearing turn and make sure you’re not going to bump into anyone or anything. (2) roll into the turn. (3) as you pass 30˚ of bank angle, apply full power (to compensate for the loss of lift). (4) judge 45˚ from the angle of the horizon and stop the roll. (5) hold back elevator to counteract the loss of lift from the wing angle - keep the horizon cutting the same spot on the cowl. (6) divide your attention - angle of bank, attitude, lookout, occasional glances at the altimeter to check you are maintaining altitude. (7) anticipate the end of your turn and roll out onto the desired heading. (8) relax back pressure and throttle back to the cruise.
These steep turns were good fun. You really feel like you’re flying the aeroplane, and its satisfying to get them right. Get it just so and you’ll feel the bumps when you fly back through your own turbulence.
We did steep turns to the left and right, then figures of eight. Fun stuff.
Then, unfortunately, time to turn for home.
The idea was that my next flight would be a solo to the D200 to practice these exercises by myself. Tony says he’ll sign me off to do the steep turns, but not the stalls. Things actually worked out differently, but that’s for next time.
Aviation News
SA Pilot's Grading Scrutinized
Submitted by John Nicholas
Johannesburg - The international recognition of all South African pilots could be in danger due to the possible downgrade of the South African Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) by the USA's Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Due to the shortage of inspectors that test the flight worthiness of aeroplanes and issue and reassess pilots' licences, the FAA had considered downgrading the CAA in January already.
The CAA was however awarded a six-month postponement after appeals from Colin Jordaan, a former head of the SAA who had then just been appointed as the executive head of the CAA. Since then, Jordaan has been working ceaselessly for the CAA to maintain its status.
This shortage of inspectors came to light during an audit by the FAA that was done at the CAA's head office in Midrand last year - just like the audit done at SAA's technical department which exposed a dangerous skills shortage and which was exposed on Sake24 on Monday.
A downgrade will have disastrous effects on South African aviation, the country's biggest magazine for pilots, SA Flyer, wrote in its latest edition.
It would mean a dramatic decrease in the international recognition of South African pilots' licences, that aeroplaines' air worthiness-certificates won't be worth much abroad, and that SAA won't be able to develop its routes to America.
A leader from an FAA delegation which visited the CAA in January, brought with him a letter which informed the CAA of the downgrade. Jordaan convinced him and the other delegates to give the CAA six months to recover.
According to an interview with SA Flyer, it was the first time in the history of the FAA that a downgrade of an airline regulatory authority was issued but not awarded to the involved authority.
Transport minister Jeff Radebe has since ensured that Jordaan gets a sufficient budget to lure back skilled inspectors, who are in demand worldwide. More than 80 of them have been hired in the last few months.
Source: http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2378611,00.html
Singapore Airlines celebrates 1000th Airbus A380 Flight
Submitted by John Nicholas
MORE than nine months after it started flying the Airbus 380 superjumbo, Singapore Airlines on Monday marked the jet's 1,000th flight.
SQ322 departed from Singapore Changi Airport for London's Heathrow Airport close to midnight.
Since SIA started operating the world's biggest passenger jet in October last year, the aircraft has clocked 8,500 flying hours and carried almost 400,000 travellers.
The Singapore carrier currently has five A380s in service and is due to receive another 14. The sixth aircraft is expected to be delivered next month.
So far, the aircraft flies out of Singapore to Sydney, London and Tokyo.
To meet continuing demand from customers, SIA has stepped up training for crew, so that more are qualified to operate the A380 in the coming years, the airline said in a statement on Tuesday.
About 140 pilots and 2,000 cabin crew have been trained to fly and serve onboard the aircraft.
On Friday, Dubai's Emirates became the second carrier to fly the A380, ending SIA's nine-month solo reign.
Source: http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2BNews/Singapore/STIStory_264712.html
Aviation Training Tools
There are some great online tools designed to assist in the understanding of various aviation related topics. Please feel free to send us your links to similar sites.
We start with this teaching aid to understanding how navigational instruments work.
Aviation Accidents & Incidents
Spanair MD-82 Crash
A Spanair MD-83 crashed on takeoff from Madrid's Barajas Airport on Wednesday. The aircraft had 175 people on board and was heading to the Canary Islands. Sadly at least 149 of the passengers died in the accident.
 
Initial reports indicate a fire in the left engine, but something else must have gone terribly wrong for the plane to end up crashing shortly after rotation. The MD-82 should be quite capable of climbing away on one engine.
Remember the US Air Force Midair F-15C Breakup?
Submitted by Alexia Michaelides
 
 
 
 
 
 Can you imagine what was going through this poor pilot's mind?
AND, just what caused the mid air break up? U.S. Air Force's announcement said that the Missouri National Guard F-15 jet broke apart in midair on Nov. 2, 2007; the pilot evacuated the plane safely. The breakup in mid air was blamed on parts that didn't meet specifications!
Only the pilot and whoever does his laundry know how truly tense this situation was!
Videos
 Qantas 747 Takeoff from Manchester Airport
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hL6nXfBhj0
Submitted by John Nicholas
Photographs
Singapore Airlines Airbus A380
Submitted by Alexia Michaelides (taken at Sydney from a Qantas 747)
 
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