Golf Hotel Whiskey

Golf Hotel Whiskey: for pilots and aviation enthusiasts

Cows and aircraft don’t mix (especially on runways)

We have mentioned stories or incidents involving emus, dogs, rabbits, wild pigs, turtles, deer, a bull and even cat fish running, hopping or slithering across runways, but incidents involving cows seem to be greater than one might think.

For starters, in an August 2010 US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) accident report excerpted on General Aviation News, a Cessna 182 pilot in Del Rio (Texas) was attempting to land on a private dirt strip. However, he became distracted by a cow adjacent to and moving toward the runway (being Texas, the runway must have been on a big cattle ranch) – GolfHotelWhiskey.com - Cow on a Runwaycausing him not to notice that he was too low on the approach. The pilot touched down short of the runway by about 5 to 10 feet, struck some rocks on a rise in the terrain and flipped over. There were no injuries but the aircraft had substantial damaged.

Granted, that was in Texas. However, NYC Aviation reported early last year an incident at the Mayor Buenaventura Vivas Airport in Santo Domingo, Venezuela, where an Aserca Airlines McDonnell Douglas MD-82 struck two cows (who died instantly) because they did not move fast enough. The jet’s left main landing gear and left wing flaps were damaged enough to keep the aircraft grounded until repairs could be made.

NYC Aviation also mentioned that in 2005, a herd of cows were hit by an Air France Airbus A330 while landing in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. That led to local authorities arresting stray cows and holding them until their owners paid a fine. In addition and in 2011, an Aviastar Twin Otter hit three cows while landing at the Komodo Airport in Indonesia (at least they did not hit any Komodo Dragons!)

However and if you think cows only pose a threat to aircraft in Texas or in developing countries, a British biplane clipped one while making an emergency landing in a field that was caught on video back in 2008:

Luckily, neither the cow nor the aircraft were seriously injured and the pilot was glad to avoid hitting a fence that could have led to worst damage.

In other words, keep an eye out for any wayward cows when landing on runways – especially grass runways or fields.

Distracted and sleep deprived pilot flips aircraft

General Aviation News will often reprint excerpts from US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) accident reports, including one that involved a Cessna 206 in Stanwood (Washington) where there was one fatality. In the incident, a 55 year old pilot with multiple ratings and 4,200 hours (including 474 hours in seaplanes), was coming in for a landing in an aircraft mounted on amphibious floats with his son as a passenger. The aircraft was part of a flight of three floatplanes coming in to land at a lake the pilot had never landed at before and his intention was to land in between the wakes made by the other aircraft.

However and upon approaching the lake, the pilot got into a discussion with his son and he likely forgot to retract the landing gear in order to make a water landing. When the aircraft made a touchdown, its nose dipped and when the pilot went to retract the flaps and apply back pressure, the aircraft nosed over and filled with water.

After the accident, the pilot could not recall raising the landing gear nor verifying its position nor hearing an audible landing gear position-warning alert. The pilot also reported that 12 days prior to the accident, he had suffered a loss of a close family member and it was only after the accident that he realized he was suffering from sleep deprivation and was having a hard time focusing his attention.

In other words, it might not be a good idea to go flying right after a family tragedy or some other life changing event and you need to make sure that your passengers understand that any intense discussion beyond flying can wait until everyone is safely on the ground.

The BushCat LSA: An affordable aircraft to get you noticed in Britain

If you are looking for a light sport aircraft (LSA) that is bound to turn a few heads at an airfield in Britain or anywhere in Europe for that matter, General Aviation News has recently profiled the affordable BushCat from South Africa based SkyReach which (naturally) sports a black and white zebra design. Of course, you don’t have to go with a black and white zebra design as that was done sGolfHotelWhiskey.com - The BushCatspecially for the aircraft on display at last year’s AirVenture in Oshkosh (by projecting an image of a zebra into the side of the aircraft and then tracing the outline).

The BushCat is an evolutionary product of the Cheetah XLS and it was designed to be easy to maintain (the aircraft is assembled in a modular fashion – meaning a damaged part can simply be unbolted and replaced with a new one) and rugged so that it can operate in the African bush to catch Rhino poachers.

In fact, the BushCat was selected by the World Wildlife Fund because pilots who do poaching patrols must stay in the air for several hours at a time without refueling plus its economical:

“Endurance of the airplane is about seven and a half hours, which is more than my endurance in it, I’m sure,” said Gill, noting fuel capacity is 24.8 gallons. “It costs are about $30 per hour. That’s in United States currency, because it runs on automobile fuel.”

Other aircraft specifications include:

  • Wingspan: 31.5 feet or 9.6 meters
  • Spinner to Tail: 18.6 feet or 5.7 meters
  • Cockpit: 47.5 inches or 1.2 meters across
  • Useful Load: 628 pounds or 285 kg
  • Baggage: Up to 81 pounds or 36.7 kg
  • Climb Rate: 700 feet or 213 meters per minute to 1,200 feet or 365.8 meters per minute
  • Engine Choices: The 65-hp Rotax 582, the 80-hp Rotax 912 and the 100-hp 912 ULS
  • Maximum Crosswind Component: 32 mph or 27.8 knots (For comparison, the maximum demonstrated crosswind component of a Cessna 172 is 17 knots)

In addition, UltraLiteFlyer.com has an interview with the company representative at Oshkosh who said the aircraft would be selling for just $62,000 or so after the show:

So whether you need to do a several hour poaching patrol above the Yorkshire Dales or you just want a rugged aircraft to fly up to Scotland in, the BushCat could be your answer!

Plane spotting Nigeria’s aircraft graveyards with Google Earth

The AP , BBC  and Business Insider have all recently had stories about Nigeria’s aircraft graveyards where many aircraft that are no longer serviceable have been left to rust and rot by insolvent aviation companies or were impounded for smuggling. Apparently, the government is finally taking action and workers at the international airport in Lagos are dismantling abandoned aircraft in an area nicknamed the “graveyard” which contains aircraft ranging from small jets to a Boeing 747.

A quick look at the Lagos airport on Google Earth seems to indicate the aircraft graveyard being in the far upper right corner of the screenshot below:

image

Here is a close up revealing about a dozen abandoned aircraft:

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The articles also reported aircraft graveyards at other Nigerian airports, including the airport at the capital of Abuja along with Kano, the main northern city. A quick look at the Airport in Abuja seems to indicate around half a dozen abandoned aircraft to the northeast of the airport and it appears the aircraft tails of some of the bigger aircraft are separated from the aircraft fuselages:

GolfHotelWhiskey.com - Nnamdi Azikiwe International, Nigeria

A look at Kano’s airport seems to indicate the two aircraft in the far left of this picture along with the one in the far right could be abandoned.

GolfHotelWhiskey.com - Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Nigeria

Despite the above problems, Nigeria has one of the world’s fastest growing business jet markets with a recent Forbes article reporting that wealthy Nigerians have spent an estimated $6.5 billion on private jets over the past five years. The article also cited a report by a Nigerian newspaper which estimated the number of privately-owned aircraft in the country has risen by 650% between 2007 and 2012 or from a total of 20 private jets to over 150 as of late last year.

Video: Flying the Hudson Corridor VFR in a Cirrus N311LS

The Let’s Go Flying blog has posted a really cool video of flying the Hudson Corridor to do laps around the Statue of Liberty at 150 miles per hour with 17 year old pilot Neil Hershman, a High School Student in New York, at the controls of the aircraft. Neil is actually a first generation private pilot who started flying with RC planes and home flight simulators at a very young age before getting a pilot’s license as a teenager.

Neil flies out of Westchester Country Airport, about 20 miles north of New York City, and he calls the Hudson Corridor a pilot’s best kept secret because its both legal and fun. To fly the corridor, Neil will visually follow the west side of the river and tell Air Traffic Control his intention (to head to the Statue of Liberty and back again). ATC then gives him an altitude along with a bunch of traffic warnings.

If you don’t want to watch the entire eight minute video, you can skip to the following sights:

  • KHPN Departure (4x fast): 0:09
  • LaGuardia Tower Clearance: 0:52
  • NYC Skyline: 3:50
  • Statue Of Liberty: 4:45
  • Freedom Tower: 6:31
  • Outro: 7:54

If you thought that video was cool, check out Neil’s YouTube page as well as his blog where he posts more pictures and videos of his flying adventures.