Golf Hotel Whiskey: for pilots and aviation enthusiasts
Hat tip to David Parker Brown of the AirlineReporter blog for finding this amazing video on NYC Aviation’s website of a SAS Boeing 737 that was taxiing after touching down in Norway when it began to slid on a slick ice-covered taxiway. As you can imagine, this probably was not fun for the flight crew and the passengers inside!
Imagine what could have happened if this was a much smaller general aviation aircraft on a busier stretch of airport tarmac…
Hat tip to Sulako, the blogger behind Sulako’s Blog, who has recently posted this amazing video of Australia’s helicopter cowboys. Apparently, they lose an average of TEN helicopters per year to crashes from which not all pilots walk away from. However, commenter Steve at the Pub added that:
The nature of that documentary, & the terminology used is of a "Gee Whiz" nature, designed to impress & wow an audience of urban foreigners.
Ten crashes a year? Never counted, could be right. Crashes are not unavoidable, & most pilots never have one.
The height is actually one of the nastier things about crashes. Tree/animal strike DOES occur, as does losing track of wind direction. An engine failure at that height & attitude means the pilot has no options for safe landing.
They are operating in a high density altitude, in hot conditions. Dusty too, which can hamper visibility.
ALL those machines are insured. Insurance for them is expensive.
He also noted that the white helicopter in that clip has recently crashed and the pilot did not survive.
Nevertheless, I guess this is best and the most effective way to do a roundup in remoter parts of the outback.
The January edition of the AOPA Online Pilot Magazine had a must read article about the Apple iPad and its use in the cockpit that began by noting that:
If an aviation company offered a moving-map GPS with a 10-inch display, a nation’s worth of charts and approach plates, flight planning, weather, a full aviation library, and the basic functions of a computer all for around $630, every pilot would own one. That’s just what the Apple iPad is offering. So why doesn’t every pilot have one? Like every new product with lots of hype, there’s more to the story.
The article then went on to cover specific iPad in the cockpit issues such as heat and altitude, sunlight readability and mounting the device and it also included a video panel discussion about the device with Jason Miller of ForeFlight and aviation blogger Max Trescott.
In addition, the AOPA article noted that there are now more than 130 aviation applications available that range from comprehensive packages that include planning tools, weather information, charts and airport directories to more basic and task-specific offerings. The article then went into some detail about the following more popular iPad cockpit applications:
The AOPA article ended by noting that:
What puts the iPad over the top as a must-buy gadget is, ironically, its use outside of aviation. If you’re going on a weekend trip in the airplane, having an iPad means no longer having to pack your laptop, your books and magazines, or a GPS for the rental car. For that reason alone, it is worth the cost.
Hence, we would like to ask you our readers whether or not you already own and use the Apple iPad in the cockpit. Moreover and for those of you who already do have and use one, do you find it to be just another gadget or is it a godsend device?
The Alaska Dispatch’s Bush Pilot blog has recently posted this cool video of some paragliders who discovered just how big Alaska really is and why its flying country. For the video, Frank Sihler along with two flying buddies, Scott Amy and Chris Reynolds, took powered paragliders up the Matanuska Glacier – a 27-mile-long glacier that is the largest in the USA. Amy and Reynolds flew in a Miniplane that consisted of a small backpack-mounted engine and a paraglider wing while Sihler used a paraglider wing attached to a TrikeBuggy that was fitted with a small 25 horsepower engine.
However, the flight was not without incident as Sihler had to land on the glacier after flying too low and running out of gas (he ended up having to hike out of the area – leaving the contraption behind to be hauled out in pieces at a later date). Hence, he noted that:
"I hope the lesson here is to fly high enough that you can glide back to a landing spot where there is fuel," Amy said. "I was real concerned about this going up the glacier because we had the headwind and I was getting low on fuel, too. But what took 15 minutes flying up the glacier only took five minutes to fly the same distance downwind."
Sihler says he never felt that the situation was critical or unsafe. At any time of the flight he had a landing spot in reach for an emergency landing.
"If you want to fly Alaska’s back country, you can’t always be high enough to get to the road system. Walking out will many times be your only option," said Sihler.
Nevertheless, the trio did put together some great aerial footage of the glacier for their video.
FlightSchoolList.com has recently posted this video of a tricky landing at Newquay Isles of Scilly from YouTube. The creator of the video noted that:
After landing at Newquay we found out the winds were at operating maximums for the aircraft, hence the rather interesting approach. The aircraft both ways were DHC-6-300s operating for Skybus. Filmed with an XH-A1, goodness knows how I didn’t get told off for that…
I must also add how awful Newquay airport is. Easily the worst airport in the UK.
This airport has a pronounced hump in the middle of the runway and several flying groups ban landings there because it is so difficult to get into. Does anyone else have any suggestions for ‘worst runway’?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGlLcCjavj0[/youtube]
PS Apologies – this was initially posted as Newquay Airport which has, in fact, one of the longest, smoothest runways in Europe. Just a bit of confusion here at GHW Towers but apologies for the mistake.
Airshowbuzz.com has posted this inspirational Art of Aerobatics video where Red Bull Air Racer Mike Goulian talks about what it is like to be a professional aerobatics pilot and about life in general. In the short video, Mike noted that even professional pilots will spend 99.9%+ of their lives on the ground looking up. In other words, you should try and make the most of that 0.1% of the time you spend up in the air.