My Flying

I was a little disappointed in the general luck lustre attitude of the members to day. The weather was very overcast in the morning with very light very isolated drizzle, but I drove though to the airfield anyway. Why? Quite simply because even though we may not fly, there are still lots of other maintenance and repair type jobs to be done, like on the hangars, clubhouse, equipment, and so one; not least to mention just general tidying up and cleaning.

I spent about two hours doing general chores and by then the weather was starting to look reasonable with a strong south easterly which would make the ridge great to soar, but alas. Nobody to fly.

I had rather an interesting day today at the airfield and also learnt quite a bit.

The day started off very overcast with low blanket stratus clouds at around 3000 ft AGL, very light isolated drizzle and a light south westerly.

The CFI was eager on taking the Motor Falke on a cross country engine-on flight, but with the objective of trying to get the lowest engine tacho time by making use of ridge and what ever other lift could be found coupled with the shortest flying time. He invited me along and I eagerly joined. The route would be from FAUH to the Cockscombe airstrip and then over the mountains to Jansenville then back to FAUH.

The journey started off low, so as to stay below cloud, and into a light headwind. When we reached the mountains the fun began with some seriously low ridge riding to make as much use possible of the little ridge lift that there was. By the time we arrived the strip the clouds prevented us from flying over the mountains so we needed to take the long route (about a 20km detour around Cockscombe) and then onto the flat-ish lands to Janseville. From there we headed straight back to the airfield. The whole flight took 2h15m with an average speed of 100 kph, which is pretty darn good for the Falke.

I learnt rather a lot about cross county power soaring, a bit of navigation and just how stiff and sore one’s bum can get while sitting in the Falke with its paper thin cushion and reduced leg room. The part I enjoyed, and feared, the most was the first half an hour when we soared the ridge at really low altitudes. What I also particularly liked is that because this was my first time over the mountains and towards Jansenville, I now know the lay of the land so much better lapa side of the mountains.

When we arrived back the wind had switch more southerly and was blowing a good 10 knots. The Twin Astir was busy being winch launched from 26L. The soaring opportunities were pretty non existent and I decided not to go through the effort of getting the Single out and opted for a ride in the Twin, a plane that I have not flown in nearly a year and also my first winch launch in over three months.

During my first flight I seriously felt like a fish out of water. The controls of the Twin feel so much more different to that of the Single's. The main area of difference is the way elevator feels as it is a lot less responsive. This is way far up the list, followed by heavier inputs needed for the rudder and the really slow roll rate. Anyways, the landing went of well and I felt much more comfortable during the second flight.

So there you have it. A good aviation Sunday for the cost of two winch launches and shorts flights in the trainer : 113.75ZAR and a free two pax ride in the Falke.

No flying today due to the weather (rain).

Let's face it - globally, well at least in my small neck of the woods; the weather is all wrong and a bit of a mess. Summer seems to think that it's winter, Autumn thinks that it's Summer and Spring, well poor Spring has just been forgotten altogether. The weather for the previous several months has just been totally weird. I am not sure if this is due to global warming, or perhaps even global cooling as some experts are calling it these days as apparently we are actually heading towards another ice age within the next few thousand years, but summer has still not reached us. Granted, since November we have had a few really hot days and even less really hot nights, but statistically our hottest months are December and January, and these have well, as you know, passed.

So what of today's weather? Well, inline with the unusual trend as alluded to above, it was a complete mess and a bit of a lottery. It started off overcast, with almost no wind and the odd, ever so light just to tease us, drops of rain and started to change from about 12pm into what looked to be like a nice gliding day and at about 3pm the wind started to howl.

We members used this time to do some chores around the hangar and clubhouse and to work further on the winch, which is still unfortunately out of action. Once all this was done the members starting heading on home. I, however, decided to hang around and wait for the predicted southwesterly to arrive as I wanted to try soar the ridge with the Falke. In the mean time there were a good number of cu's developing over the mountains so I decided to kick-start the Limbach 2000 and head for the hills, so to speak.

Just after take-off I found a nice thermal and climbed quickly to 2000 ft with the engine spinning at 90%, but once I had left that thermal it was nothing but flat and smooth sailing, even after heading for the mountains where the clouds were looking good. After trying for 45 minutes to find some lift and climbing slowly with the engine to 4500 ft I head for the ridge. I arrived there at 900 feet and after four trips up and down with a few small bumps I was down to 500 feet and head for 16R to land. The circuit and landing went off very well and I was back after spending a rather pointless 306.00ZAR.