Thursday, November 02, 2006

CTFC enews 2 November

Dates to diarise


11 November : CTFC end of year function
14 Novermber: Met Course 18:00
15 November: Safety Seminar, at airport
26 November: A380 arrives at FAJS
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From the CFI's desk

Safety seminar.


We received the following communication from the CAA.

Dear Sir/Madam,

South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) held a National Safety Seminar in February 2006 with a theme "Partnerships for Safer Skies. The aim of the seminar was to set preventive measures to improve aviation safety thus hoping to reduce accidents and incidents rate by 25% in the next three years. The seminar was held in the Gauteng province and did not reach the majority of the aviation community in other provinces. Seminar delegates recommended that smaller regional seminars be held in other regions throughout the year as a build up to the annual national seminar. It is for this and other reasons that the CAA will be holding a seminar in Cape Town. The CAA therefore invites you to the Cape Town Regional Safety Seminar. Details of the seminar are as follows:

Venue: The Premier Conference Centre (ACSA Building, Cape Town International Airport)
Date November 15th, 2006
time: 17.00 B

Refreshments will be provided.

Topics to be discussed will include the following:

Share safety recommendations from the National Seminar held in February and devise strategies to implement those recommendations.

To get the industry together to come up with the more strategies as to what can be done in order to reduce accidents and incidents.

Set regional Accidents/Incidents reduction targets.

Review accidents/incidents statistics (Status of Aviation Safety).

To network with the key stakeholders with a view to improve the image of the organization.

Proposal for Aviation Safety Awards.

The CAA will incur the costs for the seminar.

Kindly RSVP on or before November 10, 2006 to:

Ms Bongi Mngomezulu
Tel: 011 545 1410 or 083 451 2683
Fax: 011 545 1463
E-mail: mngomezulub@caa.co.za

Let us work in "Partnership for safer skies" to achieve aviation safety.

Mr. Zakes Myeza
Chief Executive Officer
Soth African Civil Aviation Authority.

Attending of this seminar is highly recommended. Members are requested not to forget to register. See you there.
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End of year function, 11 November

Just a reminder about the end of year function on Saturday 11 November at CTFC. It will be a spit braai and general get together. The tickets will be on sale from Thursday at the club.
The price is R25.00 per head and we will be having an auction on various prizes during the evening. Hope to see you all there!

Thanks to our sponsors so far:

Tony Beamish
Jim Deane
Tony Russell:- Static Line First Jump Course from Skydive Ceres.
Dale Humby:- A flip in a Yak
Executive Helicopters: A flip in the Huey
CTFC: A conversion onto any of the club's aircraft
Geoff Heathcote-Marks: A pair of Carrera Sunglasses
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Christian’s Tips to Fly By --> Christian Marais

Heading Changes

For heading changes greater than 30 degrees, use 30 degree of bank. For heading changes less than 30 degrees, use the number of degrees to turn to approximate bank angle.

Example: Heading change = 20 degrees, use 20 degrees of bank
Heading change = 10 degrees, use 10 degrees of bank, etc.

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The contract pilot --> Schalk Burger

Awe well… after a good almost 4 weeks back home in beautiful Cape Town and exactly one week being back in South Sudan, the harsh reality of Juba living is starting to hit home again…

As some of you whom I saw during my visit back home would have no doubt heard me remark, I don’t know what was more of a culture shock, the arriving in Sudan the first time, or the coming back home after the first tour.

We live in a world full of problems, and being here in Sudan and having been back home, I have come to the conclusion that pretty much all of our problems are a result of human innovation, “intellect” and progress. The 1st world (I don’t get that term… the 3rd world was doing its thing 1st , weren’t they?) has created a multitude of problems for itself that not only is solved very easily in the 3rd world theatre, but mostly doesn’t even exist. This obviously plays absolute havoc on us 1st world citizens when coming to the 3rd world because we actually crave problems to keep ourselves occupied. I cannot possible imagine a field where this is more apparent than in aviation. Let me explain by painting you a picture…

Lets take a dashing young contract pilot leaving home for a contract. He flies out of Oliver Thambo Intl Airport on the flag carrier. At the beautiful and clean airport he stands in a line to move toward the check in. Everyone stand in line, and everyone does so willingly and without any reservation to do so. The dashing young pilot I wearing his uniform complete with crew card, wings and whole shebang. Before he gets to the actually check in, his baggage gets weighed by rolling his trolley (yes…trolley) onto a surface scale. Quite amazingly he is found to be 10 kg overweight. He has to leave his baggage, go queue in another line where after 20mins he is allowed to take out his credit card and pay a ridiculous amount of money for his transgression. At the counter he might even ask weather the aeroplane is full or not, but how can the ticketing counter possibly know that! After all, there simply isn’t that button on the keyboard. Once this is done, he checks in, goes through passport control where he is electronically scanned out of the country, interrogated about the status of his visa for a country that he isn’t even going to, treated with complete contempt and then let go with some undertone mutter. Nice. 1st world: 10 for cleanliness… zero for logic.

Now said dashing young pilot gets to…awe lets say… Entebbe where he will be connecting with another carrier to say…Juba. Now this is about the area where everything seems to start coming apart for our 1st world mentality. Here in Entebbe, our dashing young adventurer (dressed all fancy in his ice-cream suit) waltzes through customs and emigration, picks up his bag, waltzes through the security only doors into the underbelly of Entebbe International, to pick up his onward ticket. Everything without a single person stopping him anywhere. Why, because why would a pilot questioned about being at an airport? No frantic strip searches and see-through on-board luggage rules… just the little bit of logic that says a pilot running around an airport trying to get onto a flight…is probably going somewhere. To add insult to injury, he hands his passport and US$500 to a complete stranger working on the airside of the airport whom goes and purchases, for him, his ticket to Juba returning promptly with his ticket and change. 3rd world: 0.5 for cleanliness (there was that one spot)… 11 for logic.

Now the said baggage that was 10kg overweight gets loaded onto the waiting aircraft, an airline for which the baggage allowance I might add is 10kg LESS than that of the SA Flag carrier…without a peep about any penalties. Why? Because the baggage handlers have seen that most of the people on the flight had not filled their allocation, and therefore the dashing pilot’s overweight would not be a problem. Might I also mention that the flight at this stage is full apart from 3 seats in the Embraer 120. The SA flag carrier’s 737-800 was one quarter empty. Boarding the aeroplane is a process of how many people can get through the door at the same time to grab a seat. No allocated seats. Or officially there is, but it doesn’t mean anything. We’re all going to the same place right? 3rd world: 5 bonus points for logic…1st world: 1 for sticking to the rules… -5 for having stupid rules.

Once in Juba, our dashing adventurer gets a welcome on the apron from his colleagues, escorted into the terminal building where because of his status as pilot, he isn’t required to open any baggage, declare anything, pay bribes or even take out his passport. Just a friendly Salaam and in we go. No mess, no fuss….just a fellow African in an African country. 3rd world: -20 for security, 8 for logic.

Maybe this doesn’t completely illustrate my point about the problems and difficulties our society has managed to create for ourselves, but bear with me. By the time I am back in SA for new years, you’ll understand.

Next up is operations and how a 1st world complicated system will never stand up to the logic of the 3rd world.

Spit to you later!
Schalk
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A380 coming to SA 26 November--> Taken off www.avcom.co.za

A380 begins technical route proving in final phase of certification process


The world’s largest commercial airliner, the 555 seat Airbus A380, will start its technical route proving exercise on 13th November 2006 to carry out function and reliability tests at key airports around the world. This exercise is the last of the trials required for Type Certification, which is expected in mid December. For the trial, the aircraft has to make over 150 flight hours on a continuous typical airline schedule, performing in its normal operational environment. The aircraft will be operated by Airbus flight crews with the participation of Airworthiness Authority pilots from both EASA and FAA.

The aircraft used for the trial is A380 MSN002 and is powered by four Rolls Royce Trent 900 engines. Starting from Toulouse, France, it will be visiting ten different airports in four trips. They include Singapore and Seoul during the first trip (14th and 15th November), then Hong Kong and Narita on 18th and 19th November. The third trip brings the aircraft to Guangzhou (22nd November), and Beijing and Shanghai (23rd November).

The fourth and final trip will take the A380 around the globe, via both poles. It will depart Toulouse to reach Johannesburg on 26th November, and then fly over the South Pole en-route to Sydney where it will arrive on 28th November. From Sydney, it will fly across the Pacific to Vancouver (29th November) prior to returning to Toulouse via the North Pole.

During this technical route proving exercise, the A380 will have to demonstrate that it can be turned around as per normal airline operations. Tests will cover, amongst other things, checks on standard aircraft maintenance and behaviour, as well as typical airport operations and compatibility. These will include monitoring functions such as bridge docking, cleaning and catering, refuelling and boarding procedures.

Five development A380s have now flown. Four aircraft, one of which is powered by the Engine Alliance GP7200 engine, are now actively involved in the intensive flight test programme, which has already reached over 730 flights and 2,300 flight hours. The fifth aircraft is undergoing cabin installation in Hamburg. Firm orders and commitments for the A380 currently stand at 176 aircraft for 16 customers.
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Humour

A Zim Doctor -->
R van Driest

An Israeli doctor says : "Medicine in my country is so advanced that we can take a kidney out of one man, put it in another, and have him looking for work in six weeks."

A British doctor says: "That is nothing, we can take a lung out of one person, put it in another, and have him looking for work in four weeks.

A Canadian doctor says: "In my country, medicine is so advanced that we can take half a heart out of one person, put it in another, and have them both looking for work in two weeks."

A Zimbabwean doctor : not to be outdone, says: "You guys are way behind, We just took a man with no brain - made him President, and now the whole country is looking for work! !

Chinese Humour --> Chantal van Steijn




















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