CTFC news 6 February 2007
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Courses
Solo and wings
Achievements
Aircraft accidents and incidents
African Skies
Out and about
Humour
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Dates to diarise
6 February: Navigation course (see below)
7 February: Radio Course (see below)
16 February: Solo and Wings party at the club
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Courses

Please diarize the following courses.

Course Starting date Lecture days Starting times Number of lectures Lecturer
Navigation 06-02-07 Tues and Thurs 18.00 for18.30 8 Peter Erasmus

Radio 07-02-07 Wed and Fri 18.00 for18.30 6 or 8 Pieter Wesselman

Students are requested to phone Beverley to get there names on the list.

Students for the navigation course need to buy from the club the following items:
1. Navigation notes,
2. Protractor,
3. Computer,
4. Ruler,
5. Cape Town aeronautical charts 1:500 000 and 1;1 000 000.

Students for the radio course need to obtain Dietlind's radio book before the course starts and they will also need the same aeronautical charts as needed for the navigation course.

Qualified pilots can join the above courses as a refresher for half price.

The cost of the radio course will be (in the event of 8 lectures) R 804,00. Of course when the course is completed in only six lectures then the cost will decrease proportionately. The radio exam and skill's test are not included in the price.

The cost of the for the navigation course will be (without notes and tools) also about R 804,00.

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Solo and Wings on the 16th February

Don't forget about the solo and wings party at the club on the 16th!

All new soloists are requested to wear a tie (failing that, please wash certain other garments...)

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Achievements

Name Date Achievement Instructor Examiner

Grant Huskisson 28 January Night Rating Tony Russell Peter Erasmus

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Aircraft Incidents & Accidents 3/20: Famous people – John Denver --> Danny Buitendag

John Denver had recently purchased an experimental, home-built Long-EZ, which had a fuel system that differed from the designer's plans. The original builder had modified the fuel system by relocating the fuel selector handle from a position between the front pilot's legs to a position behind & above his left shoulder. There were no markings for the operating positions of the fuel selector handle, which were up (for off), down (for the right tank), and to the right (for the left tank). This deviation from the original design plans did not require FAA approval, nor did it require a placard to indicate such change from the original design.

On the 11th of October 1997 at Santa Maria, California, the pilot received a 1/2-hour flight and ground checkout in the aeroplane by another Long-EZ pilot. The checkout pilot reported that the pilot needed a seatback cushion to be in position to reach the rudder pedals, and that he had difficulty reaching the fuel selector handle while seated with the cushion added. The pilot then departed on a 1-hour flight to his home base at Monterey with an estimated 12.5 gallons of fuel in the right tank & 6.5 gallons in the left tank. The checkout pilot estimated about 9 gallons of fuel were needed for the flight, and he noted the fuel selector was positioned to the right tank before departure.

The next day, a maintenance technician assisted the pilot in preparing for another flight. During preflight, the pilot was not observed to visually check the fuel. The technician noted that when the pilot was seated in the aeroplane, he had difficulty reaching the fuel selector handle. Also, he gave the pilot a mirror to look over his shoulder to see the unmarked, non-linear, fuel sight gauges, which were located in the rear cockpit. The technician estimated the available fuel and advised the pilot that the left tank indicated less than 1/4 full and that the right tank indicated less than 1/2 full. The pilot declined an offer for additional fuel, saying he would only be airborne about 1 hour and did not need fuel. As the technician went to the hangar, he heard the engine start & run for a short time, then quit. He saw the pilot turn in the seat toward the fuel selector handle, then the pilot motioned with his hand that things were all right. The pilot restarted the engine, taxied, took off, and performed three touch-and-go landings in a span of about 26 minutes, followed by a straight-out departure.

Ground witnesses saw the airplane in straight and level flight about 350 to 500 feet over a residential area, then they heard a reduction of engine noise. The aeroplane was seen to pitch slightly nose up; then it banked sharply to the right & descended nose first into the ocean. The fuel selector valve was found in an intermediate position, about 1/3 open between the engine feed line and the right tank, and slightly open to the left tank.

Tests using another engine showed that the engine could be operated at full power with the selector in that position; however, when the cap was removed from the left port (simulating the effect of an empty left tank), fuel pressure dropped to less than ½ and, within a few seconds, the engine lost power. The simulation revealed that 4 actions were required to change the fuel selector in flight:

1) Remove the pilot's hand from the control stick;

2) Loosen the shoulder harness;

3) Rotate the upper body to the extreme left to reach the fuel selector handle; and

4) Rotate the handle to a non-marked and not logically orientated position.

During the evaluation, investigators noted a natural reaction for the pilot's right foot to depress the right rudder pedal when turning in the seat to reach the fuel selector handle. With the right rudder depressed in flight, the aeroplane would pitch up slightly and bank to the right.

The probable cause of this accident was the pilot's diversion of attention from the operation of the aeroplane and his inadvertent application of right rudder that resulted in the loss of control while attempting to manipulate the fuel selector handle. The pilot's inadequate preflight planning and preparation, specifically his failure to refuel the aeroplane, was also a cause. It was also determined that the builder's decision to locate the unmarked fuel selector handle in a hard-to-access position, unmarked fuel quantity sight gauges, inadequate transition training by the pilot, and his lack of experience in this type of aeroplane were also factors in the accident.

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African skies: 1 --> Schalk Burger

Ah…the joys of life. December in Cape Town and I have 4 weeks of well deserved vacation time after my second contract tour in South Sudan flying a Caravan. Life is good…no, its great! Its so good that I even answer my cell phone with a smile when it rings.

That’s a bad thing. Not smiling, answering.

Never let the euphoria of being back in the civilized world where highly sophisticated devices such as cell-phones, digital watches and wall-plugs actually work…let you forget that you are in fact, a contract pilot. Yes, in our wonderful world of Navigational Aids that work even when it is overcast simply because they are not solar powered, never forget that you are ALWAYS on call and that a plunge into the stone age is always mearly a phone call away.

This specific phone call away.

A day later I am on FALA apron fighting tooth and nail with myself to keep from fighting tooth and nail with the customs official that has to stamp the SAD500 form stipulating the spares I have onboard our trusty white steed, the Stone Age Express.

I, along with my co-pilot and engineer, am ferrying the SAE to its new home in the land of sand and …well …more sand actually. Tchad. Enroute we will stop in Maun, Ondangwa, Luanda, Kinshasa, Bangui and N’djemena. Sounds cool, hey? A four day ferry! Really great for those all important turbine hours…really bad for your back, butt, bladder and anything else connected to those.

SA, Botswana and Namibia all pass quietly underneath in day one. Ondangwa even specially stays open for our 1730 (local time) arrival, way after their normal closing time… which judging by the hustle and bustle around the airport is obviously something like 1030.

Day 2 takes us to Kinshasa via Luanda. 4th of February International Airport has grown exponentially since I’ve last been there in 1995, and I found the airspace well controlled. When I say well controlled, its well…controlled. The standard departure takes you about 12 nautical (quite fittingly) miles out to sea. I don’t care who you are, but just about anyone would be convincing him/herself at this stage that they are sitting behind the most reliable turbine engine ever produced and that the closest you will be getting to all those miles of clear blue, salty H2O below you, is through a zoom lens. Can’t expect ATC’s to remember a C208 only has only one engine I suppose?

Kinshasha has a nickname in the contract world (hell…maybe even in all the world) that cannot be repeated here, but let me assure you, re-assure and completely convince you; anything bad or negative that you might have heard of Kinshasa in the aviation, or any other context…no matter how far fetched, ridiculous or crude it seems…its all true! It is singularly the most awful, corrupt, smelly and all round nasty place that I have ever been. Considering that my previous tour was in South Sudan, that’s saying a lot.

The “apron” looks like an aircraft scrapyard. Aeroplanes of every size, shape, condition and colour are “parked” in a way that would make a Tellytubbie on heroin seem regimental and organized. It’s a mess. And not the cute type of mess your girlfriend makes doing DIY. The space shuttle crash landing in Khayalisha township kind of mess.

Calling the Kinshasa ground controller for startup so we could move the SAE out of the way of an Antonov 24 (before we got loaded into it as well), resulted in us getting somebody else’s after departure clearance and clearance to backtrack the active runway. This with an A300 rolling for take off, OFF the said active runway at the time. Nice. Situational awareness r us. And then the controllers start breaking out in French and all you can say in that language is un, deux, trois and “wanneer eet ons weer”.

Our overflight clearances for Congo amazingly didn’t materialize, so we got the opportunity to fly WFR (we follow the river) up the mighty Congo river to Bangui in the Central African Republic. No issues apart from a Standby Electrical power system failure and a line of CB’s that made the WX Radar look like a wounded soldier in an 80’s Vietnam movie. Hey, it was better than going back to Kinshasa…trust me.

Bangui proved yet again to me that you do not need a visa, a stamp in your passport or anything as trivial as even reporting to the unmanned immigration desk to overnight in an African country as long as you have a pilot’s uniform on with enough golden bars on your shoulders to stock Fort Knox.

Early morning out of Bangui for the Capitol of Tchad, N’djemena. I think they made it the Capitol city because it has more of the only commodity found in Tchad than any other city in the country. Dust.

Flying an ILS down to minima under a completely clear and sunny sky with visibility and sunlight actually reducing rapidly as you descend into a howling duststorm was…let’s say, new.

Ferry complete and time to begin a new contract based in Abeche, 530odd NM to the East of the dust capitol. We will be on contract with MSF (Doctors without borders) serving their various missions out in the refugee camps strewn along the Tchadian-Sudanese border where desperate Sudanese seek refuge from the horrible (and sadly much ignored by the western world) genocide taking place in Dafur.

In my next piece, ATC in African skies. The good, the bad, and the no reported traffic in my 12 o’clock position. In the mean time we’ll struggle through 6 hours of inspections and audits before getting the local CAA authority to operate in Tchad, and flying on to Abeche.

Happy landings, and in the wise words of a wise man, Rocky Romanov, remember; “Never try to out-fly your guardian angel”

Au Revoir

Ondangwa International

Luanda – 4th of February International Airport

Kinshasa – In this picture we are actually still taxing to park RIGHT behind the wing of this DC9.

N’Djemena Airport after the dust storm. Taking pictures are forbidden so excuse the limited angle.

The Stone Age Express in Abeche. All we need now is a siren and big flashing lights above the cockpit.

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Out and about

Letting your instructor relax after a long cross country...100 points --> M Joffe

Things to do before your flight #122 - Gareth sampling the local dinosaur juice --> M Joffe

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Humour

Pilots and ATC --> Gerard van Dijk

Tower: "Eastern 702, cleared for takeoff, contact Departure on frequency
124.7"

Eastern 702: "Tower, Eastern 702 switching to Departure. By the way,
after we lifted off we saw some kind of dead animal on the far end of
the runway."

Tower: "Continental 635, cleared for takeoff behind Eastern 702,
contact Departure on frequency 124.7. Did you copy that report from
Eastern 702?"

Continental 635: "Continental 635, cleared for takeoff, roger; and
yes, we copied Eastern... we've already notified our caterers."

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O'Hare Approach Control to a 747: "United 329 heavy, your traffic is a
Fokker, one o'clock, three miles, Eastbound."
United 329: "Approach, I've always wanted to say this... I've got the
little Fokker in sight."

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