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Courses
An appeal
A thanks
De Aar Fly In
Aircraft accidents and incidents
Flying in the News
--Dubai Incident
--Fired...for sightseeing
Wake Turblence
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Dates to Diarise
| Date | Event |
| 27 March | Engines and Airframes |
| 10 April | Meteorology |
| 27-30 April | De Aar Fly in |
Courses
27 March
Engines and airframes, lectured by Eduard Cornelissen
10 April
Meteorology,lectured by Peter Erasmus
Call the club (021-934 0257) to book. Members are reminded that you can do the course as a "refresher" at half price.
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An appeal
The committee wants to improve the "quad" (the area surrounded by the briefing rooms). To do this we need cement.
If you can help in any way, please contact the club or committee!
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A thanks
A big thank you to Rene De Wet, who has donated books to the club library, as well as a simulator system that Tony Russell and Peter Erasmus are busy putting together.
While the club library is still been formalised, members are urged to use and return the books available.
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De Aar Fly In
A Fly-in with a difference
Do you want to spend a weekend with other pilots? - Ever been to a traditional Karoo Fees? Want to spend a Long weekend free flying? - Get a peak at some latest flying gadgets?
You can from 27 th (public Holiday) - 30 th April, because Fly De Aar is holding a Manufacturers Challenge / Flying Exhibition to co-inside with the local High Schools "Karoo Fees" You can even bring along the family, cause there will be loads of other entertainment available as well.
The Karoo Fees will include: farm stalls / Potjie kos competition / Miss De Aar High School comp / A live concert with DOZI / dances / Wine tasting / Springbuck Hunting / Tennis, running, cycling (20km & 100km) & walking competitions with nice cash prizes / a Water-balloon War / a Guinness book attempt / a Beer Tent / local live performers / Abseiling / Rugby Super 14 AND a Steak braai dinner/dance.
The Expo & Manufacturers Challenge will include: various flying products on display or to purchase including: paragliders, hang gliders, GPS's, vario meters, clothing goodies on sale, t-shirts, helmets, gloves, flight suits, harnesses, bomb drop & spot landing prizes & a cash bar.
R100 entry ticket includes: entry into the Expo & the Karoo Fees for the whole weekend, the steak dinner (Saturday) & FREE camping at the airfield (sleep next to your plane). Breakfast is to be supplied by the High School in order to raise funds.
Those Interested in taking a stand for the expo to display their wares & Goods, please contact: Chrissie 082 556 0370 or Des 084 690 1804 please book your place with Des e-mail: flydeaar@telkomsa.net
A reminder that the minimum utelisation fee (as set out in the club rules) is waived for official fly ins.
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Aircraft Incidents & Accidents 8/20: Famous People: Other Actors --> Danny Buitendag
1. Actress Sandra Bullock 
Sandra Bullock, who has starred in, amongst other movies, "Speed" and "Miss Congeniality" survived a crash involving a chartered Hawker Siddeley HA-125-700 on 20 December 2000.
Nobody was injured in the crash. The aeroplane was attempting to land at night in reduced visibility. According to the captain they could see runway 18 from 9,000 feet, 5 miles away from the airfield. They were unable to turn the runway lights on before landing.
The aeroplane first contacted the ground 1,066 meters along the runway from the threshold, thus landing very deep. However, it was approximately 60 metres left of the centre line! The aeroplane settled into 60 cm of snow, and left a track in the snow for approximately 180 metres.
Both the nose gear and nose cone separated from the aeroplane, the right wing was partially separated from the aeroplane, and the left wing was bent and badly damaged.
The probable causes included the pilot's failure to follow appropriate approach procedures and perform a missed approach when the runway was not in sight. Contributing factors were the copilot's failure to use the correct frequency to turn on the runway lights. Weather and visibility conditions were also factors, being below the required minimums.
2. Harrison Ford 
Harrison Ford was the pilot of a Bell 206 and practicing auto-rotations. When he attempted to recover the power, the engine did not respond as quickly as anticipated and the helicopter landed hard, hitting on the rear of the skids.
The flight instructor said that when he saw the pilot was late adding power, he attempted to correct the situation but was unsuccessful.
The surface of the dry riverbed was mostly soft sand. The left skid heel contacted a log that was embedded in the sand and the helicopter pitched forward onto the skid toes and rolled over onto its left side.
Both the flight instructor and Ford reported that there were no problems with the engine during prior auto-rotations, and, it was running after the helicopter came to rest. The engine was run in a test cell and met all of the manufacturer's perimeters. No discrepancies were found with the control or fuel systems.
The pilot's delay in adding power during a power-on recovery from an auto-rotation resulted in a hard landing and rollover. The flight instructor's inadequate supervision of the flight was also a cause.
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Flying in the news
Dubai Airport Incident (Image submitted by Linda Hodgkinson)
March 12 (Bloomberg) -- A Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd.Boeing Co. 747-300 cargo freighter burst a tire on landing at Dubai International Airport
today before a Biman Bangladesh Airlines jet lost its nose wheel while attempting to take off, Cathay Pacific's United Arab Emirates country manager said.
The remains of the tire were on the runway after the Cathay cargo plane from Frankfurt completed its landing, the Hong Kong-based carrier's Dubai manager James Evans said in a telephone interview today.
The incident occurred ''prior to'' the Biman Airbus SAS A310 losing its nose wheel as it attempted to take off, Evans said.
That event injured 14 people and caused an eight-hour closure of the Middle East's busiest airport. ''We had a tire burst this morning, and we informed the authorities,'' Evans said. Cathay Pacific is working with Dubai aviation authorities in their investigation of the Biman incident, he said.
Evans said he didn't know who manufactured the tire.
The Cathay Pacific plane is now "under the custody" of airport authorities, said Cathay Pacific Airport Services Manager Midhat Khan, in a separate telephone interview.
View a video of the incident here
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Captain Roger Old, 61, was flying from Aberdeen to Shetland's Sumburgh Airport with 17 passengers aboard a Dornier 328-100 when he took the unscheduled detour. He ignored an automatic warning system which told him to pull up, asking the rattled co-pilot to switch it off.
So concerned was the co-pilot that he "considered wresting the controls from Captain Old", but decided against it because "he thought that to attempt to do so whilst the aircraft was manoeuvring at low level might place the aircraft in a more hazardous situation".
The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) report, released yesterday, elaborates: "The aircraft encountered worsening weather and inadvertently flew into close proximity with the terrain. The commander went further to the west than was necessary, in order to show the co-pilot some of the local terrain features. The crew were alerted to the situation by on-board equipment, but the commander did not respond to the 'Pull Up' warnings it generated.
"The co-pilot was alarmed by the situation and considered taking control from the commander. However, he thought that to attempt to do so whilst the aircraft was manoeuvring at low level might place the aircraft in a more hazardous situation, especially as communication between the two pilots was being hindered by the warning sounds.
"The co-pilot reported that he could not see the airport as it was obscured by cloud, but could see high ground ahead and to the right. As the aircraft descended below the selected altitude the altitude alert sounded, and the commander asked the co-pilot to silence the alert."
City Star Airlines parted company with Old following the incident, which ended with a safe landing. The airline's flight safety officer, Captain Alan Chalmers, said: "His actions were inexcusable. We think it was something to do with his personality rather than any operating procedures in place at the time. Thankfully, these kind of incidents are less common than they were because safety equipment is more reliable with not as many nuisance warnings."
The AAIB ordered City Star Airlines to "improve training and carry out a safety audit". The Civil Aviation Authority confirmed ex-Captain Old would not fly again "since he had decided to surrender his pilot's licence before it was revoked".
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Wake Turbulence --> Gary Wiblin
I was working as a full-time flying instructor and was settling into the tedium of doing endless circuits and landings in a C152. One after the other we 
would crash and go, and the tower was doing a sterling job of slotting us in between the various airliners. It so happened that each and every student I had that day was booked for circuit training and as the day progressed I began cutting in closer and closer behind approaching airline traffic. As we turned onto final approach behind a Boeing 737, we hit what I initially thought was a brick wall. Luckily for us our speed was fairly low and our encounter with wake turbulence was thankfully very brief. It was for me, however, my wake-up call that wake turbulence is indeed the invisible killer.
After this, my first and only, encounter with wake turbulence, I thereafter made a point of demonstrating the dramatic effects to all my students. When in the general flying area on a calm day, I would demonstrate an accurate medium turn through a full 360 degrees. If the turn is accurate enough the aircraft will encounter its own wake turbulence at the end of the turn. Each and every student was always amazed at the strong vortices left by a small Cessna, roughly two minutes later. The aircraft would often experience un-commanded roll through more than 30 degrees as it struck its own turbulence. This should be enough to convince most pilots that you do not want to be within three minutes of fresh wingtip vortices left by a medium or heavy aircraft, especially when you are flying a small trainer.
In order to better understand the creation and substance of wingtip vortices it is necessary to fully understand how lift is produced. Lift is generated by 
the creation of a pressure differential over the upper and lower wing surfaces. The lowest pressure occurs over the upper surface and the highest pressure under the wing. Air will want to move towards the area of lower pressure, so this causes the air to move outwards under the wing and curl up and over the upper surface of the wing, which starts the wake vortex. Small trailing edge vortices, formed by outward and inward moving streams of air meeting at the trailing edge, move outwards to the wingtip and join the large wingtip vortex. Swirling air masses trail downstream of the wingtips, which are much like two tornadoes, attached to the wingtips. Viewed from behind, the left vortex rotates clockwise and the right vortex rotates counter- clockwise. They spread laterally (outwards) away from the aircraft and descend at 300 to 500 feet per minute during the first 30 seconds at distances of up to five miles behind the aircraft. Light crosswinds may cause the vortices to drift, and crosswinds in excess of five knots tend to cause them to break up behind the aircraft. It can therefore be appreciated that wake turbulence can indeed be avoided entirely, if you observe these typical characteristics. The intensity or strength of the vortex is primarily a function of aircraft weight, wingspan and configuration (flap setting, etc). Heavy aircraft flying slowly in a clean configuration produce the strongest vortices.
Aircraft designers have come up with a myriad of innovative solutions to the problem but none has created any startling improvement. One of the most common solutions is to fit winglets, little vertical wings, at the wingtips to try and slow the flow of air from the bottom to the top surface of the wing but the small advantage gained is largely cancelled out by the extra weight, drag, and expense of these additions.
Remember too that the chaps in the tower are all too aware of the separation required between aircraft and will more often than not advise you, or warn you, to maintain the correct separation but the final onus of responsibility, for your own good, remains with the pilot. If you feel you are getting too close to another aircraft, advise the tower and they will almost certainly provide alternative routing or even just allow you to orbit in your present position until the separation increases sufficiently. Remember too that wake turbulence separation is not provided to landing VFR arrivals, or to IFR on visual approach. In these cases it is up to the pilot to provide adequate spacing from preceding arriving or departing aircraft.
posted by Cape Town Flying Club at 11:33 AM
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