CTFC News 31 May
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From the front desk

Safety Meeting 31 May

Aviators Evening at FAYP

Safety Competion at FASH

ATC/Met flipping day
For Sale
Aircarft Accidents and Incidents
Aviation news

Humour
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Dates to diarise

31 May - Safety Meeting at CTFC 18:00 (CRM)

31 May - Aviators evening at FAYP 18:00 @ Officers Mess

2 June - Safety Competition at FASH

10 June - ATC/Met Flip day at CTFC

14 July - Wings Club Airshow, Virginia Airport, Durban

28 July - South African landing Championship, Bloemfontein

20 October - Aerobatic Nationals, Oudtshoorn

9-11 November - TFDC Fly-In, AFB Overberg

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From the front desk

Please DO NOT use American Express or Diners Club cards for payment on the credit card machine. Anyone who swipes one of these cards will be charged extra for the transaction. If the card owner is from overseas, the person processing the transaction will be charged the extra fee.

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Safety Meeting 31 May 18:00

(Members are reminded that you need to attend a minimum of 2 safety briefings per year.)

There will be a safety meeting at CTFC on Thursday 31 May at 18:00 for 18:30.
The guest speaker will be SAA training captain Gavin Mckellar, who will talk to us about CRM.

Gavin has over 10 000 accident free flying hours. After 10 years flying jets in the South African Air Force, Gavin joined South African Airways and is presently a Captain on the Boeing 737-800.
He has held aviation safety positions in the SAAF and SAA such as Squadron Safety Officer and Short-Range Accident Prevention Advisor for SAA. He was the chairman of ALPA-SA Accident Analysis Committee and has worked in Aviation Safety, Accident Prevention, Crew Resource Management Training, Checking and Auditing, Flight Safety Programme Management and Incident and Accident Investigation for the last 18 years.

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Aviators Evening at FAYP

A reminder about the Aviator's Evening at FAYP at 18:00 in the Officers Mess.

Enquiries: Chris Teale: 021 508 6576

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Safety Competition at FASH 2 June --> SFC

On Saturday 2 June 2007, a Safety Competition will be held at Stellenbosch Flying Club. Come and test your airmanship skills , joining procedures, taxi and spot landings.

Please join us in the fun on this day, and bring your camping gear along.

Free SPIT BRAAI sponsored by Acryl Form.

MUSIC till late night.

Prices sponsored by Land Rover McCarthy NI City.

Everyone is welcome, and we especially urge other Flying Clubs to join us.

For more details contact Rikus Erasmus on 082 553 1894 or rikus@rrs.co.za

Briefing will be 14h00 in the Club House

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ATCMet Flip Day 10 June --> G Pinnock

All the club four seaters are booked for this event, but a reminder that a lunch braai and party will take place at 12:00 with the Met and ATNS staff after the flips. Aviators from the airfields around Cape Town are joining CTFC in this day, so come meet fellow aviators and the voices on the other end of the phone/radio.

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For Sale

Brand new AR-108 Airband Scanner - R699-00.
Vertex VXA-710 Airband Transceiver - R3099-00.
Please contact Phil: Cell 0722111328 or 021-4804944 or 021-9307870 A/H.

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Incidents and Accidents 16 of 20: Fun with pictures --> Danny Buitendag

This is a picture of the prototype of the latest and most secret twin-engined submarine developed by the South African Navy. It has stealth capabilities. They are still trying to figure out why the motors wouldn't start.

But really: This Piper Aztec (registration number N54137) made a forced landing in a canal on 30 January 2004 in Freeport in the Bahamas after its left engine failed. None of the four passengers were injured.
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Aviation news this week -->Compiled by Danny Buitendag and Gareth Pinnock

One Accident during PTAR

During the Presidents Trophy Air Race, one competitor hit the surface of the Koppies Dam with the wingtip of his C210. The aircraft ended up sinking into the dam, although both the pilot and navigator managed to escape without serious injury. The accident marred an otherwise very successful race.

Details of the race (and competitor's stories) can be found on http://www.avcom.co.za

Discussion of the accident (including pictures of the unfortunate aircraft) can be found on http://avcom.co.za/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=21418&start=0 (This will require registration on avcom).

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New Security Measures At SA Airports

International travellers carrying liquids and gels in containers larger than 100 millilitres will have their goods confiscated at check-in points, the Airports Company SA (Acsa) said on Thursday.

Acsa was briefing the media on their new security measures to be applied at three South African international airports from June 1. This, they said, would be done in order to comply with the international Civil Aviation Organisation standards. Acsa's director for Airport Operations Bongani Maseko said people on medication and those travellers with babies would be exempted from the new rules.

"Those with baby formula and baby food as well as those on medication will be allowed to carry liquids exceeding the 100 millilitres provided they provide prescriptions from their doctors."
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Cessna Delivers 7,500th Single Engine Aircraft From Independence Facility

Cessna Aircraft Company announced recently it has delivered the 7,500th single engine piston aircraft produced at Cessna’s Independence facility.

The aircraft is one of 11 Model 172 Skyhawks being taken over the next 14 months by Northwestern Michigan College as it upgrades its training fleet. The order was placed through Cessna’s authorized sales representative, Suburban Aviation in Lambertville, Michigan. “This milestone is significant as a tribute to the timelessness of the Skyhawk’s design, and to the consistent excellence of assembly that allows us to remain not just competitive, but an industry leader,” said Rod Holter, general manager of Cessna’s Independence facility. “The 172 remains one of the world’s most popular training aircraft.”

“We really enjoy the fact that we can celebrate this excellent product and the number of deliveries with Cessna. We are excited to be Cessna's 7,500th delivery,” said Aaron Cook, director of aviation at Northwestern Michigan College.

The Skyhawk comes standard with the Garmin G1000 avionics package, one of the most advanced and integrated in the industry, giving the pilot unprecedented situational awareness.
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US Pilots Tired As Work Rules Affect Safety

The new president of the nation's largest pilot union is rallying troops from the four carriers here to stand up for sleep and pay.
In a word, the pilots are "tired," said John Prater, head of the 60,000-member Air Line Pilots Association. "They are flying 15 to 25 percent more hours than they were before the bankruptcy era," leading to what he calls an epidemic of chronic fatigue in the skies. Because thousands of pilots took double-digit pay cuts while their employers were in bankruptcy, many are working extra routes to make ends meet.

But the bigger culprits, he said, are changes in work rules that govern quality-of-life issues for pilots, including how long they are away from home. "The work rules are really safety issues, and now we are seeing the impact," Prater said in an interview before he addressed about 75 pilots in a closed meeting at the Memphis Hilton last week.

Pilot fatigue has been an issue with the NTSB since 1990. Next month, the U.S. House aviation subcommittee will hear testimony on the subject.

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Humour

CTFC News 24 May
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From the CFI's desk
Safety Meeting 31 May
ATC/Met flipping day

Aircarft Accidents and Incidents
Super Frelon Crash at Silvermine

Humour
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Dates to diarise

25-26 May - Presidents Trophy Air Race, Klerksdorp

31 May - Safety Meeting at CTFC 18:00 (CRM)

31 May - Aviators evening at FAYP

10 June - ATC/Met Flip day at CTFC

14 July - Wings Club Airshow, Virginia Airport, Durban

28 July - South African landing Championship, Bloemfontein

20 October - Aerobatic Nationals, Oudtshoorn

9-11 November - TFDC Fly-In, AFB Overberg

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From the CFI's desk --> Jaco van Zyl

It seems like winter is now truly upon us, and the days of good flying are few and far between. The trend of AVGAS shortages continues to give us grief. At the moment there is no fuel in Cape Town, but I have made provisions and we therefore have a couple of drums available. When refueling out of drums, or even supervising, please take note of the following:

1) It is the responsibility of the pilot in command to make sure that the fuel is added properly and is free from any water or contaminants.

2) Make sure that the drum is adequately tilted in order to be sure that there is no water being pumped into the tanks.

3) Also make sure that the pipe attached to the hand pump is not all the way down the bottom of the drum; otherwise you will pump all the sediment and water into the tanks of the aircraft.

4) PLEASE make sure that there is a fire extinguisher available and that no one is smoking in the vicinity (which no one should do on the apron anyway).

The above information will be added to the red tag file as well, as well as an addition list to indicate the date of the latest additions into the red tag file.

I want to ask all members, especially because we are now in winter, to please take care of our aircraft - if you are the last person to fly a tommie please put the covers on - they also get cold and wet! And make sure that the aircraft are properly secured (Including Control locks - Pitot covers - Chocks and Tie downs).

Fly Safe

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Safety Meeting 31 May 18:00

(Members are reminded that you need to attend a minimum of 2 safety briefings per year.)

There will be a safety meeting at CTFC on Thursday 31 May at 18:00 for 18:30.
The guest speaker will be SAA training captain Gavin Mckellar, who will talk to us about CRM.

Gavin has over 10 000 accident free flying hours. After 10 years flying jets in the South African Air Force, Gavin joined South African Airways and is presently a Captain on the Boeing 737-800.
He has held aviation safety positions in the SAAF and SAA such as Squadron Safety Officer and Short-Range Accident Prevention Advisor for SAA. He was the chairman of ALPA-SA Accident Analysis Committee and has worked in Aviation Safety, Accident Prevention, Crew Resource Management Training, Checking and Auditing, Flight Safety Programme Management and Incident and Accident Investigation for the last 18 years.

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ATC Flip Day 10 June --> G Pinnock

This event is taking shape and growing as we hoped it would. There are aircraft from CTFC (naturally), as well as from FAFK, FASH and FACT. Furthermore, many aviators from around the area will be joining the after party.

If you still wish to be involved in any way, email me, or rock up at the bring and braai (starting at 12) and meet the ATCs and Met guys.

The pilots involved so far will be given more information about the event shortly. Preliminary planning is going to include a briefing before the 10am take-off. Final arrangements and plans will be communicated to the pilots concerned by June 3rd.

Aircraft involved so far:

KSS

PMY

KBK

JLO (Warrior)

DJH (RV7)

R-44

C182

Navion

There are other aircraft that I am awaiting confirmation for; but, as you can see, it should be a fun aviation filled day.

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Incidents and Accidents 15 of 20: Fun with pictures --> Danny Buitendag

Lessons from Ye Olde Flying Rule Bookke:
Lesson 42: "Ye shall fasteneth the flying machine to the earth. Taketh utmost care, lest the flying machine runneth away from thee."

Pictured here is a Northwest Airlink Saab 340 at Memphis, Tennessee, USA that was left unchocked and ran off the apron.

A similar expensive story, involving a pilot who left his aircraft at idle while he went to find a bathroom, was posted on http://www.avcom.co.za/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=21283

NTSB Identification: LAX06TA291
14 CFR Part 137: Agricultural
Accident occurred Tuesday, September 12, 2006 in Wasco, CA
Aircraft: Cessna U206G, registration: N6238U
Injuries: 1 Uninjured.

This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed.

On September 12, 2006, about 0855 Pacific daylight time, a Cessna U206G, N6238U, departed the parking area, independent of pilot control, before taxiing through a fence, hitting a street sign, and coming to rest on an embankment 75 yards from Wasco-Kern County Airport (L19), Wasco, California. The airplane was owned by Inland Crop Dusters, Inc., Shafter, California, and operated under contract by the Integrated Pest Control Branch of the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) as a public-use operation under the provisions of 14 CFR Part 137. The commercial pilot, the sole occupant, was not injured; the airplane sustained substantial damage. The local flight departed Shafter-Minter Field (MIT) about 0615. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and no flight plan had been filed. The approximate global positioning system (GPS) coordinates of the primary wreckage were 35 degrees 37.18 minutes north latitude and 119 degrees 21.22 minutes west longitude.

The National Transportation Safety Board investigator interviewed the pilot. The pilot reported that the purpose of the flight was to distribute sterile pink bollworm moths on multiple cotton fields in the local area. The pilot reported that he needed to use the restroom and decided to land at Wasco to use the facility at the airport. The pilot stated that he parked the airplane about 50 feet from the restroom facility, set the engine power at idle, activated the parking brake, and departed the airplane. While in the restroom, he heard a change in the engine sound, and came out to see the airplane moving. The airplane hit a bump as it taxied, turning 120 degrees to the left, went down the ramp at the end of the field, through a fence, hit a street sign, went over two roads, and came to rest on an almond orchard embankment.

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Super Frelon crash at Silvermine --> Picture submitted by Mark Warr

Four hurt as helicopter forced to land (news24.com)

Cape Town - Four people were slightly injured when a helicopter fighting a veld fire in the Table Mountain National Park made an emergency landing on Monday, said fire-fighting officials.

The helicopter was one of two being used by the government-sponsored Working on Fire (WoF) programme to douse the wild fire in the park near Cape Town.

WoF spokesperson Evelyn John Holtzhausen said the Super Frelon helicopter crewed by four WoF firefighters made a forced landing above the reservoir at Silvermine in the park at about 10:00.

"The helicopter crew of four - whose names will be released - suffered minor burns and one has a broken ankle," said Holtzhausen.

"They were airlifted to 2 Military Hospital in Wynberg. The helicopter was enveloped in flames."

Holtzhausen said he assumed the second helicopter was used to fly the crew to the hospital, about 3km or 4km away by air.

WoF uses helicopters to drop water on fires to help ground crews. Monday's fire was believed to have been caused by a lightning strike during a storm on Sunday night.

Holtzhausen said civil aviation authorities were expected on the scene on Monday to investigate the cause of the incident.

He said the fire was now out, thanks partly to rain.

Netcare 911 spokesperson Nick Dollman said the helicopters were collecting water for a reservoir to dump on the flames.

"After picking up a load of water one of the helicopters appeared to lose power and dumped the water before performing an emergency crash landing."

Dollman said Netcare paramedics attended to the injured at the scene before they were flown to hospital.

(GP: The Argus is reporting that 3 rangers have been arrested for looting the wreckage of the helicopter and selling the metal for scrap.)

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Humour --> Peter Rau

In case you aren’t old enough, one of the wonderful WWII jokes was about “fockers.”

One of the Norwegian fliers who escaped the Nazi invasion went to England, and joined the Air Force there. He was a very good pilot, and shot down so many German planes that the British pulled him to the ground and had him give talks to boost morale.

The first talk that he gave was at the London Garden Society. This was a venerable collection of blue haired ladies who owned most of London and its surroundings, they having had the forethought to outlive their husbands.

The Norwegian pilot got up after the normal introductions, and started talking about the latest battle in the air against the enemy.

Talking with his hands, which is something most pilots do, he described how these “fockers” came out of the sun, and how he dove and gave chase to one, and shot the “focker” down.

At that point the President of the club got up, reacting to the open mouths of the ladies.

She explained, saying that the “Focker” was a German aircraft.

The Norwegian pilot said, “Yah…but deese fockers was flying Messerschmidts.”

Cape Town Flying Club Enews 15 May

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From the front desk
Safety Meeting 31 May
Club Social Pics
ATC/Met flipping day

Aircarft Accidents and Incidents
From a new contract pilot
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Dates to diarise

Date	Event/Course
31 May	Safety Meeting: CRM
11 May	Aviators Evening at FAYP
10 June	ATC/Met Flipping Day

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From the front desk

A simulator DVD which was to be used to update the 2nd simulator was donated to the club, this has gone missing from reception. If it has been taken by mistake we would appreciate it if it could be returned immediately.

Due to some problems with the computers over the last 3 weeks the administration is behind schedule. As a result the accounts for end April have not yet been emailed, this will be done by next week. However, if you know you owe money please feel free to pay.

We are sure you have noticed that Hilda is at the club on a Saturday. She is desperately trying to keep on top of things and was hoping that if she gave up a day of her weekend to do this it would help. Unfortunately / fortunately everyone loves Hilda and likes to say hi to her. PLEASE she will not be offended if you IGNORE HER on a Saturday in fact she would appreciate it. So if you have any queries talk to the duty pilot that is what they are there for.
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Safety Meeting 31 May 18:00

(Members are reminded that you need to attend a minimum of 2 safety briefings per year.)

There will be a safety meeting at CTFC on Thursday 31 May at 18:00 for 18:30.
The guest speaker will be SAA training captain Gavin Mckellar, who will talk to us about CRM.

Gavin has over 10 000 accident free flying hours. After 10 years flying jets in the South African Air Force, Gavin joined South African Airways and is presently a Captain on the Boeing 737-800.
He has held aviation safety positions in the SAAF and SAA such as Squadron Safety Officer and Short-Range Accident Prevention Advisor for SAA. He was the chairman of ALPA-SA Accident Analysis Committee and has worked in Aviation Safety, Accident Prevention, Crew Resource Management Training, Checking and Auditing, Flight Safety Programme Management and Incident and Accident Investigation for the last 18 years.

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Club Social pics

Frank Moody has uploaded pictures from the past few years onto his webiste. These pictures came from his camera which normally floated around tino as many hads as possible.

Check out the pics on: http://www.mosfear.co.za/ctfcsocial.html

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ATC Flip Day 10 June --> G Pinnock

A while back, a number of Cape Town clubs met at CTFC to take our local ATC's for a flip (for many, their first time in a "little" plane).

This year, we would like to invite them into the skies again, and we will be extending the invitation to the Met office and ATNS (thereby ensuring good weather and no orbits!)

If you would like to volunteer to donate and fly some flying time, or be involved in any way, please email me on garethpinnock@gmail.com .

We aim to take off at 10am, and after a short flip, come back to a braai and bar. We will be joined in this event by planes and aviators from the airfields around Cape Town. So even if you aren't able to get a aircraft (so far, the club 4 seaters are unbooked....) come join for a social!

If rain stops play, the social will still happen...the wonders of an indoor braai!

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Incidents and Accidents 14 of 20: Fun with pictures --> Danny Buitendag

“Uh Oh! Let me have another look at that Weight and Balance Sheet.”

















(The Korean Air MD11 suffered an unloading incident at the freight terminal at Sydney Airport. A 4x4 vehicle was being unloaded from a forward section of the aircraft, leaving a very aft CG and causing the plane to settle gently onto its tail - leaving the nosewheel about 5 meters off the ground and trapping some freight workers in the aircraft.)

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Musings of a new contract pilot --> Bradley Gargan

(Brad trained at Good Hope and CTFC, and completed his com last year. He is now flying in the 208 in Namibia).

Just wanted to add a personal experience that I had and have witnessed with regard to the "preflight walkaround" thing that was in the CTFC newsletter last week.

I ALWAYS do a preflight walkaround even if im just taxying without pax by myself to the fuel bay. I'm kind of paranoid when it comes to fuel and oil caps not being properly tightend and once I've loaded my pax I run around checking that doors and hatches are closed and locked, Oil caps and fuel caps properly secured, Tow bars off and nothing obstructing the prop....

But on this particular day for some unknown reason I didn't check. Well, I checked before I taxied to the fuel bay but not after I had pulled the airy away for start up (they dont like us to start up right next to the fuel bay).
It was one of those days when you're a in a rush (error chain coming into effect here) and everyone's hyped up to go fly (like 7 C210s doing the same route).

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I started up and began taxying when a few colleagues started signalling me to shut down..... I couldnt believe my eyes when I got out....I was so disapointed with myself...yes, I forgot the stupid towbar on the nose wheel. Now I'm thinking what would have happend if the prop didn't clear the tow bar...

A few weeks prior to that I had to tell someone else to shutdown for the same reason so I didn't feel so bad. However it is SO EASY for something "small" to slip your mind - and lucky for me it didn't turn out as bad as it could have been.

It is SO EASY to become complacent. Pilots here have told me that its common for guys to forget to lower their gear for landing.

Another potentially dangerous situation is when you're flying with a whole group of other aircraft,becuase that is when you decide to go on chat frequency and you are yapping away to your mates. Besides the fact that you may be monitoring other frequencies it is amazing to find that you didn't change fuel tanks when you planned to. Maybe I speak for myself here (although I've confirmed this with other pilots) but when you are waffeling away on the radio all of a sudden you're not maintaining track, you start flying like a kook, forgetting to report at reporting points and the list goes on and on.

Something I feel I should maybe inform anyone looking to land at heavy gravel strips is the fact that your brakes all of a sudden are literally NON EXISTANT!!! The vibration somehow causes your brakes to become really spongy! When we fly into strips here we pump our brakes nice and hard on downwind and on touchdown and after selecting flaps up we start pumping the brakes the whole way down the runway. Literally every 3 - 5 seconds between pumps your brakes are gone. We had one incident here where a pilot did not know that and couldn't stop at the end of the runway and swerved to narrowly miss other aircraft and went into a tree....and yes they blamed the pilot....nice hey "pilot negligence"

Which is another thing I've learned here, no matter what your decision, whether right or wrong or if you saved yourself and pax from something life threatening, in the eyes of your passengers and employer you've always made a bad call....ALWAYS...."you should have done this!! why didn't you do that?"...this is normally because you have inconvenienced them in some way!

Cape Town Flying Club news 10 May
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Red Tag System

Club Social

New Rates

Achievements

Help needed for Air Scouts

Aircraft Accidents and Incidents

A380 exclusive

Pre Take Off Walk Around

Humour
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Dates to diarise

Date	Event/Course
8 May	Radio Course
11 May	Club social/braai
31 May	Aviators Evening at FAYP

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Red Tag System

The red tag system has been in operation for 8 days, and is working very well.

If you are still unsure about what the system invovles, all the information you need is in the file called " Red Tag File" located in the slot underneath the red board.

A brief rundown of how the system works

You walk into the club, and look up your "red tag" number in the file. This is also where you update your information regarding licence expiry and medical expiry.

If you see a coloured pin in your number (on the board), you need to speak to an instructor before you can fly.

If there is no pin, and you are legally allowed to fly, after checking NOTAMS and met, you get a green pin from the cupboard below the board and stick it in your number.

Sticking the green pin means that you have checked that you are current and that you have checked the weather and NOTAMS (instead of signing the clipboard like we used to, we can now save a few trees).

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Club Social 11 May

The club will be hosting a gathering this Friday the 11th from 6pm. The bar will be manned (and womanned) and there will be snacks available. If your tastes are for meatier things, you are welcome to bring meat, the fires will be burning.

We will also use this opportunity to hand out certificates to our achievers, and wings to all those who have gained their wings at CTFC (the wings have finally arrived from the manufacturer).

Come and enjoy the company of fellow aviators and aviation minded people. The volley ball court is available next door if you want to work off some of the beer before your food!

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New Rates

It is unfortunately that time again when the club can no longer absorb the fuel price hikes. We have therefore had to increase the Tomahawk/C152 rate to R650 an hour (an increase of R20, or just over 3% per hour.)

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Achievements

Date Name Achievement CT/FK a/c Instructor Examiner

28/04/07 Anthony Berkow IF ZS-KBK A. Russell D. Lempp
04/05/07 Mich Niewoudt 1st Solo FK ZS-KFV B. Barnes B. Barnes

05/05/07 Juanita Seifert Com ZS-PMY P.Erasmus G.Smith

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Air Scouts help needed

The club has a history of helping the Air Scouts in our area with their courses. We are going to be running a Nav course for them soon, and are always looking for volunteers to join our group. If you feel you can help in any way, please meet with us on Friday before the club social (look for Linda Hodgkinson, or alternatively email me on this address.

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Incidents and Accidents 13 of 20: Fun with pictures --> Danny Buitendag

“Mr. Wetbottom! Hallo! Mr. Wetbottom! Are you still in there?”

(GP: I've been unsuccesfully trying to find information regarding this accident, specifically, what went wrong and why. If anyone can help, please let me know. It's got a German registration marking D-???)

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A380 exclusive --> Pictures by Tony Beamish

The pictures below were taking by Tony on the 26 March. If you look closely in the last picture, you can see there are in fact 3 A380's parked next to one another!

The aircraft landing (F-WWEA) was the first A380 with the Engine Alliance EA 7200 engines. This particular aircraft created a stir in Portugal on the day these pics were taken - ATC at Lisbon asked if the crew would mind doing a low flypast on the way home, and the A380 crew happily obliged. It is presumed that this aircraft was returning from that test flight (mostly conducted over the FTM VOR near Lisbon).

During March, the A380's also did route proving flights from Toulouse to various destination, including JFK.

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Pretake off Walkaround --> Gary Wiblin

Some time ago I wrote in this column of the need for a pre-take-off walk-around. Not a replacement for the pre-flight inspection mind you but, just before entering the cockpit, a final walk around the entire aircraft. This is because, more often than not, pilots and passengers do not enter the aircraft immediately after the pre-flight inspection has been completed. The reason I would like to elaborate on this subject is because there have recently been three incidents that I know of where a pre-flight walk-around would have saved the day. I will describe all three scenarios in order to hammer home the vital need for a pre-take-off walk-around, EVERY time. No matter what!

Remember, in general aviation we do not have a ground crew looking after our best interests just before start-up so the final responsibility rests with the designated pilot in command. It is vital that this be remembered, as, even in private flying, it is often that two pilots fly together. It must be clearly agreed upon exactly who is to be the pilot in command at all times. Let’s take a look at the first scenario:

I was on a trip into central Africa to offload supplies and had taken a company pilot along to share the flying due to flight and duty time constraints. When preparing to depart one particular airfield, we agreed that my relief pilot would fly this leg but we came to no definite agreement as to who was responsible for the pre-flight inspection and this became a shared affair. In this case, this was the mistake. Neither one of us was really certain exactly what had and had not been thoroughly inspected. Shortly after take-off the nose baggage compartment popped open and we had to return for landing. Each of us presumed that the other had inspected the latches. In this case it was not a major problem but rather an irritating inconvenience. A pre-take-off walk-around would have prevented this.

On another occasion a company pilot was offloading passengers at an airfield. He personally removed the baggage from the nose baggage compartment, locked and checked the nose baggage compartment latches, and then proceeded towards the tail of the aircraft where his passengers were saying their goodbyes to each other, and to him. Unbeknown to him, one of the passengers had gone around to the nose baggage compartment in search of his bag and had in fact re-opened it. When he saw the empty compartment he not only closed it again but also actually tried to lock the catches. At a glance it now looked as if the baggage compartment was locked, which is exactly what the pilot expected to see. As he had locked the compartment just seconds before, when he now wanted to board and start-up, he had every reason to expect that it was still locked. His cursory glance at the aircraft before boarding was obviously not enough. As the aircraft began gathering speed for take-off the baggage compartment lid popped up and was restrained by the safety catch. The take-off was aborted.

The third example was so typical that any of us could be caught out if not careful enough. Once again the pilot was unpacking the nose baggage
compartment of a Baron and was putting the removed bags on the ground behind him. After removing the last bag he locked the baggage compartment and turned around to pick up some bags. One of the passengers was also helping and they each picked up a couple of bags and walked to the vehicle, which was parked just meters away. They said their goodbyes and the pilot turned back to the aircraft, ran his eyes over its entire length, was satisfied that everything was locked, and boarded the aircraft, locking the cabin door behind him. He was still busy running through his pre-start checks when the driver of the vehicle yelled from outside that one of the bags was apparently missing. The pilot exited the aircraft to re-check the baggage compartment only to find the offending bag lying right in front of the right-hand propeller. From the point at which he had stood casting a suspicious eye over the aircraft the bag had been out of sight. If he had taxied into it he would have had a damaged propeller and one highly irate passenger.

I have now amended my own rule to be applied somewhat more harshly. I now do a pre-take-off walk-around just before boarding, every single time. Even if I have shut down only briefly for some obscure reason, before once again starting up I will exit the aircraft, do a pre-take-off walk-around, and then re-board the aircraft and start up. I am now convinced that Murphy is always there, waiting for a lapse in concentration. Do yourself a favour and make this your rule too and you will save yourself many embarrassing, and sometimes dangerous, moments.

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Humour

Brakpan GPS --> L Hodgkinson