Innehållsförteckning för April 2024 från Pilot

I must thank the BBGA, the British Business and General Aviation trade association, for inviting Pilot to its excellent annual conference and AGM. Formed in the merger of GAMTA (the General Aviation Manufacturers & Traders Association) with BAUA (the Business Aviation Users Association) the BBGA is – if you’ll allow me to mix my metaphors – the big fish in the alphabet soup pond of aviation associations. ‘We are the UK’s influential voice for business and general aviation,’ says the BBGA on its homepage and, to judge by its august membership, generous sponsorship from the industry and the smart London hotel venue of the annual conference & AGM, there’s no reason to doubt its ‘the voice’ claim. From what was said at the conference, it’s the influence bit that seems…

STAR LETTER It’s EC to deceive On Wednesday this week (27 February), I was looking on glideandseek.com to see if there was any activity at my gliding club, the weather being rather dodgy and the field probably too soggy from the recent heavy rain. I looked to see what else was going on in the Southeast. I was surprised to see a Flarm (i.e. electronic conspicuity or EC – Ed) trace running from somewhere in Surrey, right into the centre of London. It was identifying as an LS3 glider, complete with its registration, the route seeming to stick to roads, and crossing the Thames at Southwark Bridge, and to Rosebery Avenue, where it seemed to be manoeuvring at well below glider airspeeds, and at very low altitude. Obviously not a…

I am not a habitual beer drinker. Copilots later called me ‘a lightweight’, what the Australians call ‘a two-pot screamer’ – someone who cannot hold his alcohol. After two pints I’m anybody’s – after three I’m nobody’s and have to be dragged home legless. But a significant part of the intercontinental pilot’s life was traditionally spent in bars, rehydrating our pressurisation-parched throats and unwinding. In the good old days when long-haul airliners carried flight engineers, we relied upon these stalwarts to recommend the ‘best’ (usually meaning the cheapest) bar in each city we visited. In Tehran as a supernumerary pilot, I was accommodated in the Park Hotel with the cabin crew. They introduced me to the German Bar where we mostly drank 1001 Nights red wine, although ‘Stella’ beer from…

Recently in this column I said an instructor who didn’t warn students of faults they’re likely to make wasn’t earning their money. Subsequently, I’ve realised that I could be accused of doing exactly that! So here goes: the top fifteen student failings. Straight in at number one – albeit this is in no specific order – is not preparing for the flight beforehand. You cannot expect to learn all that you need in the few hours you’re in an instructor’s company. You should fully understand what you’re about to do beforehand. The flight is just putting theory into action. Poor trimming comes second. You will never achieve a stable situation such that you can relax and consider the next element of the sortie or consult the checklist unless you’re pedantic…

“There’s no such thing as a routine test flight.” Whoever said that wasn’t wrong, for sometimes even the most innocuous-looking machine can bite. Sitting on the runway bathed in the soft light of a summer evening, the aircraft didn’t look particularly sinister, yet I still regarded it with a slightly jaundiced air. It was a T.31M, the bastard offspring of an ex-ATC Kirby Cadet Mk.III, which at some time in its life had been converted into a single-seat motor glider. Bright yellow with a thick black ‘racing stripe’ down the fuselage, the myriad modifications included installing a small engine and fuel tank where the front cockpit had been, and replacing the monowheel, nose and tail skids with a more conventional tailwheel arrangement. It had been discovered by one of the…

Along time ago I was an adviser to Uganda’s president. It was a waste of my time and his money but provided me much amusement. I discovered that politicians and bureaucrats like to commission reports; the bulkier and more portentous sounding the better. Most of these were paid for by donors and carried out by consultants parachuted in at great expense from the donors’ own country. The reports went mainly unread, let alone acted upon. Especially if a report disagreed with a minister’s original plans. The offices of ministers and senior civil servants were lined with miles of them. It is not much different here, and these expensive reports – £2.8bn of consultancy bought with our money by government in 2022 – are often treated as they were in Africa.…

Veteran pilot, ex-RAF Squadron Leader and Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) co-founder Jack Hemmings AFC has remained connected to the skies. On 5 February, he also disproved the adage there are no old, bold pilots, flying in Spitfire MT818 at the age 102, thought to be the oldest pilot to do so. The special event was courtesy of Fly a Spitfire (flyaspitfire.com), Biggin Hill to honour his wartime service in the 80th anniversary year of D-Day and remember his late friend, MAF co-founder and D-Day veteran Stuart King, who passed away in 2020. “Getting in the Spitfire gave all the same pleasant feelings of being above the ground, where you can leave behind all the problems of the world,” said Jack, born in Bentham, Yorkshire on 10 August, 1921. “210 knots…

You may think aviation is expensive, but it doesn’t have to be. My sixty flying years have been dedicated to minimum outlay. Our two aeroplanes cost £6,000 in 1988 and £15,000 in 2008. They were comparatively cheap because neither has electrics and therefore neither has a starter motor – nor does either have any avionics. I share a single Icom handheld portable radio between them, significantly reducing the licence fee. But this lack of electrics doesn’t prevent me from flying all around Europe. You may remember my March 2014 article on touring Norway and Sweden by Fournier. I have also flown to many displays in France and Germany. But until this year I hadn’t felt comfortable taking our two-seat Champ, Champie abroad. But now its engine has been zero-timed I…

Opinions may differ… Aircraft Type: Extra NG Date & Time: 2 April 2022 at 1059 Commander’s Flying Experience: PPL, 593 hours (of which 28 were on type) Last 90 days: 7 hours Last 28 days: 4 hours The pilot had planned to undertake a local flight to conduct some aerobatics and arrived at Bicester Airfield at approximately 1015 on the morning of the accident. After takeoff, the pilot began to climb to 2,000ft amsl and was instructed by Oxford Radar ATC to hold to the east of the extended centreline of Oxford Airport Runway 01 to remain clear of a departing aircraft. A few minutes later the pilot was cleared to continue his flight to the west. On reaching the vicinity of Enstone Airfield, the pilot climbed to around 6,000ft…

Every airline pilot settles down after training to a hopefully stimulating and satisfying career. Experience brings confidence and lots of spare capacity for a relaxed operation and pleasant day out. This is even on short high workload hops or into difficult challenging worldwide airports. However, every once in a while unforeseen circumstances or events can build up to require a concentration and ability to think clearly under pressure. In January 1998 I had packed in a few months as a Captain on the then new British Airways Boeing 777-200 fleet. The aircraft was a delight to fly with many innovations on the flight deck including fly by wire controls. At a maximum takeoff weight of 243 metric tonnes and length 209 feet with a wingspan of 199 feet, this was…