Bump and grind

In the group, we have a ‘group currency rule’ which states that you need to go for a checkride if you have not flown the RV6 for 30 days. I can see the sense in this if you have little or low hour experience in the RV6 as handling and particularly landing and take-off skills can deteriorate quite quickly when flying this very, very sensitive little plane, but I also think (from personal experience) that as you get a few hours under your belt (say at least 50), that this time period could easily and safely be stretched to 45 or even 60 days. This is something that I will raise at the next group meeting, as it is amazingly easy to just slip outside 30 days, especially if the plane is in the middle of a service and with most of us being weekend only flyers and the sort of weather we normally get at a weekend. All of that is by-the-by, but interesting to air in a blog like this and see what others have by the way of ‘group rules’ that are well over and above EASA rules.

I have also read a discussion thread on Flyer Forum recently with pilots wailing about the massive cost increases they have suffered recently with the C of A Part M nonsense recently put in place by EASA – annuals for C of A aircraft of £5000 upwards do not seem at all uncommon. Holy cr*p Batman! Boy, am I ever glad that I am in a ‘permit’ group where we have a group member who is an aircraft engineer and other group member regularly help to do the maintenance (yes, I must roll my sleeves up at some stage too). We charge ‘ourselves’ £12 per hour for our own maintenance, so the members that do the maintenance are paid by the group and so reduce the cost of their own flying. Unfortunately (but in my view quite rightly) this payment regime doesn’t apply to the time and mileage I spend every month looking after the group accounts! Perhaps one day after my youngest ‘child’ has finished university, I may buy my own aircraft outright. When I do, I know for certain that it will be a PFA ‘permit’ type and that I will be learning how to do my own maintenance real fast!

What with a recent holiday in Newfoundland, weather and life in general getting in the way, I was well outside of the groups 30 day rule. So I put my name down with the CFI at Cotswolds for some circuits in the RV. Phil Mathews isn’t a small chap, but then neither am I, so I had to make sure that we were light on fuel to stay on the right side of the weight and balance envelope (mainly weight!). Having said that, I do far prefer the handling of the RV with a decent bit of weight on board, it really does handle quite differently when flying solo with a light fuel load.

So we set off to do the mandatory ‘three good ones’ – three decent landings that is. I am quite happy with general handling and I don’t feel the personal need, nor do I have the legal requirement for my ‘one hour of instruction’ as I have the best part of two years until my revalidation. I did however make the point of getting to the airfield early to carry out a leisurely check of the plane and sit quietly in the plane by myself running through where everything was, muttering to myself and touching each control or switch in turn. I must have made an entertaining sight to the students in Aeros next door looking out of their full length windows at this fruitcake sat in a ‘toy plane’ doing a ‘Rainman’ impersonation!

I rounded Phil up, booked out and we took it in turns to get in and strap into the RV. You don’t so much get in the RV6, as ‘put it on’! It is very snug for two and fairly inelegant to get into. You have to climb up onto the wing (avoiding putting you foot on the flaps which should be down anyway to make sure this can’t happen), step over the lip without grabbing the canopy (which is hinged to lift up from the front), put both feet on the seat, then slip both feet off the seat forward into the footwell, while stopping yourself collapsing by putting both hands behind you, one to grab the lip and the other the back of the seat to ease your weight down onto the seat. Then put on and thread together the five point harness, then invite the other person in the plane to have their turn. Pulling on flaps with both Phil and I in the RV is a real test of friendship, as I have to try to avoid elbowing Phil in the face and work the flap lever up past his and my bulging thighs, complete with wallets / keys unwisely left in trouser pockets.

The weather was lovely and clear as a bell, with some cloud, but with a light and variable wind. Sometime it was 030/07 and a few minutes later 360/06. Gloucester were giving runway 04, but as we approached the hold for 36, Phil checked the windsock and requested we use 36 as the wind was pretty much now straight down 36. Well this started a trend and Gloucester switched to 36. Power checks complete, I lined up, carefully and slowly applied power and held the nose straight with footwork, looking at the end of the runway to pick up and wobbles early. Tail up and hold her down. I never have the time or courage to glance at the airspeed, thus taking my eyes off the picture, as by the time I have done that, the plane could easily veer off the centreline, so I feel for flying speed by visual clues and the feel of ‘floatiness’ of the plane. As it turned out, I got it right on all occasions on this particular outing, I was pleased with my take-offs.

The use of runway 18/36 is pretty rare at Gloucester. This is the shortest, narrowest and least used of all the runways – don’t get me wrong, it is plenty long and wide enough, it’s just different from the other two runways that’s all. So it was nice for a change to be on runway 36. The circuits are right hand with a noise abatement to turn either before or after Staverton Village as there is an avid noise complainer who lives there and sits out in the backyard with a pair of binos writing down the registrations of offending aircraft and filing bulk complaints several times a year (no I am not kidding – despite the fact that the airfield has been here since the late 1920’s and the Staverton resident has probably only lived in Staverton for 10 years or so!).

The downwind leg is easy as you route outside and parallel to the M5 motorway, then turn base and head straight towards Chosen Hill until you turn onto final. On my first circuit, I got distracted in the base turn and ended up 200’ above circuit height (did I mention that the RV is VERY sensitive in pitch!). I was therefore too high on final, so had to sideslip this off for a better picture. Even so and with full flaps, I was too fats on my approach. The wind was great, straight down the runway, but I crossed the threshold knowing I was too fast and knowing I was in store for a long hold off to bleed the speed off – you simply cannot touch the RV with excess energy or you will be punished severely with a bounce. Well, I did hold it off properly and we touched and stayed touched, albeit further down the runway than I would like. Carb heat off, flaps down, power up and away again, still plenty of runway.

Next circuit better, but still got 100’ extra height and still another sideslip to lose it. This time speed control was much better, but actually on short final starting to get a bit too low, so some more power in to get it back to 70kts indicated. Just on the numbers and flare and hold off, nowhere near as long this time and we touch shortly afterwards and stay down.

Another T&G for the third circuit. Phil says that he is happy if I am and that we can land off this one if I want. I decide to tempt fate and land from this. Circuit height much better this time around and no need for sideslip to lose excess height. Approach is the best of the three and I vow to make this a good one without trying too hard. Having said that, it is now clear from the windsock that the wind has changed and is now 030/08, so Gloucester change to runway 04 while I am on final for 36. I know that Phil is probably looking at me wondering what I am going to do. If I was by myself I would have requested a go-around and reposition for 04 – no point in a crosswind landing in a taildragger if you don’t have to do one. But on the other hand, I thought it would be good practice and what better time that when I have an instructor with me. I tell Phil that I will continue with a crosswind landing. It turns out to be a good one and I don’t have to do too much in the way of crosswind handling, either that or I am doing it without thinking too much about it. Not showing off, just stating a fact. The landing isn’t over until the plane is shutdown in the hangar and I carefully bring it to a taxi speed by letting it roll, I find I rarely use the brakes on the landing roll. Carefully bring it around keeping the stick in the correct position while taxiing. Shut down and complete the paperwork and put the plane away.

I take a few moment in the quiet of the hangar to think through the session and internalise my flying. I am happy with it and do not feel particularly rusty despite not flying the RV for 75 days with my last flight (in a hired C172) being 50 days ago. I feel a quiet sense of satisfaction and a feeling of ‘damn – it’s great to be back in the air’. I must book the RV for a landaway somewhere in the next fortnight. I won’t be doing any touring over the winter or spring, so I am now into locals and simple landaways to keep my hours up while thinking about what I am going to try for in 2011.

Thoughts for 2011

I like to do at least one major flying trip / tour / event a year and I am already thinking forward to 2011 and what I can do. I can spare one week and sufficient funds to cover the costs.

One of my early musings was a possible solo trip on a mini-flyout to Iceland (solo in that I would be solo in the RV6, but would fly at the same time as perhaps a couple of other intrepid aviators). This is possible without an instrument rating, but you would have to fly at below FL55 and of course take a huge number of safety precautions. It would certainly be a challenge, not so much in terms of the actual flying, just the risks associated with what happens if the engine stops. But of course flying there would need very good VFR weather both to get there and back. I think I have now ruled this trip out on the basis that I can only spare one week and I don’t want to spend it sat at Lewis or Wick airport waiting for the weather forecast to be right. If I was a gentleman of leisure and had the time to wait for the right weather, then I might just go for it, but not now.

There are of course large parts of France that I have not explored either by aircraft or any other means of conveyance. This might be good for a semi-planned freewheel trip and this type of trip is a possibility, but I have been to a number of places in France and I want to fly to places and more especially countries I haven’t been to yet.

Another option that I really do fancy is to do the AOPA Aerobatics certificate training at Ultimate High in Kemble. It would cost a fair bit and takes one week, but it would probably work out the same as a one week touring trip. I do enjoy aerobatics (I have about 11 hours on aerobatic training) and it would give me the opportunity to fly another aircraft type, the Extra 300 (deep pockets required and I have flown one already), the Bulldog or the Chipmunk. I fancy the Chipmunk as it is a taildragger and I have heard so many people speak so highly of it. This is one of the front-runner’s. It would of course be particularly easy for me as I only live in Cheltenham, so Kemble is just down the road near Cirencester.

The other front-runner is a trip, maybe in company with other aircraft if I can find anyone similarly interested, to Denmark and maybe Sweden, up through Belgium, Netherlands and northern Germany. Plan a couple of locations and be flexible to cope with the weather. I do fancy Denmark and Sweden, purely because I haven’t been there before and I think it would be fund to fly around there.

Decisions, decisions, decisions!!

Annual medical chore!

I had my annual JAA / EASA (or whatever it now is) aviation medical the other day. I was also due for my two-yearly FAA examination, but by no coincidence, the AME I use is licenced for both authorities, so I get one medical examination and two certificates, of course he makes an extra administration charge for the paperwork, but that’s fine by me. The examination was the usual non-event, for which I am very pleased and grateful. Due to my age (54 / 55) I also have an annual ECG. We also played the usual ‘running gag’ with my eye test – ‘So, taking your glasses off, tell me what letters you can read on the chart’ – ‘what chart?’ – ‘Yes, very good, heard that one before, now what letters can you read on the chart’ – ‘no, seriously, I can’t see what I would call an eye-test chart, let alone any lettering’ – ‘AH! I see, err, well that’s OK as you can see well enough with glasses’ (so why try to test me without glasses??).

The cost was a total of £175 for both the JAA and FAA certificates. The Doctor was wrestling more with the on-line input that each authority now require and for his trouble and my investment, I got two pretty basic, locally printed certificates.

What I don’t get at all is why each licensing authority (JAA, Transport Canada, FAA etc.) all have their own and quite different medical requirements, validity periods, forms etc. Why the hell can’t there be a single medical standard accepted by all authorities (I gave up ranting about a single licencing authority that would apply worldwide a long time ago – it is so obvious we should simply adopt the FAA approach!)? But then I guess that would involve civil servants working together, and we couldn’t have that could we, hell, what would we do without all this national job creation after all!