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Aviation Giveaway- Grand Prize Draw PDF Print E-mail
Friday, 30 July 2010 16:08

Congratulations to DownWind member Jimbo, you have won

* 5 hours flying from Sydney Jabiru Flying School
* 12 month subscription to Aviator magazine
* One set of X-air Screw It's aircraft tie downs
* DownWind polo shirt
* XCOM Headset

This month has seen a variety of prizes being given away to DownWind members in our Great Aviation Giveaway. We would like to thank our sponsors Sydney Jabiru Flying School, Aviatior Magazine, XCOM, and X-AIR screw it's tiedowns for donatinig these fantastic prizes.

Our weekly prize winners were delighted to get a phonecall from Michael on Friday afternoon of the 9th,16th and 23rd July congratulating them on thier win.

The Giveaway was such a sucess that we hope to run another one soon.
 
Landing at Lukla PDF Print E-mail
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Friday, 30 July 2010 14:33

DownWind member Swoop has uploaded this video of a landing of a DHC-6 Twin Otter Series 300 at Tenzing-Hillary Airport Eastern Nepal. The single bitumen runway, altitude 9380 ft, is 527 metres long and has a 12% grade. No wonder the passengers feel it necessary to clap after landing!

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Losing my Currency PDF Print E-mail
Friday, 30 July 2010 12:09

Over the last 8 months I found myself up to my neck in everything other than my passion for aviation. I'm not sure how it happened but work seemed to raise its ugly head time and time again and in particular on those perfect days when we all would like to be flying.

workflyingIt reminds me of when I was a child at dinner time where I'd always eat the brussels sprouts and beans first to get them out of the way so that I could thoroughly enjoy the meat and potatoes. My problem is that work ended up being like a giant sized serving of vegetables and the "good stuff" seemed to be enjoyed by everyone other than me. It was then that I had a revelation. By eating one bite of lamb roast followed by three bites of vegetables the sprouts became much more bearable.

With this epiphany clanging like a church bell in my head it then dawned on me that I was no longer current and that eight months had indeed transpired since I'd last sat in the left hand seat. Currency is one of those things that seems to creep up on private pilots and then like a soon to be "red carded" soccer player it slams you in the back and knocks you off your feet.

Due to not taking the time out to do the minimum requirements of three take-offs and landings within ninety days I now found myself effectively grounded. Yes, technically speaking I could still go out by myself and do a few touch-n-goes to regain my currency but who is going to hire a plane out to a private pilot so that they can do some solo circuits to regain their currency?

I know that I wouldn't and my guess is that many insurance companies would find that financial risk a little too hard to swallow. Then again, most insurance companies typically find anything involving the words "pay out" as a signal to leap to clause forty-four, part three subsection "z" of the "doesn't have to pay" part of the insurance contract.
So I now found myself in the position that I couldn't take my wife for the fly around the city until I did some dual circuits with an instructor. It's a pain but a reality.

It was at this point that I received my second revelation. The rules that enforce me to do a minimum of flying are designed to keep me and any passengers I may carry alive. I thought that it was pretty decent of the regulators to care about pilots and their welfare more than they were often prepared to.

I've chatted with pilots who view the rules as more of an advisory document to be kept firmly in a locked cupboard in the basement and I've met others that seem to know the regulations better than the national anthem. My personal observation is that the pilots that know the rules seem to have less "scares" than those that "yeehaa" across the sky in their bunking broncos.

It was then that I called up my local flying school and requested a two hour session with an instructor. I was told that two hours wouldn't be necessary to gain my currency but wanting to be a "remain alive" pilot I insisted on a full service and overhaul of my piloting skills. It just seemed to me that it made sense to have everything checked out and make sure that my skills were up to specification and that no bad habits were transforming me into a future flying cowboy.

The day came and after thoroughly checking out the plane the first port of call was getting a refresher on Class D airspace and in particular the radio calls. I picked up a radio call sheet and taxiway diagram for Moorabbin on downwind.com.au so that made things a lot easier.

What I discovered was that flying is like riding a bicycle. I found myself automatically doing things in the cockpit as the drills of past training reasserted themselves. When you think about it, flying really isn't that difficult but flying in difficulty is why we train.

Getting a complete skills overhaul was like a breath of fresh air that I would highly recommend to every pilot. Don't wait until you're no longer current or fall into the delusion that three touch-n-goes every ninety days makes you a safe pilot. You may be legal but legality is a waste of time if you're still unsafe.

Since I didn't place the instructor on a strict time schedule we ended up taking our time to thoroughly go over procedures etc. So during the two hours I did steep turns, forced landings, radio call practice, landings plus quite a bit of time spent on the aircraft systems. This last item was really worthwhile since the new glass cockpit contained a number of surprises that made life a lot easier.

The time up in the air with the instructor was a great experience. Not only am I now current but I've learnt a few more things and also have regained the confidence that can often evaporate if you haven't flown for a while. What I plan on doing now is getting tucked into a regular dose of roast with the vegies on the side rather than the other way around.

 
The Best and The Worst PDF Print E-mail
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Friday, 23 July 2010 10:36

This Aviation compilation has some fantastic footage and the composer has listed all the aircraft in order of appearance - the first part it's a real tribute to some amazing flying. My only criticim is that the aircrash stuff is unnecessary and although it is a reminder that we all need to be careful, would have been better left out! My suggestion is you enjoy the first seven minutes - my favourite is the Boeing 777 performing a crosswind desert landing.

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Aviation Oops PDF Print E-mail
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Friday, 16 July 2010 00:00

This compliation of aviations mishaps has some very funny captions for some not so funny situations - I guess the authors motto is 'Always look on the bright side of life'!

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A320 landing at Innsbruck Airport PDF Print E-mail
Friday, 09 July 2010 12:34

Hot off the press - this youtube was taken at the DownWind Ultimate Flight Simulator event on Tuesday night and shows our members having an amazing experience landing an A320 at Innsbruck Airport in the Swiss Alps!

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