Playing with a Dash-8

I was weirdly left to run wild in a DHC-8-300 with the ground power unit connected. It was good fun, and we didn't touch anything we weren't supposed to, or do anything stupid before anyone asks or thinks that we did! We pretty much just sat there and i think the most outlandish thing i did was turn on the landing lights in the hangar. They are bright.


Here are some of the photos!

Tropical Cyclone

There is a tropic low over Darwin at the moment. The airport is closed, and a few of the boys/planes had to overnight in Katherine. I was able to get back in before the really bad weather hit, but it was by the skin of my teeth, with the wind gusting to 30knots crosswind. When i left the cyclone warning had not been issued, and i didn't need alternate fuel. By the time i got back, the airport was below alternate minima, but i did not have the required fuel to get to Tindal, even if i had needed too. Instead i shot the ILS, visual at 900ft, severe turbulence, and windshear, but made a decent landing nonetheless.

Yesterday was decent IFR. Spent the majority of the day in cloud, shot 3 RNAV approaches to the minima, and even had to do one go-around, which is only the second time ever off an apporach (apart from training) that i have had to do one. It is very unnatural in the Titan, and you have to be very gentle with the geared turbo continental 520 engines. I did 2 ILS's, both with a lot of wind, rain, turbulence and low visibility. Good experience, and was really down to the minima. Becoming visual probably at 700ft, but that was with the approach/PAPI and runway lights shining through the muck. The ground was still obscured by the torrential rain. Good experience, but one can't help thinking that flying around in 35 year old piston aeroplanes in these conditions can't be good for the pilot, passengers or plane!

Anyhoo, till further notice, airport is closed and all flights cancelled or suspended.


Here is the Darwin TAF/TTF for those interested -

TAF AMD YPDN 152237Z 1600/1706
01025G40KT 3000 RAIN BKN005 BKN025
FM160300 04035G60KT 3000 RAIN BKN005 BKN025
FM161200 08035G60KT 3000 RAIN BKN005 BKN025
FM161800 11035G60KT 3000 RAIN BKN005 BKN025
TEMPO 1600/1603 VRB30G50KT 1000 THUNDERSTORMS WITH RAIN BKN008
SCT020CB
TEMPO 1603/1706 VRB40G70KT 1000 THUNDERSTORMS WITH RAIN BKN008
SCT020CB
RMK
T 25 26 26 26 Q 996 995 993 992

TTF SPECI YPDN 160004Z 19017KT 2500 LIGHT RAIN SCT010 SCT045 OVC100
24/24
Q0997
RMK RF00.4/001.2
FM0004 01025G40KT 3000 RAIN BKN005 BKN025
TEMPO 0004/0304 VRB30G50KT 1000 THUNDERSTORMS WITH RAIN BKN008
SCT020CB

SPECI YPDN 160004Z 19017KT 2500 LIGHT RAIN SCT010 SCT045 OVC100 24/24
Q0997

Basically issued at 8:37am on 16/2/11. wind is from 010 degrees and 25 knots gusting to 40. 3000m vis in rain, broken cloud at 500ft and 2500ft. From 12:30pm wind will be from 045 degrees, 35kts gusting to 60kts. QNH is 0997.



So essentially it is below the alternate minima, due wind, visibility and cloud considerations. Plus there is 60 minutes holding fuel required due to the 24 hour TEMPO period. The closest alternate is Tindal, which would need roughly 80 minutes worth of fuel with variable reserve.

Tragic ending

This is a pretty sombre post, but i feel as though i need to say something, not only for myself, but for the tribute of a good friend. Jamie Stephens was a good friend to all the pilots up here, worked hard, partied hard, and was a loyal friend in every way. He followed his dream of commercial aviation like all of us and i was fortunate to work with him at my first job in Kununurra. The pilot fraternity in Darwin is close, and this is a huge loss to all of us.

He was only 22 years old, and had achieved so much in a short time. It's so tragic that he is not around to continue his dream and his goal. To say goodbye in such tragic circumstances is horrible and i hope to never witness, or see this happen to anyone else. RIP Jamie, you will be missed mate.. To your family, i can't even imagine what you must be going through.

It is such frightening wake up call. Flying is such an amazing thing, an amazing dream to follow. We love it and we do it so carefree. But something like this is such a wake up call and is something that all pilots either have already dealth with, or inevitably have to deal with eventually. On Saturday 5/2/2011, his Cessna 310 twin engine aircraft crashed 1 mile north of Bathurst Island airstrip at 10pm. The dangers of flying are very real. We must all do what we can to fly safe, for ourselves, or families and our passengers. I just witnessed that it can happen to anyone.

RIP Jamie, you were a good friend to a lot of people, and you will be missed greatly.

Recently

There has been a lot of average weather, as this picture from my balcony shows. It was relentless for about 4 weeks straight, and has cleared up now. I miss the weather, as it kept the temperatures cool and it was a lot nicer at work, even if we did get wet and more stressed with approaches and delays. I won't comment on Darwin's air traffic control, but 50 minute delays at the holding point with no obvious arrivals, and 4 planes in front of me definately makes you ask some questions.


Anyhoo, one of our planes has the autopilot go unserviceable and despite it being fixed and cleared off the maintenance release, it kept breaking, either due water or something else. Therefore we cannot do IFR charter or RPT operations unless they are manned with a second pilot. I had to do two days of the second pilot duty, which basically mean i sit there doing the paperwork and make sure there is nothing going wrong, which of course the pilots i work with are awesome, and generally we were just talking the whole time. And we mix up the flying because the other pilots want an easier day too!




So it was a lot of fun, made what was relatively a full on day at work easier, as we shared the duties between us, and shared the sectors. The rostered second pilot usually flew the last flight of the day with a different pilot again. I flew the second sectors between Darwin - Croker Island - South Goulburn Island - Darwin.


Now that the weather is a lot better at the moment, it's hotter, delays are less frequent, not really doing approaches, and the build up is virtually disgustingly bumpy in the afternoon! Pro and cons of the IFR world.

You may recognise it from previous posts!

No i wasn't flying, and i don't know the entire story! But it isn't something you see everyday! I know the pilot did a good job in the circumstance, professional and what engineering advised him to do.

Lots of Approaches

Well it seems to go with the job. You have some time off and you don't just gently get back into it, it's full on and without time even think, let alone eat! After the past two days i have been so tired and fatigued from the flying. It has been really average weather in the top end since i got back, not just the usual storms and 'wet season' weather, but just lots of low overcast cloud, rain and instrument approaches everywhere was the normal. I did 8 sectors on Friday and did 7 approaches, all RNAV and ILS's into Darwin. Yesterday i did 9 sectors and 5 approaches. I have to say though, doing an approach in bad weather is better than going to an aerodrome that has no approach, which i also had to do yesterday.

I was scheduled to fly to Pepperminarti, which is south of Darwin, about 200km. It's a sealed strip, but with no approach. My alternate was Darwin, as the weather was really average, however, my first option was to divert to Port Keats, which is 40km to the west, and i knew planes were landing there. As we arrived at the lowest safe of 2300ft, it was solid cloud and rain. I decided to fly overhead the field and see what would happen. Magically, the sun sorta broke through the cloud so i continued on track another 3miles and found an opening in the cloud. I was able to do some spiral descending in the gap and get below some of the low cloud. At roughly 500ft above the ground, i was able to see the runway and managed to get in. Within about 5 minutes of landing the weather that i had just flown through hit the aerodrome. Was weird to think that i wouldn't have gotten in if i'd been 5 minutes late departing, but i guess that's the way it works in this business. It is a good feeling to get into a place like that, but it's also not the safest method, and with this weather, flying piston twins, it's no wonder that our minimums to fly them is as high as most of the airlines. Having said all this, the minimums doing an instrument approach is often more stressful as you are not visual, you are hand flying the plane, scanning, and also referring to the chart on your lap. Not the greatest situation, but definately an 'enjoyable' challenge. I say enjoyable, as there is a feeling of accomplishment when you do well executed approach in poor conditions.

So i will say i'm a master of doing the ILS into Darwin. Done a lot of them in the past two days. Descend from 3000ft at Howard Springs NDB, 257, on track 286. Final approach fix at the outer marker at 1380. Good times! Its good finally doing a lot of the RPT flying in this weather, i guess it forces you to fly to a higher standard. I have to say, if im flying these approaches and in this weather, it's also nice to be in the 404. There is one part of the 404 i don't like however, and that is company policy to leave the pitch and mixtures in their approach setting for landing. It is really bad for the geared engines to put them into fine pitch, and put the taps back on full, and so when a go-around needs to happen, it feels unnatural. I don't know if it's just for me, but a few of the boys had to do go arounds the past few days and all of them said it was a bit foreign for them. And it definately is an extra few seconds of thinking while you go through the procedure, as opposed to just power up, gear up, flap up.

Anyway, i would have loved to show you photos of wings and the grey background, but photos like that are uninteresting really, unless you were there. Plus my camera is still somewhere i have yet to find! It will show up i'm pretty sure.

All the best and thanks for reading.

Happy New Year

To all the readers of the blog, apologies for the lack of posting recently! I have been enjoying a very well deserved and needed 2 weeks holiday back home in Sydney. Been amazing weather, and great to see my family and friends for a proper catch up. It's quite hard for me to get leave approved (i guess it's the nature of the business) and i think since August 2009, i have had a total of 3 weeks off! So as far as i'm concerned, very well deserved. Although back to the slog come Tuesday.

So anyway, to keep it short and simple, wishing you all a happy new year and hope everyone had a great Christmas and hopefully a little time off!

I'll be sure to post more in the next few weeks as i kick back into work mode!