SUMMER 2009!

Plane Talking SCOTTISH AERO CLUB / STRATHTAY STRUT (PFA) Visit our web sites at www.scottishaeroclub.org.uk & www.perthmet.net Scottish Aero Club Committee Chairman Roger Young 01764 679086 Newsletter Editor Elizabeth Gatland e-mail ryoung44@hotmail.com Please send copy 01738 633844 Secretary Ian Ferguson 07138 827916 and articles to Treasurer Bill Davis this address : ewein2412@yahoo.co.uk John Moat Marcus Dalgetty Alistair Grant Keith Boardman Strathtay Strut Coordinator Keith Boardman Iain Waddell Scottish Aero Club Ops Desk 01738 554850 Elizabeth Gatland Perth Airport 2000 Radio Room 01738 551631 Bill MacPherson SAC Microlight Division and Alpine Vol 01738 550044 Contents 1 Night Flying at Perth 2 Chairmans Corner 3 Hangar and Clubroom Security 4 Meet the SAC Committee 5 Flying in Brazil 6 Any Port in a Storm 7 A Prize-Winning Trip? 8 Sky Watch at Work 9 How to Look After a Russian Aeroplane 10 Forthcoming Events 11 Safety Corner 12 Past Events 13 Other Items 14 SAC Noticeboard 15 2005 Events Calendar 1. Night Flying at Perth 12-14 and 25-27 November 2005 If you are interested in stretching your abilities as a pilot, why not try some night ying? Dont be afraid of the darkcome and join forces with the Dark Side! A night rating takes ve hours (three dual and two solo with at least ve take-os and landings). There is no exam or test ight neces- sary. A night rating is essential if you are planning to get a commercial licence, and a real benet to anyone who nds it a challenge trying to squeeze their winter ying into seven hours of daylight. In the US, a night rating is included as a requirement in the basic PPL! Night ying at Perth has been arranged for the evenings of 12, 13 and 14 November 2005 (Satur- day, Sunday and Monday), as well as 25, 26, and 27 November 2005. Open to all, so those of you who already have night ratings can get some ying in, the aireld will be licensed from 17:00 onward as night starts at around 16:40 Zulu during the rst three scheduled days and 16:20 Zulu the next. We will also notify other clubs and encourage them to y-in and join us. Well make a rm call at 16:00 each day, based on the latest weather, as to whether or not well go ahead with the evenings ying. Luke Cassar and Jeremy Hawksworth will be avail- able for those needing instruction. Anyone inter- ested should give us a call on the desk ASAP as weve already got two students lined up. If theres a good turn-out for these dates we may organize more night-ying events this winter. Hope to see you there! 2. Chairmans Corner Advocacy in Aviation One of the things your Committee works at is try- ing to represent your interests to the various au- thorities who aect our aviating lives. Sometimes its local authorities or the two community coun- cils bordering the aireld. At other times it can be October 2005 Volume 60 2 EASA (the European Aviation Safety Agency), the CAA, air trac authorities or Scottish airelds. If you read the magazines youll know that the CAA has created a furore recently with its initial propos- als for revisions (i.e. increases) to its charges for pilot, aircraft and aireld licensingand you know whos going to pay all those bills! Belatedly, theyve also set in reviews of their strategy for General Aviation and their regulation of it. You might have thought that consideration of changes to charging would come af- ter these two reviews, but so far thats not the plan! In GAs lobbying of EASA and the CAA the lead is usually taken by AOPA*, the BMAA** and the PFA*** working in concert with the gliding and para- chuting fraternities, and we support them by submit- ting our own papers. It is these organizations that do the hard work face-to-face with the regulatory au- thorities, and it is they who are in the best position to see the big picture and advance our interests, because they are dealing with the relevant people frequently over a range of issues. (Details of these organizations are supplied below.) Make no mistake, there is a big upheaval going on following the creation of EASA and its swallowing of many of the CAAs responsibilities. This is an op- portunity for GA as well as a potential threat, so its really important for us to support our representatives if we dont want our ying freedoms to be damaged and our costs increased. Our representatives have the expertise to do the job well, but they need the money to employ good people and send them to the endless meetings all over Eu- rope. We would individually be very short-sighted if we did not ensure that they have the resources they need. The best way YOU can support them is to be a member of one of the organizations noted be- lowyou dont need to own an aircraft or even be a pilot to be welcomed by them. If youre not already a member of one of them, Id urge you to join now (details on their Web sites). You might later regret not doing so. Meanwhile your Committee will keep beavering away on your behalf, bombarding the au- thorities with our views. *AOPA: Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, www.aopa.co.uk **BMAA: British Microlight Aircraft Association, www.bmaa.org ***PFA: Popular Flying Association, www.pfa.org.uk Winter Social Programme Elsewhere in this newsletter are details of our Winter Social Programme, which I hope you will be able to enjoy. Our rst event, Keith Board- mans tale of his trip with Peter Bevan over all the distilleries in Scotland, will be on Wednesday 26 October 2005 at 7.00 p.m. in the Clubrooms. If there are additional activities or topics youd like to see us incorporate, do please let me or another Committee member know. Further, after Christ- mas well be starting to plan the 2006 Summer Programme, so lets have your input to that too. Congratulations And nally huge congratulations to our member Paul Keegan and all his team at Oban Airport for AGAIN winning the Flyer Magazine Aireld of the Year Award. They do a superb job and the award is richly deserved. Roger 3. Security of the Hangar & Club- rooms This is a constant concern for us all. We try to have easy access for members, but need to ensure that our premises and our precious aeroplanes are safe. Twice in the last month Morris Leslies security men have found the back door of our hangar un- locked and open after dark, allowing any passing vandal to enter and make mayhem. The Club carries no responsibility or insurance for the machines and equipment in the hangarthats the owners responsibilityso PLEASE EN- SURE THAT THE FRONT DOORS AND THE INNER & OUTER BACK DOORS ARE LOCKED WHEN YOU LEAVE, OR THAT SOMEONE ELSE LATER THAN YOU KNOWS HE HAS TO LOCK THEM. If you are in any doubt as to whether youre the last one out, please go and shout round the hangar and Clubrooms and leave only when youre satised that another person has taken responsibility for making the place secure. Thanks! And while were on security, the Clubroom alarm system has been re-commissioned. First person in and last one out needs to disarm or arm it, using a code number. If you dont know how to do that, please get a brieng from the team at the front desk. 3 4. Meet the SAC Committee Bill MacPherson NPPL (55 hours and counting.) Jon (left) and Bill (right) on a ight over Crail Isnt marriage expensive? At this point I should say that Ive always dreamed of ying, but growing up in the Highlands meant that ying was something other people did. Un- fortunately I didnt know any of these other people. So until I moved south my only ight experience was an Air New Zealand ight at which point I was ve months old and screamed for about 3000 miles, a Dan-Air ight from Dalcross to Heath- row with an overnight stop in Terminal 2 (and I mean in Terminal 2 courtesy of the aforemen- tioned airline being unable to nd Dalcrossfog apparently). My move south to Edinburgh eventually found me getting marriedthese things have a tendency to happen. (Though I did one or two other things rst including, somewhat ironically, some ow measurements in jet engines!) As many a single pilot will conrm, matrimonial bliss and hours on type are not always complementary. Just as well I am not your childhood dreamer who always wanted to y. Marriage is expensive you say? I kind of got into ying by accident: For our rst wedding anniversary (paper) I purchased a one- hour gift voucher for Wendy. Shed been in the University Air Squadron and kept on talking about itright, thisll keep her quiet or so I thought. However, soon she was taking regular lessons and disappearing each weekend, and fed up of making my own lunch at weekends I went along. I still had to make my own lunch, but after a trial ight I was hooked, and the rest, as they say, is how I got into ying. Well, we both learnt to y with Luke Cassar at Perth, and now that Ive got my NPPL the skys the limit, nally I can see whats on the other side of Stanley Captain Cassar and Bill during training over Fife Ive had the pleasure of ying into Oban. Soared over snow-covered Glencoe. Chatted to Edin- burgh to arrange a ight over the Forth Bridges and had some excellent trips into the mountains. Now I really want to explore a bit more of the West Coast from the air! As a non-aircraft-owner we still hire from the Perth eet, and the chance to serve on the Com- mittee has given me an opportunity to represent new (N)PPLs and non-owners. I have to admit I hadnt realised just how much goes on behind the scenes to keep the Club going. As a new pilot Im only starting to appreciate the benet of talking to (and ying with) more experienced pilots, and as such want to encourage our newer pilots and pi- lots-to-be to participate in our ying programme; especially if anyone wants to share a hire So come and make use of the Clubrooms, come along to the winter events, and I hope to see you ying with us in the near future. Marriage expensive? Ive stopped counting, espe- cially since theres an additional MacPherson on the way. Still, at least we dont need to budget for my rst plane for a while yet. May you have as many landings as departures. Cheers, Bill Since this article was submitted, the MacPhersons have had their lives complicated and enlivened by the ar- 4 rival of little Emma MacPherson, just after midnight on 2 October 2005. Though at 9 lb 4 oz, not so little! Congratulations, Bill and Wendy! 5. Flying in Brazil by Barry Hunter Would you like to go to Brazil to work? my com- pany asked. A millisecond or so later I said yes. Well, G-MCMS was away for repairs and the Scottish football season had started, so it was time to head south. I tried to nd out before I left what I would need to get my licence validated for Brazil, mainly on a forum on UKGA. There was lots of advice: some useful and some, how can I say this politely? Crap. The worst was one guy who had been dumped at a shopping centre by a taxi driver and started asking where he could hire an aeroplane. He concluded that there was no private ying in Brazil. Well, to nd out how wrong he was, read on I did some research on the Net and by picking up the obvious Portuguese words like aeroclube and voo (ying) I was cooking with gas! One morn- ing I jumped in a taxi with my map and o I went. Like most white-knuckle rides a Brazilian taxi ride is not to be missed. Forget Alton Towers or Disneyland: for sheer sensation and underwear- threatening fear you have to try a taxi out here. For the very, very brave it should be done early in the morning when red trac lights can be ignored! You think Im joking? Anyway, I survived the ride and got dropped at a little grass strip on the edge of one of Rios ul- tra-posh suburbs. The next problem was how to enter the gate system, but a security man showed me how to open the gate and press a button to get through the second gate. Then I had to explain what I wanted to a delightful lady who spoke no English. She solved this for me by calling for an instructor, Rocha, whose Eng- lish was excellent. He explained why he thought it would be easier to y microlights than Group A machinesmainly the dierence between a writ- ten test in Portuguese and a ying test. Flying I can cope with! OK so no worries there would I like a ight? It worked out at