Derek McAllan Posted April 3, 2013 Author Share Posted April 3, 2013 More Gliding Porn 'eh More like light titillation Mozz, was merely some thermalling practice. Really looking forward to being let off the leash and heading out cross country now Cheers, Derek Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maurice_King Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 Mate watching your vids I realise just how much I do miss my gliding , I just have not had any funds available, but I am seriously going to have to front up at Bunyan and check in with the Canberra club fellas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maurice_King Posted April 18, 2013 Share Posted April 18, 2013 Finally got a reply from the Support Team for Condor and installed but I need to add all the free scenery packs , you be on TS sometime soon ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek McAllan Posted April 18, 2013 Author Share Posted April 18, 2013 Finally got a reply from the Support Team for Condor and installed but I need to add all the free scenery packs , you be on TS sometime soon ? I got back into Perth yesterday mate, will tee something up with you. Cheers, Derek Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maurice_King Posted April 18, 2013 Share Posted April 18, 2013 Video issue at present Condor thinks my card is not DirextX3 capable Works on one monitor but across 3 of 'em nup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek McAllan Posted April 18, 2013 Author Share Posted April 18, 2013 Don't think Condor will do multi-monitor for the main display? You can use a second for instruments but I've not seen any multi-screen setups for the out-of-cockpit view. Being a DX7 program restricts it to a maximum display resolution of 2048x2048. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orbxtreme Posted April 18, 2013 Share Posted April 18, 2013 Just saw your video. Impressive performance. The landing was perfect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek McAllan Posted April 19, 2013 Author Share Posted April 19, 2013 Just saw your video. Impressive performance. The landing was perfect. Thanks François!! I was pretty stoked with that landing Cheers, Derek Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maurice_King Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 Don't think Condor will do multi-monitor for the main display? You can use a second for instruments but I've not seen any multi-screen setups for the out-of-cockpit view. Being a DX7 program restricts it to a maximum display resolution of 2048x2048. Your bloody joking It can't support a single monitor 5760 x 1080 Thats a bit poor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek McAllan Posted April 19, 2013 Author Share Posted April 19, 2013 Not joking unfortunately, it's old software now... and was built around DX7 which was getting on when Condor was released. High resolution display and multi-monitor support are probably amongst the most oft mentioned wishes for Condor v2.0 (and who knows when that will arrive...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek McAllan Posted May 20, 2013 Author Share Posted May 20, 2013 G'day all,  It's been a while since I dropped an update in here.  I've been very busy lately; both on the work front, and on the gliding front.  I've managed to get up to Cunderdin for 3 days over the past month or so.  The weather ha been generally pretty good - we're well and truly into our off season now, but autumn/winter in W.A. still has plenty of lovely days for flying.  Yesterday was a fine example, temperature was around 21°C after a brisk overnight low of 7°C at the airfield.  The temp trace in the morning suggested thermal tops at about 6,000' but probably pretty weak, so only usable to 4,000' or so.  It had rained pretty heavily on Saturday night, which would have reduced thermal activity as well.  Still, Cu's were popping at about 3,000' at 11am and they headed upwards from then on.  I had two firsts yesterday, both enjoyable.  The first was that this was the first non-blue day I've ever had since starting last year - I finally got a chance to soar around with Cu's as thermal indicators.  What an experience!  Flying around underneath the clouds is wonderful, although I was unprepared for how cold it would be in the cloud's shadow at cloudbase.  It was just a stunning day to be flying.  The other big first for me was that yesterday I graduated from the two seat trainer into my first single seater!  I've had enough gliding experience now to be let into a higher performance sailplane; and while the old ride I'm now flying is hardly a cutting edge competition glider, it certainly outperforms the faithful PW-6U I've learned in.   The Pilatus B4-PC11 is a 60's - 70's era all aluminium Standard class glider with a 15m wingspan, T-tail, and retractable gear.  It took a bit of work to get myself set up and comfortable in it, as even though it has quite a high canopy the seating position is quite upright and stuffing my 6'4" in there required a lot of playing around with seatback positions.  Flying in India Charlie had it's own quirks I had to get used to.  Being an older all metal glider, it makes a lot of noise while flying - the fibreglass PW-6 is very quiet apart from wind noise, while this glider creaks and groans with the shifting loads and stresses.  It is much lighter than the PW-6, which caught me off guard on the first groundroll - I was in the air well before I was used to, and had to manually work the glider back down to near the runway to allow the tug to get off the ground.  The controls are stiffer to operate and there is one annoying quirk - the trim is on the right hand side.  Most gliders are trimmed on the left, or on the stick, so you can keep your right hand on the stick.  To trim the Pilatus, I need to swap hands on the stick, then trim, then swap hands again.  This is also the first retractable gear glider I've flown since the IS-28 way back on my second lot of lessons last year - so I had to be very conscious of the after release and pre-landing checks to ensure I stowed and deployed the gear.  All of that said, flying the Pilatus was a dream, especially on such a beautiful day.  It trims well and thermals like a dream.  I shared thermals with other pilots in the PW-6 and a Super Ximango on a few occasions, and in every case I outclimbed them easily.  In fact, I got the highest climb of the day by a fair margin - 4,800' and cloudbase on a couple of climbs.  I took heaps of video and will cut together a brief mix soon.  Cheers, Derek Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TreeTops Posted May 20, 2013 Share Posted May 20, 2013 Nice work mate and thanks for the update. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skypilot Posted May 20, 2013 Share Posted May 20, 2013 Flying a single seat glider is like pissing your pants; you have a nice warm feeling between your legs and nobody else know what's going on!...........  Next things to look forward to is a 5 or more hour flight and getting to 10,000 feet (without oxygen) from a 2,000 ft launch......... Ah those were the days........ In  my day I had a bit of smoked foil on a barograph and good map reading to plot your position to call up the tug from an outlanding...... none of this electronic wizardry for high logging and position........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boetie Posted May 20, 2013 Share Posted May 20, 2013 Congratulations Derek. What an achievement - can't wait to see the GoPro vids! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek McAllan Posted May 20, 2013 Author Share Posted May 20, 2013 Quick screen capture from the video... a beautiful day for soaring, even out of season.     Flying a single seat glider is like pissing your pants; you have a nice warm feeling between your legs and nobody else know what's going on!........... Ha!  Diver's Delight...  Of course, pilot relief is no laughing matter  Thanks for the comments guys.  Derek Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moonman Posted May 24, 2013 Share Posted May 24, 2013 Quick screen capture from the video... a beautiful day for soaring, even out of season.     Ha!  Diver's Delight...  Of course, pilot relief is no laughing matter  Thanks for the comments guys.  Derek  WOW! Looking most fantastic Derek! Congratulations indeed! Thank You very much for sharing! Cheers, Christoph Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maurice_King Posted May 27, 2013 Share Posted May 27, 2013 Put some bloody pants on ya goose , or you is gunna know about it . I learned the hard way and 3hr 50 into a 5 hour jaunt my legs knew it but I was not giving up on my 5 hr flight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chandy Posted May 28, 2013 Share Posted May 28, 2013 Smooth as a Swan Lager on a hot day, mate! Â John G Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek McAllan Posted May 28, 2013 Author Share Posted May 28, 2013 Put some bloody pants on ya goose , or you is gunna know about it . I learned the hard way and 3hr 50 into a 5 hour jaunt my legs knew it but I was not giving up on my 5 hr flight. Ha! Â It's usually been too bloody hot to wear long pants in the cockpit, my legs are amply slathered in 30+ though. Â I should have worn long pants on that day though, as it got bloody cold under those Cu's! Â Cheers, Derek Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek McAllan Posted June 18, 2013 Author Share Posted June 18, 2013 A glorious winter day out at Cunderdin on Sunday...   Lots of little thermals around, but very weak... only enough to stay up in.  I was on duty as logkeeper so didn't get to spend much time airborne.  I did, however, manage to get signed off from my daily checkflights - I no longer have to do a checkflight with an instructor every time I visit the club.  I still have to do the compulsory annual checkflight, but the rest of my flying is up to me from now on.  Got a couple of circuits in the Pilatus and am much happier landing it now.  My next day out at the club should see me through my "B" certificate, then another 5 flights till I can get my "C" certificate, do my outlanding checks and head out cross country!  Cheers, Derek    Bonus pics...  Hot-air balloon up over Northam, just after sunrise.   Cloudstreets forming up to the NW of the airfield. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek McAllan Posted August 6, 2013 Author Share Posted August 6, 2013 Outlanding Endorsement... done!  Established on short final for a landing just past the fenceline.   It was a quiet day out at the club on Sunday, which was a shame because the weather was glorious.  No lift around, but still lovely weather for enjoying a bit of flying.  Anyway, the instructor for the day, Dave, suggested I take the opportunity to get some of my endorsements sorted out in preparation for heading out cross country in the next few months.  We jumped in the IS28 and towed out to the northwest off runway 32.  Once airborne, I handed the controls over to Dave as he quizzed me on what paddocks looked good or bad for landing and the reasons for my choices.  I had him move to an area that looked pretty good and then picked out a few individual paddocks to use.  As we descended, one paddock stood out from the others as being perfect for an outlanding - it was a bit over 10km from the airfield, appearing to be about 1200-1300m in length and was pasture rather than crop.  Running through the 5S's I decided this was the paddock to use: Size was good at over 1200m (can land in smaller fields, need a minimum of 600m for an aerotow retrieve) Slope was minimal with a very gentle grade from SE to a creek at the NW edge, the landing would be very slightly downhill but well within reason Surface was very good, solid if a little sandy; there were no harrowing marks, ditches or contour banks, and being a pasture there was no crop to worry about.  All the adjacent fields were cropped with wheat or canola. Stock - there were sheep in the paddock, but they were all clustered at the far western corner; with a NW breeze our approach would be from the east and the groundroll would only be 100m or so. Situation/SWER - there were no powerlines (SWER - single wire earth return - a major hazard to outlanding aircraft) and the wind was a gentle nor'westerly.  Approach would be over a low cropped field of canola, and the field to the south could be used in a pinch if it became necessary - it was cropped with wheat but the crop was very short. We took the opportunity to circle the field a couple of times to view it carefully while we used up our height, and when I was sure that I was happy with my choice Dave handed the controls over to me.  Regardless of the fact that it is an outlanding, you should always fly a full circuit, which is what I did.  Entering downwind a few hundred metres to the south and flying a fairly long downwind leg allowed me to check the slope once more - this time from a more depressed angle.  I can be hard to judge the slope accurately from overhead and at altitude.  A quick base leg and then onto final over the canola crop, the aiming point set was the fenceline.  The IS28 is a lovely glider to land, very stable and with good spoilers, she descended down the final approach on a very even profile at 55kts or so, clearing the fence by about 15' I flared gently and let the glider settle on the slight downhill slope.  The groundroll was a little rough - I've been spoiled by only ever launching and landing from a tarmac runway - but short enough and we came to a stop quickly.  Done!  My very first off-field landing!  Dave congratulated me and said that I'd performed flawlessly - all I had to do was manage the tow-out and he would sign me off for Outlandings.  The tug had been orbiting nearby waiting for us to land, as soon as we had inspected the field around us we called him in to land.  The tuggie, Jordan, was also doing his Paddock retrieval endorsement so Dave had to observe his actions as well - he flew a circuit, releasing the towrope 100m to our right then went around again for his approach.  Jordan nailed his paddock landing, a perfect 3-point touchdown in the Pawnee, then taxied back to us.  We hooked up the towrope and then began the hard slog of pushing the glider right back to the fenceline.  I'm glad I didn't have to do that on my own, nice as the IS28 is to fly it is bloody heavy to move around on the ground.  The paddock launch was easy, being a nice relatively good surface it wasn't significantly different from doing a wing-drag takeoff back at the airfield.  The cool air and slight downhill slope made for a rapid launch, and we were both airborne well before the halfway point of the paddock, followed by a very quick climb to 2,000' on track back to Cunderdin.  As we were flying the base leg onto 32, Dave told me he wanted me to make a spot landing.  Normally I would be using the start of the piano keys as my aiming point with a view to touching down on the runway number.  Dave wanted me to touch down on the first set of markings, the touchdown marks, 100m or so further on from the numbers.  Turning onto final I adjusted my aiming point accordingly and deployed enough spoiler to get us down.  Again, the approach was lovely and smooth and I'm happy to say that I managed to put the wheel down right between the start of the marks  Having managed an outlanding, a paddock retrieve and a perfect spot landing, Dave was happy to immediately endorse my logbook. Now there's only a couple more flights to go before I can sit my "C" certificate and get signed off for cross country flight!  Will be just in time for the soaring season and the start of our club competitions, so I'm going to have a fairly brutal introduction to cross country task flying...  The paddock I chose for outlanding, 10km to the NW of the airfield.  Cheers, thanks for following along! Derek Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockliffe Posted August 6, 2013 Share Posted August 6, 2013 Nice one Derek. Cross country flying...mmmm. I'm jealous! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maurice_King Posted August 6, 2013 Share Posted August 6, 2013 Welcome to the world of REAL flying son Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SimJET Posted August 7, 2013 Share Posted August 7, 2013 The first of many well done!...... All I can say is make sure the washing is on the line when you fly over the farm house, making sure people still live on the property. I made that mistake after 612klms landing out and no one home! Took me 2hrs to walk to the nearest road and another 3hrs for a car to come along, the day was 36 degrees out near Roma QLD! WATER, WATER and more WATER! Still haven't done my 1000k! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maurice_King Posted August 7, 2013 Share Posted August 7, 2013 Hey SimJET  I did an out-landing North East of Roma & North of Wallumbilla/Yuelba area and the same deal walked for ages before I got a lift back to Tarwan Club to get the trailer , bloody near 1 AM before we had the Astir in the trailer and headed back.  What club did you belong to ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek McAllan Posted August 7, 2013 Author Share Posted August 7, 2013 Thanks guys, and great advice too!  I've had it drilled into my head to practice everything I do when flying as if I was flying cross country; so I've always got the parachute on, maps in the cockpit, a few litres of water in the camelbak, some snacks and the outlanding kit onboard when flying - even if it's just local soaring.  I'll have a video up in the next couple of days  Cheers, Derek Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek McAllan Posted August 8, 2013 Author Share Posted August 8, 2013 Video is up! Â >https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOm6Z2WGK9I Â Â Cheers, Derek Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SimJET Posted August 10, 2013 Share Posted August 10, 2013 I had my Nimbus at DDSC for a few years before I sold it. At Kingaroy now......well very rarely these days! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek McAllan Posted August 10, 2013 Author Share Posted August 10, 2013 I had my first ever glider flight many moons ago at Kingaroy! Â Cheers, Derek Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek McAllan Posted September 9, 2013 Author Share Posted September 9, 2013 New ride! Â Â Had my first couple of flights in this slick little glider yesterday. Â It's a Jantar Standard2, one of two owned by the club, and is a late 70's to early 80's design from Poland. Â It's fibreglass and built for the Standard category, and handles a lot more responsively than the old ali Pilatus I've been flying around. Â This is what I'll be flying when I head out cross country and in any competition I'm silly enough to enter, for the foreseeable future (unless someone wants to donate me a sailplane? No?? Awww.) Â It's a slick little number, but took me a bit to get used to with the severely prone seating position (you're pretty much lying down in it) and the much improved glide ratio. Â The thing just wanted to stay up, and you need to be careful on the flare to make sure you don' end up floating down the runway. Â Lots of fun to fly, I'm looking forward to spending more time in it. Â As a bonus, I also did my first flight from the rear seat of the PW-6 trainer in the lead-up to getting my rear seat endorsement, and then my passenger rating - so I look forward to being able to take my girls and the odd friend up for a bit of a fly around. Â Cheers, Derek Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maurice_King Posted September 9, 2013 Share Posted September 9, 2013 If I had the Dough I'd have a Jantar tomorrow PIC20 be nicer but I aint greedy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek McAllan Posted September 9, 2013 Author Share Posted September 9, 2013 If I had the Dough I'd have a Jantar tomorrow PIC20 be nicer but I aint greedy. Â There's quite a few of both on the market... I've had my eye on a Jantar2 for a while now - there's 2 for sale locally for around $17k each. Â A Jantar3 would be better though! Â The biggest hurdle for me is finding a cockpit that I actually fit in. Â At 6'4" its a close thing in the Jantar or in the Pilatus, I don't think I'd get into a Mosquito or an Astir... an old ASW-20 would be the ticket, though I've noted quite a few Lak-12's popping up that would be nice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maurice_King Posted September 10, 2013 Share Posted September 10, 2013 Yeah no way you'd get into an Astir or Mozzie  comfortably,  Jantar is about one of the longest cockpit's other than a Numbus or similar.  $17 K mmm interesting reg and insurance would kill me though, but I just might research this a bit more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek McAllan Posted October 8, 2013 Author Share Posted October 8, 2013 So, I've passed a couple of milestones in the past few weeks   In the background of all this flying, I passed one year of membership at the club.  Over the past couple of months I've been working on my Daily Inspector's endorsement, which is required to be able to carry out a DI on a glider (well, duh!)  I went up to the club on the last weekend of September... we had our club Oktoberfest on the Saturday night and I had some flying planned for Sunday.  Given that the weather was pretty awful, and we all had fuzzy heads from too much schnapps, no serious soaring got done.  That's not to say that I didn't do any flying or wasted my time up there though...  Getting up early and filling up on hot coffee, I headed out to the hangar to meet one of our Airworthiness officers.  He was all set up to give me my exam for the DI endorsement.  After a bunch of theory questions, about the process of inspection, what types of faults to be looking for, and what actions to take - he asked me to perform a DI on a glider that he had "booby-trapped" for me.  It was the PW-6U that I did the bulk of my training in, so I was already familiar with it and he knew so.  Some of the faults were easily detected - such as the wrong logbook being in the cockpit, the harness that was incorrectly threaded, or the pitot pressure line not being attached to the airspeed indicator.  Others were more subtle, like the tiny screwdriver that was tucked away under the rudder pedal mechanism where it could jam the controls, or the partially connected aileron linkage behind the cockpit.  One was downright evil - I'm happy to say that I picked it even though he fully expected me to miss it on my first go and have to do the exam again.  the PW-6 has a sprung retention clip on the pin that secures the elevator pushrod to the elevator horn, the clip was just out of safety and the pin slightly out... not enough to be obvious, but enough to potentially work loose.  I think I'm lucky that another instructor had shown me just that potential problem once before and I was checking for it.  So, I passed my exam and got my endorsement!  One down.  After the morning briefing, once it was clear that the weather was going to be pretty ordinary, the day's instructor, Dave, asked me if I'd like to take the opportunity to knock off another couple of important checks - my rear-seat endorsement and my FAI "A", "B" and "C" Certificate exams.  I've been able to do my "A" and "B" for ages but have been putting it off, and passed the flight requirements for the "C" exam a few weeks back when I did my outlanding checkflight.  The "C" certificate is the important one, as it allows a pilot to head out cross country out of straight gliding distance of the airfield, and also as an aside lets you carry guest passengers.  The rear seat endorsement is also necessary here, as typically the pilot will occupy the back seat with the passenger in front for the better view, as long as weight and balance requirements are met.  This endorsement was simple, I'd done one hour long soaring flight in the rear seat with an instructor a couple of weeks prior, and Dave merely wanted to do a couple of circuits with me to ensure I had everything down pat.  This proved easy, and I had no issues with flying from the back even with the reduced visibility.  With this out of the way, I headed up for a flight in the Jantar for some circuit practice in the gusty weather.  Sitting the exams, once the relevant checkflights have been done (recognising and preventing spins, recovery from incipient and fully developed spins, accurate circuits with the altimeter covered, etc) is a simple matter of doing verbal Q&A with a suitably qualified instructor.  Dave ran me through mine, the topics ranged from Glider Theory and Flight Rules, to Airworthiness and Soaring Meteorology, with quite a few questions on Airmanship thrown in.  Most of this has been drummed into your head by this stage of the game, so even with little preparation I managed to get almost all of the questions right.  In the end, Dave was happy to sign me off and endorse my application to the GFA for the ABC Certificates!  He also provided me with a briefing on carrying passengers, and endorsed me for that as well  So... as soon as my girls heard that I was allowed to take passengers up with me, what do you think happened next?  A week of nagging!  Luckily, I was heading back up to the club this weekend just past, and much to their excitement my wife decided to let them accompany me.  So, here's the next generation of gliding pilots...  This is my younger girl, Heather, who turns 10 in a few days.  She was absolutely adamant that she would be first off the round with me.  Unfortunately, she weighs stuff all, more than 10kg below the minimum weight for the front seat (yes, gliders have minimum as well as maximum pilot weights...) and consequently had to take a ride in the rear seat with a large firm cushion to prop her up.  She didn't have much view forwards, but the PW-6 has great visibility out the sides from the rear seat.  She thoroughly enjoyed it, we managed to thermal up to cloudbase at 5,800' and tour around the local area before heading back down.  She also got to see another glider from one of the other clubs up flying, we passed and waved at 5,000' as he continued on his task for the day.   And here's Madeline, who is just over 13.  Luckily, she just made the 45kg front seat cut off, but even so I stuck 7kg of lead ballast in with her to make sure we didn't have a CG too far back.  The thermals were a bit better when she came up and we got up to 6,500' with an hour of flying.  Both girls were great passengers, asking lots of questions and taking lots of photos.  I look forward to taking them flying a lot more, and both have expressed interest in taking lessons when the time comes.  Anyway, it's been a long post, hope you liked it!  Cheers, Derek Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul K Posted October 8, 2013 Share Posted October 8, 2013 Excellent video, Derek, and great photos of the 'passengers' enjoying it all. Lovely stuff ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew 737 Posted October 8, 2013 Share Posted October 8, 2013 That is fantastic - I appologise for not seeing this before! I must have had my head up my ****!!! Awesome vids Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJ Posted October 8, 2013 Share Posted October 8, 2013 I'm only viewing this today. Indeed everything is lovely. Nice to see a happy family enjoying her father's hobby.Thanks for sharing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TreeTops Posted October 9, 2013 Share Posted October 9, 2013 Great read mate. Well done on your tickets. The pics look awesome. Love the second one with the strip and salt lake in view. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockliffe Posted October 9, 2013 Share Posted October 9, 2013 Great pics of your daughters enjoying the labours of your dedication Derek, nice one... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek McAllan Posted October 10, 2013 Author Share Posted October 10, 2013 Thanks for the kind comments folks   Great read mate. Well done on your tickets. The pics look awesome. Love the second one with the strip and salt lake in view. Cheers Trev, for those following at home that's looking down runway 05 at YCUN, and the chain of salt lakes is the Mortlock River.  Take a flight around there if you have Jarrad's excellent Cunderdin addon and you'll see what a fantastic job he did!  Cheers, Derek Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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