The Aviators Thread

Flysatchmo

Last night flying up and down the US East coast ..check out the winds and GS going south then north. Luckily North was the last leg home

Jones in LA

This thread seems like a good place to share this: today I formally enrol in helicopter pilot training, with the objective of obtaining a Private Pilot License in the next 18-24 months. Why am I doing this? Simply because it's been a lifelong objective of mine -- to learn to fly Something. At age 64-1/2 I realize it's time to either sh*t or get off the pot.

Deciding What to learn to fly was not easy. Fixed wing? Glider? Rotorcraft? Long story short, it's Helicopter for me.


This shot is from my training intro flight a couple of weeks ago, taxiing back to the hangar at KBUR.

cvalue13

Really something.

For the non-pilots in the room, any color on why her route looks the way it does?

I’d suppose there must be some “rules” around what counts as “circumnavigating,” that I’d presume hinge on something like an average latitude (otherwise a quick spin around the north pole would count, wouldn’t it?). Perhaps instead it involves touching all the continents, which it appears she’s done?

Now, I get why she didn’t throw herself way out over a body of water, but there’s a lot of coast-hugging here, when the uninitiated like me would think she was not only avoiding large bodies of water but also large expanses of land?

Then despite all the coast-hugging, there’s a rather intentional looking avoidance of China?

What a truly remarkable chance to take!

DoctorEvil

I found this article which might be of interest. It has the FAI's rules for what constitutes global circumnavigation.
https://angusadventures.com/adventurer-handbook/about-global-circumnavigations/#:~:text=For a powered aircraft to,at the point of departure.

Twocats

There was a lot of planning went into this from the young lady which was probably equivalent to ten times the actual flight time.

There are a number of reasons she would have to avoid certain places such as:

1. Large areas of water being the biggest because at best you have 5 to 6 hours maximum fuel reserve in an ultralight at rather slow speeds. My best mate flys an ultralight replica Storch with a stall speed of 26 KTS so a good headwind has you at walking pace.
2. Big rocks sticking out of the ground commonly referred to as mountains must be flown around.
3. Not every Civil Aviation Authority accepts ultralight aircraft in their airspace for various reasons such as transponder, safety equipment (ballistic parachute), height restrictions, proximity to commercial airways and so on.
4. Flying over war zones, restricted airspace, unfriendly countries etc.
5. access to ultralight friendly airports as they are not always welcome everywhere.

There are pilot members here who can add to this list because I am sure there are many other reasons.

The route shew flew over Asia is impressive to say the least and she would have spent a lot of time looking at water below her.

DoctorEvil

Geez, 100+ knots wind speed? Wow! What altitude was this at?

MRC

Just watched the movie The Maggie a 1954 "Ealing Comedy" about an old coastal cargo boat in Scotland. It features several scenes with a De Havilland DH-89 Dragon Rapide. On the ground at engine start it sounds like the proper six cylinder DH Gipsy Major, but on several flybys it seems to have a couple of RR Merlins. I suppose that Mosquito flyby recordings were easier to get. The DH is a common sight and sound where I live, there are two operating sightseeing trips out of Duxford and they come my way rather than getting tangled up with the Stansted (EGSS) traffic.

Edit: in the script it cost "£16 per hour" to charter, wet including pilot. There's a bit of DC3 action too, and the American airline (not AA) executive has a model of a DH Comet on his desk.