Well, here is a discussion i have wanted to have on this blog, but haven't really had the time to write it. I have been very busy with external studying (hopefully good news in the future), going to Europe for 4 weeks on Monday, and finally will be heading to fly the Q400 after July, with a successful bid!

But there have been to times recently where i have basically thought, that some of the flying has been above my skillset. It was brought to my attention by a good friend who flies 737's for a NZ based company, and he said on approach into Wellington he watched a captain land the plane and said he said he wasn't sure if he could actually do it himself.

I was flying the other day coming into Sydney with the wind 180/25 gusting 45 knots. It was a pretty average day due the wind, and the plane was getting absolutely bucketed around the sky. There was overshoot, and undershoot windshear and required a lot of input to keep the plane on track and stable. It was borderline unstable as we continued, and i almost.. almost called "going around." I don't think that has ever crossed my mind flying once, but it was just so over the shop.

Stable approach policy is big in the airlines, below 1000ft gear down, flaps to landing position, flying to Vref +20 on the airspeed, on the PAPI, to touch down on the touchdown zones of the runway. Any deviation of this, and its company policy to perform a go-around.

Anyway, I got on the ground and had the captain looked at me and said "i've never wanted to call 'going around,' but it was close on that one - you earned your money today." I think it was a compliment. The cabin crew told me that they haven't had such a bumpy approach (although - smooth touchdown!) It was something that when i got to the gate, and when the adrenaline finished, it was weird to reflect on. Should i have done a go-around? Was that something that was unsafe? Was it above my ability for that landing? It was obviously a successful outcome, but it made me think.

I had another experience coming into Lord Howe Island, where the captain did basically a phenomenal job in manipulation, and landing in extreme wind and turbulence.. I was gobsmacked because i, although i wasn't in control, i'm not sure whether i could have done the same job, that he did. Granted there are probably 10 - 20 years of experience he has over me, but credit where credit is due!

It was just a few instances that have popped up in my flying career, that no matter how well you know a plane, and an operation, there are always new challenges and experiences that keep you on your toes, and keep learning from.

Lord Howe Overnight

Planes break! Sometimes its horrible, other times, not so bad! This one was pretty good. In fact i wasn't on the broken plane, but rather there were 2 planes inbound to Lord Howe Island and the other first officer was on a 6th day working and had to get back to Sydney due to flight and duty limitations. So one might say, i took one for the team.

The reason was due to a faulty air cycle machine which meant we were grounded. So off to the surf store to change clothes and get into island spirit. Boardshorts, tshirt and thongs. We went to the beach and enjoyed a bit of relaxation and beers with the captain and flight attendant. 

Lord Howe which i have already spoken about is around 800km from Sydney, and takes us about 100 minutes to fly there in the Dash 8 -200. The strip is notoriously challenging and its a captains only landing, flap 35 degrees. The wind is usually all over the shop, strong turbulence and only 1008 meters of tarmac to use.

Lord Howe has around 350 permanent residents and only a total of 400 tourists allowed at one time. Its the only place in Australia where it's legal to not wear a seatbelt while driving. Speed limit is 25km/h. There were no locks on any doors, no mobile phone reception and not a whole lot of internet either.

Sunset from "Ned's Beach." They do fish feeding at low tide, and it was common to see big kingfish around 50cm in length in the waves. As well as the odd reef shark who really swam close to me while i was in the water. Pretty amazing really.

A view of the of the eastern side of the island.

View of Mount Gower. I think that is the highest point on the island. It was usually in cloud!

Overview of the airport, from a sand dune.

Well it was a good few days, and a new experience! Really enjoyed my few days there. And it got me out of another overnight tonight, so it was win win!

Well i have been super busy with other things happening, so i haven't had a lot of time to blog recently, but fingers crossed, there are some new stories on the horizon!

Anyway, here are some photos of the Dash close up this morning now that daylight savings finished. Instead we now land at night and take off in the light, so i don't feel as tired getting up now on the overnights!

It is company procedure to check the engine intakes first flight of the day. I have seen a big crack on the inside before. That plane was grounded naturally.

After checking the intakes i check the spinner and the blades.

2,300 SHP.. not nearly enough :p

Sorry its been a while since posting, i have not had internet for quite some time. Although i finally have it back so i can start posting again.

I will update more later, thanks for checking in.

More storms.. I found some weather radar images of some of the storms i have been speaking about from other peoples facebook. I have truely never had to fly near and around so much bad weather!

Back at min speed to make the arrival back into Sydney. What you see is just the intense areas of rain that were being returned. Surprisingly our run back was not too bad, paralleling most of the bad weather. Anyway, just thought i would share.

Lord Howe Island

436nm offshore is a Dash-8 is a long way to travel, especially in bad weather. Well, bad weather on the arrival, which is pretty normal for Lord Howe Island. We needed a mainland alternate for this particular flight. That's a fair bit of fuel tankering, plus working out a point of safe diversion that will cater for us to reach the island and then be able to fly back at 10,000ft depressurized, as that is the worst case scenario.

Anyway, all the flight planning hassles aside, and the distance, and the numerous different things that can go wrong, i did my first flight out to the 'rock.' The captain always flies out and lands and they need to be specially qualified and do simulator training for the privilege. Lord Howe has a small runway, only 1006 meters in length. It's one of the few places where the 3 different wind socks will show 3 different directions of wind of 3 different strengths. It was quite bizarre to witness. I was there on a very low cloud ceiling day, but we were able to get visual below a large gap as we approached. I'm told that the flight out is usually 2 hours of boredom with 30 seconds of sheer terror on the approach. Well it was pretty amazing for the first time. It's such a small runway and there is no margin for error.

Overall a good experience, which i had tried to not do for a while, but i'm happy i did it. It was good to do something different for a change! 

Sunsets, storms and other.

I have done some interesting flying recently, including some Melbourne to Sydney ferry flights, which was fun flying the dash and near empty weights. There was a lot of weather on the way as well, and since we were empty we decided diverting 100nm to get around it wasn't as important. Plus, it was Friday afternoon!

We managed to weave around the worst of it at 23000ft, but it was still a fairly bumpy ride which involved being pushed up and down around 500ft and a lot of ice accumulation on the airframe. We had our crew dinners on the front seat of the plane, which were loaded there before we closed the door. Neither of us elected to eat it, mainly due to it being around 5PM, and we both had a much nicer dinner waiting at home. Im pretty sure they ended up somewhere on the floor, but we both actually forgot to check what happened to them through the bumps. Did i mention it was Friday afternoon?

Anyhoo, we got through around 80nm of solid muck and bumps, into the most random smooth and clear evening into Sydney i had seen in a while, so there was no excuse for a bad landing, which i'm pretty sure, wasn't one of my best. But i blame the captain, he put the pressure on :)

Nothing like jet envy! That was a 767 from Melbourne to Sydney. We saw about 3 other jets overtake us. Gotta love turboprops!!

Crew meals. Not sure what happened to them!

The engine from i think row 3?

Getting a beverage from the galley down the back. They had no water on board weirdly, so the order was 2 coke zero's.

The storms and weather that lay ahead. Didn't look to bad or as big from this point, but it made the next 80nm go quite quick.