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Transcript

Is General Aviation getting less sociable? · Flyer Magazine

0:02
SPEAKER_06: Three, two, one.
0:04
SPEAKER_06: Hello, and welcome to this week's live stream from our studios at Wadswick.
0:08
SPEAKER_06: Today we'll be asking: is flying becoming less sociable?
0:11
SPEAKER_05: We'll be hearing why the turbine wheels literally came off Mike Patey's engine.
0:15
SPEAKER_04: And flying UK, uh, pilot training and air ability are about to bring opportunities for disabled flying to Cold Wall.
0:22
SPEAKER_06: But first, a big thank you to our sponsor, Sky Demon.
0:25
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0:27
SPEAKER_06: And here is your tip this week.
0:33
SPEAKER_01: Hi, I'm Hannah from Sky Demon, and this is this week's top tip.
0:38
SPEAKER_00: Once you've planned your route, you can create a briefing pack from the route menu.
0:42
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0:48
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0:54
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1:01
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1:09
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1:17
SPEAKER_04: So I assume this is going to be a better briefing pack than comes from Nat's.
1:21
SPEAKER_06: Funny enough, the Nat's website doesn't seem to offer that kind of briefing pack.
1:25
SPEAKER_06: Um, and this briefing pack is full and comprehensive, so it's a pretty good thing to do.
1:30
SPEAKER_05: Uh so obviously uh we're all interested what the weather's gonna be like this weekend because it's the LAA rally coming up.
1:36
SPEAKER_05: Let's check out what Simon's got for us.
1:39
SPEAKER_03: Hi everyone, Simon Keeling here with your flying weather outlook for the weekend ahead, brought to you exclusively by Fly in association with Weather School at CodicUK.
1:48
SPEAKER_03: Thanks again for watching as we look at the forecast uh issued on Thursday, 28th of August.
1:55
SPEAKER_03: And things look unsettled through the weekend.
1:58
SPEAKER_03: Saturday is a bit of a write-off.
2:00
SPEAKER_03: Um, got a deep area of low pressure that's developing, bringing rain and bringing gales quite widely uh across the country.
2:07
SPEAKER_03: Best of the flying is gonna be on Sunday.
2:10
SPEAKER_03: That's when the better windows will be still quite breezy, and then we stay unsettled into next week, but there will be some flying windows to be found.
2:18
SPEAKER_03: On to Friday, low pressure is to the west of Scotland again on Friday.
2:24
SPEAKER_03: It's a really messy situation.
2:26
SPEAKER_03: I think what we can have to say is northern and western Scotland, the far north of Ireland, probably non-VFR to marginal VFR, with Cunim clouds uh around and the embedded Cunim and the showers merging to longer spells of rain at times.
2:40
SPEAKER_03: Elsewhere, I'm gonna say flyable to non-VFR in the showers, which could be quite heavy, tending to fade from the west later on.
2:49
SPEAKER_03: Typical base is 3,000 feet, tops at 20 to 25,000 feet.
2:55
SPEAKER_03: But like I say, they will probably lift a little from the west later on in the day, but just to count for it being a very showery day.
3:05
SPEAKER_03: Heavy showers affecting the southwestern parts of England as well, and the risk of some uh thunderstorms at times in the heavier showers.
3:13
SPEAKER_03: Now, for Saturday, there is that area of low pressure centred towards the northwest of Northern Ireland at midday on Saturday, tracking eastwards, this rain pushing east, bringing uh strong winds with it, gales, gusts of 40, maybe even 50 knots over western coast and hills.
3:30
SPEAKER_03: The east of England, eastern Scotland could actually start the day okay.
3:35
SPEAKER_03: 4,000 foot bases, 10,000 foot tops, but the cloud base lowering, the cloud top increasing as that rain arrives, and then we're into less than a thousand foot bases with 15 to 20,000 foot tops as the rain moves east, severe gales, those affecting mostly southern Ireland, Wales, and southwest England, and tracking eastwards during the course of the day should say as well northern Scotland may be okay through the morning.
4:04
SPEAKER_03: But generally a bit of a write-off for Saturday.
4:06
SPEAKER_03: Sunday sea is the area of low pressure to the north of Scotland, heavy showers, northern and western Scotland, northwest England, northern and western parts of Ireland.
4:15
SPEAKER_03: Um, here probably none to marginal VFR at best.
4:19
SPEAKER_03: Cunim's again 3,000 foot bases, topped at around 20,000 feet.
4:25
SPEAKER_03: Other areas generally okay, pretty windy across Scotland, summer showers affecting western parts of England, two to four thousand foot bases, 15,000 foot tops.
4:37
SPEAKER_03: Uh, late on this system moving in, which will kill off the showers for a while, but then rain tracks east through southern England into Monday morning.
4:46
SPEAKER_03: Don't forget to go to weatherschool.co.uk or you can use the uh QR code that you see to book your place at Aviation Weather School Part 1 starting next Tuesday.
4:57
SPEAKER_03: What a fantastic thing to do.
4:59
SPEAKER_03: It's the it's the perfect time to be learning because we've got this unsettled weather around.
5:04
SPEAKER_03: So while you're flying less, now's the time to get up to speed with weather.
5:09
SPEAKER_03: Okay, uh, I'll leave you with that for now.
5:11
SPEAKER_03: Whatever you do, have a great, have a safe flying weekend.
5:13
SPEAKER_03: Thanks again for watching.
5:14
SPEAKER_03: Keep the sun shining, and bye for now.
5:17
SPEAKER_05: Well, that looks a bit changeable, doesn't it?
5:19
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it's um it's gonna be one of those take it day by day things, I think.
5:23
SPEAKER_05: But I think we've left it too late to order some corporate umbrellas, I think so.
5:29
SPEAKER_06: Okay, time for some news then.
5:31
SPEAKER_06: Dave.
5:32
SPEAKER_04: Right.
5:33
SPEAKER_04: Well, top story is about fly NQY, which I think is fly pronounced fly new key, but it could be flinky.
5:39
SPEAKER_04: Uh but fly fly NQY pilot training and air ability are about to bring disabled flying opportunities to people in the southwest at Cornwall uh New Key Airport.
5:50
SPEAKER_04: That's the full title of the airport these days.
5:53
SPEAKER_04: Um, so airability brings people, disabled people, the opportunity to go flying in a number of ways.
5:59
SPEAKER_04: And if the opportunity at Cornwall New Key Airport is going to be the fourth place around the UK.
6:04
SPEAKER_04: Obviously, there's Blackbush, their base.
6:06
SPEAKER_04: There's also Lyd, and uh the other one is Taton Hill.
6:09
SPEAKER_04: Down at Fly NQY, they've been out fitting the aircraft with modifications to get people into the aircraft and been using it, learning how to use the hoist and some special flying controls, and the instructors have been undergoing specialist training.
6:23
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I mean I I think one of the things that airability prides itself on is it's never actually said no to anybody.
6:29
SPEAKER_06: It's always flown anybody who's want to fly.
6:31
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
6:32
SPEAKER_06: So wanted to fly, I should say.
6:34
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
6:34
SPEAKER_04: There were some pictures coming out of Flying UK, Fly NQY, um, and Airability, which show people who've been disabled people who've been flying with them, and uh yeah, they're so, so uplifted by it.
6:46
SPEAKER_06: Uh, some sad news.
6:47
SPEAKER_06: Uh, Icon A5 founder Kurt Hawkins X F-16 pilot and initial dynamo behind the whole Icon A5 thing, uh, lost his life in a wingsuit accident in Switzerland last week.
6:59
SPEAKER_06: Uh not the kind of thing you can get wrong, sadly.
7:02
SPEAKER_04: No, no.
7:03
SPEAKER_04: I mean, I've met Coyle Corkins uh quite a few times, right the very first launch of um the A5 at Oshkosh in 2008, and he was a force of nature.
7:13
SPEAKER_04: He great bloke, really friendly, exuded fighter pilot, um, but a really easy guy to talk to and interview.
7:22
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, one of those people who just got way too much energy.
7:26
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and uh I mean his his one of his friends, Steen Strand, who was a co-founder at Icon, wrote uh a piece about it on uh LinkedIn this week.
7:36
SPEAKER_04: And it's a lovely piece.
7:37
SPEAKER_04: We've included some of it in the news story on the website.
7:41
SPEAKER_04: But it comes across as he said that Steen said that uh Kirk Hawkins had a level of risk that would be far beyond most of us.
7:48
SPEAKER_04: Not because he was a dangerous person, but simply because he was able to assess assess the risk and uh realize, okay, I'm happy with that.
7:57
SPEAKER_04: A loss.
7:58
SPEAKER_04: A loss, yeah, very much so, yeah.
8:00
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
8:01
SPEAKER_06: And and and a a save, I guess, from you.
8:05
SPEAKER_05: A save, yeah, uh a save from me for Mike Patie.
8:08
SPEAKER_05: Uh so uh cast your mind back to uh July 2023 when Mike Patey, obviously a well-known aviation YouTuber, creator of Draco and Turbulence.
8:19
SPEAKER_05: Um, as Mike had a uh uh uh enormous uncontained engine failure in Turbulence, which is his highly modified Lancer legacy.
8:27
SPEAKER_05: Now that's powered by a Pratt and Whitney uh PT6A-42 big turbine in a little exper two-seat experimental.
8:35
SPEAKER_05: So he bought this as a replacement engine for turbulence.
8:37
SPEAKER_05: It had previously had a uh PT6 in it and uh installed it and literally just a few weeks later had this failure.
8:46
SPEAKER_05: He was at um at pretty high altitude, so um uh had made a uh a descent over a number of minutes.
8:53
SPEAKER_05: Uh he was flying from uh Rapid City Regional Airport in South Dakota to Rochester International Airport in Minnesota and made a gliding descent.
9:02
SPEAKER_05: Uh but what had happened was that the um in the PT6 you have a your power turbine and then you have a um a planetary reduction gearbox on the front.
9:12
SPEAKER_05: The turbine's turning about 30,000 RPM.
9:15
SPEAKER_05: Um it would appear that the uh the gearbox, there was some outstanding, there I think there was an outstanding AD or a service notice on the gear on the gearbox um somewhere in its life that hadn't occurred.
9:28
SPEAKER_05: Um in mics putting it into service that hadn't been addressed.
9:33
SPEAKER_05: Uh and anyway, in cruise, the um the gearboxes, the the the three planetary wheels decided to not mesh with each other anymore, came to a pretty, it sounds like a pretty instantaneous stop.
9:45
SPEAKER_05: Uh and what that meant is that the propeller was no longer doing the governing action on the turbine, and the turbine probably went from 30,000 to over a hundred thousand RPM.
9:55
SPEAKER_05: And if you do that in a turbine, then things go beyond limits, and all the blade well, looking at the photos, lots of blades came off, lots of things came out of the engine, the aeroplane was stuck with shrapnel all over the place.
10:08
SPEAKER_06: I've heard the phrase I've heard used on online, only online, is people saying it grenaded itself.
10:13
SPEAKER_05: It grenade it literally did grenade itself.
10:15
SPEAKER_05: And if you the bits where things didn't come out of the engine, yeah, it's it's like that it was trying, because literally there's little dents and marks all over the all over the engine.
10:26
SPEAKER_05: Probably not going to be repaired.
10:27
SPEAKER_05: It's definitely not going to be repaired.
10:30
SPEAKER_05: Um but uh anyway, the NTSB was critical.
10:34
SPEAKER_05: Um uh and it was uh basically unknown when the last inspection of the reduction gearbox was performed.
10:40
SPEAKER_05: Um and uh the document says a review of purchase documentation revealed that the operator knowingly purchased the engine in unserviceable condition and only performed a periodic inspection before flight.
10:52
SPEAKER_05: So, which is I know Mike is a I consider Mike a bit of a legend.
10:57
SPEAKER_05: I've I've met him a couple of times.
10:59
SPEAKER_05: He's a really nice guy, really he's and you know, he's he's really nice guy, he's done a lot for GA, um cast a positive light on with his super moi, he's he's got like the biggest can do attitude I think of ever I've ever come across.
11:14
SPEAKER_05: Um but you go, Mike, what were you thinking?
11:16
SPEAKER_06: So normally if if if you when he had the accident in Draco, he was he sort of came out and spoke about it very openly.
11:25
SPEAKER_06: So I would expect if it's not been done already for there to be something coming up on this.
11:30
SPEAKER_05: Well he's he actually he he got ahead of the I I'm guessing he had a he had sight of the report being before it before it was officially published, because he actually put out a video where he does address some of the things, but not he he kind of some some people online have kind of accused him of of kind of glossing over or painting round the facts.
11:52
SPEAKER_05: Um but um I know fundamentally though okay it's people you know er things go do go wrong.
11:59
SPEAKER_05: He's he lives to fly another day and um and the airplane got the aeroplane got fixed and donated to the EA Museum.
12:07
SPEAKER_05: We saw it.
12:07
SPEAKER_05: We did saw it this year.
12:09
SPEAKER_06: So um it seems a bit of a shame when you have somebody like that donating.
12:13
SPEAKER_06: Don't donate it just yet.
12:14
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
12:15
SPEAKER_06: I mean, even Mike Patey can't run out of hangerspace, surely.
12:18
SPEAKER_06: Lost story then, Dave?
12:20
SPEAKER_04: Yep, so Bristow, who famously originally an English company, now a worldwide company, they've just launched uh a sponsored pilot training scheme for its uh search and rescue uh operation.
12:32
SPEAKER_04: So if you go to cut if you the applications are open now, they're only open until the 8th of September, so you've got to be quick.
12:39
SPEAKER_04: But basically they will train you to fly from zero up to flying a search and rescue helicopter.
12:45
SPEAKER_04: That's a big helicopter, things like Sikorsky uh, you know S92?
12:50
SPEAKER_04: S92, that's it.
12:52
SPEAKER_04: Um, and so that's that's a really good thing.
12:54
SPEAKER_04: The only thing you have to pay for are your living expenses during the process.
12:58
SPEAKER_04: Right.
12:58
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that's uh not really very very much in the great grand scheme of things.
13:04
SPEAKER_04: How many spaces?
13:05
SPEAKER_04: They haven't released that.
13:06
SPEAKER_04: Did say it's very limited numbers, uh, given that it probably costs somewhere in a region of a quarter of a million pounds to train a helicopter pilot.
13:15
SPEAKER_04: Um, that's a lot of money.
13:17
SPEAKER_04: And just also adding in that leading edge aviation had done a very interesting link with two airlines with uh who you say?
13:30
SPEAKER_04: Ourini uh the Channel Islands uh airline and North Atlantic.
13:34
SPEAKER_04: So you go to go to uh LEA, leading edge aviation, and if you're tagged during your ground-based training, they will then put you on a course to go and fly for Origini.
13:46
SPEAKER_04: You start off in the ATR 72, flying short haul, and after a couple of years, when you've had a couple of years experience, you go and fly for North Atlantic, flying the Boeing 787.
13:56
SPEAKER_04: That's that's a really interesting career progress.
13:59
SPEAKER_04: Wow, that's a jump.
14:00
SPEAKER_05: Okay, so uh at the start of the show, we asked the question: is flying becoming less sociable?
14:06
SPEAKER_04: Okay, I'll bite.
14:07
SPEAKER_04: Why do we think that?
14:08
SPEAKER_06: Well, I was I was having a conversation with a couple of people recently, and they were saying that with the growth of farm strips, you it's quite easy to go to a farm strip, get your airplane out, go for a flight, put it away again, go back home.
14:19
SPEAKER_06: You've never actually met anybody else.
14:20
SPEAKER_06: It's been a very solitary occupation.
14:23
SPEAKER_06: And the the days of the big clubhouse and the flying school bar and stuff like that are getting fewer and fewer because of those establishments becoming fewer and fewer.
14:31
SPEAKER_06: And it how do how does that get replaced?
14:34
SPEAKER_06: How does how do we make flying more sociable and less insular, I guess?
14:38
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, well, there's one one group I'm associated with, that's European Luscombs.
14:43
SPEAKER_04: And the uh the guy who organises that, Nigel Barrett, is very prolific on the European Luscombs uh page on Facebook, at saying, Oh, I'm off to Wadswick uh tomorrow.
14:53
SPEAKER_04: Anyone join me for breakfast or lunch?
14:55
SPEAKER_04: Uh, same thing with Oaksea Park.
14:57
SPEAKER_04: I know that's a bit south oriented, but you get a get the idea.
15:02
SPEAKER_06: I guess I I guess you know, we all we we have our little friend groups, but it's it's the kind of chance encounters you get at other places that you don't really easily get.
15:09
SPEAKER_06: I mean, I think Garston Farm, which is not really open to everybody.
15:13
SPEAKER_05: It's it's not a massively open place.
15:15
SPEAKER_05: You can the with the right aeroplanes you can visit um subject to getting PPR.
15:20
SPEAKER_05: But that is, and I've been I've been based there for over 30 years, and it is a m it's an amazing place.
15:25
SPEAKER_05: There's 15, 16 aeroplanes based there.
15:28
SPEAKER_05: Uh, and I think what makes it what kind of makes it full um sociable is the fact that you've got two hangars, you've got those airplanes spread across the two.
15:37
SPEAKER_05: Everyone has to interact to go flying.
15:39
SPEAKER_05: It's almost a bit like probably like a bit like the glider, the the gliding operation, uh sociability, that kind of thing.
15:46
SPEAKER_05: Plus the other thing is we have a we've got a caravan where everyone can go and even sometimes if you go up there and you don't plan on flying, you might sit around and chat.
15:54
SPEAKER_05: It's like a smaller scale version of maybe that uh we all know of the fantastic clubhouse at White Waltham, which is probably that like the the the really good example of of sociability in flying.
16:05
SPEAKER_06: White Waltham's got that great place, Stapleford's got a great place.
16:08
SPEAKER_06: Okay.
16:09
SPEAKER_06: Um yeah, and and they tend to be have a higher proportion of people who are flying.
16:14
SPEAKER_06: Whereas you go to someone like Manchester, uh Barton that is, not Manchester International, they've got lots of places.
16:20
SPEAKER_06: Nobody walks and goes, Hey, I flew in.
16:22
SPEAKER_06: Um you get a lot of public coming in, which is a great thing, a bit like Wadswick here.
16:26
SPEAKER_06: You know, we don't go into the Wadswick restaurant and go, Hello everybody.
16:30
SPEAKER_06: Yes.
16:31
SPEAKER_06: What did you fly in with?
16:32
SPEAKER_06: I think I bought my range over, really.
16:35
SPEAKER_06: Um but yeah, it's it's there's that there is a thread on the flight forum which is kind of tell us where you're going and we'll come and meet up.
16:42
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, but and that was like really active, 19 pages of activity.
16:45
SPEAKER_06: But that's gone a bit quiet since March, really.
16:47
SPEAKER_06: I'm not quite sure what happened there.
16:48
SPEAKER_05: No, it's it's it's because we did have a look at that and it's like, oh, it's it if you'd asked me, I would have gone, yeah, no, that's that's currently active.
16:55
SPEAKER_05: But it's weird that that's that's kind of got a little bit quiet.
16:58
SPEAKER_05: I mean it's you meant you mentioned Wadswick.
17:00
SPEAKER_05: We're lucky here, every aeroplane lives in its own individual hangar, so you can just turn up and go fly.
17:05
SPEAKER_05: But it does when I compare the two places, Wadswick and Garston, you go, yeah, that's it does that almost does foster a like a like a a much less it's it's it's great fun flying here, but it it does foster a slightly slightly less sociable aspect.
17:22
SPEAKER_05: You can kind of turn up, do your own thing and not bump into anyone.
17:25
SPEAKER_06: I think if you're if if if you're all moving aircraft around and go, What are you doing?
17:28
SPEAKER_06: I don't know.
17:28
SPEAKER_06: I thought I might go.
17:29
SPEAKER_06: Oh, well, let's pop over to Axey, get a cup of tea or or Popham or whatever.
17:33
SPEAKER_06: Popham's got a great social scene.
17:34
SPEAKER_05: I mean I loved I mean you and I both went to the last we finally made it to the to a fly-in barbecue at Popham.
17:42
SPEAKER_05: And I'm Popham has one of I I would say that is a really sociable place.
17:47
SPEAKER_05: Great mix, you know, the public come in, have a great time.
17:50
SPEAKER_05: P uh aviators come in from all over.
17:53
SPEAKER_05: Uh the the Popham Barbecue last Fri last Thursday was was fantastic.
17:57
SPEAKER_05: Had a great time there.
17:58
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and that is a really good example of but it's it's I know sometimes you need to get I I'm I'm guil I'm very guilty of this.
18:07
SPEAKER_05: I my flying sometimes, I go up, I fly, I love making holes in the sky, but I don't necessarily have to go anywhere.
18:15
SPEAKER_05: Um so it's nice actually when I do go somewhere, it is fantastic.
18:18
SPEAKER_06: But do you so if you go to if if you go let's just pick what well, of course we've got Garston or something like that as an example.
18:25
SPEAKER_06: If you go there and there's nobody there, you drag your airplane out, go for a flight, come back, put it away, and there's still nobody there.
18:30
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
18:30
SPEAKER_06: Is that somehow less of a experience than if you go there, there's a couple of people you chat with, catch up with, maybe go somewhere, drop in locally, maybe not.
18:39
SPEAKER_06: Maybe fly with someone if you're flying with a two-seat as opposed to one of your many single-seat clean.
18:44
SPEAKER_05: I th I think it's it is it is always nicer if you bump into people.
18:49
SPEAKER_05: Um and it's been discussed in the past.
18:53
SPEAKER_05: Uh, but I think there's a real benefit.
18:55
SPEAKER_05: So some some of the conversations you can get into can help with safety and help people, you know, if they're confused or something about a new bit of legislation or whatever, um, invariably stuff like that comes up.
19:08
SPEAKER_05: So it's there's definitely a benefit to the social side of flying, isn't it?
19:13
SPEAKER_04: It appears to me that the probably the thing that's in common with these places is having somewhere to actually be to meet.
19:20
SPEAKER_04: Like at Garston, you've got a caravan.
19:22
SPEAKER_04: You've got a caravan, Pottham's got that great cafe.
19:25
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
19:25
SPEAKER_04: Um Enstone, Enstone Airfield, they've got a nice clubhouse there as well.
19:31
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
19:31
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
19:31
SPEAKER_04: Same at Tur Weston.
19:33
SPEAKER_04: Yes.
19:33
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
19:34
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
19:34
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
19:35
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
19:35
SPEAKER_06: And and I guess it's difficult to replicate that on a strip level because the the strips don't have and don't really want the public, you know, you don't set up a restaurant on a strip, are you?
19:45
SPEAKER_04: No.
19:45
SPEAKER_04: I guess most strips won't have fuel unless you're bringing in Mogas.
19:48
SPEAKER_04: So perhaps people have to fly to a slightly bigger airfield where there's a few more facilities in order to refuel.
19:55
SPEAKER_06: I think Oak Oaksea, although it's not a strip, but Oaksea's got quite a nice little clubhouse where you can have a coffee.
20:01
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, Oakesie's a lovely place.
20:02
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
20:03
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
20:03
SPEAKER_06: Maybe we need something like that at Woodswick.
20:06
SPEAKER_06: I mean, there is a restaurant which, you know, the restaurant's owned by the same people, so you don't want to take business away from the restaurant.
20:11
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
20:11
SPEAKER_06: But after hours of an evening during the summer, you kind of be nice to kick back with a cup of tea.
20:16
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
20:17
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
20:18
SPEAKER_05: Tell us in the comments, what do you think makes an airfield or uh or a vet a destination sociable?
20:24
SPEAKER_05: Are there particular things that you like to see that make you feel like you're having a great time?
20:30
SPEAKER_06: To conclude the question, is flying becoming less sociable?
20:33
SPEAKER_06: I think it probably is becoming less sociable, but in a kind of different way.
20:44
SPEAKER_05: We always say, don't we, that it's, you know, unfortunately we're it we are in a situation where we occasionally lose an airfield now.
20:51
SPEAKER_05: They never get replaced.
20:53
SPEAKER_04: No, and I think also we've got to remember we're south based.
20:56
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
20:56
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, we hear about Sherburn and Breton up north.
20:59
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, great places.
21:00
SPEAKER_04: They're great places.
21:01
SPEAKER_04: They appear to be very sociable.
21:03
SPEAKER_04: So uh there are places around.
21:05
SPEAKER_06: I think yeah.
21:06
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
21:07
SPEAKER_06: I mean, Paul Cudell, who does probably more flying than everybody on the face of the BA captain on short haul, um is very often flying with a whole bunch of friends around.
21:18
SPEAKER_06: So maybe we need maybe we need a kind of like a a a dating service for pilots.
21:22
SPEAKER_06: Not not that kind of dating, obviously.
21:24
SPEAKER_04: Maybe we should have a little competition or feature of some kind about UK's most popular airfields, most sociable airfields.
21:32
SPEAKER_05: Well, yeah, and that's probably we in the past we've we've obviously looked at the Sky Demon data for most popular destinations, but I would imagine most sociable airfields might actually that's you need to judge that that needs to be a public vote.
21:47
SPEAKER_06: We'd probably have to visit and see whether anyone says hello to us.
21:52
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, no, indeed.
21:54
SPEAKER_06: Time for some club news.
21:55
SPEAKER_06: Um and before we get into the club news, I've got a bit of club news from the day before.
22:00
SPEAKER_06: Yesterday, so Tuesday of this week, I was down at Andark in Southampton with a whole bunch of Flyer Club members on the dunking course.
22:08
SPEAKER_04: So, will we be seeing a video of you getting wet lots of times?
22:12
SPEAKER_06: I haven't seen I haven't seen the footage.
22:13
SPEAKER_06: Henry was there taking videos.
22:16
SPEAKER_06: I kind of did warn him about filming me in my manchini taking videos.
22:22
SPEAKER_06: He would be influencing his future career.
22:24
SPEAKER_06: So we'll have to wait and see.
22:26
SPEAKER_06: There will be some a dunking video.
22:28
SPEAKER_06: There will be some dunking video.
22:30
SPEAKER_05: Um there's a link to Andark in the uh in the video description if you fancy doing that course yourself.
22:37
SPEAKER_06: Okay, so you've got one more weekend to use the August free landing fees, which are Barton, Felthorpe, Neverthorpe, and Holmbeck Farm.
22:47
SPEAKER_05: Ed, I think you know about September's.
22:49
SPEAKER_05: I do, and I can tell you that uh in September you can land for free at Blackbush, uh, Doornock, Kings Mirror, and you can get 50% off your landing fee at Kitty Hawk Farm.
23:00
SPEAKER_04: Plus, we think there's another one on the way, special bargain, which we'll let you let you know about next week.
23:06
SPEAKER_04: And don't forget, we've got plenty of new videos going up on our YouTube channel.
23:10
SPEAKER_04: There's one on the 50th anniversary flight at Popham.
23:13
SPEAKER_04: There's the Sky Leader 400 flight test by Ian.
23:17
SPEAKER_04: Uh there's a talk with uh Cirrus, Ivy MacIver, talking about the latest updates to the Cirrus aircraft.
23:23
SPEAKER_04: And there may be one from the LA Valley, depending on the weather.
23:27
SPEAKER_06: Apart from great days like the Dunker Day that we went on earlier this week and the AIB day that we've got coming up, there are lots of reasons to join the Flyer Club.
23:35
SPEAKER_06: You get access to all of our material, you get access to basically a couple of years' worth of uh monthly videos.
23:40
SPEAKER_06: So I think there's 30 odd videos in there at the moment.
23:42
SPEAKER_06: Treat that as your library.
23:44
SPEAKER_06: You can go back and watch those as many times as you want, and you get discounts on all sorts of things.
23:48
SPEAKER_06: Plus, from September the 12th, the price will be increasing.
23:51
SPEAKER_06: If you are a member now, or if you join between now and September the 12th, we'll protect the current price for another 12 months.
23:58
SPEAKER_06: But after that, it will be increasing.
23:59
SPEAKER_06: So save yourself some money.
24:01
SPEAKER_06: Join now.
24:02
SPEAKER_05: Uh so obviously the question on everyone's lips is what caught your eye this week?
24:08
SPEAKER_05: Uh and I'm gonna kick it off uh with the fact that I saw a reminder about an amazing project.
24:15
SPEAKER_05: Um, you may remember this because we had an article in the mag.
24:18
SPEAKER_05: Uh it's something called the Anakin Project.
24:21
SPEAKER_05: Uh now Anakim is the name of a shark uh in its Portuguese for the Mako shark.
24:28
SPEAKER_05: And uh this was an aeroplane that was designed to go unbelievably fast on just four cylinders.
24:34
SPEAKER_05: It was 180 horsepower, designed around 180 horsepower like homing, and a tiny guy, uh a chap called uh Gunnar Armin Halbroth.
24:43
SPEAKER_05: Uh he was the um he was the kind of project sponsor and he worked with um Paulo Iskold, who is the brilliant, he's almost like uh Brazil's Bert Rutan.
24:54
SPEAKER_05: Um Aerodynamics Whisperer.
24:56
SPEAKER_05: Aerodynamics Whisperer Extraordinaire.
24:59
SPEAKER_05: And uh basically they got together and they went, you know, we can have a go at the um it's it's an FAI world record uh in uh one of the classes.
25:10
SPEAKER_05: And um basically they looked at uh there was an aeroplane called the Poland Special, which had in 1976 at 20,000 feet could do 300 miles an hour on an IO360.
25:20
SPEAKER_05: Uh there was the John Sharp Nemesis Racer on an O200 did 290 miles an hour.
25:26
SPEAKER_05: That's bonkers.
25:27
SPEAKER_05: Hang on a second.
25:28
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
25:29
SPEAKER_05: The Nemesis Racer.
25:31
SPEAKER_05: The Nemesis, yes, the Nemesis Racer.
25:34
SPEAKER_04: NXT.
25:35
SPEAKER_05: No, not the NXT race.
25:36
SPEAKER_06: Oh, that's what I was mixing it up with.
25:38
SPEAKER_05: I was gonna go the NXT couldn't have done that on 200 horsepower, it would have barely moved.
25:42
SPEAKER_05: Well, it was it was well, not even uh technically not even um a hundred uh 200 horsepower, because an O200 is a hundred horse horsepower.
25:49
SPEAKER_05: Um that was a tiny little Formula One class racer, very fast.
25:53
SPEAKER_05: But anyway, um uh Paula Paolo and uh Gunnar got together and uh Paolo designed this a amazing aeroplane and uh you look at it and it's all about it's all about perfectly using aerodynamics.
26:06
SPEAKER_05: There's a lot of area rule in it.
26:08
SPEAKER_05: You'll see that it's it's it it kind of goes thin at the sections where the wing are and then fattens out.
26:15
SPEAKER_05: Uh but it is it's an aeroplane built for absolute minimum drag.
26:19
SPEAKER_05: The rumour was that it might have been it might have had the smallest flat plate uh drag um number of any man carrying aeroplane.
26:28
SPEAKER_05: So um uh it's better even than the Cesar 182.
26:32
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, exactly.
26:33
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, much better than that.
26:34
SPEAKER_05: Uh I suspect the spinner on the 182 had more drag than the Anakim.
26:39
SPEAKER_05: Uh the aeroplane weighed just over 700 pounds, which was amazing when you think that the engine installed weight was 350 pounds.
26:47
SPEAKER_05: Um and uh anyway, this aeroplane uh 10 years ago they set five records.
26:54
SPEAKER_05: Uh there was a three-kilometer record, uh, which was 323 miles an hour.
26:59
SPEAKER_05: Uh they beat John Sharp's record, which was the previous holder, 290.
27:04
SPEAKER_05: Um, speed over 15 kilometers, um, that was 317 miles an hour.
27:10
SPEAKER_05: They did a hundred kilometer, 304 miles an hour, 500 kilometers, 306 miles an hour, and then to top it off, they went for time to climb.
27:19
SPEAKER_05: And Craig Cato, who is the American prop guru, made a variety of different props for the aeroplane, and he made a really trick three-blade prop with little tiny winglets on.
27:29
SPEAKER_05: Who's ever seen a prop with winglets?
27:31
SPEAKER_05: Um anyway, Anakin did a naught to three thousand meter climb, so essentially ten thousand feet.
27:39
SPEAKER_05: Um what do you reckon?
27:41
SPEAKER_05: So how fast do you reckon four cylinders can get you to ten thousand feet?
27:47
SPEAKER_04: Well, if you assume a climb rate of say, I don't know, thousand feet per minute, that's gonna take you.
27:54
SPEAKER_05: Thousand feet per minute?
27:57
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
27:58
SPEAKER_05: In a mighty one eighty two.
27:59
SPEAKER_04: But if it's got a cruise prop?
28:01
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
28:01
SPEAKER_04: Uh okay.
28:02
SPEAKER_05: It had a special climb prop.
28:04
SPEAKER_05: I'm gonna put you out of your misery.
28:05
SPEAKER_05: It did um it did three thousand meters, nine nine thousand eight hundred and forty-two feet in two minutes twenty-six seconds.
28:12
SPEAKER_05: Wow.
28:12
SPEAKER_05: That's extraordinary.
28:13
SPEAKER_05: Uh and that beat the previous world record by a full forty-two seconds.
28:17
SPEAKER_06: And those were I hope you've got an approved NATS briefing to make sure it didn't bust any books basically.
28:22
SPEAKER_05: I mean, Sky Demon would be like, slow down, you fool, you're gonna bust all this airspace thing.
28:26
SPEAKER_05: Um it's uh even today, it stands out as a magnificent product, uh magnificent achievement.
28:33
SPEAKER_05: Um there is there's a wonderful documentary that is worth watching if you haven't seen it.
28:37
SPEAKER_05: That's we'll link that in the description.
28:40
SPEAKER_05: Uh but just uh and it was all a team, it was Paulo and Gunnar and a team of students uh from one of the leading Brazilian aerodynamics uh institutes, and uh just it was just amazing, uh just amazing thing.
28:53
SPEAKER_05: So Dave?
28:55
SPEAKER_04: So uh I saw a tweet by Platinum Fighter Sales.
28:59
SPEAKER_04: That's the very specialist brokers.
29:01
SPEAKER_06: They're targeting you.
29:02
SPEAKER_04: They know that they know I'm after one.
29:04
SPEAKER_04: They knew you're after one.
29:05
SPEAKER_04: What did they figure you were after, but they got money?
29:07
SPEAKER_04: And this time I saw a 1980 Airco DH9.
29:11
SPEAKER_04: Um, the Arco DH9 was one of the first purpose-built bombers, and it was made in Britain, designed around the net then newly developed 200 horsepower Sidley Puma engine.
29:22
SPEAKER_04: Um, despite it's a nice little line in the ad, despite challenges with the engine's reliability, it still became one of the most produced aircraft of of the period.
29:32
SPEAKER_04: Uh there were 2,000 examples left, built.
29:35
SPEAKER_04: But there's not many left for some reason.
29:38
SPEAKER_05: A uh I'm guessing a wooden fabric aeroplane from probably nearly 100 years ago.
29:43
SPEAKER_05: Chances of survival slim.
29:45
SPEAKER_05: Well, actually there are over 100 years, isn't it?
29:47
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
29:47
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
29:48
SPEAKER_04: There are two examples, but only one of them is the is flying, and that's the one that's gone on sale.
29:53
SPEAKER_04: Both of the examples in existence have been uh restored by uh a British company called Retrotech down in East Sussex.
30:00
SPEAKER_04: I've never heard of them before.
30:01
SPEAKER_04: Did you know?
30:02
SPEAKER_05: I yeah, I've they they are they are one of those companies that they if you know them, you know them, but otherwise they're they're one of those quiet achievers.
30:10
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
30:11
SPEAKER_04: Well, anyway, there are some pictures which we'll sh we'll put online, and it does look absolutely fantastic.
30:17
SPEAKER_04: Should say that the photographs are taken by Darren Harbour, well-known photographer, uh, with the uh usually shoots at Shuttleworth, but the pictures are part of the ad, and it's just a fabulous-looking period aircraft.
30:30
SPEAKER_04: It is quite big.
30:32
SPEAKER_04: It's um there's a one of the photographs that shows it being started with a peculiar that would be a huck starter.
30:38
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
30:39
SPEAKER_05: And the people standing around it.
30:42
SPEAKER_05: Not named after her, but usually built on a Rolls-Royce chassis, sometimes.
30:46
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, anyway, it does look quite big.
30:48
SPEAKER_04: I guess it's not the sort of thing you can pull out with a hanger by yourself.
30:51
SPEAKER_05: That's that's not that that that will definitely make your flying sociable.
30:55
SPEAKER_05: You are going to need lots of people to help you go flying in that.
30:57
SPEAKER_05: Uh am I right in thinking that that's probably the only flying World War I bomber you could actually go out and buy?
31:03
SPEAKER_04: It is.
31:04
SPEAKER_04: And it because of that, it's got a very special price.
31:07
SPEAKER_04: How much?
31:08
SPEAKER_04: £1.6 million.
31:10
SPEAKER_05: Which is a big number, but for something of such incredible history, it seems relatively small.
31:19
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
31:21
SPEAKER_05: But yeah, no, that I I agree with you.
31:24
SPEAKER_05: That is a fantastic, fast fantastic machine.
31:27
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
31:28
SPEAKER_05: Um not my not my bag, but yeah, I'd I'd love to see that fly.
31:32
SPEAKER_04: Oh, I'd really like one of those in my fantasy hangar.
31:34
SPEAKER_04: It's got guns.
31:38
SPEAKER_06: Fair enough.
31:39
SPEAKER_06: Fair enough.
31:39
SPEAKER_06: What about you, Ian?
31:40
SPEAKER_06: Well, I was I was chatting to someone about who who was who was waxing lyrical about a canard airplane, and I was just kind of looking at it and the way that aircraft are configured over the last hundred years and more, you know, it seems to me we've pretty well established the best set of compromises to build, you know, between comfort efficiency, manufacturing, and stuff like that, you know, build an airplane, low wing, high wing, one single engine at the front, normal tail at the back, you've named it.
32:08
SPEAKER_06: You know, there's lots of other compromises you can play with, but they're still possessed, people who do all sorts of bits and pieces to go, no, no, I've I've got a trick here, I've got a trick there, I've got this, I've got that, I've got everything else.
32:18
SPEAKER_06: And I think I I was kind of looking at at some of the examples from history, and the one that I found was the Avector Avtec, Avtec 400A, which is this kind of like a weird mishmash of it's it's got some bits of Starship about it, it's got a little bit of piaggio if you squint your eyes, if you do one of Dave's favourite squints.
32:38
SPEAKER_06: And it's so it's a pusher, a twin engine pusher, um, it was a business aeroplane.
32:43
SPEAKER_06: And then someone went, you know what?
32:46
SPEAKER_06: We need a canard on this.
32:47
SPEAKER_06: And they go, have you got have you got a wing or one of you?
32:50
SPEAKER_06: See that?
32:50
SPEAKER_06: Where are we gonna put it?
32:52
SPEAKER_06: No, it's too difficult.
32:52
SPEAKER_06: Just bolt it on top of the cockpit.
32:54
SPEAKER_06: And it's just and it looks it looks like an afterthought.
32:59
SPEAKER_05: I'm sure it wasn't an afterthought, clearly.
33:01
SPEAKER_05: I must admit, I always look at the Avtec 400 and it always it it makes me think of like two eyebrows.
33:06
SPEAKER_06: It's weird.
33:06
SPEAKER_06: It's complete and it was um Al Al Mooney designed it.
33:10
SPEAKER_06: Al famous brother of another Mooney chap, not not the church.
33:15
SPEAKER_06: Not um Alfred Mooney, um Alfred Mooney aircraft.
33:21
SPEAKER_05: Um I think it it had it uh one of those airplanes where they said uh it flies great, um, but unfortunately ran out of money.
33:28
SPEAKER_06: He ran out of money during the certification flight trials um and and never really went anywhere.
33:35
SPEAKER_05: It's a classic case of actually there's a reason conventional conventional configuration seems to win through.
33:44
SPEAKER_06: Events then.
33:44
SPEAKER_06: It's pouring down with rain outside, but uh I'm sure it'll be beautiful the week at the weekend.
33:49
SPEAKER_04: Well, let's hope so.
33:50
SPEAKER_04: Uh because this weekend, of course, it's the LA rally at Leicester.
33:54
SPEAKER_04: That's on from Friday to Sunday.
33:56
SPEAKER_04: Other events, there's not much coming up this weekend, but if you look to the following weekend, it's another busy one with the ordinary flying uh from the 5th to the 7th, that's Friday to the Sunday.
34:07
SPEAKER_04: Over in France, there's the big French microite rally, the Mondial du Lum.
34:13
SPEAKER_04: L-U-M.
34:14
SPEAKER_04: The ULM ULM, which is also Friday to Sunday, 5th to the 7th of September.
34:19
SPEAKER_04: On Saturday, the 6th of September, there's the Kitty Hawk summer flying, which is always a good one.
34:25
SPEAKER_04: And apparently this year is going to be even bigger and better than it's been before.
34:29
SPEAKER_06: I believe.
34:29
SPEAKER_04: Yep.
34:30
SPEAKER_04: Another really attractive sounding one is the Mull Tail Draker flying at Glen Falser.
34:35
SPEAKER_04: That's Saturday and Sunday.
34:36
SPEAKER_04: I think if really far us going anywhere, I'll be thinking about that one.
34:39
SPEAKER_06: I'd be quite tempted by that one as well.
34:41
SPEAKER_04: Yep, and also on Saturday, there's the Cornwall Strut flying at Bobmin.
34:45
SPEAKER_04: That's on Saturday.
34:47
SPEAKER_06: And I'm gonna I'm gonna fly to the if if it's flyable, um, to the AOPA members day, which is taking place at Old Horden.
34:54
SPEAKER_06: Okay, well, if you enjoyed that, please don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe.
34:58
SPEAKER_06: Above all, join us.
34:59
SPEAKER_06: You can join for five pounds a month at the moment.
35:01
SPEAKER_06: Don't forget it goes up on September the 12th at midnight.
35:04
SPEAKER_06: Thank you very much.
35:04
SPEAKER_06: Have a good one.
35:05
SPEAKER_06: Bye bye.
35:08
SPEAKER_06: What caught your eye this week, Changel?
35:10
SPEAKER_06: What caught your eye this week?
35:11
SPEAKER_06: What caught your eye this week?
35:13
SPEAKER_06: We're not gonna do that.
35:19
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35:25
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35:34
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