Way to go Idaho

Today we went into the 'back country' again for some serious terrain work. You remember that video that I posted a couple of weeks ago with some extreme airstrips. Well we flew into a couple of them today. They were so much fun I'm surprised it's legal. However without training this environment is dangerous-every year there is at least one light aircraft crash in the mountains.

Some of the strips are at the bottom of steep valleys, and others are on slightly higher ground, but surrounded by trees and rocky outcrops.

Here is one we flew into today. As you can see the huge pines are right along both sides of the runway, and also at one end. We practiced a few take-offs and landings here, and then parked the aircraft at the end of the strip while we went down to the river to eat our packed lunches.






Truly an amazing place. It has been a real priviledge to fly here, and it has nearly come to an end. I have one more flight to complete tomorrow in the Nampa area, and my flight training will be complete. I have a few days in the simulator next week to polish up some instrument flying, but otherwise my training here in the US will be complete. I hope you have enjoyed following my adventures. Stay tuned for a few further photos next week, and then next year you'll see some more flying, this time in AFRICA!

T

In the Back Country

The 'back country' comprises the mountains, forests and valleys of rural Idaho.

First though, yesterday was back to the desert, complete with tumbleweed and sage brush (which I discovered has a sweet musky smell and is known as Cowboy Cologne on account of the cowboys of old slapping a bit on before heading for the saloon). Holdout airstrip is located in Oregon cattle country to the southwest of Nampa, and sits on a plateau just below Quartz mountain. I picked up a few small samples of quarts for my Dad and my eldest son, both avid geologists. Hope that's legal around these parts.

In this second photo you can see how rutted the strip is after some snow earlier this week. We spent some time filling in the worst ruts and removing the odd ammo casing (they tend to ruin the tyres). It is a soft strip and so care must be taken when taxiing, landing and taking off. We've been learning techniques for 'soft field' operations, and at Holdout they came in very useful.

And so today it was into the backcountry. Here is Smith Prairie strip 30 miles east of Boise. As you can see there is snow up in them thar hills. This strip is at 5000ft above sea level, but at 5400ft long it is a great strip to practice aborts, emergencies and negotiating close in trees! There are some 50ft mountain pine trees all around and at one end (the end we don't land from or take-off towards!)

To get there my instructor had me fly up some narrow canyons and following rivers along valley floors. Absolutely stunning. It's more backcountry tomorrow so I'll try to get some shots in the air.

Going round the bend

 For some strange reason, despite there being acres and acres of flat land here in the Treasure Valley, Idaho, with many great locations for airstrips, most of the ones MAF uses here are either very short, or have a bend in them.

It was bendy time today with Johnstone airstrip. As you can see, it's a dirt strip, and just ahead of the wing is the left corner of the runway, marked with tyres.

The runway itself is 1500ft long. I know because I measured it with a wheel. It has about a 2% downslope, which again I measured with a clinometer.

Finally it has a big old bend right near the middle. I know because I can see how insane it is with the naked eye. See how it kinks to the left in the middle distance.

So on take off, you give it a bit less right rudder and the aircraft turns left slightly as she lifts off. On landing you touch down and then use a little more left rudder as you brake, and she turns the corner as she slows down. Simple eh?

What do MAF pilots do at the weekend?

They go into the woods to look for fairies. Well at least that's what Stuart got me doing yesterday. I should explain that he is into 'Geocaching' and we were looking for a geocache in the Ann Morrison park in central Boise yesterday. For those of you who don't know its a quirky pastime where you go following Lat. and Long. directions to a place where there's a cache whcih may contain some treasure (such as a plastic fairy, allegedly). then you spend 45 minutes looking for said treasure before your phone/gps runs out of juice and you give up and go home. Marvellous.

Today Stuart and I went to Crossroads Community Church (www.crossroadsnampa.com), where we've been going for the last three Sundays. It's about a mile from our apartment and they have two services on Sundays at 9 and 10.45. Since our clocks went back this morning we were both up and ready for the 9am service. Crossroads is a similar 'flavour' (or flavor!) to my home Church in Basingstoke, but larger. The service is 75mins (exactly), and starts with around 30 mins of contemporary worship, followed by the notices (of course) and then a sermon.

Crossroads central philosophy is that it is a place not for 'perfect people' but as a place of refuge, where God can be found. It is also a place where people are changed, not into perfect people, but into forgiven people. That is the central message of the gospel, after all.

The Senior Pastor has preached for the last three weeks and he is a very gifted communicator and teacher. If you're interested, look up the sermons on the website.

MAF is a Christian organisation and the Instructor Pilots and staff are all Christians, but the course is demanding and we're living right next to the airfield, so its great to find a place like Crossroads where we are welcomed and refreshed, away from the airfield. Thank you Lord for Crossroads Church.

Flying on Instruments (with memories of Leslie Nielsen)

Sleet and snow today in Idaho, so the aircraft stay in the nice warm hangar (with underfloor heating).

For Stuart and I though, it's time to go and play with 'Redbird'. This is not a Sesame Street character but a walk-in flight simulator owned by MAF and used mainly for instrument flight training.

It is also excellent for practice emergency drills such as engine failures, as these can be taken all the way to their conclusion ("we crashed" or "we landed safely") whereas in the air we would normally end the practice emergency well before that point!

Redbird has six screens which generate an outside view and another two screens below these which display the aircraft instruments. All the main controls are provided, including throttle, flaps, electrical switches, etc... Here is a photo of Stuart flying the sim. By the way he's flying in heavy snow, which is why the screens all look white.

We had a visit from the local Fire Department this afternoon, and one of Nampa's finest wanted to have a go in Redbird. Here's a video of him landing, and you can see how cool the graphics are. Boys and their toys...

ABORT, ABORT, ABORT

The last couple of days we have been busy putting into practice yet more of the techniques required by MAF pilots. One of these is knowing well when to continue, and when to stop, especially on take-off and landing.

Before every take-off an abort point is chosen next to the runway (maybe a tree or a windsock) which is just before half way. Any emergency or difficulty before that tree, then the take-off is aborted (even if airborne). We went into a strip in the desert to practice stopping at an abort point, and as you can see from the video if the abort point is chosen appropriately you can abort and stop safely on the runway, even if airborne.

The above video was taken this morning. Stuart and I flew together out to the desert with our instructor. Stu flew out, and I flew back. As a result I was able to take a few photos on the way.

Here is Nampa at 8.15am as we climbed out. To the south are the Owyhee mountains, with Oregon and the desert behind. 






Getting to the desert involved going over the Owyhees, but as this was a training flight our instructor had Stuart fly through a pass between two peaks in the ridge. We've learned techniques to do this safely, and with style!






I've also learned something else imprtant today. The geological feature opposite is sometimes called a 'butte' here in these parts. However the important bit is that this word rhymes with 'newt' rather than 'nut', as I discovered when I told my instructor I was heading for 'Saddle butt'.

Too many knobs

Welcome to my new office. As you might expect, lots of knobs, dials and switches to play with. The trick of course is playing with them in the right order.

The first aircraft checklist ever was for the B-17 Flying Fortress, and ever since each aircraft has its own checklist provided by the manufacturer. Operators (like MAF) may modify this, as long as all of the essential items are included.

Pilots tend to forget things if they don't use a checklist, and many aircraft accidents have occurred because checklist items were missed.

Yoke Checklist

MAF here in the US use a combination of up to 5 checklists. There is a tan coloured card for the preflight inspection, then a 'before entry' checklist attached to the pilot's door. Once seated there is a 'yoke' checklist, which as you can see on the photo above is attached to the yoke/control column.

On the MAF yoke checklist there are procedures for BEFORE START, AFTER START, and then there is a further ELECTRIC CHECKLIST to refer to before Take-Off.

The ELECTRIC CHECKLIST is a small box mounted on top of the cockpit so it is in the pilot's eyeline. It is not connected to anything except the aircraft power, and that is only so that some lights come on when all the switches are up (or down). The idea is that there are five clusters of items that need to be verified before take-off, and similarly another five (some the same) before landing. So it is simply just another checklist, but with the added satisfaction of being able to flick a switch when each cluster is complete, and then seeing a nice light come on when they are all done.

As a checklist this is something completely new to me, although I do remember a similar system in the AIMAIR aircraft. It does seem to work quite well as an aide-memoire, although I keep forgetting to actually flip the switches to get the lights to come on once I've done all the items.

Electric Checklist

Whoever came up with this idea was obviously quite forgetful, liked having something to fiddle with, and enjoyed seeing little flashing lights. It was obviously a pilot and my wife will tell you it was probably a man.

Out on the ragged edge...

Stuart and I have had a busy couple of days, hence the radio silence. On Thursday we finished our groundschool classes (Turbo and Engines, Weight and Balance, and Cargo/Tie Down). Then yesterday it was time to go and fly.

Here is Stuart's 206 just starting up outside the MAF hangar, and I followed him shortly afterwards. We each flew for around 2 hours, the main object of the exercise being familiarity with the T206 and as my instructor put it 'being at peace with the aircraft'.

When it was my turn, I took off from Nampa and headed south towards the Owyhee mountains and climbed to around 6000ft. (These are not pronounced 'Oh-yee' as an English Town crier might, but 'Ow-are-hee' so they sound like they are in Hawaii).

Anyway back to the flying. We practiced some gentle turns at 100 and then 80 knots, then some steeper turns at 80. A couple of stalls (very docile for the pilots reading this) and then slow flight, back to around 45kts with 40 flap. Then I was asked to trickle the speed back even further towards 40kts. The stall speed with full flaps is around 46kts at gross weight, and we were several hundred pounds under gross, so I was able to get the aircaft back to around 42kts before it got really mushy and got into pre-stall. It was fun hanging out on the ragged edge, where this aircraft will just about still fly, but we are doing this primarily IN ORDER TO AVOID GETTING THERE IN REAL LIFE. Test pilots do this all the time but us mere mortals are usually found nearer the middle of the flight operating envelope, rather than working at its dark and mysterious corners. MAF takes safety extremely seriously and this training is intended to help us get the most out of the aircraft, but with a clear understanding of its limits.

Talking of stalls, unusual flight and limits, have you ever seen a dog fly? Here is a short flying video that makes me laugh every time I watch it. I wonder what was going through the dog's mind? I just wish I'd have thought of doing this. Anyone want to lend me their pet for a couple of hours?

What exactly is Low-Level?

More groundschool today; this time Airstrip Evaluation, Air Drops and Abort Points. Imagine a small dirt strip in the middle of the African bush. No control tower, no windsock, no runway markers and no published data. You mission is to fly to the strip and evaluate whether it is suitable for landing (and of course taking-off again). So how do you do this? By doing three 'passes' over the airstrip, and if all is well, land.

First you'd fly over it at 80kts around 1000ft (MAF call this a high pass), to assess the wind, surrounding terrain and any obstacles.

Next you'd fly over again at 80kts at 50-100 feet (MAF call this a medium pass) to work out the length (using a stopwatch and your approx groundspeed), the exact altitude of the strip and look for close in obstacles.

Now if you've been paying attention so far you may have noticed that a 'medium pass' is at between 50 and 100 feet. That is EXTREMELY LOW.

And so now for the low pass, again at 80kts. This one is to take a close look at the surface condition, look for yet more obstacles, and to assess the slope of the strip. And the height? 5 to 10 feet! At 80kts!!

One more day of groundschool, and then we start doing this for real.If you'd like to see what its going to be like, take a look at the video.

Happy Landings,

Steve