A trip to Buri Ram 2009-09-15

This trip progressed a little differently than normal. We only flew on one day rather than two.

On the first day we went to Buri Ram (VTUO) in HSAWS: my first trip there. We went up at 7,500 ft, picked up W1 at KRT, and turned left at RAMEI toward BRM. I completed two holds on arrival at BRM 216/6.8 and flew the 04 ILS. I struggled with the glidepath a little with an increasing tailwind in the last mile or so. I had the needles crossed again at the Decision Altitude. OSCAR has poor radio coverage in that area. On the way back I could not contact OSCAR so I reverted to 123.6 (combined Approach for the civil airfields in the Korat area). This worked well. Buri Ram Approach handed us to Bangkok Control on 133.1 who passed us to Bangkok Approach on 122.35.

We did not fly on the second day. I slept in (long overdue) and took R & R in Pattaya: got some walking exercise, visited a few shops of interest, finished a book, etc.

Today I flew back to Hong Kong and a Typhoon grazing Hong Kong. I ran up the Dauntless Software FAA Test Program and studied Fundamentals of Instruction. I had plenty of time: two holds at CORAL and one at BAKER.

life in the fast lane 2009-08-26

Dave and I flew HSAWS up to Chaing Mai from "Bang Phra":http://www.thaiflyingclub.com earlier this week. This was my first flight without Tony in the right-hand seat. The Thailand DCA issued an amendment to the 5 year permit for HSAWS allowing either Dave or I to fly solo PIC.

We went to and from VTCC IFR. I logged some actual instrument time, and some hood time with Dave as my safety pilot. The Cu contained some bumps and rain but we avoided the nasty stuff. I kept my head down concentrating on attitude and airspeed while Dave looked out. The worst shear was +- 20 Kt and I reduced speed to Va where prudent. The maximum unintended rate of climb was + 1,500 fpm.

I nailed the VTCC runway 36 ILS and arrived softly softly with the usual tailwind.

We encountered less actual IFR time on the return trip. I cancelled IFR over Chon Buri past the last Cu and with the Bang Phra Condos in sight. I kept my intended 85 Kt until past the trees on Runway 23 and eased off the power for a squeaky soft arrival. The Commander 114 arrives easily provided we treat it as a large aircraft and not a small Cessna or Piper. You will get an impressive sink rate if you allow the speed to come back to 1.3 Vso on final.

I make spur of the moment visits so it is hard to plan ahead to meet up with people I know there. I still managed to meet some "old":http://www.clickandtravelonline.com, and new friends in Chaing Mai.

Yet again I have had a great indeed inspirational trip: 6 hours logged, met (another) Ghost, found out so much about armchair flying. By Tuesday evening I was tired (totally shagged out as we brits say). I slept well on Tuesday night so I was good for the Pattaya to Suvarnabhumi highway fast lane, flight to Hong Kong, and with some regrets work on Wednesday.

Thailand 2009-08-24

I am back in Pattaya preparing to break the fast and then drive to Bang Phra.

My plan today is to meet with the other pilots of HSAWS and then for Dave and I to fly to Chaing Mai IFR.

The City of Angeles

I am in Angeles City to do some flying out of Clark Omni in a Piper Seneca I. My first and only flight yesterday lasted as long as it took to confirm the malfunction, run the emergency checklist, decide how to proceed, and land. All of that still took an thirty minutes. I deliberately took my time so as not to rush things. The gear would not retract. I had three greens, red gear unsafe light, gear warning horn, one in the mirror on each of five attempts to retract the undercarriage.

I used the "DECIDE model":http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=aviation+decision+making&aq=f&oq=&aqi to guide my decision making and for practice.

• Detect the fact that a change has occurred.
• Estimate the need to counter or react to the change.
• Choose a desirable outcome for the success of the flight.
• Identify actions which could successfully control the change.
• Do the necessary action to adapt to the change.
• Evaluate the effect of the action.

I decided to do a low pass at RPLC and land there on their long, wide, and unobstructed runway. The Omni runway is short, narrow, and obstructed. I made a normal landing on 02L after a low pass and left the aircraft in the care of maintenance. I checked on the status of the Seneca later in the day. The gear had not retracted because of an electrical fault that could not be fixed straight away. As the day continues it looks less likely that I will fly the Seneca again on this trip.

back in hong kong

I returned to Hong Kong and and work about two weeks ago.

In spite of some technical problems I managed to log more than 7 hours of flying Cessna 172M HSATE over two days in Thailand last week. I was fortunate again to do some interesting and worthwhile flying, and renew friendships.

The first day we (Papa Dave, Daniel, and I) discovered a new airfield down near the Cambodian border. Later we found out that Ko Kut airfield is not in fact new; only upgraded. It now has about 700 M of concrete strip, edge lights, and PAPIs. We may land there on another trip.

The second day I gained experience with high density altitude (over 4000 ft DA), soft, and obstructed landings and departures at Klang Dong airfield. My first landing at Klang Dong was a bit long. I reacted too slowly to the wind increasing as I descended below 100 ft. The adjacent ridge funnels the wind near the airfield. I did a circuit on departure and aced the second soft field landing with 40 degrees of flap. Both of my departures were good but the second was the better of the two. Practice makes perfect! My advice is to treat Klang Dong with great respect and file with Pattaya Air Park: they eat airplanes!

The technical problems with HSATE were avionics related: as usual. The new intercom did not work on the first day so we used a portable intercom. The next day ground staff fitted a second radio and wired it to the new intercom. After about 5 minutes into our flight to Klang Dong the receiver failed and I got to practice the Thailand Radio Failure Procedures again. The ground staff fitted a new radio and we took off again after an hour and a half. The transponder only operates mode A intermittently.Time to Spare? Go by air!