Day 8 - Sydney Region Wrap-up

Shane Field and Erik Hursh with a Tiger Moth

Flight success! I was instructed by Shane Field of Airborne Aviation in the De Havilland DH 82A Tiger Moth. This was my first time in an open cockpit airplane, and I found the experience to be surreal. It was challenging to communicate because of airflow noise. Also, when flying an unfamiliar airplane, it's sometimes difficult to tell when the instructor is influencing the controls. Thus the question can be, 'did I do that by myself, or did the instructor help?' (I understand this from being both a student and an instructor.)

Left Wing of Tiger Moth in Flight

Well, Shane demonstrated a couple of 4-turn spins. In layman's terms, a spin is when the airplane spirals in a "stalled" condition with nose usually pointing towards the ground. Think of it as "falling with style"! Then I tried one. The stick at first held by itself full to one side. Then, as I applied a little pressure to center it, the stick flopped firmly to the other side. I thought for sure Shane had done that, in an attempt to correct my technique. But nope – the plane did it! Sometimes the plane flies (or in this case falls) by itself too, and you have to distinguish that from your input and those of the instructor. Anyway, it was a fun flight. The Tiger Moth is quite docile. Thanks Shane and Airborne Aviation. Shane sent me a video clip of one of the spin sequences (there was a video camera on the left wing):

Left Side of Tiger Moth in Spin (Video)

A more technical explanation of a spin is that it is caused by a skidding yaw in combination with fully stalled wings. Watch the horizon compared to the longitudinal axis of the plane. In the video, the Tiger Moth progresses to a greater and greater angle of attack (nose up) until it stalls. As it stalls, the rudder (your intentional yaw controlling surface) is kicked full (creating skidding yaw). Down goes the plane in what is technically called "auto-rotation". It will do this all the way to the ground (at about 1000 ft of loss per 3 revolutions, depending on the airplane) unless you PRAY.

PRAY is an mnemonic. There are variations, but it's the one I learned as a student pilot. Power (idle; already was), Rudder (full and opposite direction of rotation; "step on the ball" of the slip/skid indicator if disoriented), Ailerons (to neutral), Yoke (forward to un-stall the wings, then smoothly back to recover from the dive without excess speed or creating a secondary stall). There are many more neauances we'd get into during actual instruction. The point is to unstall the wings, counter the adverse yaw (not making things worse with premature use of ailerons), and control dynamic energy (airspeed through pitch and power settings).

Hampden Bridge (circa 1898)

I drove through an area called Kangaroo Valley and found the Hampden Bridge, which was constructed in 1898. It was a neat looking cable suspension bridge with stone castle-looking abutments (pictured).

Trivia: Temperatures have varied from 15 to 30 Celsius so far. Converting to Fahrenheit is easy. For every 10C, it’s 18F, and then add 32. So I find it fairly painless converting; e.g. 15C = (15C x 18F/10C) + 32F = 59F.

I've gotten a few comments about my blog articles. Feel free to send them my way. (I'm checking my e-mails, but I have no cell phone.) Butch (an American friend): I use a 12v-120v inverter in the car, for the camera battery. Addie (an Assie friend): Thanks for the clarification on the slang term "arvo"...

Okay - Thanks Sydney! We're off to Perth now.

Landscape - Interior Side of Blue Mountains (Goulburn)

Cows Loving Kangaroo Valley

It's a Wrap! (Sydney Region)

Return to Oz

Day 8 – Sydney Region Wrap-up

< Previous Post         Next Post >