Plog Blog

Working for Flight Evening News recently, one of my 'leads' offered me a flight to demonstrate a helicopter system that detects power lines. To protect the innocent names are fictional.

Captain Pieere ze crazy French ex-army helicopter pilote started the engines on the Twin Squirrel. There were light winds and it was a nice day meaning that we should have had a pleasant relaxing flight...

It was a simple departure maintaining 1,000ft agl and following the prescribed helicopter departure.
I had assumed that an accomplished pilot would be able to speak English, cue the stereotypical shoulder-shrug.

Leaving controlled airspace the power line detection system was activated and we aimed for a gap in between the mountains - oooh the trees were close as we zipped between the mountains.

When we encountered the first set of power lines, the system did exactly what it said on the tin. We swooped in low over the lines at about 100ft at 100kts. Cue silly grin! More power lines and I started to feel like I was in 'Apocalypse Now' as the choppers come in low over the sea. I was humming 'Ride of the Valkyries' in my head.

We tracked a set of power lines very low to the ground. Low and behold a hill... No problem.... tight steep climbing turns and back along the next st of power lines. Seemed like we were playing chicken with 20,000 volts of electricity. Shocking!

You can probably imagine what sort of a flight this was by now. We zipped across the scenery. The finale was a climb to 3,000ft along a mountain at treetop level... I hoped that we did not loose an engine - but hey, who wants to live forever anyway. But when we got to the top there was a fantastic view of an unnamed town (unnamed because I can't spell it...)

By Phil Nasskau

Creating large shadows across Friedrichshafen, the New Technology Zeppelin (NT) is operating pleasure flights with a famous livery designed by German artist Stefan Szczesny.

The naked woman strategically holding a bowl of fruit somehow reflects Szczeny's latest art project. The great work of art has transformed Mainau Island in Lake Constance, into the dream of an earthly paradise.

Visitors at Aero 2007 wishing to fly below the painted lady and her fruit have been paying € 145 for 20 minutes. Business was booming when I went to see Zeppelin, and they were sold-out of tickets. I dare say that these particular customers were probably more interested in seeing the air display from the from the sky rather than the decorated island, but please feel free to correct me.

The first Zeppelin took flight in 1900 from pontoons on Lake Constance. 119 Zeppelins were built between 1900 and 1938, and were particularly popular for transatlantic flights before the Hindenburg disaster in 1937, when the hydrogen ignited just before landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey. 35 people were killed that day, and along with the onset of World War II, Zeppelin airships were abandoned.... That is until the more recent revival of the Zeppelin NT.

Come back in a few days to see our video posts: I hope to fly in a Cirrus SR22; Eclipse 500 lands in Europe for the first time; Grob SPn flies the first time in public since the fatal crash, 29 November 2006, and a quick round-up of the major events at the show.

There was a tremendous air of excitement and expectation in Friedrichshafen today as Europe's general aviation community gathered for the start of the sixteenth Aero exhibition. This event, which is held every two years, is arguably the leading showcase for GA in Europe covering a multitude of owner-flown aircraft from gliders to very light jets and has become a vital platform for this burgeoning industry, helping it to promote and grow the market throughout the region while giving airframers and regulators an opportunity to thrash out pertinent issues. Hot topics on the agenda today included a discussion, lead by Europe's light sport aircraft lobby, on slashing unnecessary red tape for airframers. During this session there was a call to arms from a senior EASA executive to lobby politicians to speed up certification processes and reduce costs. The other debate on very light jets regretfully was targeted at a German speaking audience which was only made clear after the conference began. When it was apparent that no translation service was to be offered a host of disgruntled non German speakers made a rather abrupt exit.

Timing of the show, which this year clashes with the hugely popular Sun 'n' Fun in Florida could have been better but is a testament to the popularity and strength of Aero that all the major airframers, are exhibiting at both shows. Cirrus Design this afternoon showed off its third generation SR22 for the first time in Europe having unveiled the aircraft in the USA, and Brazil earlier this week. Tomorrow a mock up of the aircraft will be unveiled at a GA show in Beijing, China. Austria's Diamond Aircraft is debuting its much anticipated DA 50 piston single and will be hoping its Superstar makes an impact here! Tonight the Eclipse 500 touched down at the show after a five day journey. The very light is making its European debut here and is also embarking on a two month demonstration tour to drum up customers across the continent.
By Kate Sarsfield.

Just a quick hello from Friedrichshafen, where Aero 2007 is just taking off (please excuse the pun).

Kate Sarsfield and I will be posting over the next two days with pictures of new aircraft and aircraft concepts displayed at the show. The events that we expect to happen are: The new Diamond DA50 Super Star will debut; the Eclipse 500 will be flying outside of North America for the first time, and I plan to post a video...so watch this space;
the Grob SPn will fly at a public event for the first time since the fatal crash in November last year;
and the Cirrus third generation (SR22 3G) will be displayed in Europe for the first time. The third generation SR22 is scheduled for certification in Europe next week, and plans to conduct a European tour to show off.

Aero Friedrichshafen seems to be very busy, but very well organized. Luckily the weather seems to be perfect, and I am sure that there will be a lot to see later today in the flying display.

There were certainly many light aircraft buzzing around yesterday evening as Ryanair attempted to land at Friedrichshafen. I experienced my first commercial go-around, which was supposedly due to there being a light aircraft in the 737-800s way.

As a bumper offering after a long period of silence, I've got a batch of three mystery airbases for you to identify.

I won't tell you what I was flying in, because naming the operator would only cause confusion.

Those two are both pretty straightforward, so I'll chuck the following in as well: there's a bit less to see on the gound!

Thanks to my friends at Karup for the ride, and if you'd like to know more about what I was up to, please visit my blog. You'll find some handy clues if you read carefully!

I had a great 1h 10min flight in a two-seater on Wednesday (I won't reveal the type just yet in case it gives anyone an advantage in spotting the airport), including my first ever opportunity to perform a touch and go landing outside of a simulator. Don't worry, the photo was taken during a previous circuit flown by my instructor!

Okay, these aren't exactly eligible for Kelley's 'Which airport is this' series, but I thought I'd share a couple of approach pictures with you (including a way-hairy one!) from an RAF C-130J sortie I hitched a ride on last week.

The above shot is on finals to Kabul, Afghanistan in what can only be described as British-style weather conditions at the end of our sortie; not a good thing when your runway is above 6,000ft and you come out of the cloud at 10,000ft surrounded by mountains some 3,000ft higher. We had departed Kabul over five and a half hours earlier on an ISAF mission which sent us to Meymaneh, Mazar-e-Sharif and Herat, spending no more than 15 minutes on the ground at any location, with the engines running throughout.

Without question, the highlight of the flight was our arrival at Meymaneh, a gravel strip used to support a contingent of Norwegian troops and just about long enough to get a Hercules into. You can just about make the strip out in the below image if you look above and left of the fluffy dice - nice touch, Herc mates! Thankfully we got in and out okay and I didn't need my helmet and body armour, but better safe than sorry!

I caught the tail-end of a news report on Channel 4 last night and was surprised to see Sarah Smith holding a GAR (general aviation report) form. All private pilots will know this form must be filled prior to flying (literally) overseas.  The GAR notifies Customs, Immigration and the Police (including Special Branch) of your intent to fly.

View the news report here

Now the question is, did the pilots of those flights ever fill in a GAR? My view is that they did not having apparently only stopped off with crew and passengers remaining airside. The aircraft in question could also easily be carrying false registrations or indeed be on the US military aircraft register. Does the latter case exclude them from civil GA flight requirements? The truth is out there...

By the way, I'm currently running and posting this through Knoppix, an adaptation of Debian (Linux) that boots off a CD or DVD and very funky it is too