CAPTAINOZ,
Yeah, the formation takeoffs are still the flavor of the month. They did the bungles in form not that long ago. I’m sure they got a great view of the bloke flying lead while the bungles were passing by underneath them. Whatever tickles your fancy I guess…
Dingo,
...how dare anybody else go flying when the KU locals want to.
I didn’t suggest that nobody else could go flying when the locals do. I did however suggest that it is not the most intelligent thing to do. The ERSA even states that visiting pilots are welcome to contact the local operators for a briefing. Why? So we can show people the route, the MBZ/CTAF/radio procedures and the most appropriate times to go. Many people take us up on this and are very appreciative. Almost all of these people then elect to depart at a time that does not coincide with the local departure times. Why? So they can minimise their workload during the flight (not having to worry about 15 other aeroplanes around them) thereby allowing them to enjoy their flight more than they might have otherwise. It’s simply common sense.
The particular group I was referring to in my previous post hadn’t even taken the time to thoroughly brief the required procedures at Kununurra before the flight. I know this because the first bloke to taxi briefed those in his group behind him by reading out the ERSA procedures over the MBZ frequency not once, but twice. Meanwhile in the small gaps between the on-air briefing, people are struggling to get in the mandatory circuit joining and taxi calls. As I mentioned, this is all happening while there are around 20 aircraft in the MBZ.
What poor scheduling by the locals, all going at 0900, who do they think they are, an airline?
As for operating on a schedule, it is a very common practice for large tour operators, both flying and non-flying. Believe it or not, coordinating 4WD/heli/lunch transfers, first/last light constraints, aircraft/pilot utilisation etc. etc. is best done with a schedule. Just ask any geriatric that has been on an AAT Kings bus.
Having the local aircraft all depart at the same time isn’t generally a problem. The pilots have all been trained on the route and generally fly it on a regular basis. As a result, the tracking and radio calls are very standardised, making it easy to visually spot aircraft as you know precisely where to look for them. This means you can easily get by with just the minimum required MBZ/CTAF/bungles calls. Which brings us back to the topic of this thread….