Winds to 75 kts in Vic - ride reports

[Captain Garmin]

Guessing you freight dogs might take a while to settle your nerves after your runs to/from ML/EN tonight. Love to hear some ride reports and how your ships are handling.

[Keg]

It was nowhere near as rough into MEL at 1130 today as I expected. Sure, you don't expect to see a groundspeed of 88knots on a 767 on final approach and the 70 knot tailwind around the 11DME arc was sporting but the actual approach was relatively benign. :ok: ATIS was 360/30-40G50 That was pretty much it from 500' down. Above that there were gusts to 75 knots.

Great fun. :ok:

[evilducky]

That awkward moment when you could hypothetically land a light plane whilst traveling backwards.

[A37575]

That awkward moment when you could hypothetically land a light plane whilst traveling backwards

That's not as weird as one would think. Must have been about 15 years ago when similar strong winds from the north was affecting Essendon. Most light aircraft had cancelled flying training for the day except for one intrepid grade three instructor intent on making his dollar for the day by offering a TIF to a walk-in customer. We watched transfixed as this character from one of the several Essendon flying schools in those days, trying to taxi from the main terminal area via the 17/35 parallel taxiway for runway 35 for departure. Winds estimated 35 knots gusting much higher. The poor little Cessna 150 was hopping all the way to the runway after crossing 26/08 in the process and you could see the instructor trying to control the aircraft with bursts of throttle and flapping rudder. He lined up on 35 and presumably did his before take off checks. When it came to "Controls full and free" this ace must have pulled back full elevator at the same time a great gust of wind hit him. The Cessna immediately got airborne and looped - and finished in a crumpled heap on the flight strip. In those days there was no such animal as Threat and Error Management. But it was so funny at the time. Certainly an exciting TIF. Later the instructor said he thought it was too windy to fly but gave the option to the TIF passenger to go flying or leave it to another day. The gung-ho passenger said "let's go now" and the instructor said its your call and off they went.

[Weekend_Warrior]

360/30-40G 50? Just about a normal day in Wellington.

[27/09]

Later the instructor said he thought it was too windy to fly but gave the option to the TIF passenger to go flying or leave it to another day. The gung-ho passenger said "let's go now" and the instructor said its your call and off they went.

Great command decision making - NOT!!!!!! Letting the customer decide if conditions are suitable. Also have to ask how the supervising instructor (I presume there was one, there needs to be on this side of the ditch) allowed this to happen.

[Jack Ranga]

And out of interest, why were virtually ALL Virgin flights SY-ML on Wednesday coming down at F240? SIGMETS? Planned at pretty slow TAS as well?

And to the Virgin Pilot that rang in and asked why the Qantas aircraft got to overtake him. You were doing 375-385kts G/S he was doing 430 odd. It's your time at the gate (LIZZY) compared to everyone else's gate time that decides the sequence, not your en-route G/S.

[compressor stall]

Pretty sure it was a 172. SRV if I recall correctly. And it was his mate who was the TIF customer.

[evilducky]

Why even bother with taxiing to the runway? Wind speed > stall speed, you might as well just jump on the helipad, point into the wind and drop out the flaps :ok:

[NzCaptainAndrew]

Hahah sure sounds like NZWN to me....;)

[Blank]

In cruise on the way to SBG being a freight dog; was pretty rough bellow 4000' not to bad up top


http://i1057.photobucket.com/albums/t382/blank0071/th_3fa892fa.jpg

[nitpicker330]

Airborne yesterday and we had 70 kts headwind at 3000'. GS 170 kts climbing out in our A330!! FL 380 wind over SWH 300/175..

All quite smooth however....VMC on top. :ok:

[Wally Mk2]

Ya never seem to hear/see any Robbo's out in those winds, unless of course they where going southbound on a one way trip!:-)

'Nit' that's ugly them thar No's! :)

The conditions of the last few days was similar to those that brought the AC50 down Nth of ML a few years ago.

Slipping out of EN late one night Nthbound off rwy 35 with a G/S of around 70kts in the old Beech, ML Dep's took me west of my track after seeing I was gunna be a long term pest in the CTZ so as to allow departing A/C from ML to get away sometime before dawn!:ok:
As a PVT pilot the winds where always a headwind when you hired a plane, why is that?:)

Wmk2

[The Green Goblin]

Was an interesting day for it.

70 knots up the bum on base and still 50 knot left crosswind until dropping through 1000 ft.

Adelaide was fun too :)

[Aussie Bob]

Well it wasn't just you jet jockeys who had all the fun. I ventured out in my Scout in Tassie and had 60 knots GS out of YWYY into the west (100 tas) and 40 knots on the nose at THRUM where I touched down in about 10 meters. YSMI had about 30 straight down 28 and I was well above 500 feet over the end at gross. All in all a great days fun.

[Lodown]

A good friend of my parents who passed away last year was a pilot in the Battle of Britain. Did his initial training at Western Junction near Launceston. Had stories about the westerlies kicking up unexpectedly. For Tiger Moths in the circuit, ground personnel would be lined up alongside the runway and would jump on the Tiger Moth wingtips as they landed. A few cases of the occasional go round with an additional pax or two. Someone would staff the phone to keep in touch (if possible) with those on navexes who couldn't get back and landed somewhere else.

[framer]

About 12 years ago a beauty front came through Christchurch while we were on the ground. A training aircraft from Cantabury Aero Club was racing in from the beach trying to beat it to the field. It was a close run thing, he landed on the grass 20 just as the windsock turned and the cold air swept across the field. Two instructors ran across the grass and held onto the wingtips so he could turn and taxi off. I think it was a good call not to turn across the wind until they helped him or he might have ended up like the chap in Essenden.

[DirectAnywhere]

Great War Stories! That Essendon one is a ripper. Thanks guys - brought a smile to my morning. Something PPRuNe hasn't done for a while now.:p

[Weekend_Warrior]

wellington (nzwn):

atis nzwn h 2223
apch: Expect ils dme approach
rwy: 34
sfc cond: Damp
wind: 320/35g50 max60 230v020
vis: 15km red 5km
wx: Rain showers
cld: Sct014 bkn017
temperature: 16
dew point: 11
qnh: 993
sigwx: Cross wind mean 15 knots maximum 20 knots windshear and
turbulence on final approach
2000ft wind: Reported 330/60=

[nitpicker330]

Remind me not to carry Wellington as an Alternate for Melbourne!! :}