Pilot followed GPS to airstrip that didn't exist.
 

I think this might just be one of our regulars on here, something to do with a Scottish musical instrument?

TOO

The GPS line was just a red herring. Assuming this wasn't a stall/spin accident, the real story is how easy it is for an experienced pilot in a powerful aircraft to get downed by wave rotor or "clutching hand". A word of warning for us all.

PM

A similar quandary 73 years ago may be of interest:

(From my Post on Military Aviation> "Gaining a R.A.F. Pilot's Brevet in WWII"> Page 139, #2777).
Danny42C.

Meanwhile, I am bravely trying to locate that mistery airstrip. Could it be

https://www.google.be/maps/@57.23560.../data=!3m1!1e3

??

I have been reading the memoirs of a wartime RAF techie who was posted to an RAF station he had never heard of. He was provided with 2 WAAF drivers and a car to take him there. When they got to the village of the same name they couldn't find the airfield anywhere. They stopped at the local post office to ask directions and were told that the airfield hadn't been built yet.

Google Earth has several fake airfields in Scotland. Haven't checked if they're still there.
I once was almost at round-out to a runway shaped cabbage area parallel to Easter runway.
Congratulations PB. Been there, done something similar, only got 3 lines in the P&J, and a bit more in the Orcadian. Nothing on STV.

Astute observation there PM.

A few yeas ago some colleagues showed me a copy of a Press and Journal article from something of a while ago.

There were 4 of us kneeing in front of my aircraft of the time. Generally a fairly nice article which was quite sensible. Not in the article was the reporter talking about the detail of his flight, there was some stuff about looking at Bennachie and the Garioch but he forgot (?) to talk about the PFL.

In the aircraft he was banging on about the usual plummet and puppy farm other stuff, we had arranged all this after an unfortunate forced landing that got a lot of negative publicity.
So I closed the throttle at around 2500 fairly close to the airfield and we glided. I talked to him all the way down, giving a commentary on too high, too low, too slow etc

We touched down and rolled to a halt just outside the club house and that was where the photo was taken.

The lesson is that newspaper memories last about a week!!!

Because the next unfortunate forced landing, the little beggar had already left!

TangoAlphad,
I've flown with him too and would happily do so again. I agree with your assessment of the article.

Did he phone for PPR? If it was an unlicensed strip on private land, he should have done otherwise he would be landing without the landowners permission.

chevvron

Why don't you ask him the question directly? He is here on this thread...

...and I notice that he has just turned 54 on proon. Happy birthday! Glad you made it ;-)

So am I, and thank you👍

He probably owns the strip.

Terrain, Vortices and Downbursts
 

In a glider, there can be a sudden silence. Since my incident two years ago where I lost 285' after turning final I've heard from other glider pilots who encountered such conditions.

I suspect that many stall/spin and wire strike fatal accidents would be more correctly attributed to a low level vortex and/or downburst.

Having narrowly missed the usual misattribution, analysis of my flight recorder data revealed a vortex and downburst.

subject
 

Glad to hear you're ok....belated birthday wishes.

:ok:

Interesting - PB has been on another thread this week on a quite similar topic. Having been (last flight) heading north to Ballater at a planned 5.000 ft, and finding one-self on an unplanned ascend to 6,500 feet, one does gain a bit more respect for the Scottish hills. Glad you we're ok. The AAIB report has been read and filed.

I know a guy who was a Victor captain and also a glider pilot. Stooging around Scotland, waiting for Lightnings needing fuel, a voice enquired on the intercom' Captain, we appear to be on descent power and climbing at 3,000 feet/minute, can we please know what's going on?'

Scottish mountains are interesting to fly near.

Mountain wave is, however, seldom (if ever) known to occur at ground level and certainly not in a manner to smash a powerful aircraft into the ground. It takes a microburst or roll turbulence to do that, does it not?

I have climbed in smooth wave that broke a winch cable at 300ft and abandoned the climb at 13,000ft due to lack of O2. Rotor at ground level is part of the wave system and can be pretty rough.

In my spare time during a long career of professional flying, I spent the best part of 15 years having something to do with running an RAFGSA gliding club in my spare time (I ended up as the CFI). Twice per year we would mount a 2-week expedition to such as Sutton Bank in Yorkshire and, in 1973, we started going to Aboyne in Aberdeenshire. It was a pretty basic site then but the wave flying was magnificent.

It has to be said that we frequently encountered rotor at Aboyne. The surface wind could be calm and then, a few hundred feet after take-off, all hell would break loose. Fortunately, it usually did not last too long and then it was possible to tow up into the smooth wave system.

Sadly, one of my friends died in the rotor whilst towing a visiting glider. He was flying a Citabria tug, the glider got out of position and he hung on to him hoping that the glider pilot would sort himself out. That did not happen and he and the Citabria entered the ground at speed.

A previous poster opined that wave does not happen close to the ground. I was at Aboyne once checking out one of my Full Cat Instructors. The general wind was southerly but there was not a lot of it. The tug was a Beagle Terrier and we were in an ASK-13. We took off to the east and the tug pilot turned south almost immediately, crossing the River Dee towards Glen Tanar.

After not very long we stopped climbing and were barely staying out of the treetops. Robbie asked me what to do. There was nowhere to go so all we could do was hang on and hope that the rope didn't break. It didn't and at about 800 feet we and the tug were going up like there was no tomorrow.

We spent the next hour rocketing up to 12,000 feet with the lift off the clock, then pulling the airbrakes out and slipping back into the sink (wave bars are seldom more than 3 nms apart) and so down to 1,500 feet or so and then rocketing up to 12,000 feet again.

It has to be said that powered aviation still has very little idea of how to deal with wave. In 1964, it was realised that the gliding community had been using wave for years to its own advantage and so it was that the Carlisle Wave Project was launched. Met men and all sorts of interested parties gathered together at Kirkbride and launched lots and lots of gliders to accumulate data. There were many interesting stories including one of my friends who nearly died of exposure when he landed out in the middle of nowhere.

Incidentally, the man that got me into aviation got caught in wave and didn't know how to deal with it despite a long and illustrious career in the RAF in WW II. He found himself on top of a large hill in SW Scotland in Miles Messenger G-AJOD on 05.11.52.

It is always better to learn from other peoples mistakes for you simply do not have enough time to make them all yourself

Actually 1960, with 'Spread' Goodbody in charge, the late, great Paddy Kearon making his airfield available and interesting flying. Les Manley's account of his 2 day survival exercise after landing in the hills was 'educational'.

My most memorable experience ofwave, was a few years ago overhead St Andrews.
Leuchars had given me a matzclearance at 1,500’ to fly over the town and the old course.
During the flight, I thought theVSI had become possessed, as it was fluctuating from 1,000 fpm up, to 1,000 fpmdown. I found myself needing full power nose-down in the lift, and full powernose-up in the sink, just to maintain the 1,500’ clearance.
It was quite a ride, and comingfrom East Anglia, a completely new experience for me.

Fitter2:

Was it really 1960? I'm sure you're right. Les Manley was the chap I was talking about and it was a fascinating story to listen to. He was lucky to survive. Sadly, Les is no longer with us. Apart from anything else, he was a bloody good flight engineer and an excellent chippie. The latter talent came in handy when building gliding club bars!

It might also be worth mentioning that when we flew from Aboyne, all our gliders were equipped with a first aid kit, a ration pack, space blankets and a PLB. This was as a result of Les Manley's experience.

The strip at Meikle Endovie is still on the charts, and on the charts in Aberdeen's AIP entry. But it doesn't exist and never did. Ten years ago the son of the owner of Meikle Endovie Farm posted a plea on the UKGA site for information about this airstrip that was allegedly on their land, but of course no-one responded!