VP959.
So, the limitations are different. The point being?
What should we consider that the last 25 pages of "discussion" have not considered?

A NPPL is not permitted to fly in IMC & cannot add an IMC rating to the licence, therefore to comply with VMC would involve remaining in VMC & not entering IMC.
Complying with VFR would involve not flying under IFR.
Seems clear enough to me:confused:

Probably one reason why there are very few privately owned Tornado's being flown from grass strips to Afganistan.:ugh:

"How, exactly, does one "comply" with VMC? And how does that differ from complying with VFR?"

Simples. VMC minima change according to level, qualification, airspace, and aircraft type. To be VFR you must comply with these minima.

Please don't tell me you are unaware of the minima YOU require, as per ANO?

crash one wrote:

Please don't read anything hostile or sinister into my comment, I was simply pointing out that, as questions had been raised as to licence validity, medical declaration status and the visibility during certain parts of the flight, that it might be worth taking account of the differences for a microlight, nothing more.

Many on here who do not fly microlights may not be aware of these differences, as they tend to be buried in the depths of multiple bits of the rules. Those of us with many years microlight flying experience tend to become acutely aware of all the little quirks of the rules that make interpretation and compliance a bit of a chore at times.

VP

Dr JW:Wind farm developer paid for the new radar, which provides 'clean' coverage of the airspace overhead the wind farm. Nothing to do with Mode S since the problem is confined to primary radar only.
NS

NORTHSOUTH

good to know many thanks for your reply


CAA Establishes Whitelee Windfarm TMZ


The CAA has announced that a temporary Transponder Mandatory Zone (TMZ) will be established from 15 September until 6 December 2009 over the Whitelee Windfarm, south of Glasgow, to mitigate its effect on the NATS Lowther Hill radar.
The CAA commented, "Windfarms can generate unwanted returns on primary radar and degrade the performance of Secondary Surveillance Radar. The temporary TMZ has therefore been put in place to ensure the wind turbines have no adverse effect on the safety of air traffic in the area."
The TMZ will be withdrawn once NATS’ new air traffic control centre at Prestwick comes online in December 2009 with a feed from the new radar station at Kincardine in Fife. This will provide improved coverage of the airspace around the area.
The TMZ will extend from surface level to 6,000ft. Most of the TMZ will be in established Class D airspace with two small areas in uncontrolled airspace.
Phil Roberts, Assistant Director of Airspace Policy at the CAA, said: “As the majority of the TMZ covers controlled airspace most aircraft that will be affected are already transponder equipped. The local flying club at Strathaven has been consulted and due to the temporary nature of the restriction are content that there will be no major impact on their operations.”
Details of the changes will be published by NOTAM, while the AIP will be amended at AIRAC 12/2009 (19 Nov 2009).
A map showing the revised airspace can be found at http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?ca...0&pageid=10893.

What a facinating thread!
But the most useful comment has already been made by BabyBear:
I suspect this is as far as any investigation into cause will get.

'Scuse me guys. Does any of this matter if as a couple of earlier posts suggest he was not even legal to fly in 100 mile vis cloudless VFR class G sky.
Sounds like a dangerous personality type not unknown in aviation.
DO.
ps It's been interesting though.

Ah Eric..never thought of that maybe some nice person poisoned that Twix biscuit sent to my sector yesterday??....:*:*:*

Airpolice......hey OK sorry for that...reckon it was a bad pint in Scotts at the marina.....unsure if it was the tenth or the eleventh..:):):):)never really suspected your Twix bar but would like to now who your mole is?????

Would be great to organise a pprune fly in and even I can provide transport from the flight cente ....reckon I could get at least 12 in the Reliant Robin if I put the roof down :):):)

You ca nick my jacket but please not my shorts!!!...as for a friendly voice next week it will have to be monday or tuesday after that its 14 days stress break for me!!

Take care and safe flying......:cool::cool::cool:

Captain Stable,
What I meant back in post #507 was that the detail of vmc and vfr are hardly going to be of interest to biggles if he doesn't bother with the basics such as medical and rt licence etc.
Airpolice,
You have a point. This is what happened with the thread about the new ATSOCAS. It brought to light that very few people understood the old system.
DO.

I have followed this thread with no small degree of fascination from the start. There are so many lessons to be learned.
While the pilot can legitimately be faulted in many ways - I think that perhaps his greatest failure of judgement was the 'decision' to go "VFR on top" of an overcast with the consequent necessity to repeatedly climb using up more fuel. I know that he has claimed that he could see the ground and navigate visually, but I am inclined to take that with a pinch of salt as others flying in the vicinity found 8/8 oktas. Had he stayed down low there would have been a different outcome in my opinion.

Noblue you may be correct but look on the bright side. His accident is in the past and nobody was hurt. With his attitude if it had not happened then it sure as hell was going to happen somewhere else in the future with perhaps a worse outcome
DO.

I've moved the debate on VMC / VFR and R/T phraseology to another thread.

SD

I don't know what I've liked better in this thread, the aviation-related content or the colorful usage of British wit and slang...

Whit? That was back in May. :)

It is interesting to see kindred spirits indulging in righteous indignation and good old mob feeding frenzies.

This has been great sport for all and in the course of some humour and righteous indignation I have seen some good points made.


I have only recently come across flightnav and would draw attention to this for any pilot wishing to fly in areas with which they are unfamiliar - which should just about cover everyone who wants to make use fothe PPL and not just bumble around the local area.

This is an excellent resource and is not only useful to basic flight planning but has plenty of additional information and aerial view of airfields. I may be somewhat of an anorak sometimes but, ever since my early flying career I have made a point of being able to spot which aerodrome is which and now use the clues in CAA charts and pooleys/other VFR guides.

As I fly around, even on commercial flights, I take time to "navigate" my way around and usually look up airfields not stopped at but viewed from the air. Had Captain calamity taken the time and effort to plan properly - i.e. not just for what he wished and expected to happen but, for as much as might reasonably happen, he might have found Flightnav to have been a very helpful resource. He might also have been more aware of what options were available enroute and not diverted past Perth on a detour to Dundee - quite unnecessarily.


It's all about decision making - the more relevant information you have the better the results.

I take time to "navigate" may way around

Munnyspinner - Didn't realise you come from "Morningsaide"!

Jack

Tree-to-Tree Airtaxi anyone?
 

:eek: - even if
That'll be alright then :hmm:

More here.

Pilot appeals for log book return.

Is it convenient that Biggles log book is missing, or am I being cynical.:E

Why would his logbook have been loose in the aircraft? :confused:

Seriously his logbook fell out and got nicked by a squirrel, best laugh I have had for ages, Biggles really does score 11/10 for arrogance! Of course it might be believable if he hadn't done such a good job with keeping the wings level.....:D

Weekly, by the look of it. But I think that one went about a mile overhead.

Back to the top cause someone was looking for it.

Anyone heard any up dates on the chap?

Very strange i was thinking the same what's he been up to ?

Vince the vindicated
 

only found this today:
http://www.pilotworkshops.com/public/397.cfm

listen to the third talk, among other things on Water vs. trees vs. roads - which is preferable when?
Our American Expert Recommends landing in ...trees!!! :ooh:

Any latest news ?
 

I wonder if there are any updates, it's been a very interesting topic.

Are the CAA taking an interest in this and has there been an accident report ? I can't find one at the present time.

Any updates guys ? I'm itching to find the final outcome of this flight.

In answer to your question....
 

The AAIB Bulletin is now complete and scheduled for publication soon. Confidentiality precludes me saying anything more.

The CAA is engaged in an investigation of the allegations ( mostly made on PPRuNe) and I have cooperated fully and openly, sending them a copy of my original report to the AAIB, giving a host of evidence and answering every question they have asked. I do not know when they will conclude.

In the meantime I have had some very good correspondence (mainly started through the publicity from PPRuNe) with some serious pilots and instructors curious about the pancake technique. It seems that it was a part of the ops manual (just as I described it) for the Burma campaign, but the instructor who got in touch with me was completely unaware that the manoevre was frequently used in WWI and had been immortalised by Capt. W E Johns in the "Biggles" book! The RFC bequeathed it to the RAF.

My Bridge partner, Alan Simmons, was a Mosquito navigator in WWII and described to me after the event the many who tried the pancake technique after engine failure over the forests of Norway, Belgium and Germany. Most died instantly but a few survived. The CT, with its highly safe cockpit cage; its wonderful aerodynamics and its carbon fibre construction, made the landing a lot more survivable than a ply-balsa Mosquito carrying the weight of TWO Merlins and a glide ratio and speed that made a brick look good. (HIS words before you Mossie fans protest!).

Thank you for your continued interest and I hope that you will find the AAIB bulletin interesting and a help to safe flying.

Vince (the pilot!)

no carb heat, Rotax 912
 

no carb heat, Rotax 912

from a distant post on this thread- not true has an electric carb heat

Also re mogas at 10000ft - I think this is because it is assumed (by the regulator) that aircraft operating at this altitude will be turbocharged and need 100LL to preclude possible detonation problems. Mogas is much better for Rotax -100LL causes lead fouling

Dave

If one had to ditch in strong wind conditions then hopefully the wind is around ninety degrees to the swell directionand one could avoid burying ones nose into the next wave. Given these conditions would you advise landing into wind in the sea as opposed to on a mile long wide sand beach fifty yards away?

Why did I have to stumble on this thread at 2300!
 

Last night I found this thread just before I planned to go to bed. I hadn't seen it before. My usual SOP with large threads like this is to read the first page to see what happened and then go to the last page.

Well, not this time! As several others have pointed out, it's a real "page-turner". So three hours later at 0200, I go off to bed after having had the most entertaining read that I've ever had on PPRuNe - even better than Oban.

It's not surprising I missed it first time around. Post 513 was 13 days after the first - this must be some kind of record .

Vince, if you are still flying or intend to in the future, I would steer clear of Wales:

http://www.targeta.co.uk/images/piss_off_biggles.jpeg
(Image from this thread: http://www.pprune.org/military-aircr...llys-t-ts.html - thanks to FO Stout)

I cannot wait to see the report.

I42

reply to airpolice
 

Firstly the fairway I selected looked long enough but I could only "see" it at first as a swathe cut from the trees. I could not see the ground at all. At very much the last minute,as I was lining up on "fairway finals", I was able to see that four golfers were in my path approaching the "green" and another four were just setting off from the"Tee".

The first four were exactly where I needed to touch down and the second four were (safer) but where I would be trying to stop before shooting off into the trees, assuming I had avoided the bunkers; bushes or whatever other obstructions the course designers had put there to distinguish the course from a runway!

Why were there EIGHT golfers on this particular fairway? Wednesday is "club competition" day at the Caird Park Golf Club and they were playing foursomes or fourballs or something. Another four on the next "Tee"; witnessed the entire manoevre and reported it very accurately in the local paper!

The tree was the only option safe to those on the ground. Beyond it on my track was a busy dual carriageway then a housing estate.

As for your comments on fuel, you will have to wait for the AAIB bulletin. My fully planned and discussed (with pilots at Walney used to the terrain) alternates were Carlisle; Dundee and Inverness (since there is no AVgas at Kinloss).

All the best,

Vince

Vince

It still doesn't seem to have dawned on you that better planning and preparation could have prevented the accident and lose of your plane. It also doesn't seem to have dawned that you were very lucky you didn't hurt yourself or lose your life.

You are still making excuses for yourself and as a result my fingers are tightly crossed that no-one ever signs you off to fly solo again. Sadly they might already have done so.

BTW according to their websites there is also AvGas at Cumbernauld and Fife, so I fail to see why you were pressing on with the needle almost on the stop, and I wonder why they were not mentioned to you. However, the bottom line is you were PIC, it was up to *you* to formulate a safe plan including getting the correct fuel without running any risk of running short, and it seems likely to me that you failed to do so.

I suspect the holes were so big they didn't have to line up anything like perfectly. I also suspect that if Vince doesn't like the AAIB conclusions he won't hold back from telling us how they got it wrong.

Just looking at google earth

What Runway was it on the golf there does look like so much better places to land even round the edge of course or better still just north of the field :ugh:

It's all very well folk sitting in front of a computer in the comfort of the home saying "ah, but you could've done this instead", but we weren't there. We weren't in the situation at the time, nor did we have to deal with the emergency and the circumstances at the time and make a split-second decision at that time. How can we judge when we weren't there?

Perhaps a more useful thing for all of us would be to wait for the AAIB report, have a good read at it and learn any lessons from it should there be lessons to be learned, rather than bumming around here slagging off the person involved.

Smithy

With a bit of proper planning he probably would not have been in that situation

The AAIB are known throughout the flying world as impartial reporters. They absolutely never allocate blame.

However, they are world leaders in the use of diplomatic language. Those who understand diplomatic language will surely be able to get the drift of what the experts really think when the report is published.

Who knows, Biggles might even be able to gain the odd crumb of comfort from the report and will, no doubt, be offering tree-landing courses for a very modest fee in the grounds of Hampton Court Palace or the Deer Park, Richmond having been totally exonerated (in his own mind).