starship trooper 2009-08-29

Starship Trooper is a brilliant song by Yes.

Starship Troopers is a very good and thought provoking Science Fiction book by Robert A Heinlein.

Starship Troopers is a really great film loosely based on the book.

Starship Troopers 2 or Starship Troopers 3 Marauder are embarrassingly awful films. Why did they bother? (Jolene Blalock scenes excepted)

alone again (naturally) 2009-08-26

Wednesday was not a good day: 'nuff said!

life in the fast lane 2009-08-26

Dave and I flew HSAWS up to Chaing Mai from "Bang Phra":http://www.thaiflyingclub.com earlier this week. This was my first flight without Tony in the right-hand seat. The Thailand DCA issued an amendment to the 5 year permit for HSAWS allowing either Dave or I to fly solo PIC.

We went to and from VTCC IFR. I logged some actual instrument time, and some hood time with Dave as my safety pilot. The Cu contained some bumps and rain but we avoided the nasty stuff. I kept my head down concentrating on attitude and airspeed while Dave looked out. The worst shear was +- 20 Kt and I reduced speed to Va where prudent. The maximum unintended rate of climb was + 1,500 fpm.

I nailed the VTCC runway 36 ILS and arrived softly softly with the usual tailwind.

We encountered less actual IFR time on the return trip. I cancelled IFR over Chon Buri past the last Cu and with the Bang Phra Condos in sight. I kept my intended 85 Kt until past the trees on Runway 23 and eased off the power for a squeaky soft arrival. The Commander 114 arrives easily provided we treat it as a large aircraft and not a small Cessna or Piper. You will get an impressive sink rate if you allow the speed to come back to 1.3 Vso on final.

I make spur of the moment visits so it is hard to plan ahead to meet up with people I know there. I still managed to meet some "old":http://www.clickandtravelonline.com, and new friends in Chaing Mai.

Yet again I have had a great indeed inspirational trip: 6 hours logged, met (another) Ghost, found out so much about armchair flying. By Tuesday evening I was tired (totally shagged out as we brits say). I slept well on Tuesday night so I was good for the Pattaya to Suvarnabhumi highway fast lane, flight to Hong Kong, and with some regrets work on Wednesday.

Thailand 2009-08-24

I am back in Pattaya preparing to break the fast and then drive to Bang Phra.

My plan today is to meet with the other pilots of HSAWS and then for Dave and I to fly to Chaing Mai IFR.

The City of Angeles

I am in Angeles City to do some flying out of Clark Omni in a Piper Seneca I. My first and only flight yesterday lasted as long as it took to confirm the malfunction, run the emergency checklist, decide how to proceed, and land. All of that still took an thirty minutes. I deliberately took my time so as not to rush things. The gear would not retract. I had three greens, red gear unsafe light, gear warning horn, one in the mirror on each of five attempts to retract the undercarriage.

I used the "DECIDE model":http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=aviation+decision+making&aq=f&oq=&aqi to guide my decision making and for practice.

• Detect the fact that a change has occurred.
• Estimate the need to counter or react to the change.
• Choose a desirable outcome for the success of the flight.
• Identify actions which could successfully control the change.
• Do the necessary action to adapt to the change.
• Evaluate the effect of the action.

I decided to do a low pass at RPLC and land there on their long, wide, and unobstructed runway. The Omni runway is short, narrow, and obstructed. I made a normal landing on 02L after a low pass and left the aircraft in the care of maintenance. I checked on the status of the Seneca later in the day. The gear had not retracted because of an electrical fault that could not be fixed straight away. As the day continues it looks less likely that I will fly the Seneca again on this trip.