Edition 130

This forum was started in October 2003 and is distributed weekly to approximately 10 000 email recipients across the globe. Its purpose is to allow the exchanging of ideas, tips, and advice for the purpose of aviation safety. Back issues have kindly been made available at http://efc.org.au/_sgt/m3_1.htm . Contributions are encouraged, and welcome.

From Me:

Hullo peoples! Please excuse this forum being a bit shorter than usual but life has been hectic recently. Just the other day a good mate of mine was sitting in my lounge when he said that the carrier he flies for needed more pilots - specifically Captain material. I went "Bah". He asked for my CV. I again went "Bah". Anyway, I then did indeed call up an old CV on my computer, updated it, and gave it to him. A week later I received a call from the chief pilot, the next morning I was in Johannesburg doing psychometric tests, interviews, background checks, and whatever, and by 4:10pm that day I was hired to fly for SA Airlink. Fantastic! A new chapter begins in my life but people, please do not despair, this forum and the aviation magazine ain't goin' nowhere! I will still have plenty of time to keep the writing runnin' so don' wurry! Anyway, as from tomorrow morning it's off to Joeys for two weeks of technical training, then off to Britain for 32 hours of simulator training, and then it's into the right-hand seat of the Jetstream 41 for a bit of torture. I can't wait.

Hi Gary

Dimples on a surface do not necessarily reduce drag. An un-dimpled ball moving through the air has laminar flow over about the first 60% of its surface and, because of the strong slipstream created by the laminar flow, also creates a very turbulent flow around the last 40% of its surface. Adding the dimples prevents the laminar flow which thereby dramatically reduces the turbulence in the after 40% of the ball. Thus, there is less total drag and the ball goes further. It doesn't go any straighter, but further because of the reduced drag.

An airplane wing, on the other hand is much more "streamlined," creating relatively little turbulence near the trailing edge of the wing, at least in cruise. There are even wings that can maintain laminar flow all the way to the trailing edge of the wing a great deal of the time. Such a wing would not benefit at all from dimpling which would actually increases the drag without providing any benefit at all.

Tom Lippman

Gary,

How do you get some guy to loan you his turboprop? Print THAT so the rest of us can scam one!

Lou Siegal

Well Lou, ya need to be smooth with the mouth. Our local radio personalities were off on a cruise at about the same time as our annual cruise, so we merely tied in with them. I then twisted the arm of the manager at Sheltam Aviation to give us the 'Van in exchange for radio advertising and voila! Bob was yer Aunt! You need to know people in the right places......

Spotlight On

Name? Nick van Noordwyk

Age? 42

Personal qualifications? NDip Computer Science.

Flying qualifications? Student pilot

Do you own an aircraft? If not, what do you fly? Yes a Sycamore Gyro and 50% in a C210.

What is your day job? Entrepreneur / Developer.

Why did you choose flying as a career/sport? Something I have not done yet and it gets me around faster.

What irks you about aviation? People that think they know it all.

Can anybody learn to fly? I think everyone can learn to fly, but everyone cannot learn to fly well.

Describe your most memorable flight? I only had a couple of training flights, hope to have a couple of memorable ones in the future.

Your closest call/most anxious moment? Precautionary landing in a field after loss of turbo in my first hour of flying as student in my brand new aircraft.

Your most admired aviation personality? Do not really know the flying fraternity well.

What is your ultimate goal in aviation? To fly well, responsible and safely and above all, to enjoy it.

What aircraft would you still love to fly? My C210 to start with�.

Is flying really safe, and why? Yes, it is well regulated and we share the air with responsible trained pilots flying well maintained aircraft and adhering to the laws. Very different compared to road travel.

What direction do you think aviation will take in the future? Small, less expensive, safe, mogass driven personal aircraft will start to replace cars and general traveling.

What is the most important single item of advice/suggestion that you would wish to pass on to your fellow aviators?

Think for yourself and for all the others in your airspace, because maybe they are not thinking at all�.�

Do you read Aviation & Safety Magazine? Yes.