As promised in an earlier post, here’s a short video of our helicopter flight over the Grand Canyon with Papillon Helicopters.
Click on the photo to take you to the YouTube video – best watched full-screen with the sound up!
SkyFlyte Tasmania‘s flying school CFI, Peter Reed, and his partner Gill Quinn recently visited Tyabb to take their maiden flight in my demonstrator A32 Vixxen.
They made this video of their experience – click the photo to view on YouTube.
There are a couple of minor inaccuracies – cruise speed of the A32 is definitely confirmed at 115+ knots and usable fuel capacity is 95 litres. Nevertheless, this is a great little video with a pilot’s eye view and candid comments from Peter and Gill
[wpvideo YJElSDYc]
Today I trotted along to Santa Monica Airport close to where we are staying, to have a look at the aeroplanes and check out an airport which must in many ways be similar to Essendon Airport near Melbourne – a mixture of biz-jets, warbirds, GA and light sport aircraft. It’s also right in the heart of a built-up area, with big ‘fly quietly’ signs everywhere – something that’s a bit difficult for a Citation jet!
On the day I went, take off was towards the west, straight out over the beach. I watched quite a few aircraft coming and going, including a couple of Sport Cruisers (still branded Piper Sports) doing training circuits, and the inevitable Cessna 172s and a nice V-tail Bonanza.
After an hour or so on the sky deck viewing area I was ready to leave when a small aircraft caught my attention, taxiing out for take-off: an Icon A5. As most aviators will know, this is about the most hyped aircraft to appear in recent years and in spite of a US$200,000+ price tag, the manufacturer claims to have several hundred confirmed orders and a 3-year waiting list.
Icon went through a very long development period, including obtaining a special FAA exemption to allow them to exceed the amphibious LSA 650 kgs weight limit by about 40 kgs ‘for safety reasons’. In purely aesthetic terms, the aircraft looks beautiful – at least with the wheels up – and the cabin and instrument panel resemble an expensive sports car. Nevertheless, its weight carrying capacity is not great and the cruise is surprisingly slow for such a sleek looking aircraft – flat out, 95 knots and typically 80-85 knot cruise. But hey, look at the style! Who wants to rush when you have such an aviation icon?
The video above shows the Icon A5 departing Santa Monica. The main thing I noticed was the noise, which is typical of pusher configurations – quite loud, due to the relatively turbulent air coming round the fuselage into the prop.
If I was a millionaire, I might buy one….might.
Today I was lucky enough to take a helicopter flight over the Grand Canyon in Arizona, USA. I can’t say it’s been a lifelong dream – but it should have been. The experience was about as mind-boggling as it can get in an aircraft.
I’m not normally much of a fan of helicopters – too noisy and too many bits to go wrong – but this was one time my prejudices were completely blown away(!).
My beloved and I took to the air with four other passengers, very ably flown by Brett our pilot, for the 45 minute trip in a Eurocopter 130, belonging to Papillon Helicopters. This is a 6-seater + pilot helicopter with state of the art controls and avionics and, as it turned out, a great music and commentary soundtrack played through our Bose headsets. Pilot Brett also answered questions on the way and pointed out additional items of interest.
We took off gently from the south rim airport and the one potentially scary bit, if you don’t have a head for heights, is the initially low-level approach over the forest towards the canyon’s edge. At about 60 knots we passed directly over the rim into empty space and about 5,500 feet of clear air down to the canyon floor below. Quite a few loudish noises from some of the passengers! All added to by the crucial bit of ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’ playing in the headsets.
The trip took us up the canyon and eventually across to the 1,000 feet higher north rim, which is much more difficult and lengthy to access by road. We turned up and along a few deep crevices and then Brett turned gently homeward and we re-crossed the canyon towards the south to return to the airport.
All in all, this was an amazing experience, particularly as we were lucky enough to sit in the front two seats next to the pilot. Papillon Helicopters are the consummate professionals in both passenger check-in and the flight itself. Not cheap but an experience of a lifetime. Foxbatpilot rating 11/10
PS – when I get back, I’ll edit and post a short video of the experience. Watch this space!
Congratulations to Matt Hall on his second place in the 2015 Red Bull Air Race series, following an outright win in Las Vegas. Pipped at the post by Brit ace Paul Bonhomme (who came second in LV), Matt can nevertheless hold his head high. Paul and Matt were clear leaders in the 2015 Red Bull series, with 76 and 71 points respectively, with the nearest competitor in third place – pilot Hannes Arch – managing less than half the points at 34.
As an interesting foot note, Peter Besenyei (who finished 12th this year, with a career 8 victories) is retiring from the sport at the age of 59. I raise my glass to you, Peter – that’s a pretty good age to still be flying +9 -6 G races/aerobatics! My head starts to go odd at +1.5 G !
As a very small by the side, the Foxbat Australia static display area at Avalon Airshow was right next to Matt’s Red Bull team. I must say he’s a really great guy, with time for everyone. It was interesting to see him ‘walking’ through the aerobatic display he gave at Avalon and the amazing degree of focus he brought to what he was doing. Even more interesting was the post-display high he clearly experienced – I can believe that spinning round and round, with alternating high positive and negative ‘G’ must almost scramble your brains…..personally, I like it upright and steady!
Well done Matt, I’m full of admiration.
Many years ago, I saw a wonderful video called One Six Right, which was all about Van Nuys Airport, located in the San Fernando Valley, to the north of Los Angeles. In reality it was a fantastic promo documentary video about Van Nuys, to convince people that it was more than worth keeping, as it made such commercial as well as sentimental sense. One Six Right is the main runway, which favours the prevailing winds, so most aircraft land and take off from it. One Six Left and its reciprocal is used primarily for training flights as it is ‘only’ 4,000 feet (1,220 metres) and therefore half as long as its parallel companion.
The video was a no-expense spared affair, with some of the most creative and beautifully shot sequences of warbirds, aerobatic stunt flying, a low and slow J3 Cub, following a DC3 in to land (almost sitting, it seemed, on the tail fin) as well as a variety of other aircraft – some very common, some far from so.
And there were plenty of interviews with current and past pilots, men and women, based at Van Nuys. I was truly transfixed the first time I saw the video as, at the time, there was no aviation film with such hi-definition images, so beautifully edited into a series of sections featuring different flight regimes – with titles like ‘The Joyride‘, ‘Look Ma – No Hands!’ and of course, that old favourite of all pilots: ‘Dreams of Flying‘.
So when I had a very brief opportunity to go and see Van Nuys Airport in the flesh, of course I jumped at it. The day was very hot – in the mid-30s celsius (mid-90s fahrenheit) – so I didn’t spend a lot of time there – just enough to see a few biz jets arrive and depart, a few learner pilots doing their touch-and-goes, and take a few photos from the public viewing area, which unfortunately is surrounded by a 3-metre high chain link fence (a sign of our terrorised times I suppose).
But just to be there was great; the sight of the control tower – which features strongly in the video – and the hills surrounding the valley was enough to bring back some of those flying sequences in the video.
Van Nuys is one of the busiest GA airfields in the world with almost 300,000 aircraft movements annually (that figure’s not a mistake!). Eat your heart out Tyabb….
If you want to buy a copy of One Six Right, you can get it from most good pilot supplies shops or from the official website by clicking here: One Six Right
Or you can rent a (low resolution) viewing on YouTube by clicking here: One Six Right
My friend Norm has reminded me that my comment about never being able to get all four ‘standard’ Foxbat colours together in one place was incorrect – must have been a seniors moment!
In fact, a few years ago several of us and our partners went on a trip to Lake Eyre at a time when we thought it would be a once in 20-years opportunity to see water in the lake, and from the air too.
Lake Eyre is the lowest point in Australia – up to 100 feet below sea level – and at that time had been dry for almost 20 years. Heavy rains and cyclones in Queensland to the north had seen water eventually arrive in the lake and the desert had blossomed with flora & fauna. We grabbed the chance to go and have a look, although as it turned out, the following year rains also filled the lake and the waters remained for quite a while.
Take-off from Weekeroo – click for full size
I & Louise were flying a blue demonstrator A22LS aircraft (24-7250), Mike & Telsa took their first yellow A22L Foxbat (24-4560), and Norm & Coral took 24-5200, a red US Foxbat LSA. We were joined for some of the way by Roger & Merry in a yellow A22L Foxbat (24-4691), so for most of the trip, there were just the three colours – until we reached Weekeroo Station*, near Broken Hill, where Pauline Crawford owned 24-7228, a WHITE A22LS Foxbat (in fact her second).
That morning, after a flight from Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary in the Flinders Ranges, we gathered all 5 Foxbats – blue, white, red and two yellow, in front of Weekeroo and took some photos.
So there’s the evidence – way back in 2009, all four standard A22 colours together in one outback place near Broken Hill. Thanks, Norm, for ‘refreshing’ my memory!
* Interesting footnote: Weekeroo Station was the site of the discovery of a meteorite back in the 1920s. Quite a sizeable chunk of rock at around 95 kilos (210 US pounds), it is now residing in the Australian Museum in central Sydney.
Click picture to view video
Continuing with my French theme, in case you missed it, here’s a video about a red A22 Foxbat, a banner-towing pilot, Claude Canteau, and a bubbly lady presenter, Alix Lanos.
Although all my children speak fluent French and have French partners, my own French is very basic. However, even though I’m only picking up a small part of the spoken words, I could watch this video over and again as it’s filmed (video’d?) and presented very nicely in that inimitable French style. Apart from the banner towing (not legal for ultralights or light sport aircraft in Australia), Claude executes a great engine-off landing (without the banner!), also something we are not allowed to do in Australia.
Bon chance Claude! and continue to enjoy your flying.
Thanks to Ferdinand Colonna-Cesari for the link.
French FoxbatPilot subscriber Ferdinand Colonna-Cesari responded to my ‘Vive La France‘ post with a link to some photos of his Aeroprakt A22 aircraft based at Montélimar in France. I have never visited, but this looks like a wonderfully French picturesque medieval town in south eastern France, originally built in Roman times and dominated by a castle.
An interesting link for Australians is that Montélimar – apart from being the world nougat capital – was the birthplace of navigator Louis-Claude de Freycinet, who, along with his brother, Louis-Henri de Freycinet, joined the French navy in 1800 and sailed all the way to Australia, re-visiting many of the places originally explored by Englishman Matthew Flinders. The Freycinet brothers returned to France and published their map of the Australian coastline in 1811 – at least 3 years before Flinders managed to do the same, so there is some ‘discussion’ as to who first ‘discovered’ what parts of Australia…
There are several places in Australia named after Freycinet: the Freycinet Peninsula, a wonderfully scenic part of the eastern Tasmanian coast, including Wineglass Bay; the Freycinet Estuary in south Western Australia (WA) and Cape Freycinet, further up the WA coast.
Finally, if you want a more obscure connection with Australia, have a look at Ferdinand’s aircraft registration – F-JUOZ.
So what initially looks like a simple link to a few photos of an aeroplane, turns out to be a serendipitous couple of co-incidences which brightened my Sunday morning! Thank you, Ferdinand.
It’s amazing that even after over 150 A22 Foxbat deliveries in Australia, I still haven’t managed to get all four standard colours – yellow, white, red and blue – together in one place, side-by-side for a photo. Not to mention the half-dozen or so non-standard colours – orange, dark blue and green to mention but a few.
However, the occasion of two new owners collecting white and a blue aircraft from Tyabb at least allowed me to add Mike Rudd’s venerable red Foxbat to the line up and celebrate ‘les couleurs’ of the French flag.
Thanks to Gary Gould and Matt Coleman, both based near Orange in New South Wales, for their orders and giving me the chance to photo the bleu, blanc et rouge.
PS – you might just see a peek of the yellow A32 Vixxen lurking in the hangar behind!
Click the photos for larger versions.