Heads up - C4 9pm Tuesday

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djc206

12,350 posts

125 months

Thursday 21st August 2014
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Crossflow Kid said:
I can't quite figure out why they don't have rotary ops out there and do away with the dicey approaches to mountain ridges.
Some of the distances quoted are well with the range of even a small heli and although the altitudes are a bit errr....interesting they're certainly not show-stoppers.
Cost and reliability?

telecat

8,528 posts

241 months

Thursday 21st August 2014
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Looks like they are recruiting Helicopter Pilots this year. Loved the Piaggio P180's on the ground at their main base. Presumably operated because they are cheaper and easier to operate from the strips in Indonesia.

mattdaniels

7,353 posts

282 months

Thursday 21st August 2014
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Crossflow Kid said:
I can't quite figure out why they don't have rotary ops out there and do away with the dicey approaches to mountain ridges.
Some of the distances quoted are well with the range of even a small heli and although the altitudes are a bit errr....interesting they're certainly not show-stoppers.
Cost and payload I'd imagine.

mattdaniels

7,353 posts

282 months

Thursday 21st August 2014
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Silent1 said:
Watching it made me look up how much a CPL costs and it seems it's around the £6k-£8k mark which isn't all that bad
I think you're mistaken. You won't go from zero to CPL for £6-8K.

There may be CPL courses which are 6-8K, but I bet if you look at the entry requirements it states one of the entry requirements as "you need a PPL".

Zero to CPL is more like 15K+ especially in the UK given the weather.

5150

687 posts

255 months

Thursday 21st August 2014
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CPL isn't worth much without an instrument rating to go with it (IR). If you're looking at a career in aviation, you'll need to lob these two costs together (and sit the exams for ATPL!).

Interesting programme tho - I could think of much 'worse places to be a pilot' - looks bloody good to me and a great place to cut your teeth. . . .

anonymous-user

54 months

Thursday 21st August 2014
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mattdaniels said:
Crossflow Kid said:
I can't quite figure out why they don't have rotary ops out there and do away with the dicey approaches to mountain ridges.
Some of the distances quoted are well with the range of even a small heli and although the altitudes are a bit errr....interesting they're certainly not show-stoppers.
Cost and payload I'd imagine.
Versus what? A crash every two months with fixed wing ops?
Very cost effective.

Quattromaster

2,907 posts

204 months

Friday 22nd August 2014
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Moose, can I ask, what are the " square metal bits" sitting just behind the main wheels.

What are they there for.

Many thanks.

Moose.

5,339 posts

241 months

Saturday 23rd August 2014
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Wow! So many questions biggrin

Siko said:
The Pilatus looks like it has amazing STOL performance too, what sort of distance can you land it in?
It depends on many factors, namely how heavy we are on landing, how much slope there is, altitude of the airstrip, surface etc. But the short answer is I test landed on a 180m long strip with a 20% up-slope the other month with just myself and fuel on board and stopped in about 70m. I had to add power to get to the top biggrin For comparison there's an airstrip we go to regularly that is 270m and totally flat, we land at max landing weight (2400kgs) and stop in around 150-200m depending on how wet the grass/mud is.

djc206 said:
I loved that steep uphill strip that the kiwi bloke landed on that had taken the locals 14 years to build. It looked like some fantastic and occasionally hairy flying. I understood from the younger guys that they were using it as a stepping stone into flying commercially back in the UK but do you not think going from that to flying back and forth to Majorca all day would be a bit boring in comparison?
Almost all those younger guys won't be doing that sort of bush flying. They stick to the two pilot Cessna Caravan operations which are much more like airline flying with tarmac runway to tarmac runway. As the show says, they're here to clock up hours and move on to airline stuff. As for the Porter flying into remote, hillside airstrips, that's for the guys like myself who enjoy bush flying and have no desire to move to airline stuff which would indeed be bloody boring!

croyde said:
Again, out of interest, what bits were over dramatised. Thought it was pretty tame compared to the usual TV fodder and by the end of the first programme, we as a viewer, were becoming completely unfazed by the short, bumpy mountain top landing strips biggrin This thanks to how calm and collected the young pilots were.
Thanks! Obviously as it's a TV show they over-dramatised most of it. Whilst landing on roughly prepared airstrips does have a certain amount of risk to it, we practice this sort of thing continually and it becomes very routine which is probably why we come across as calm and collected. If things are getting exciting, you're probably not doing it right!

Crossflow Kid said:
I can't quite figure out why they don't have rotary ops out there and do away with the dicey approaches to mountain ridges.
Some of the distances quoted are well with the range of even a small heli and although the altitudes are a bit errr....interesting they're certainly not show-stoppers.
All down to cost. A heli is more than twice the cost to operate and won't be able to take the same kind of loads the fixed wing stuff can. I usually carry 850kgs and you'd need a large, expensive heli to haul that sort of load. It's no where near a dicey as the TV makes it out to be.

Quattromaster said:
Moose, can I ask, what are the " square metal bits" sitting just behind the main wheels.
Those are stone guards to help prevent stones being thrown into the flaps and horizontal stabiliser during take-offs and landings. The locals however seem to think they're a step to help climb into the aircraft so they regularly get broken...

Siko

1,987 posts

242 months

Saturday 23rd August 2014
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Thanks for the reply, 70m is amazingly short for a landing, wow!

Good though for the Brit Chief Pilot who was obviously living the dream, flying+surfing in a beautiful part of the world, lucky sod wink

Silent1

19,761 posts

235 months

Monday 25th August 2014
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mattdaniels said:
Silent1 said:
Watching it made me look up how much a CPL costs and it seems it's around the £6k-£8k mark which isn't all that bad
I think you're mistaken. You won't go from zero to CPL for £6-8K.

There may be CPL courses which are 6-8K, but I bet if you look at the entry requirements it states one of the entry requirements as "you need a PPL".

Zero to CPL is more like 15K+ especially in the UK given the weather.
yeah sorry i wasn't including the ppl into the equation and surely if you're going to do a cpl the best bet is somewhere sunny that can do it with far lower costs like america.

croyde

22,883 posts

230 months

Tuesday 26th August 2014
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No expert but don't you have to put a lot of solo flying hours in between passing your PPL and starting a CPL. Can't remember the amount of hours but at a couple of hundred per hour for aircraft hire, it's a few thousand I bet.

Quattromaster

2,907 posts

204 months

Tuesday 26th August 2014
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Bravo Dave, great life and batting well out of his league girlfriend wise.

Really enjoying this.

WinstonWolf

72,857 posts

239 months

Tuesday 26th August 2014
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Looks like you're up next week Moose smile

Quattromaster

2,907 posts

204 months

Tuesday 26th August 2014
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Wooh wooh, PH member Matt on next weeks show.

Looking smooth.

Munter

31,319 posts

241 months

Tuesday 2nd September 2014
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It's on again. Discussing the crashes frown

WinstonWolf

72,857 posts

239 months

Tuesday 2nd September 2014
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Waiting for Moose biggrin

Munter

31,319 posts

241 months

Tuesday 2nd September 2014
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This Nick "Ex Pro Gambler" guy. He doesn't fill me with confidence...

5150

687 posts

255 months

Tuesday 2nd September 2014
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Munter said:
This Nick "Ex Pro Gambler" guy. He doesn't fill me with confidence...
He's like any other new pilot . . . .

fatboy69

9,372 posts

187 months

Tuesday 2nd September 2014
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Flying with those fuel canisters behind me?

fk that!!!!!!!!

muckymotor

2,286 posts

221 months

Tuesday 2nd September 2014
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Nice bike shed laugh