Ops-Normal.org

Opsboi wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 28, 2022 10:26 pm

PHXPhlyer wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 28, 2022 8:06 pm

Just finished "Gong Solo" by Roald Dahl.

Not for me

Drum solos were bad enough back in the day, but a gong?

OFSO wrote: ↑

Thu May 12, 2022 5:45 pm

The new Mick Herron, Slow Horses 10? pre-ordered, arrived on our Kindles today. Not started yet.

G~Man wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 06, 2022 5:08 pm

Just finished reading, (well listening to---I can do it while driving or flying cross country flights), this book.....HIGHLY interesting and has aviation overtones. See HERE FOR AN OVERVIEW

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In August 1961, Rosalind Jones was 15 years old when the Holtaheia plane crash in Norway occurred that killed her brother and his friends from the Lanfranc School in Croydon. It completely changed her life. The crash claimed the lives of 34 schoolboys, two teachers, and three Cunard Eagle crew members. In May 2008, Rosalind began to research a commemorative book for the 50th Anniversary of the Lanfranc tragedy in which her brother Quentin died. She had envisaged something simple - just a photograph and a page of 'Memories' for each of the victims. What happened was something far greater. In the three years that followed, she received thousands of emails, and a more complete story of what happened 50 years ago gradually unfolded. It was a long and difficult job to trace relatives and friends of all the boys and masters, but Rosalind never doubted that eventually she would find contacts for them all - and so it has proved. She was determined that all the boys, masters and the three crew members must be remembered for the 50th Anniversary. Her research revealed just how much the Stavanger Red Cross in Norway had personally given in the rescue and she is determined that all royalties from her book and Kindle (the paperback version is also translated into Norwegian as 'Flystyrten I Holtaheia' - Plane Crash on Holtaheia') should go in tribute to their sacrifice to help their International Aid work. Now she just hopes that her book and Kindle will sell well and raise funds that will go to help others in need through the Red Cross.

Ex-Ascot wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 20, 2022 8:50 am

GA/GG Do we presume pilot error?

Boac wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 20, 2022 9:59 am

From ASN:

"The Cunard Eagle Vickers Viking took off from London at 13:29 GMT on a charter flight to Stavanger, Norway.
Nearing Stavanger, the flight was given descent instructions in preparation for an ILS approach. The ILS runway at Sola Airport had a magnetic bearing of 185°. The outer marker was positioned 3.8 NM from the runway threshold. When approaching from the south the prescribed procedure is to cross the outer marker at 2000 ft (QNH) and fly north for 2.5 NM, descending to 1500 ft (QFE). A 45° procedure turn is then made to the left and after 45 seconds this is followed by a turn to the right to rejoin the localizer beam.
On re-joining the localizer, the aircraft descends to 1300 ft and, after crossing the outer marker, descent is continued on the glide slope to the approach minimum.
At 16:18 hours the aircraft overflew the airfield to the north. The last surface wind given to the aircraft was 200°/25 kt. However, evidence indicates that at this time a considerably stronger wind existed at the 1600 ft level and the aircraft's maximum angle of drift, while on the procedure turn, may have been as high as 26°. The aircraft likely followed the ILS approach procedure by turning left and then right after passing the outer marker. For some reason the aircraft began to track 105° instead of 185° for the ILS.
The aircraft continued until it impacted Holteheia, a steep mountainside running in a north-south direction, at an elevation of 1600 feet."

Sounds like a procedure turn without wind allowance. I had a very exciting arrival leading a pair of Harriers into Sola on a 'planned' visual approach - the last a/c to land before the airfield closed for unforecast exceptionally poor weather. I finished up with an unplanned, unpublished and non-standard TACAN approach to a 300' cloudbase (no ILS on the Harrier and no GVA available at SOLA). My young No2 did exceptionally well to hang onto my wing. He went on to the rank of Air Chief Marshall before his untimely death in 2010.

Air Chief Marshall before his untimely death in 2010.