Christmas Flights

Here's an Australian Notam related to the pass of the "Big-Red-1", careful and special attention required by those who fly in that airspace.

Merry Christmas - Feliz Natal

http://www.stonehousecollection.com/

New manuals, New aircraft to fly.

Today the flight school gave me two new manuals for two new aircraft that I will be flying soon, they are the Cessna 172 Cutlass RG and the Mooney M20J.

Credits of the photos are below each one.

Stormy day!

Another day without flying, meteorology is at its best with gusts, rain, CB clouds, everything you can imagine.

>>> LPPT (LISBON) <<<

METAR 221230Z 27025G38KT 230V290 9999 VCSH FEW016 SCT020 16/12 Q0995       NOSIG

TAF 221215Z 2212/2318 26022G32KT 9999 SCT025 BECMG 2215/2217

 23010KT BECMG 2220/2222 17017KT 3000 RADZ BR SCT004 BKN012

 PROB30 TEMPO 2300/2305 VRB20G30KT 1000 +TSRA BR BKN001

 SCT016CB BECMG 2305/2307 24013KT 9999 NSW SCT018 TEMPO

 2305/2318 24017G27KT 5000 SHRA BKN015 FEW018CB

>>> LPFR (FARO) <<< 

METAR 221230Z 26021KT 9999 FEW020 FEW022TCU SCT059 18/14 Q1001

TAF 221115Z 2212/2312 25018KT 9999 SCT025 BECMG 2220/2222

 19017KT SCT012 BKN025 TEMPO 2222/2306 18020G30KT 3000 RADZ

 BR SCT004 BKN010 PROB30 TEMPO 2304/2308 VRB22G32KT 2000

 +TSRA BKN003 SCT020CB BECMG 2306/2308 24020KT SCT018 TEMPO

 2308/2312 24020G30KT 5000 SHRA SCT006 BKN015 FEW018CB

>>> LPPR (PORTO) <<< 

METAR 221230Z 33017KT 6000 -SHRA SCT006 SCT012 BKN020 11/09 Q0993

TAF 221225Z 2212/2312 31012KT 9999 SCT017 TEMPO 2212/2215

 31015G25KT 5000 SHRA SCT006 BKN015 BECMG 2215/2218 19005KT

 BECMG 2222/2224 15013KT 6000 -RADZ SCT008 BKN012 TEMPO

 2223/2306 15018G28KT 3000 RADZ BR SCT002 BKN006 BECMG

 2308/2310 24017KT

Flying day...

It's 8 o'clock in the morning and Léavia's Hangar is being open in order to start another Flying day. Temperature is about 2 degrees celsius and as we were pushing the aircraft outside our hands were getting purple as we touch the cold skin of them. But... I'm still happy as a small boy, after all it's another flying day to Me. This time the airplane is the Socata TB-9 Tampico, registered as CS-DAA. Except the longer time waiting for the engine to warm up, ground operations were normal and we managed to get to holding position of runway 35 in 2nd. After all ground procedures we departed inbound Trafaria in order to proceed to Espichel for another Instrument training flight. To finish the lesson we executed a VOR-DME approach to Cascais Aerodrome, LPCS, with cross winds from 090 with 14 kts. In general the flight was very consistent and pleasant. Can't barely wait for the next one.

Photo: Carlos Gomes - APEA.PT

Confirmed! Red Bull Air Race Series in Lisbon

It's official, the next year Red Bull Air Race championship will be again in Portugal, this time in Lisbon. Off course this decision wasn't well accepted by those who defend the Porto/Gaia Race, but in the official Red Bull Air Race Site it can be read that the organization wasn't planning a race here in Portugal in 2010. So to all who are skeptical about the change i recommend the reading of the full article, and understand why is it better to have a race in Lisbon than in somewhere else in the world. Hey! It continuous to be in Portugal hein?

http://www.redbullairrace.com/cs/Satellite/en_air/Article/Lisbon,-Portugal-signs-contract-to-host-Red-Bull-021242805913188?p=1238611393596

Peter Besenyei

Paul Bonhomme

A400M First Flight

Not all good news come from the US, Airbus completed successfully the first flight of the A400M, the first military aircraft made by Airbus. The A400M lift off on December the 11th. from Blagnac Airport, Toulouse. Here's another video, hope you enjoy it.

787 First Flight

Yesterday the new Boeing 787 flew for the very first time. To Boeing it's the first kick out of the crisis with stocks value rising and investors smiling, to aviation it's de beggining of another new era, with commercial aircraft built mainly of composite materials. Here's a video of the first take off.

No Comments!

Christmas and aviation II...

Not again!

Christmas and aviation...

Ups! Sorry Santa...

Today...

Finally a sky clear sunny morning, light winds and good visibility, but...

No flights scheduled for today!

Another successful flight!

The new day has started as an ordinary day, driving to the airbase, do some maintenance to Lynx 19202, this one is almost flying after 10 months stored.

In the afternoon I went to Tires, LPCS, aerodrome to another instruction flight. This time I was flying the TB-10 Tobago with the registration CS-DDT. This flight was dedicated to one thing only, aproaches. So after departing from Tires I intercepted radial 360 from ESP VOR inbound the station, there, I trainned my instrument proficiency by doing some holdings until the ATC give me a clearance to beggin the aproach procedure, a ILS to rwy 03 of Lisboa Airport, LPPT, after the low pass the ATC instructed me to intercept again de Final Aproach Fix to another aproach and another low pass, after that we proceeded to CAS VOR in order to beggin a 8nm DME Arc starting at radial 240 to intercept radial 172 for a VOR DME aproach to rwy 35 of Tires Aerodrome, LPCS.

Red Bull's Unknown Pilot

Yesterday i was reading SIRIUS magazine, a portuguese publication from the Portuguese Airline Pilot Association (APPLA). One particular article kept my atention for several minutes, called The Lion of the Skies. Probably to some who assisted to the Red Bull Air Race championship somewhere in the world, the name of this pilot isn't as familiar as Paul Bonhome or Peter Besenyei but Jürg Fleischmann is an important part of the show. Behind the cameras and flying it's BO-105 Fleischmann is always there when needed to give some spectacular images of the race. The 46 year old pilot has his flight license since he was 16 and accumulates over 11000 hours of flight time in more than one hundred different aircraft.

During the 2008 Red Bull Air Race in Porto I had the oportunity to meet Mr. Fleischmann who recieved us, Portuguese Navy Lynx crew and ground crew, with great hospitality and simpathy, also presented to us the BO-105.

The RB-105

The crew names

Me next to the RB-105

At the end, and in great fellowship between the two Helicopter crews, Jürg wrote a message: " To the great Lynx Crew".

The BO-105 Blog is: http://rb105.blogspot.com/

Se no Céu real está mau tempo... Então voa-se no céu virtual.

Flight Simulator apesar de ser um jogo, tem um nível de realidade muito elevado, principalmente a nível de instrumentação o que o torna perfeito para o treino "caseiro" de missões IFR, em que se pode treinar a operação com ajudas VOR, DME, NDB e ainda o famoso ILS para aproximações de precisão.

Como se tem passado algum tempo em casa deixo aqui algumas imagens e não só de trabalho mas de tudo um pouco que tenho feito nos céus virtuais.

Rainny Days

Another flight canceled. Damn weather!

Mais uma missão cumprida!

Para este Sábado passado a missão era mais um SPIC (student pilot in command), mais uma vez eu era o comandante e o instrutor o "passageiro". A meteorologia não parecia nada boa para um voo VFR numa aeronave ligeira como o TB-10 Tobago, CS-DDT, e ao dirigir-me para o aeródromo o nevoeiro e as nuvens baixas eram uma constante, facto que ao encurtar cada vez mais a distância e Tires a mudando para um sol tímido e escondido ainda atrás de muita nuvem. Foi ainda com a ideia de que se o Espichel não estivesse em condições meteo satisfatórias abortava-mos, que descolamos do aeródromo de Tires em direcção ao dito cabo. Afinal o pior era mesmo sobre Lisboa deixando apenas o topo dos pilares da ponte 25 de Abril e o Cristo Rei à vista por cima de um manto fofo de nuvens e nevoeiro. Para o Espichel estava muito bom com nuvens a rondar os 2500 pés e os 3000 pés, deixando-nos a trabalhar pelo 2000 pés em condições muito boas. A missão planeada consistia em mais algumas esperas, voltas de inversão 45/180 e 80/260, mais um arco DME, para terminar uma aproximação VOR DME a Cascais já com céu limpo na vizinhança do aeródromo.

Como disse o instrutor: Nada a Apontar!