My ride in the weekend - only a G3 but dropped into a 1500m runway (Twisp International) pretty easy
Have been investigating "supercruise" recently. I thought it was something developed by the F-22 Raptor but whoa was I wrong! 12 aircraft are capable, starting back in the 1950's with the British Lightning, but TSR 2 was the first to be designed with the capability and also do that at up to mach 2. Concorde makes sense, but burners were used to push her up to speed. Interesting stuff.
If you have an hour or so spare, the story of Burt Rutan and SpaceShip One / White Knight. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6g17OqN3EI 12 parts and well worth viewing, if you are interested.
1500m runway on GIII shouldn't be that bad. Ive had a GIV into Taupo and Napier. Our shortest strip now id Notholt, London. 5000'. Still not bad. Marty where are you?
Back in Cambridge now. Was in The Cascades east of Seattle - Twisp - a firespotting/dropping airfield.
Hmm, this is making an interesting read: http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/more-ai...#comment-60098
it's certainly causing us some issues...
Wondering what is happening with this aviator thread - has gone awfully quiet over the last few months. We all still flying? Getting my hands on a new (read 0 hours) C182 shortly with a G1000 panel. All very exciting really. Wot u up 2?
can't think of anything worse tbh. we are seeing more and more low time pilots on early x-country flights (mostly coming down from auckland) who don't know how to do simple map to ground and back again - too much time with their head in the cockpit looking at a screen. i realise a 182 is not really a beginner a/c though - will it be an ifr trainer?
Is anyone here familiar with Farmers Air/Kiwi Air Ltd? I was looking up some info about the PAC750XL which I'd really like to fly eventually and they seem to be using them all over the world for all sorts of work. Quite interested in the humanitarian side of things, and they are the first mob I've found that don't require you to be a Christian and do 6mths missionary training before you can get a job! I see they've taken a couple of guys straight out of flying school but that was probably when they were in a period of decent growth.
Farmers is owned by the Stevenson family, based in Gisborne. They used to own a skydive business in Taupo but sold the business and kept the 750s. They currently have 8 x 750s, a couple of turbine twin Cessnas and a couple of other planes (1 of which crashed earlier this week). They do survey flying around the world for oil/gas/mineral exploration companies, and topdressing here in NZ. AFAIK they are currently they are operating in Mali, DR of Congo and Portugal or somewhere near there. They will occasionally take a low time pilot (have just employed a mate of mine with 220hrs, but he also is a PT6 LAME) and have taken another mate 2 years ago with low-time but he spent a year waiting for a call-up. There are currently opportunities for low-time but well qualified (MEIR) pilots flying RHS in PNG and Indonesia, the Indo job could see you as a captain of a C208 in 12 months. The PNG jop is in Twotters and Bandits. On gthe other hand a 750 lark with PAC flying in Nepal or PNG currently requires some time on them in a (comparitively) safe environment like skydiving @ Taupo/Queenstown before graduating to the altitude/1-way strips of the wops.
Cheers for the info Marty. I put my full time training ambitions on hold as I was offered a job in Aussie earning 3x what I was getting in NZ, hopefully will be able to pay for my CPL + MEIR outright by this time next year. I'm aiming for PPL by the end of the year and will then finish off my CPL back in NZ to take advantage of the exchange rate. The crowd I'm training with are a well known non-sausage factory organisation here in Adelaide who seem to have a good record for on to it guys getting jobs, there are three other training places here but they are all using G1000 DA40/DA42 which I wasn't too keen on. A guy I went to school with has just gone over to PNG for his induction and initial training - expecting to be RHS in the Twotter in a month or two, he was 1000hrs when he applied and had been working as an instructor at Auckland Aero Club while doing his ATPL's and waiting for his 'big break'.
don't worry about an MEIR unless you are going to keep it current and/or fly twins straight away - s SEIR is easier, cheaper, and do a multi upgrade when you need to.
