Purely by chance I ended up in a plane with Euan and a couple of others in a very arse-heavy JGP, unfortunately for us the chap sitting to my left was a non-flyer who unbeknowns to us suffered from motion sickness. This did not become apparent until the very rough air on the way to Whakatane smoothed out, and less than one minute from landing this turkey blew chunks everywhere, and I do mean everywhere. I discovered then that the difference between a pilot and a non-pilot is that when a pilot is sick in a plane he moves the microphone out of the way first!!
After landing at Whakatane, we were overcome by the smell, and cleaning the aircraft was the first order of business. Unfortunately, thanks to the smell, neither Euan or myself felt well enough to attempt to fly the "Vomit Comet" out to a forecast-severe turbulent White Island, so we ended up staying while the others flew out, in an attempt to rid the plane of the guy's lunch. Not that I remember him helping us much, mind you.
By the time the others returned, we were feeling better and the Comet was much nicer to stick your head in. Soon after that we had to leave to make it home in time, so several old Air NZ magazines on the back seat and many sprays of the deodorant we thieved from the mens room at the terminal later, we headed off, myself PIC this time.
On a whim, almost, I decided that having never travelled in controlled airspace except for airfield control zones, this would be a perfect time to try it out, and once again, thanks to Aaron, I was armed with everything I needed to get back at 5500 feet through controlled airspace, which may or may not explain why the trip home was smoother. Thanks to a howling tail wind, were were averaging 150kt ground speed in the cruise while only showing 115kt indicated!!
Here's a video of Euan's takeoff and a couple of photos I took on the day...
9 comments:
Actually from the pilots perspective JGP wasn't all that arse heavy considering we were slightly over max all up weight. The climbout was most impressive. I remember the days of ETA struggling to clear the boundary fence and taking 5 minutes to reach circuit height with 4 on board. JGP really IS the Millenium Falcon. :-)
Not sure you want to advertise being over MAUW too much... Apart from it being better to remain within MAUW all the time [you can rely of CofG and other flight manual calcs that way], some advertising can attract attention...
:-)
Rodney: That's probably a fair comment, although to be honest the old 172 always makes it look worse than it is, the way it sags in the rear when a couple of fatties get in the back :-)
I'm not sure we were over MAUW by much at all, when you actually do the numbers...
Yep - I fly a C172 because I can get it at a good price. I much prefer the PA28 series.
Having sat in the back of a few C172s, it always feels as though the tail is going to hit the desk some time soon :-) ha ha ha
If you watch the video of the takeoff we were prolly doing 30kt by the time we went over the piano keys - I felt it pull quite hard during the takeoff roll - the wonders of a 180hp engine and big prop!
If you watch the video of the takeoff we were prolly doing 30kt by the time we went over the piano keys - I felt it pull quite hard during the takeoff roll - the wonders of a 180hp engine and big prop!
Yeah - video looks good. I flew a 180hp C172SP when I was up at Auckland Aero Club. They fly really well - loads of fun.
Good old JGP or "The Millenium Falcon" or now the "Vomit Comet" is no SP model.. She's a M model I think, older than I am, with a 180hp STC. Rumour has it she used to run drugs, hence the big engine and 2500 lb MAUW.
Rodney, for the record we were right in the middle of the CofG balance chart. I didn't require any more forward trim than I normally do in JGP for straight and level. All I did was set trim for a standard take off and at 60 knots JGP decided to fly and away we went.
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