20 SA FlyerFyko van der Molen - Keeping it Tight
No, no. For once I’m
not talking about the
sphincter – I’m talking
about the circuit. Let me
explain. Oh – and a health
warning applies – don’t
try this without a very
good instructor.F
OR a couple of years in
the early 90s, my wife
operated a flying school
at Vereeniging Airfield. To
carry some of the flight-
training load she engaged
a variety of part-time
instructors, one of whom, in
particular, I had a special affection for. His
name was Andre and, being SAAF trained,
he was a real pilot – though as an instructor
he was found to have an unwelcome
independent streak.
One afternoon, while loafing away a few
hours waiting for beertime to roll around, we
entered into discussion of circuits – the Ex.
12 & 13 kind, not electrical stuff. As any low
time student will recall, a circuit takes about
ten minutes to fly from take-off to landing,
and every second of those ten minutes
is crammed with an almost impossible
workload. Getting the heights, the headings,
the checks, the power settings and a myriad
other details right is almost more than the
human mind can cope with.
However, to the instructor it is mostly
unrelieved boredom – relief offered only
by the student doing something suicidal,
homicidal, or just plain common-or-garden
dangerous. And this got Andre thinking
creatively on how to simultaneously improve
the system, and save the student some
money.
Vereeniging possessed two runways.
The 1600 m tarred main runway, 03/21, was
bisected unequally by the second, unpaved,
1135 m long runway, 15/33. Andre’s plan
was to have the student take-off on 33, then
enter a right-hand steep turn onto finals for21, do his touch and go, and then enter a
left-hand steep turn onto finals for 33 again.
Repeat as required.
After a session of this, the frazzled
student, if a normal South African, would
reach for his or her gun, and point it either
at Andre’s head or, more frequently, at his
or her own head. If the student was an
aficionado of American television, however,
he’d go directly into therapy, and not come
out for a considerable time.
When my wife uncovered this lunacy,
Andre was immediately fired but, when
the dearth of mid-week instructors was
considered, rehired with stern rebuke.
Andre was still smarting from the
tongue lashing and I was looking for ways to
console him. I ventured that with a 206 youshould be able to complete a circuit from
wheels up to wheels down in 35 seconds
instead of the customary ten minutes. He
looked at his feet for a while as he mulled
this over. Then he said, “Let’s try it.”
Between the two of us Andre was by far
the superior pilot, but I had a little equalizer
going for me – I’d been practicing, and I got
to establish the rules of the contest. Take-off
was to be on 03, according to the wind, the
circuit was to the right because there were
trees on the left, the first turn to the right
could be anywhere before the end of the
runway and the height could be anything
as long as the wingtip didn’t touch anything
other than air.
The downwind leg had to be inside
the airfield boundary, that is, before the
threshold of cross Runway 33, and the base
leg before the threshold of Runway 03.
These were only initial guidelines because
obviously the tighter the circuit the shorterthe time to complete it. The only definite
stipulation was that the wheels, on landing,
had to contact the runway before the point
where they’d left it on the take-off. This was
to stop a spiral pattern emerging where we
worked down the length of the runway and,
eventually ran out of it.
To anyone not privileged to know the
mighty 206, this will seem like the most
errant and reckless stupidity. Steep turns,
more particularly, descending steep turns,
are not something one makes within a
few feet of the ground unless you are
a deranged fool – or you have a 206. I
certainly wouldn’t dream of trying this
in anything else that I have ever flown –
including a microlight. I shudder when
contemplating any radical manoeuvre in anArrow without at least 500 ft of safety below
my butt – actually that holds true for any
Piper that I have experienced, including a
STOL-equipped Cherokee Six.
A 206 combines total dependability
and trustworthiness with a huge reserve of
power and doing this kind of stuff close to
the ground just feels like the most natural
thing in the world – you just never get the
idea this aeroplane could make some kind
of false or unexpected move that could put
you in jeopardy. It feels like a heavy 172 with
about five times the power, and as safe as
your mother’s arms.
I could fly the 206 with a reasonable
degree of proficiency from the right-hand
seat, but for a stunt like this the left was
mandated, because my right hand knew
where all the knobs and switches were
without me having to look for them. Andre,
being Superman, could have flown it from
the back seat, if needed. I went first, hopingI stoically accepted the presence
of a superior pilot and knew
I was just outclassed.
Ti g h t
KEEPING IT