…and the calima is back… Winds blowing from Africa bringing hot, dry air with lot’s of sand covering the islands.
This can be perfectly seen on this satelite image by Copernicus EU (I’m not flying that high yet lol…)
But I was “lucky” enough to be flying these days and to get above the calima layer to get get some “fresh air” and some better views. I have to admit the view from above was pretty impressive. Well, this layer reached almost 6.000-7.000 feet and mostly causes some breathing issues to the part of the population.
Yesterday the weather was fantastic and we took of early from Tenerife south airport on our training flight toward the island La Palma. As there was not much traffic, we decided to practice with the student the SID (standard instrumental departure) and the arrival into La Palma.
Even though that we operate under visual flight rules, we can request simulated instrument departure or arrival and simulate it under VMC. We briefed the procedures with my student and requested the simulation.
We did the Araco 4E departure followed by the NDB36 into La Palma airport as you can see on the image from Flightradar24. It was a very good practice. After we took off from La Palma again, we flew around the island and enjoyed some spectacular views of the landscape.
Enjoy some more images from the journey.
Tenerife during our early morning departure from Tenerife South airportTenerife during our early morning departureAraco 4E departureOur flown trackNDB Approach into La PalmaFlying simulated NDB approach into La PalmaFinal RWY 36 with almost calm windsJet blast warning signSanta Cruz de La PalmaLos Tilos, La PalmaFaro de Punta CumplidaImagine to live here… Volcán Tajogaite is still smoking… 🌋Aerial view of La Palma
Unfortunately the access road is pretty damaged and partially non existing, but to walk down for approximately 2 hours along the valley is absolutely amazing. The landscape is absolutely fantastic; like in the western movie.
The aerodrome is not accesible by car, nor 4×4. Just by feet, helicopter (maybe) or apparently from the beach by feet, if you get transferred there by a boat.
17 kms to get there and back (actually a bit less, but if you walk up and down the 500m long runway, this counts as well)… If you are on Strava, you can see the cute here.
And now simply enjoy some of the pictures taken during the walk to the aerodrome El Revolcadero.
This is what left from the access road to El Revolcadero aerodromeThis is what left from the access road to El Revolcadero aerodromeWalking down to El Revolcadero airfield at La GomeraGoats seem to be the only passengers… This is what left from the access road to El Revolcadero aerodromeThis is what left from the access road to El Revolcadero aerodromeThis is what left from the access road to El Revolcadero aerodromeThis is what left from the access road to El Revolcadero aerodromeEl Revolcadero aerodrome, La GomeraEl Revolcadero aerodrome, La GomeraThe route to El Revolcadero aerodrome at Strava
After having received so many memes with Bernie Sanders, I’ve decided to make my own… Looks like Bernie was freezing a little bit even if we were flying around the warm Canaries… 😀
Yes. When you are in the right place at the right time… Even if you pass along the same place 2 or 3 times, the view will never be the same.
Once you’ll find clear blue skies, the other time a bunch of clouds…
Evening the sun illuminates the countryside on a different way and so was it in this case.
When just passing ‘around the corner’ above the most westerly situated point of the island called ‘Punta de Teno’ I was lucky enough to capture and immortalize this moment with my iPhone…
A bit of editing and voilà… Now I can share it with the whole world, instead of trying to explain by words what I’ve seen on that particular moment… One image is worth a thousand words, isn’t it?😍😍😅🙏🏻
Most of you know the scene from the movie “Top Gun“, where Lt. Mawerick explains a manouver with an enemy MIG-29: Because I was inverted… 😀
Top Gun: Because I was inverted…
Well, recently I’ve done my Upset Prevention and Recovery Training (UPRT), which made me feel a bit like a “Top Gun Pilot”…
The UPRT is mandatory from December 2019 and is a requirement in order to obtain the first type rating on a multipilot airplane. Be my guest; there in no other profession in the world, where you need to stay current (and healthy) at all times, and to maintain the currency you need to keep spending a lot of money…
Even though the things are pretty messy (and of course not only in the world of aviation), but generally, despite this I’ve decided to go through the training.
Before this course I’ve only once experienced how it feels like to fly “upside down” during a looping in a ultralight plane when I wasn’t even a pilot yet. So it’s been a loong time ago…
Because I was inverted…
On a recommendation by a friend of mine I’ve travelled to Merzbrück, Germany (EDKA), to do my course at the Westflug.
Freshly asphalted runway 07/25 at EDKA, Merzbrück
It consisted of 1 day theory and 4 flights of 45 minutes divided in 2 days. During the theory session we have discussed a lot of important topics from human factors, how our body reacts to different kind of manouvers, and a have refreshed airplane general knowledge as well. Our instructor Rob really surprised me with his technical and physics knowledges, and I cosider him one of the best instructors I’ve ever had. So even the day in the class was not boring at all.
The practical part should be more fun they said…. Well yes, it was, but after pulling the G’s for 30-35 minutes you are simply exhausted… And don’t mention the stomach… That’s why there is a pause of couple of hour, so the body can recover before the next flight.
Extra 330LX
For the training they use the Extra 330LX, 2 years old, which is a kind of plane you can find in the Red Bull competitions. 🙂
Extra 330LX cockpit
The instrumentation is very simple; altimeter and airspeed indicator (and my legs lol). The instructor sits behind me, and his panel consists of more instruments, including the acceleromenter to measure the G-forces.
Extra 330 LX
Extra 330LX is a german two seat low wing aerobatic monoplane with a taildragger landing gear, powered by a a Lycoming 6-cylinder with more than 300hp, which made my feel to fly a rocket rather than a GA plane I was used to… 🙂
Over Altdorf, over training site
Unfortunately all my images were spoiled by the stupid mask. It is everything but comfortable flying like this and on the top of that all the images look a bit weird… But there were other choice, we had to comply with the regulations…
The idea was to learn how it feels to recover from the manouvers with +3G’s; but I’ve pulled up to +4.5G’s. While flying inverted, -1G was experienced.
At least here no mask can be seen…On our first flight we’ve landed at Bonn/Hangelar airport
There we are a lot’s of “for the first time” during this training:
My very first D- registrated airplane in my logbook
My very first time at controls in Germany
My very first acrobatics flight
First flight in a taildragger
First spin recovery
First time flying inverted
My very first stall flying inverted
Experienced first time +4.5G’s and -1G
And much mucho more… 😀
And of course my GoPro was on board with me; here comes a short resume of my UPRT training.
I’d definitely like to repeat this experience and just to have more fun (as far as the stomach this allows) :-D.
Behind it, you can see volcano Chinyero. At this place, in 1909 the last registered eruption in Tenerife took place. 🌋 Now it’s a very nice place for walking in the nature 😅
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