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h&jeuropa
Joined: 07 Nov 2006
Posts: 645
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 Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2022 6:32 pm Post subject: What did you do with your Europa this week 3/28 - 4/4 |
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Starting thread for this week.
Preparing for our flight to SNF!
Jim
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Hitchflight
Joined: 22 Feb 2018
Posts: 94
Location: Derbyshire, England
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| Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2022 5:05 am Post subject: Re: What did you do with your Europa this week 3/28 - 4/4 |
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Flying
To celebrate the receipt of my annual Permit to Fly I took advantage of some good weather, destination; Knocknarea. The mountain of Knocknarea slopes down to Sligo airport on the west coast of Ireland. Sligo airport has full ATC and control zones yet I was to be the only movement of the day, apart from a search and rescue helicopter locally based at Sligo. The mountain of Knocknarea is noticeable by it’s unique plateau. My flight to Sligo from Coal Aston had only taken a couple of hours. A really pleasant scenic flight across the Irish Sea. The only unusual event was severe turbulence experienced on both left downwind and again on short final. The turbulence was initiated by something on the very mountain I had come to see. It was comforting to have an assured air traffic controller forewarning of each blast that shook my Europa. I thanked the excellent ATC lady on the radio the tower. Thanks again Patricia! The walk that followed to the top of the mountain and back took a couple of hours. Really enjoyed the exercise. As a walker you are aided by an amazing series of sleeper steps from approximately somewhere around the halfway point thence ongoing to the very top of the steep limestone cliffs. At the summit I enjoyed a surreal sight that could have been taken straight out of Game of Thrones. A cairn and tomb fit for a queen. A truely enormous cairn protects the magical Queen Maeve. This cairn increases the height of the mountain to over 1100 feet. Locals suggested that it becomes part of a disturbance factor that pilots must consider whenever there is a south easterly wind.
In my hangar
Carbon Monoxide: On a disturbing note. When I executed my annual test using the exhaust from the hangar lawnmower I found my legacy Vloxo device displayed a safe 0 ppm! Bad design! It ought have an error default! I have now replaced the ineffective Vloxo with a new Forensic D unit. All is now well. Like many Monowheels my aircraft routinely acceptably indicates around 40ppm on the ground and 0 ppm when airborne.
Happy and safe flying everyone!
Picture: Mount Knocknarea in far distance, Mid distance Sligo airport with my Europa mono parked adjacent the fire station, plus selected pictures of the sleeper steps which took me to the plateau.
Regards
Bob
G-MEGG
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Hitchflight
Joined: 22 Feb 2018
Posts: 94
Location: Derbyshire, England
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| Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2022 5:06 am Post subject: Re: What did you do with your Europa this week 3/28 - 4/4 |
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Picture
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Mallard
Joined: 22 Oct 2019
Posts: 49
Location: Ireland
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| Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2022 7:45 am Post subject: Re: What did you do with your Europa this week 3/28 - 4/4 |
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Hi Bob,
It's great that you enjoyed you flight across to Co. Sligo. I've been there a couple of times a few years ago when there was much more activity.
Btw,
Do you know what the wind speeds were coming off the mountain?
I spent 14 years based (at) an airfield in the foothills of a 30 mile long mountain range with an average height of 2000ft but the peak immediately behind my airfield was 2200ft. The turbulence there was ferocious at times and the airfield owner didn't have any understanding of when it was going to be bad, he just went up for a flight to see what it was like! As he was flying a fixed wing microlight it wasn't too difficult for him to handle it if there were turbs but in my case I was flying a Flexwing & having to control a complete wing was a different kettle of fish! This caused me to carry out experiments to try to get an understanding of what was going on in the vicinity of the airfield. I purchased a tank of helium & a large quantity of large weather type balloons. When I'd arrive at the airfield, I would launch a balloon & observe its trajectory. If it was smooth, I would go flying, if it was getting blown all over the place, I wouldn't fly. This experimentation eventually led me to conclude that if the winds off the mountain (Northerly winds) were 20mph or greater, there was going to be turbulence (rotors) in the lee of the hills. But there was another complication! The land where the airfield was situated was an actual peninsula (Dingle Peninsula) & there was a large body of water on the southern side (only 1/2 mile or so away) called 'Dingle Bay'. As the day progressed during a warm day, the land would heat up and, in the afternoon the cold air from the sea breeze would come ashore & mix with the Northerly Rotors coming off the mountain. Where that mixing took place, all hell would break loose & it would become a nightmare for a flexwing. It was so bad that it culminated in causing me to have a Heart Attack on Easter Monday 9th April 2007. On that day in April 2007, the airfield owner was flying ahead of me & he couldn't descend through the turbulence with power off, so he had to apply full power & point the aircraft at the ground to get down & I had to do the same. At about 200ft agl, the turbulence stopped and all was calm resulting in a perfect, normal landing. That experience taught me how to handle it in the future, so 3 months after recovering from my 4-way CABG (Coronary Artery Bypass Graft) I went flying again & next time I encountered this area of Rotor & Sea Breeze mixing I would turn around & descend below it until I found calm air which was usually between 2 & 400ft agl and land without incident.
Sligo Airport isn't unlike my Dingle Airfield location Bob. You have a mountain 1073ft high & the airfield is very close to the sea. There is also forestry to the North Eastern side which create even more treacherous Rotors than mountains because unlike Mountain Rotors which don't go all the way to the ground (with strength), Rotors from Trees do go all the way to the ground with full strength!
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Hitchflight
Joined: 22 Feb 2018
Posts: 94
Location: Derbyshire, England
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| Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2022 10:56 am Post subject: Re: What did you do with your Europa this week 3/28 - 4/4 |
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Hi James
Good to hear from you.
The wind speeds were a modest 10 to 25 knots from the South East. To be honest I don’t think the turbulence was anything close to that which you have had to endure
In retrospect it definitely had been prudent to include Enniskillen as my diversion airfield on the flight plan. When asked I confirmed I had sufficient fuel for two approach attempts to Sligo before I would decide to divert. Enniskillen offered a wind straight down the runway. Had landed at Enniskillen only last year.
The actual landing became a non event for the wind dropped just at touchdown.
Look forward to meeting up. How about a Europa Club DOTH into your airfield at Ardfert sometime?
Regards
Bob
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