Sunday was very hot and that together with a lot of traffic, particularly in the early part of the day, made the flying quite interesting. A lot of training aircraft were arriving and departing to and from Bankstown and for the most part were Asian and Indian students on their cross country exercises. As they have not yet mastered the English language and their situational awareness, the problems were compounded.

The first task was a normal 1,000 ft. circuit and landing. Pre-take off checks for the most part were ok but the downwind checks varied from non existent to complete. The most taught these days to remember, is the word BUMFISH, which stands for Brakes, Undercarriage, Mixture, Fuel, Instruments, Switches, Hatches and Harness. If flying an aircraft with constant speed propeller and retractable undercarriage another check when turning final is “Fine and Green”. This means that we have fine pitch and green lights indicating wheels down and locked. The circuits generally were not too bad but some downwind legs were flown up to 300ft above circuit height. Landings were all quite safe.

Second task was a 1,000ft circuit with a glide approach. The approaches here were many and varied but most made the landing although some were well down the runway. The glide approach is not used much these days but it is a great way to smarten up our skills and be more prepared in the case of an engine failure. The idea is to fly as normal a circuit as possible and in doing so it is most important to assess the wind strength (the first circuit should have given a good idea of this) and only close the throttle when you are sure that you can make it. With careful use of flaps from this point on you should be successful.

The engine failure on takeoff at 300ft.was our next assignment. At this height we must land straight ahead (within the scope of the windscreen is about as much as we can turn) using flap as required to achieve the best result in what is available ahead. Most would have survived ok and as has always been said the most important thing is to fly the aeroplane. The checks that I believe should be done, even at this height, would be to put on the electric fuel pump and check the fuel tap position. (These checks could be done without interfering with “flying the aircraft” and may well fix the problem.) Applying the carby heat would be another that should be done in a carburettor engined aeroplane.

Once again the steep turns were disappointing. Few were prepared to have a good look out before rolling into the turn, the angle of bank was rarely maintained at 45 degrees and in most cases the aircraft was out of balance. Maintaining altitude was also a problem. Once again the secret is to look outside the cockpit (not head down looking at instruments) and getting your cues from the attitude of the aircraft to the natural horizon. Any changes in attitude will be picked much more quickly looking outside. You should be able to feel if the aircraft is in balance or not but a quick glance at the turn coordinator will tell you if you are not sure. Always remember that more rudder is required when making turns to the right. Engine torque helps turns to the left but opposes turns to the right.

The emergency landings were all successful but whilst cockpit checks were better than last time some were incomplete and clearing the engine once again was not always carried out.

The answers to the load and balance questions were for the most part not far off but errors in arithmetic brought about incorrect answers.

The first thing to do with the load and balance question is to work out how much weight is available for fuel, given the weight of the occupants and the baggage to be carried. We must convert these weights to lbs. before entering on the chart. This we do by multiplying the kgs. by 2.2.

We then start with the empty weight of 1692.7 lbs. add the front seat occupants of 374lbs, the rear seat passengers of 352 lbs, and the baggage of 33lbs. This comes to 2,451.7lbs. We then deduct this from the ramp weight of 2558lbs, giving us just 106.3lbs available for fuel.

Convert this back to kgs (106.3 divided by 2.2) = 48.31kgs. To determine the litres we then divide 48.3 by 0.72 =67.08 litres.

To determine the flight time available we must start with the 67 litres but then deduct the fuel used for engine start, run up and taxi ( 8lbs or 3.63 kg = 5litres) and the fuel reserve of 45 minutes (28 litres) a total of 33 litres. This leaves 34 litres remaining for flight time and at 38 litres an hour we would only have a flight time of 54 minutes.

To find out if the aircraft is in balance both zero fuel weight and maximum take off weight we go to the weight and moment tabulation chart and from the loading graph put in the units applicable to each station. Once completed the chart gives us both the weight and moment for take off and we can go to the centre of gravity moment envelope and see if it fits within the envelope shown. To find out if it fits at zero fuel weight we just deduct the fuel weight and the fuel moment from the take off weight totals and see if that fits within the envelope. In both cases the aircraft is in balance. Whilst most answered yes to the question, in many cases the absence of lines drawn on the chart didn’t indicate to me how the answer was arrived at. This example of a weight and balance shows how careful we must be loading a Cessna 172 and with 3 passengers not much fuel can be carried. I might add here that all other light aircraft including the light twins are all in the same boat.

The competition was won by Peter Ticehurst with 59 points from Ed Collins on 54.5 points and Errol Chopping on 53.5 points.