Aviation Journalism

California Dreaming

If you have never seen the Canyon, you will never comprehend the scale of the thing. The vast 6,000ft deep Canyon simply takes your breath away. The huge Colorado River, over a mile wide in places was at times little more than a thread of brown string below the cockpit window and the steep bluff cliffs frequently shut out the sun from the darkened canyon floor a mile below. Regrettably due to a number of previous crashes and the need to control the Canyon airspace in some way, flights in the Canyon are restricted.

Commercial air tour operators are permitted to enter, and others are only allowed above certain altitudes in other areas. There is a VFR Sectional Chart for the Grand Canyon at a useful 1:250,000 scale, but its instructions have to make it one of the most difficult to interpret charts I have seen in my flying career. Reading it left us feeling little the wiser about many of the restrictions – so we played safe and obeyed them all. It was getting on for 17.30 by the time we approached the overhead of Tuweep and certainly bright enough to appreciate the remoteness of our destination. Keeping clear of the Toroweap/Shinumo Flight Free Zone to the South, we selected full flap and made a low pass over the strip with Moose flying and me calling estimated heights above the “threshold”. Next we repeated the procedure to complete a low overshoot. The strip seemed free from ruts and potholes and we finally came in to make a perfect landing, the wheels touching as the stall warner sounded. Moose was obviously an expert bush pilot. I congratulated him on such a “greaser” and with a big, very satisfied smile told me it was his first dirt strip landing. (Read full article)

St Helena - an Island beyond the Airways

The days of classic air travel by the Empire Flying Boats tempt a lateral thinker to consider the idea of a flying boat or an amphibian to reach St Helena. Beriev in Russia has a long and distinguished history in the production of amphibious aircraft.

Teamed with Irkutsk Aviation Industrial Association, they have with backing of a number of Russian and Ukrainian banks, plus input for the avionics systems from companies such as AlliedSignal and considerable interest from prospect buyers overseas, launched the Beta Air 200.
Powered by two Progress/Zaporozhye D-436TP turbofans, the aircraft is currently planned to have a range of 1,000 nautical miles (1,850 km) and a maximum take-off weight of 92,593 lbs (42 tonnes). That range could be extended by the addition of extra fuel tanks, but this would be at the expense of passengers or freight. The aircraft would take-off from a conventional airport in Africa and then make a water landing at St Helena, or alternatively fly direct to Ascension and use the airfield there to refuel before setting off for St Helena.

The Beta Air 200 is designed to operate with wave heights up to 3 feet 9 inches (1.2 m), which are frequently found and indeed exceeded around the island. The ship that serves the island has to anchor off the capital of Jamestown, as there is no facility for docking ships. If this aircraft were to be the chosen solution, at least one slipway would need to be constructed to bring the aircraft ashore. Asked at the Paris Air Show last year about landing aids in foggy conditions or at night, the Russian sales team were keen to point out the possibility of using infra-red goggles: an interesting prospect for any passenger safety study. The take-off run on water would be between 3,000 and 3,500 feet (900 to 1,067 m) under International Standard Atmosphere conditions. The aircraft is designed to cruise at 320 knots (592 km/h) and has a maximum operating altitude of 25,000 feet (7,620 m).