Cruising with the "big boys"

[Bundy]

I was flying circuits at ML yesterday morning and decided to do some stalls etc in the GF. For some reason all the big traffic inbound for ORTIA was routing in almost directly overhead the airfield and very close to the 7600ft boundary. I was crusing about 1000ft below them. One A380, two 747's and a 727 (I think) flew over me during the time.

I felt absolutely dwarfed by this aerie...kinda like a humming bird flying in formation with a vulture. Our circuit altitude is 1900ft below the TMA and we are just a few miles from FAJS so we often have these "close encounters". What I would've given for a camera at the time! Awesome stuff.

[nicow]

You must make sure your QNH is right....

[Bundy]

You must make sure your QNH is right....

Dont stress nicow....My QNH was spot on I was at 6500 ft doing stall recoveries.The big bliks were just a bit lower than usual

[Dish]

Are you kidding ??? - Methinks I would have landed and put that plane away PRONTO... 1000ft separation between an 380 and me?? - what kinda jetwash could you have encountered... ?? - Dwarfed is an understatement condsidering your whole trike is the smaller than his nose wheel ?? - sounds like quite an experience....

[Bundy]

To be honest Dish I was in awe at the size of this thing. I was never anywhere near the jetwash...he came over the north side of the field, I was over the GF to the south travelling towards him. We are used to having these bliks fly overhead but yesterday they were coming in much lower than they usually do (have no idea why). I was also higher than usual due to the stall practicing I was doing (1200ft AGL). Microland Circuit was very quiet yesterday so gave me the opportunity to do so. When this plane comes into view....you suddenly feel very small...

PS: I am guessing at the 1000ft separation difficult to judge vertical height as you know.

[Bundy]

Just to put it in context, you could park 6 trikes wing tip to wing tip on top of this things wings and you would still be about 6 meters short on the 380's wingspan! Unbelievable...

[Dish]

Yeah for sure - your an aviator an like all of us if ANYTHING flies close to you / around you / near you - were in awe. I run outside at my house whenever i hear anything flying just to see what it is / may be... thats what makes us flying nuts !!!
Of course im sure you were in no danger of jetwash... just remember loosely a thread a little while back about some powered paragliders (or similar) that were VERY close to an A380 at waterkloof or swartkops >/(Clearly memory deserting me) - but its all good.

anyway - work calling quite loudly now - see you soon ole bundy ....

[kloot piloot]

Nice one Bundy !

Some different perpectives between A380 and average trike:

Length: 73m = 18 trikes parked nose to tail
Wingspan: 80m = 7.3 trikes parked tip to tip
Height: 24.5m = 7.2 trikes stacked kingpost to kingpost
Wing surface: 845m² = 60 trikes
Weight: 590 000kg = 2 565 trikes empty weight
Fuel: 320 000 ltr = 5 818 trike fuel tanks

[Bundy]

Thanks for the stats Roel!

[skyvan]

Just as a word of caution, wake turbulence (or jetwash) falls behind the aircraft at 500fpm. The jetwash falls behind the plane in a "V" shape, and drifts with the wind. Please be careful when you are below these beasts, you can get caught minutes after it has passed near you, and well away from where it was.

The A380 is listed as a "Super" by it's weight category, so even "Heavy" aircraft (B777) have 6 mile seperation behind them on landing, and 2 minutes on take-off. Light aircraft (B737) have to wait 4 minutes for take-off after a Super, so an LSA or microlight will need plenty of space.

[Bundy]

Thanks Skyvan,

The "wake" was the first thing I took into account. I think 6 minutes would be optimistic for this "beast". At the time I had a 12knt wind blowing from the SE at circuit altitude so I knew the wake would move towards the north (away from Microland and away from me more importantly) and dissipate fairly quickly. I posted this not because I like to get up close and personal with Jumbo's but because it was such a rare occurence to be in this kind of proximity to one while flying a trike.

Its a moment I wont soon forget I can promise you that!

[witwillem]

Eish jy soeke ding wat kon gebly het ?????Witwillem

[Bundy]

Eish jy soeke ding wat kon gebly het ?????Witwillem

Hey...hey... hey... Ek het niks "gesoek" nie!

Ek glo nie jy sal een van die vliegtuie so laag op die vlakte kry nie chom

[alanmack]

So there I was one fine morning flying down from the Wild Coast en route to to Port Alfred. I had called the East London Tower for permission to follow the coastline instead of going inland and around. They were quite friendly and approved with the instruction to call next abeam the Nahoon River Mouth. Great! When there, I called and got the instruction CRP commence an orbit and follow in behind SAA747?!!!!!! Now a homesick Guineafowl has nothing on the dive that I did to grease the river surface whilst the big duck fly flew by. I had a camera in hand but hey, there are times when there are more important things to worry about.

[cornell]

Awesome Bundy !!!