Gambia | Peter "Just Loves Flying"

Four Tips for Late-Summer Flying

August 10, 2018

Peter Singhatey Aviation, Flying, Just love flying Aviation, Flying, Gambia, Ireland, peter singhateh, Peter Singhatey Leave a comment

Source: 4 Rules-Of-Thumb For Late-Summer Flying | Boldmethod

Rules-Of-Thumb For Late-Summer Flying; by Colin Cutter –
Thanks to Boldmethod for sharing…
1) Calculating Civil Twilight
Summer days are getting shorter, but there’s still a lot of daylight left.
A good rule-of-thumb for calculating civil twilight is that it usually ends between 20-35 minutes after sunset. Tonight in Boulder, CO, sunset is at 8:05 PM, and civil twilight ends at 8:34 PM. That’s a difference of 29 minutes. Once twilight ends, you can start logging night flight time. But remember, you need to wait an hour after sunset to log night landings.

2) Takeoff roll increases about 10% for every additional 1,000 feet of density altitude
There’s no sign of the weather cooling down yet. And on hot days, you get high density altitude. For most normally-aspirated GA airplanes, you’ll add about 10% of takeoff roll for every 1,000′ of DA. For example, if your airport’s density altitude on a hot day is 3,200′ over field elevation, you’ll increase your takeoff roll by about 32% over an ISA day. So if you have a 1,500′ takeoff roll on an ISA day, you’ll increase that roll to almost 2,000′.

3) Stay a minimum of 5 miles from storms, and up to 20 miles if you can.
Flying closer than 5 miles from visible overhanging areas in storm clouds puts you at risk of flying through hail and severe turbulence. That’s not good for your plane, or your passengers. In some cases, aircraft have encountered hail, severe windshear, and severe turbulence up to 20 miles from storms. When in doubt, keep your distance.

GolfCharlie232

4) Add Half The Gust Factor On Windy Day Landings.
As we approach the end of summer, windy days increase across the US, because the jet stream starts moving south. When you’re dealing with a gusty day, the FAA recommends that you add half the gust factor to your final approach speed to give yourself safe padding from a stall. For example, if the winds are reported at 18 knots, gusting to 30 knots, it means you have a gust factor of 12 knots (30-18 = 12). So if you take half the gust factor, you get 6 knots (12/2 = 6).

Boldmethod

To apply that in an SR-22T, Cirrus recommends that you fly final at 80 knots. So on a day with a 12 knot gust factor, you’d add 6 knots to the published 80 knots, for a final approach speed of 86 knots. The same math works for any GA airplane’s final approach speed. Just add half the gust factor to your final approach speed.

Boldmethod

Thanks to Boldmethod for sharing. What other rules-of-thumb are you using? Tell us…
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Just Love Flying

April 6, 2018

Peter Singhatey Africa, Aviation, Flying, Mindfulness, Positive Thinking, Uncategorized Gambia, Madox Air Sports, Microlight Aircraft, Pegasus Quantum 912, peter singhateh, Peter Singhatey Leave a comment

Nice Quote.jpg

Flying along the beautiful “Smiling Coast”, in The Gambia West Africa, is simply fantastic and my special way of practicing Mindfulness as a thrill seeker.

“Whenever you bring awareness to what you’re directly experiencing via your senses,… you’re being mindful…” JKZ

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Flying in The Gambia

March 16, 2018

Peter Singhatey Africa, Aviation, Flying, Microlight Aircraft, Mindfulness, Positive Thinking, Spiritual Enlightenment, Uncategorized Gambia, Madox Airsports, Mindfulness, Peter Singhatey, PeterSinghateh 3 Comments

A very good way to practice “mindfulness”

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“Just Love Flying”

Nervous about travel in Africa? Here’s why you shouldn’t be

November 30, 2017

Peter Singhatey Africa, Articles on Africa, Education, Uncategorized adventure, Africa, Gambia, Peter Singhatey, PeterSinghateh 2 Comments

Thanks to “gilesmeetsworld” for sharing…

via Nervous about travel in Africa? Here’s why you shouldn’t be… — gilesmeetsworld

When most people think about travel, Africa doesn’t usually come up as an option, and admittedly originally it wasn’t top of my list either… I think this is because not only are people unaware of all you can experience there, but sometimes the continent can seem an intimidating place to travel. I recently wrote a guest post on WanderingOutsideTheBox (linked here), about why Africa should be your next travel destination, and it made me realise that I should be writing more on my experiences in Africa so that I can show others how incredible it is to travel there.

I want to convey what the reality of travel in Africa is like, and try and go through common fears or things that might put people off. So in this post I’ll be doing exactly that, I’ll be listing common fears about travel in Africa, and then explaining based on my experience what the reality actually is.

A little side note here, I realise throughout this post I use the term ‘Africa’ a lot, which is of course a massive generalisation of a huge and diverse continent with over 50 countries, but when I use it I’m referring to sub-Saharan Africa.

Mosquitoes and Malaria

This is probably what most people worry about. Yes there is malaria and it’s a massive problem. However as a western person with a western immune system who will (and definitely should) likely have anti-malarial medication, the chances of you catching it are very minimal. When I travelled through different countries in sub-Saharan Africa, mosquitoes were actually not as bad a problem as I thought they would be. When you’re staying in a tent that you can seal off completely from anything outside, it means you can be pretty effective in keeping them out.

I was expecting the biggest and baddest mosquitoes I had ever seen, but they never showed up. Just use some mosquito spray (of which you’ll be able to get great brands out in Africa that are much cheaper), take your anti-malarial meds and you should be absolutely fine. My best advice when it comes to travelling anywhere where there might be diseases etc you could catch, is speak to your doctor, get your jabs, and make sure you have health insurance.

Safety

Often people will be worried about visiting Africa because of political troubles in some nations or safety, and if you don’t know what you’re doing or the areas you’re going, then I would strongly advise travelling there first with a guide or in a group. However when you do go with experienced guides who are constantly on the ball with where you’re going and know exactly the areas you’re travelling through, you don’t feel unsafe or in danger at all.

In fact it’s like most places in the world, in that it’s a tiny population of people who are giving places a bad reputation. Most locals were so friendly and passionate about their country and wildlife, and it was an absolute pleasure getting to meet so many great and inspiring local people. Not to mention it’s often in the places where tourism isn’t massive yet, that tourists are treated extremely well because of the financial benefits they bring to the country.

Bathroom & Campsite facilities

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I was expecting a camping trip in Africa to have non-existent bathroom facilities, and yes sometimes we were in national parks so it was just a hole in the ground. But this was extremely rare, and completely a choice by us to want to experience camping in the wild. I actually experienced much worse bathrooms travelling through SE Asia than in Africa. Most of the time we had very decent showers and toilets at our campsites that were perfectly adequate.

Admittedly when you’re doing a lot of travel through remote areas, there aren’t going to be toilets everywhere, so we did stop by the road a fair few times for toilet stops behind some sort of vegetation, but just bring a toilet roll (that you throw in a bin you take with you) and hand sanitizer and it’s completely fine. A little bottle of anti-bac hand sanitiser is generally just a great thing to carry with you travelling anywhere. Not to mention if you’re travelling in Africa and not camping, it’s just like anywhere else with excellent quality accommodation and hotels, if that’s what you prefer.

Western food

If you’re worried about being able to find those delicious snacks when you travel, don’t. We stopped many times at many places and there are usually supermarkets or shops selling the standards snacks crisps chocolate nuts etc etc. We had to stop to get water often so to enough supermarkets to know, it’s not just local stalls selling local foods, there are plenty of western foods too. Also camping, we made all of our own food anyway, and this was often very similar to what you’d eat back home if not with a bit more meat cooked on the brai (South-African bbq) than normal. It’s really not the case at all that you won’t be able to find western food.

Shops

So this sounds like a strange one, but I learnt the hard way… When I was in New Zealand just before I flew to Cape Town, I stocked up on loads of meds and various things for my Africa trip as I was determined not to get ill, and my thoughts were going to be that I was travelling in remote and less developed areas so wouldn’t be able to pick the things up I needed. I get to South Africa and on the first day we stop in a massive shopping centre just outside of Cape Town which sells all the exact same stuff for a quarter of the price… You will stop in places where you can get clothes, food, meds etc, so don’t be like me, wait until you get there to get the basics. We even had a couple of people in our group who didn’t bring sleeping bags and they managed to find them very easily.

Wifi

Don’t panic folks, there will be internet. Admittedly depending on where you are it may be limited, but you’ll be very surprised how frequent and in how many campsites there will be wifi and internet connections. It’s sometimes nice to have a break from the internet for a while, but if you’re concerned you’ll be weeks without being able to contact home etc, there’s no need. The internet often will be limited or not that strong, but it’s even the case that some companies who run these overland group tours have wifi on the buses themselves!

I’m going to get eaten by a lion!

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Ok, so obviously this sub heading is an exaggeration, but you see my point. Camping in national parks with no fences between you and lions… are you serious?! Yes, I am actually. So firstly and most importantly, the wildlife in Africa is to be taken seriously. You’ll need to watch out for scorpions and snakes etc in the desert, and also bigger game and wildlife camping in national parks. However, if you’re sensible and listen to advice (of which there will be plenty), you will be fine. Wildlife often won’t want to have anything to do with people and will keep away from them. So as long as you are sensible and listen to advice, you will be absolutely fine.

I’ve even camped where elephants and hippos stroll next to people’s tents, but they view them as obstacles rather than anything of interest. People will be there to make sure you are camping in a safe environment, and will be on hand for emergencies, so you shouldn’t let any of these fears put you off.

—

So I hope I’ve gone through a few concerns people have about travelling in Africa and explained why they shouldn’t put you off. Like anywhere, as long as you’re sensible and listen to locals advice you’ll be completely fine. Anything I’ve forgotten to mention or any fears that are putting you off travel in Africa, pop them in the comments below.

When most people think about travel, Africa doesn’t usually come up as an option, and admittedly originally it wasn’t top of my list either… I think this is because not only are people unaware of all you can experience there, but sometimes the continent can seem an intimidating place to travel. I recently wrote a […]

via Nervous about travel in Africa? Here’s why you shouldn’t be… — gilesmeetsworld

Sanctuaries and Sunsets

June 13, 2017

Peter Singhatey Birds Africa, Birds, Gambia, peter singhateh, Peter Singhatey, what a wonderful world Leave a comment

Sanctuaries and Sunsets

Source: Sanctuaries and Sunsets. ‹ TINY LESSONS BLOG ‹ WordPress.com

Black Crowned Night Heron

In the afternoon of Easter Sunday, I went to see the birds at the Seaside Seabird Sanctuary again. Here are a few portraits of the resident birds, some of whom by now are old friends, like the Red-Shouldered Hawk, the Great-Horned Owl and his house mate, the Barred Owl.

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The birds that are most represented among the permanent residents are the pelicans, both the White Pelicans and the Brown Pelicans. They tend to get hurt by human activity on the water. This warm day several of them were bathing in the many pools, large and small placed everywhere in their aviaries. Or preening to look their Sunday best.

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My friend the American Oyster Catcher was there too, and appeared to be doing better than last time I saw it.

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On this Sunday, several other birds were visiting their relatives at the sanctuary, like these American Black vultures.

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I also counted more than 50 nests high in the trees around the sanctuary. I believe birds feel this is a protected zone and are confident building nests in the trees around the park. Here a mama pelican peers down from her nest high up in a tall tree, and a Black-Crowned Night Heron nods off at her nest.

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It was a wonderful, life-affirming visit, as always.

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If only the earth would be a sanctuary for all its inhabitants.

At mid-week, I enjoyed a great sunset walk on the beach with our son, who was on a business trip here on the Gulf coast.

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The sunset was as beautiful as ever. Shore birds were running around at the water’s edge and little sand crabs hurried into their homes for the night.

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sand crab UD121

The sun disappeared into the ocean leaving a soft glow on the skies. I thought about the beautiful Irish blessing “May every sunset hold more peace.”

sunset April 18 16x9 UD121

With that thought I wish you all a wonderful weekend. I will be traveling to spend time with the youngest generation of our family. It always gives me hope. Just like the Osprey chicks.

Source: Sanctuaries and Sunsets. ‹ TINY LESSONS BLOG ‹ Reader — WordPress.com

The 7 Hardest Parts About Becoming A Private Pilot

February 12, 2017

Peter Singhatey Aviation, Flying, Just love flying, Microlight Aircraft, sport Gambia, Just love flying, Madox Airsports, madox microlights, peter singhateh, Peter Singhatey, Pilot 3 Comments

Everyone knows that crosswind landings are usually challenging for student pilots. But beyond landings (and money!), there’s a lot about learning to fly that can be pretty tough. Here’s what you should be ready for.

The 7 Hardest Parts About Becoming A Private Pilot

By Swayne Martin

1) Aircraft Systems
One of the toughest topics for private pilot students is aircraft systems. As less and less people grow up working on cars or around machinery, there’s diminishing knowledge behind what makes that engine turn.Want to know more about the systems and equipment in your aircraft? Dig into your POH and read section 7. Better yet, find a local A&P at your airport and have them walk you through a few systems with the cowling off. Getting hands-on with the equipment behind closed panels is a great way to learn how your airplane flies.

2) The National Airspace System
It’s more than identifying lines of airspace on a sectional chart. You’ll need to know what weather minimums exist at different altitudes (day and night), what your equipment requirements are, and what your communication requirements are.
We can help – give our National Airspace System course a try.

3) Learning Regulations
There are hundreds of FAA Regulations that govern how, where, and when you can fly. Some of them can be pretty confusing. As a student pilot, you’re just as responsible for adhering to the FARs as any fully certificated pilot. Keep yourself out of trouble and learn those regs!

4) Aerodynamics
A huge part of learning to fly is understanding the physics behind how it all works. But how can a strong foundation of aerodynamics save your life? One simple example is the lift to drag ratio for your airplane. At L/D max, or the best lift to drag ratio, you’ll find an approximate best glide speed.

5) Decoding Textual Weather
Whether it’s a METAR or PIREP, it’s your responsibility as a pilot to maintain your skills for decoding textual weather.
Need a refresher? Give our Aviation Weather Products course a try.

6) “Radio Talk”
Learning how to actively listen for your callsign in busy airspace with dozens of airplanes on-frequency is tough. Adding that to learning the correct verbiage provides quite the task for brand new student pilots. Here are some things you shouldn’t say over the radio.

7) Getting Into “School Mode”
First and foremost, getting your brain into a “school mode” can be tough, especially if you haven’t sat in a formal classroom setting in years. Learning to fly is undoubtedly fun, but there’s also a lot of work outside the cockpit.

Source: The 7 Hardest Parts About Becoming A Private Pilot | Boldmethod

How To Make A Perfect Crosswind Landing | Boldmethod

December 18, 2016

Peter Singhatey Uncategorized feel the freedom, Gambia, Just love flying, Madox Airsports, Peter Singhatey Leave a comment

You’re picking up ATIS on your way in to land. The winds are 23 knots, 40 degrees off runway heading. And your passengers are expecting a landing they can walk away from.

Crosswind landings can be one of the most stressful things for pilots, especially if you haven’t practiced them in awhile. And whether you’re a new pilot just learning to fly them, or a 20 year pilot who hasn’t gotten a lot of practice recently, a little review can go a long way.

When it comes to crosswind landings, there are a couple methods you can use: crab, and wing-low. And there are advantages and disadvantages to both.

Flying The Crab Method

With the crab technique, you fly final approach crabbing into the wind to prevent drifting left or right of centerline. You maintain the crab all the way to your flare, and just before touchdown, you step on the rudder to align your nose with the runway, and use ailerons to prevent drifting with the wind.

The crab technique can be an easy way to maintain centerline on final approach, but it requires quite a bit of judgement and timing to “kick out” the crab just before touchdown. This is the same technique that jets use to land. But there’s a big difference between a 737 and a single-engine piston, and that’s inertia. If a 737 isn’t perfectly aligned with the runway on touchdown, it straightens itself out as the wheels touch down, and it keeps rolling smoothly down the runway. But if your 172 isn’t aligned with the runway at touchdown, you’re going to jump and bounce across the pavement until you are aligned with it. So unless you’re out practicing your crab-to-landing a lot, it can be a tough method to perfect in a light plane.

rudder-use crab

Flying The Wing-Low Method

In most cases in light aircraft, the wing low method is an easier way to accomplish a smooth touchdown in a crosswind landing. To fly the wing-low method, you use your rudder to line your nose up with the runway, and ailerons to correct for left/right drift all the way from final approach to touchdown. Essentially, you’re slipping the plane through the crosswind in order to keep yourself lined up with the runway from final to touchdown…

crosswind-procedure wheel-order

Source: How To Make A Perfect Crosswind Landing | Boldmethod

The Women Pilots History Forgot

November 20, 2016

Peter Singhatey Uncategorized Gambia, Just love flying, peter singhateh Leave a comment

(CNN)More than 100 years after Harriet Quimby broke down barriers as the first woman to earn a pilot certificate, there are still very few women who choose flying as a career. Worldwide, only 3% of airline pilots are women, the Royal Aeronautical Society said earlier this month. Now, there’s a move to change that. And the obvious place to begin is by highlighting the achievements of the long-forgotten queens of the air — the women who ignored the men who scorned them, broke through the restrictions society placed on them, and paved the way for Amelia Earhart.