Melbourne Flying

Lovely day in Melbourne today. Hawk is getting ready to roll out of the Hangar and go do some playing!
Operating out of the Moorabbin Airport passenger terminal all day.. Right next to the playground!!...

Forces of Gravity - G Force

For the Speedhawk pilots the force of gravity, or 'G' as it is commonly known, is second nature and it is carefully utilised on each and every flight. However, we understand that for most passengers the concept may seem a little foreign.

Once you see it for yourself we are pretty sure you will understand why we find the experience so much fun! Although a little background knowledge may be helpful for you to understand the 'lingo' before your flight.

Most aerobatic manoeuvres involve a change in speed or direction which can impose significant forces on the occupants and aircraft. Modern aircraft such as the Extra 300L are designed to be sufficiently strong to deal with even the highest of these forces. This leaves us humans as the weakest link and the effect of these forces may range from minor discomfort to temporary loss of vision or consciousness.

Pull up manoeuvres produce a positive G force causing the body and limbs to feel heavier and more difficult to use. Blood is forced down to the lower part of the body. As blood is forced away from the head this may lead to a reduction in vision known as 'grey out', or a loss of vision known as 'black out'. In more extreme cases it may lead to a short period of 'Loss of Consciousness', known as 'G-LOC'.

Push over manoeuvres may initially produce a feeling of weightlessness followed by a negative G force which forces the occupant into the harness and the blood towards the head, producing the type of feeling that is felt when hanging upside down.

Given the nature of G force on our typical flights you will hear your pilot recommending what we call the 'Squeeze'. This simple method of anti G straining involves contracting the abdominal muscles as if to make your waist as small as possible. This will help to maintain blood pressure to the upper body and head for the short periods of high positive G experienced during our typical flight.

Prior to experiencing higher G forces a countdown of '3-2-1' from your pilot will help you anticipate the need to squeeze. This means that you will negate this natural physiological effect and hopefully be fully conscious throughout the experience. Additionally the comfortable semi reclined seating position in Hawk assists by elevating your legs thereby reducing the blood pressure required for circulation.

The effects do vary significantly from person to person and communicating how you are handling the G force will allow us to ensure that the experience takes you to the limit, but not over the limit!

Typically we limit the negative G to short durations of inverted flight when you will either experience the wonder of weightlessness or the unusual feeling of being upside down held securely in your seat by the double clasp, ratcheting 5 point aerobatic seatbelt. If you are up for the challenge we may do a tumble or two, during which you will experience a small amount of negative G for a short duration. Most passengers liken this to a wild roller coaster, but despite this feeling even tumbles are totally controlled.

High sustained negative G is extremely uncomfortable even for the best aerobatic pilots and unlike the positive G there is really no way to limit its effects, so rest assured we will not expose you to this unless specifically requested.

G force is measured in the aircraft with an accelerometer, when the aircraft is stationary it will read 1G, it has three indicators so as well as indicating the current level of G force it will record peak positive G and negative G. It is located in the pilot's instrument panel, so we will be sure to tell you the amount of G force you are experiencing. Be sure to get a photo of the peak G values recorded on your flight, you won't meet many people aside from astronauts and jet pilots that have experienced these sort of forces!

G, positive, negative, grey out, black out, g-loc, squeeze, accelerometers...now you have the lingo...are you ready for the experience??

Ben's Birthday Surprise

Well after a very bleak day yesterday, we were able to re:schedule a flight for today. We had Ben out for a Speedhawk birthday flight. His wife Kirsty bought the ride as a surprise for his birthday. Coming over from Christchurch for the weekend, Kirsty sought us out and booked. This allowed us to be a part of the surprise. Happy Birthday Ben, we hope you enjoyed the flight, it was our pleasure having you out and look forward to your next Melbourne visit!

Moorabbin weather shined

Hawk was out in the sunshine while it lasted today at Moorabbin airport. Fairly cool conditions with calm wind, made the flights this afternoon a delight!
Happy Birthday Jody, hope the go-carting went your way this afternoon- we had a great time with you- you nailed it!
Well done to Peter also- we hope that you enjoyed the Speedhawk experience, as much as we liked having you- you certainly had a big grin on your face when you got back!!

Saturday flights

Hawk will be out and at Moorabbin Airports terminal building from 12.30 tomorrow. Looks like he has a few flights to complete. .. come on down if your around?

Barrier Daily Truth - Aerobatic Flights Roll into City

We made the front page of the Barrier Daily Truth - Broken Hill on Friday 4th May, after Erica Visser took a spin with us!

http://bdtruth.com.au/main/news/article/3382-Aerobatic-flights-roll-into-city.html

Need for Speed in Broken Hill - ABC Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Read the story and listen to the live radio package that local Broken Hill ABC journalist, Noah Schultz-Byard compiled after experiencing a Speedhawk flight.

Need for speed in Broken Hill - ABC Broken Hill - Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Outback Outlook with Chris Jeremy - Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)

Chris Jeremy from ABC Broken Hill interviewed Speedhawk pilot Lars Larson.

Speedhawk - ABC South Australia - Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)

Squeezing the most out of life!

John Dean - 90 years young and still enjoying life!

The team from Speedhawk were privileged to have met an inspirational man in Broken Hill on the weekend! John Dean who turns 90 on the 1st of July this year arrived at the Aero Club of Broken Hill for a flight in the Extra 300L.

John's wife, Ann, who was quite nervous about her husband's participation in an extreme activity such as Aerobatics was content to sit in the car with her eyes shut tight and not watch the flight. With some coaxing from John, Ann came into the Aero Club and began to feel more at ease after meeting the Speedhawk team and listening to the flight briefing from pilot, Lars.

As John settled himself into the Extra 300L and prepared for his flight, wife Ann, was happily by her husband's side taking photographs and was very excited to watch her husband perform aerobatic manoeuvres such as slow rolls, stall turns, barrel rolls and even inverted flight across the skies of Broken Hill.

Thank you John and Ann for proving that you're never too old to try new experiences!

Arrival Broken Hill

Wow, what a day today. Had to wait for a break in the weather from Melbourne. Sure enough, the rain let us have a little window and Hawk was off to Swan Hill, then onto Broken Hill. A nice tailwind all the way, made up for the 'cooler cockpit' environment!!
A couple of rides at Broken Hill this afternoon were conducted and big smiles all around by all!
The Hawk team have a radio interview in the morning, then back at at Broken Hill airport for a few more rides.. .. Looking forward to tomorrow!!

Photo Shoot

After a thorough morning briefing, Lars and Rob took to the skies for a photo shoot of Hawk in the air. With Lars flying Hawk and Rob flying Hawk's friend and stablemate (another Extra 300), we were able to get some fantastic air-air photos to share.
Heres just a quick view of some of them- more to follow.
"we had a lot of fun on the day and look forward to doing it again very soon" Rob said after he landed!

Broken Hill visit

We've been very busy preparing Hawk for his visit to Broken Hill. Hawk will be departing Moorabbin Airport on Thursday morning - direct to Swan Hill for a short rest and refuel, then direct to Broken Hill Airport. Hawk has some important meeting at Broken Hill, where he will take Samantha from Southern Cross television, Erica from the Barrier Daily Truth and Noah from ABC Radio for a flight Thursday afternoon at Broken Hill Airport.

Lake Boga Catalina Flying Boat Museum

Two of the Speedhawk team members traveled to Lake Boga on the weekend to witness the grand opening of the new facilities for the Flying Boat Museum. The museum stands on the foreshores of the lake and houses a complete Catalina aircraft which has been restored by the Lake Boga Lions Club members and memorabilia dating back to 1938.

Lake Boga is located 16km South of Swan Hill and was home to the secret RAAF flying boat repair and service depot during World War II.  During its operational years the repair depot serviced and restored around 416 aircraft from Australia, the USA and the Dutch Air Forces. Aircraft serviced at the base included not only Catalina's but Walrus, Glen Martin Mariners, Kingfishers and Sunderland.

The proactive local community, clubs and organisations should be congratulated for this remarkable achievement and for preserving this amazing collection of World War II history.

Over a dozen amphibious aircraft made the journey to Lake Boga for the weekend in support of the opening. Aircraft such as Searey's, Lake Buccaneer's, a Birddog on floats, a Husky on floats and a C185 from Melbourne Sea Planes Scenic Flights provided spectacular viewing and joy flights for the local community.

With perfect weather and a great, friendly atmosphere we definitely recommend that if you're in the area to drop by and see this great collection.

Morning!

What a great morning for flying - stunning sunrise at Moorabbin Airport.

We're Launching!

Speedhawk is hitting the skies for some serious fun!

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