Sunday fun

Flight hours: 2.5
Study hours: 0
Aviation Reading: Flight of Passage

I have never taken my parents out for a flight, period. Now that I have my own aircraft, that was bound to change soon enough and it just happened to be a Sunday scenic flight.

On the Friday, it didn't look like the flight would occur at all this weekend. A low pressure system had quickly come through the Sydney basin, bringing with it a SIGMET for significant turbulence below 10000ft and wind from the south at 28 knots gusting to 38 knots.

A few years ago, the three GA airfields in the Sydney area, Bankstown, Camden and Hoxton Park, were sold by our government to a private business holding. Three companies were made for the ownership, BAL (Bankstown Airport Limited, CAL (Camden) and HPAL (Hoxton Park).

This business has great plans for the airfields, most notably, raising the rates by up to 200% within two years (far above the rates that market appraisal deems appropriate), closing down the north to south facing runway at Bankstown and closing down Hoxton Park completely in 2007 to develop the land for the property market. The Hoxton Park residence owners along with people who cannot afford to stay at Bankstown have to move to Camden, which is quite a drive from Sydney even with the new motorway.

With the closure of the Nth-Sth runway at Bankstown along with the imminent closure of Hoxton Park's 34/16 runway, this removes all nth-sth runways within Sydney and effectively provides no ability for general aviation aircraft to deal with a strong southerly wind that may crop up. Well, that is not entirely true. If a light aircraft making its way to Sydney found that the crosswind for Bankstown or Camden was above their aircraft's certified maximum crosswind component, they would have no choice but to divert to Sydney international airport and in the process becoming a financial nightmare for the pilot to pay landing and movement charges along with being a major inconvenience.

With the closure of the Nth-Sth runway at Bankstown, BAL has sold off the land that the runway previously occupied and we now have housing and commercial development encroaching the airfield. You have to wonder how long it will take until the crosswind incidents increase dramatically or an engine out after takeoff results in an emergency landing into someoness house.

My aircraft was available for the entire weekend, so I informed my parents that we could take our flight on either day. Saturday turned out to be quite gusty as well, so we hoped that conditions would improve by Sunday.

Sunday morning was suitable for flying, a manageable 12 kt crosswind and some moderate turbulence below 5000ft which was forecast to reduce as the day progressed. Michael, a work colleague and a student pilot, knew that I was flying so I arranged that he could meet me after taking my parents so that we can go for a spin.

We flew to north of Sydney to take some photos of my sisters house and then proceeded to track to Sydney harbour for orbits of the city followed by a leisurely flight down to Wollongong along Victor 1 (a VFR track to fly the Sydney coast).

After dropping my parents off at the airfield, Michael was soon to arrive which saw us do a similar flight over the city however, instead of Victor 1, we headed to Hoxton Park which was our training airfield, to practice some crosswind landings before returning home.

There's work to be had in Canberra

Flight hours: 2.5
Study Hours: 2

The role of my I.T. job is mostly internally focused. I'm part of a team that keeps the business running, ranging from infrastructure to servers to workstations, you name it. One of the projects I've been running happened to involve our Canberra office.

Canberra, Australia's capital and winner of a number of awards for city planning/design, is approximately a three hour drive away from Sydney. The six hour return trip generally involves having a long work day or spending the night at a posh hotel.

Seeing as I can fly myself there in around an hour, I decided that instead of staying the night, I would fly down, blitz through the work and return home before days end. Two colleagues, Doug and Evelyn, asked if they could also come along as they had business reasons to be on-site. Yeah right!.. Just kidding.

The weather forecast seemed good for the day we planned to go, so we made arrangements to meet at the aerodrome at around fifteen minutes before our 6 AM departure. I woke up at around 4:30 AM, with plans to obtain the weather forecast, submit a flight plan, as Canberra is an International Airport and then head to the hangar to pre-flight the plane. The weather was CAVOK (CAVU) in Canberra but had closed in around Sydney. The trip today was a no-go for an early departure and I decided I would re-evaluate at around 7 AM.

Doug, a first timer in a light aircraft, lives on the Central Coast and has a daily commute to and from work of around two hours. Seeing as he had to get up quite early, I phoned Doug immediately and told him to sleep in as we won’t be leaving so early. Doug was already up, showered, had eaten breakfast and was walking out the door, so I said I would meet him at work instead. I went back to bed for another thirty minutes before heading into work, which for me is only a five minute drive away.

Doug arrived at work, I told him our options and that I would decide by 7-7:30 AM. Get-there-itis doesn't affect me. The time came, the weather was clearing but still marginal, so I made the command decision to not go. The sign of a good pilot!

Around 2 PM, I started getting the flying bug. A look at the synoptic chart showed a huge high pressure system was approaching Sydney. It was forecast to be within the area most likely within another day or two. I informed Doug and Evelyn and told them we will plan to go a few days from now.

Currently the weather was SCT040/BKN055. I rolled back in my chair and said to Doug, "Want to go for a joy flight around Sydney?” I didn't have to ask twice.

We drove out to the hangar, prepped the plane and took off. I took Doug north of the city, over the harbour, down to Cronulla and then proceeded further down south to head to the edge of the greater Sydney basin.

We didn't make it that as far south as I wanted to go as the weather was quickly closing in even though it was not in the forecast. Spot showers where appearing to the south, so I turned towards my aerodrome and setup a fast cruise. As I was near a military restricted area, I decided to use my GPSMap so that I can hug the edge of zone and reduce the time it would take to get back to terra firma. Those large colour GPS screens sure come in handy for these airspace situations, as you can be more precise when needed.

The crosswind landing was a no brainer, I was a bit high on final as I was number two behind a Cessna Citation, so decided to stay above its flight path and land past its touchdown point.

Fast forward a few days, the weather wasn't the best in Sydney, but I knew it would be improving to CAVOK by the afternoon for our return flight. We departed in cool, calm air and enjoyed (read put up with) some AM talk-back radio through the ADF.

The work was easy in Canberra and I couldn't wait to fly back home. The returning flight was quite bumpy when we were overhead Lake George. The lake is no longer a lake, but a massive flat section of ground, so in the warm afternoon, it creates a nice stream of turbulence. After passing flat lake George, the flight was quite relaxing.

Flying myself for work purposes is fun!

An air show day keeps the doctor away

Flight hours: 0
Study Hours: 1

I received an email reminder from my SAAA group that there are a number of air shows and events just around the corner. One of them happened to be the Defence Force Air Show at the RAAF base in Richmond, approximately a 40 minute drive for me with the new motorway and with the traffic attending the show, I estimated another 10 to 15 minutes or so.

The air show happened to also be the 85th anniversary of the Royal Australia Air Force (RAAF).

Plans were made to attend on the Saturday, but due to possibly lame weather, I opted for the Sunday instead. A mate of mine, Bill, ended up joining me at the last minute as we made our way to Richmond. The police were quite helpful in directing traffic to the air show through small detours, which made me feel good about my decision to drive instead of catching a train.

I would have preferred to fly myself, as Richmond is only a 10 minute hop from most GA airfields in the Sydney basin, however the base was closed to civilian aircraft movements for a few days.

When we arrived, we were shuttled on to a bus like sheep, to make our way around the base to the air show. It was good to see an aerobatics aircraft performing an accelerated inverted spin as soon as I hopped off to enter the show.

On closer inspection during its maneuvers, the aircraft was Edge 540 being flown by Pip "Why be ordinary when you can be extraordinary!" Borrman.

Some of the types of aircraft on display and used in demonstrations include: Globemaster (Cargo/Troop transport), Hercules (multi role transport), F-111's (long range strike fighter), F/A-18 Super Hornets (Multi role fighter), Some Warbirds, P-3 Orion (mostly surveillance) and the PC-9's that the roulettes RAAF aerobatic team uses.

Midway through the show Alan, an old friend from college days, happened to find me in the crowd (must be my height). Alan and I have caught up recently however Bill and Alan havent seen each other in over 5 years or so. Whilst they were having their catch up, I just kept my eyes skyward looking at the Roulettes performing formation aerobatics.

Here are some pictures taken during the show.

Sightseeing Sydney by air

Flying hours: 3
Study hours: 5

I think I might keep a tally on the hours I have flown in my plane along with an estimate of my book or study time dedicated to aviation since the previous blog entry.

By book/study time, I am referring to the reading of knowledge material about flying. I believe it's important for pilots to continually be learning. As a matter of fact, after passing your PPL (Private Certificate), a lot of checkride examiners tell you that it's a license to learn.

My current reading material is Bob Tait's Instrument Rating Study Guide. I think I will do my IREX exam for fun (the Australia Instrument Rating exam).

I have been fortunate enough to travel to many countries for work and have had the pleasure of seeing a wide variety of locations. Sydney would have to be one of the better looking cities and I'm not just saying that because I live here and happen to be an Australian. Sydney by air is amazing and seeing as I have never taken photos during my flying adventures in the past, this would have to change. I'm not really a photo taking kind of person, this too I would like to change...

A snowboarding mate of mine, Trieu, works across the path from my building complex and has an passion (read affinity) for taking photos of everything. The photos are actually quite good, but that might be because he takes hundreds of them every hour whenever the camera is close by? Can you guess what nationality he is?

He was one of the first that I wanted to take flying around Sydney so that I can grab some photos of the city and surrounding areas and seeing as he loves taking photos, this was quite easy to arrange.

The trip took us just over an hour, which saw us fly to the city for some orbits and then descend to 500ft to skirt along the coastline southbound along a route called Victor 1, before finally heading back to my aerodrome.

Pictures speak louder than words, so I will attach a tiny fraction of what was taken that day.

Hey honey, we bought an airplane

That's nice dear.

As I mentioned, the syndicate found me. They currently have seven members and I was to replace the last remaining original member who had purchased a Jabiru in recent times.

The plane is a Cessna 172M, always hangared and is in great condition.

Along with the usual items found in general aviation aircraft, this one has:

• Aux Tanks
• Two NavCom's
• Two ADF's
• Two GPS's

One of the GPS' is TSO'd (GNC 300XL), which means it is certified for IFR. The other GPS is a old portable Garmin GPS 95 which has been attached to the instrument panel. I also have my Garmin GPSMap 296. I bought it not long after Garmin released the GPSMap 496, seeing as the price for the 296 came down considerably being twice superceded and all.

The GPSMap 296 greatly enhances awareness during VFR flight and it certainly helps reduce the cockpit workload especially when you are skirting near airspace boundaries. A bonus is that my flight planning software can communicate with the GPS to upload my flight plans and waypoints.

The flight planning software was only a recent addition to my "flight bag". It will help me plan the bigger trips since you can view and overlay multiple maps at the same time.When you have finished planning within the software, it can submit the flight plan, provide fuel logs, a passenger route guide (keeps them occupied and feeling like a co-pilot) and overlay notes on the pertinent areas of the charts you require such as frequency changes or altitude planning. All of these things further help to reduce cockpit workload for the pilot, which is a good thing.

That being said, I still ensure I am no stranger to old school flight planning. Give me a chart, compass, plotter, pencil and a timepiece and I can navigate to you to any location. We can sort out the wind correction, groundspeed and ETA's whilst flying.

The additional auxiliary tanks provide roughly 6.5 hours endurance. My bladder may not last that long at times, but it is good to know I can take 2.8 people a long distance without re-fuelling. It will be very suited to some of the long trips I would like to make.

One of those long trips involves George, a work colleague from the west coast of Australia. We will be planning a trip to the centre of Australia to visit Uluru among other things. George also has his pilot’s license and seeing as I'm over in Perth for Christmas this year, George and I can go somewhere quiet and plan that trip.

Awesome, I now have my own plane, the only down side is that I still want to build a plane. I think I can put that off for at least five more years, maybe less.

Adventures of an Aussie Pilot

That title may be a little misleading... I do have my pilots license, but it's only my private certificate, so I don't fly for a living. I'm an Aussie, currently living in Sydney and working for a US multi-national company.

I'm the kind of person that flutters between hobbies. Unfortunately, the ones I like usually cost quite a bit of money or require a rather large commitment to get anything out of it. Fortunately, I have a career that provides me enough time and money to do them...

Same examples include:

• Kung Fu (Black Sash)
• Racing Motorcycles (one season)
• Snowboarding (Revolves around three countries)
• Firearms (I own handguns)
  
  and of course the reason this blog exists... My pilots license!
  

I started flying (fixed wing) around 2000. It took me just over a year to get my private license and then for some unknown reason (perhaps I had too many hobbies?) the following years regrettably saw me not use any of those skills as often as I liked... think 5 hours per year flying excluding my BFR's (biennial flight reviews).

Most of those flying hours were for recency requirements that come with holding a pilots license. I would have to at least do three (3) take-offs and landings per ninety (90) days, in order to carry passengers. But seeing as I wasn't even flying myself let alone passengers, it got disturbing and this is a hobby that I will not let go of so easily.

I recently put flying back on the agenda in an unusual manner... I decided I wanted to build my own aircraft as I knew that will get me back into flying or being around aircraft. I joined the SAAA (an organisation in Australia that brings homebuilders together) and started making new friends who are all building, wanting to build or has built a flying contraption.

I narrowed down the choices and started researching more, costing out the project in terms of finance and time along with starting to make arrangements to move into bigger living quarters, seeing as it's ideal to have a double garage.

I started on the search for a new place to live. The search continued for weeks and the market just did not present what I was looking for. Considering I like to do things spur of the moment, the choice was made for me. I will advertise in the Aviation Trader that I am looking for some other people interested in creating a syndicate to purchase an aircraft around the same age as myself. The syndicate found me.

I purchased an aircraft (well, I purchased 1/7th of a share in one) in a syndicate that also has 3.5 owners whom are practically non-flying.

I have started flying a lot more and even had the fortunate ability to recently incorporate it into my work travel.

This blog will serve as the chronicles in clocking up my logbook hours with a bit of my life thrown in for good measure. I will definitely obtain my Commercial license (CPL) when I hit the required hours and who knows, perhaps I can dream of finding a company that will pay for my ratings or endorsements and in return, I will work for free to allow the company to recoup much more than the incurred training costs.

aut viam inveniam aut faciam

Plug: If you are in a position to offer a pilot role in a Sydney based training or charter company, to instruct or become a freight dog and provide me with the bargain salary of $0, contact me.

Perhaps I need to revise my plug à la A-Team.

"In 1976 a child was born, sent to a life of I.T. for a crime he didn't commit. This man promptly escaped from this life by adopting too many hobbies. Today, still wanted by the I.T. world, he survives as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find him, maybe you can hire the Oz Pilot**."

** Oz Pilot is offering pilot skills to any outstanding training or charter company. Terms and conditions apply.


Yep, that's better.