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!
