The flying adventures of an Aussie pilot

Tailwheel Endorsement

2011-06-28T03:59:00.002+10:00

Just finished doing 4.7 hours with Bruce to get my tailwheel endorsement out of Wings Field (KLOM).

Have to say he is a great bloke and good to work with in completing this endorsement in the Citabria he has access to. Currently $183 per hour for the plane and Bruce.

He also does spin training and other aerobatic work if you are so inclined.

I guess I was just lucky for that hour time as it seems to be considered low. Being coordinated with controls, stablized approaches and quick on my feet would have helped as well as the crosswinds over the few days we flew to provide that steeper learning curve.

Endorsed after 12 landings, but I went out for a lucky 13th which turned into a nice one wheel crosswind landing.

We also did about 40 minutes in a training area with some wing overs and other manoeuvres, so I will definitely go back for more of that.

Bruce was an unlimited aero competitor for a long time and his skill and experience it comes across really well in a training environment.

FAA Unrestricted

2011-06-08T12:55:00.004+10:00

Managed to finish my checkride today. I passed.

Flew out from Wings (KLOM) under an inversion (which was around 8000 ft), so I had visibility of around 8 miles or so under haze, but the ride was super smooth.

The DPE Tom C was great. It was a pleasure to fly next to a very experienced pilot.

After speaking with a FSDO office, I will now have a number of licenses: the full Australian PPL, the FAA license based on my foreign privs and now a new cert number for the unrestricted license I just passed.

Time for instrument work, however after posting on http://pilotsofamerica.org I think I will complete a tail-wheel endorsement before completing the instrument.

In other news, things are brewing on the flying club front. More to come later, however as a sneak peek... I have partnered with someone else from Wings and we have been gathering interest and doing work behind the scenes to start another fractional. Working out whether it will be an equity or non-equity club. Time will tell.

FAA Checkride

2011-06-06T14:46:00.003+10:00

Last week I started my FAA checkride to migrate my current FAA certificate (based on foreign privileges) to a full FAA certificate.

As previously mentioned, the process requires me to complete the written exam, be endorsed by a CFI (to sign off my IACRA application) and then find a DPE to conduct the oral portion of the certificate and then sign-off on my checkride.

I did mention weather on my last post and unfortunately I did have to ask for a discontinuance after the oral portion of the test. Winds were between 25 gusting to 35 in the area and continued for almost two days, so we also couldn't finish the following day.

We rescheduled for this coming Tuesday as the weather looked promising on forecasts, but now that seems to have turned sour as well, so I may have to hold it off again.

Sigh... I will get it done soon enough.

Ready for the FAA Checkride

2011-05-26T07:51:00.002+10:00

I already have my Australia privileges recognized here in the States (which grants me an FAA certificate). This allows me to fly as long as my medical and flight review is valid.

Problem with this is that my medical and flight review expirations have passed, so it meant no flying for me.

The FAA are reasonable in that I was allowed to get a medical here in the US and they adjusted my file to allow me to fly on the third class medical so long as the Australian flight review was valid.

This is all well and good until that period of time expired and according to CASA regulations, I could only take a checkride with an Australian CFI and in Australian airspace. (So I couldn't find an Aussie CFI on holidays in the US and do the checkride).

Due to the extra complexity in gaining new ratings and certificates as well as owning an aircraft here in the US and also maintaining my flight review currency back in Australia; this prompted me to just pursue my full FAA certificate by passing the written (I got an 88%. A few silly mistakes), doing a Private oral and checkride.

I have spoken with a few DPE's and will get this done over the next week or so, pending weather.

RV10

2011-05-23T11:00:00.002+10:00

My wife Sarah bought me the RV10 plans for my birthday. A great 4 seater aircraft from Vans.

We have spoken about building our own aircraft, which was going to start with the RV7 however our general "mission" when flying has changed somewhat.

The house we made an offer on that we expect to get has a great two car garage which will more than suit the building of the 10.

I will be in Maryland tomorrow, so I am also taking the opportunity to grab a ride in an RV10 with Mitch from Vans.

Aside from the building, which will take me a few years, we are also looking to get a C182 or start a flying club with a few people I recently met at a Pilots of America forum FlyBQ at Wings field (KLOM).

The plan would be to start the building within the next 6-8 months as well as buying a 182 to take care of the interim flying.

Getting started again

2011-05-17T10:44:00.002+10:00

Hello again!

It seems I have lost all of my followers since I stopped blogging a few years ago, but that was to be expected, so lets give you guys an update.

- I live and work in the USA as per what some of my old posts mentioned.
- I am a green card holder, so my stay here will be of a very long duration.
- I have been married for just over a year now (We got married in France in May 2010)
- I did have my Australian flight privileges converted to an FAA license

Some newer items that I will cover in detail over time include the re-starting of my aviation podcast (it used to be rated #3 in the aviation podcasts category) which will cover the conversion to a full FAA license, going over some of the differences between CASA and FAA regulations as well as bringing topics on my instrument rating training.

Missing that good ol' flying

2009-05-19T23:00:00.000+10:00

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .

— John Gillespie Magee, Jr

Goodbye Sydney and Hello again

2008-04-12T14:00:00.003+10:00

Flight hours: 2

I have been in full swing and quite busy with the packing and related tasks for my USA relocation. Part of the preparation included mandatory festivities in catching up with friends over the last few weeks and of course getting in some last minute flying.

This particular jaunt was to be my "Goodbye Sydney" flight, a simple excursion with Wade and Andrew. As you may know, Wade has found his way into the right seat during a number of adventures however for young Andrew (21), this was to be his first foray into general aviation.

On the morning of the flight came the explicit non-standard NOTAM from Andrew "I always get sick when flying, but when I take my nausea tablets I am bullet proof and never get sick when flying". A quick glance between Wade and I ended up as a smirk.... I feel like zero G for breakfast.

The new lightspeed ignition worked quite well and kicked her over in a couple of seconds which soon saw us taxiing and flying out towards the northern shores of Sydney. The weather was near perfect with still air and cool morning conditions that allowed the 180HP Cessna to cruise around 128 KIAS with a GPS ground speed of 130 knots.

After flying at 500 feet along the northern coast of New South Wales, we headed back towards Long Reef whilst obtaining Sydney airspace clearance for orbits around the Harbour Bridge. The clearance is for 1500 feet, so we commenced the climb.

"Did you hear that?" I asked when passing 2200 feet. Andrew looking on inquisitively from the back whilst Wade instinctively adjusted himself in the co-pilot seat.

I had now climbed to around 2300 feet with the full intention of losing the extra altitude in a zero G environment. A few seconds after my comment, we were weightless. Andrew was speechless.

After levelling out at 1500 feet and heading towards the harbour with an airways clearance, I looked back to see Andrew in a fairly happy state which stayed that way as I prepared for orbits. I powered up for 2G steep turns and to provide a better views. Andrew was quiet.

After the orbits, we headed back to Bankstown only to be greeted with a comment from the back seat "I'm going to spew, where are those bags you mentioned". I told Andrew where he can find the bags and he proceeded to vomit... I didn't watch.

After he was done, I looked back to see Andrew's mouth tightly pursed around the small opening of the airsick back holder, letting go of food that had the familiar consistency of digested french fries. What Andrew had failed to do was take the airsick bag out of its instructional packaging.

He recovered with a bit of fresh air and we landed shortly later without incident. The plane was still fresh and required no special cleaning however I did open my logbook to increment my airsick passenger count by 1, which now sits at the grand total of 2.

Should my count include passengers who are always airsick? I think I'll adjust my total back to 1 next time I go flying.

Relocating to good ol' USA

2008-01-15T10:00:00.002+11:00

Flight hours: 0

Over the last few months, I've been having discussions with the V.P and the Director of Global Infrastructure (my boss), on the decision to continue my career from within the U.S, being based in Philadelphia.

I've made the choice and will be leaving Australia on ANZAC day, the 25th April. The role will be the same and I will still manage my team of infrastructure architects who are placed around the globe.

What does this mean for my flying? Plans have been made so that over the next few years during which I will return to Oz for periods of time, I will do the planned flights into the middle of the country and various other areas.

It also means that I can blog the adventure of getting my endorsements to fly within the U.S, with the plan to find a syndicate and buy a share of an aircraft.

The adventures of an Aussie pilot, taking a long yet interesting flight.

Superhawking

2007-12-08T16:00:00.000+11:00

Flight hours: 4.4

You may recall that the engine was well over TBO and although performing strongly, it was time to use the insurance money to buy a new engine.

The decision was made to move to a Penn Yan beast, which also requires a new prop... Who cares? 180 HP, ability to carry full fuel and 4 adults in a 172... Sold.

The engine will take a few weeks to arrive by sea freight and another two weeks for installation.

The outcome should show a 125 kt cruise (130+ kt fast cruise) at around 40 litres per hour fuel burn.

He can fly for another two years!

2007-11-25T18:00:00.003+11:00

Flight hours: 2.6

There haven't been many updates over the last 5 weeks due to my travels and planning for relocation to the U.S.

Over Christmas I flew in a human mailing tube to the U.S east coast to suss out the location from the point of view of living and working there. Over the month long period, my girlfriend and I tried to lead a normal life so I could establish some sort of baseline for living costs. This also included driving past an airfield right next to my work headquarters... hoping to find a good general aviation presence at this particular airfield.

So, that leads us to my Biannual Flight Review (BFR). It is due in December and I really don't like the idea of letting my license lapse, so I tentatively booked my flight review to occur sometime over the next week.

I figured I would do the planning early in the week and watch the weather to see when it would improve, then book the BFR. Obviously, this wasn't going to happen. The instructor I had chosen, called me in the late afternoon on Saturday and said "I have a cancellation for flying tomorrow due to weather, how about we do your BFR instead, what time would you like to start? I think 10am will be fine".

The only issue, the weather was quite lame. "The weather isn't the greatest".

"I think you should do your BFR, it would be good to practice in and exercise your decision making".

OK, so it was on, I decided to head down there by 9:30am and plan the trip at the flight school. The trip was only planned up to my first landing destination and minimum planning was asked to be performed. He wanted to ensure I could cope with a maximum cockpit workload. This would include determining the tracks, heading, ETA's etc, whilst in the air to any other location or diversions.

Usually I would use Air NAV and thoroughly do my pre-flight planning, so I can relax and enjoy the flight knowing that all normal operations have been accounted for. This flight was far from that.

The first landing was at Cessnock, a relatively easy exercise as I could follow the coast up north, the only concern being that due to cloud cover, I would have to provide overflying and transiting radio calls for other aircraft operating at the airfields I was to pass within 10nm. The actual landing was a full crosswind, potentially at the maximum XW component of the C172 (15 kts). The windsocks were showing around half-mast and perpendicular to the runway. I did quite a good job.

On the return and randomly selected destination/diversion legs, we finally headed out to the western training area and performed airwork and emergency landings. We stayed out there for around 45 minutes when I also noted that we are at bingo, excluding mandatory reserve fuel (a military term which means there is enough fuel to return to base of intended landing). The return landing was performed as a shortfield.

I passed my BFR and am now authorised to fly for another two years.

Escape to Cowra

2007-10-21T19:00:00.000+10:00

Flight hours: 5.2

I have actually been flying quite a bit, but have had nothing of interest to report until now. The SAAA held their national convention at the Cowra airfield, where some of the best in home built aircraft was to be be found along with workshops on home building and some flying displays thrown in for good measure.

I didn't stay for the full event (Friday to Sunday), instead I took my father out for the Saturday which materialised from a rather quick and random comment I made to him just two days prior "I might go flying out bush on the weekend, want to come?" He didn't know until the Saturday where exactly we were going.

On the morning of the flight, the forecast showed FEW and SCT clouds at various levels and from Bankstown, it looked like the layer of clouds extended to the Blue Mountains. Once airborne I could see this wasn't the entire case, so I decided to punch some holes in the sky and get above the clouds before heading further west over the mountains. I do really enjoy flying near clouds and turning and weaving to climb above them. NOTE: Never attempt to fly in or through clouds unless you have appropriate ratings and experience, especially if you are a VFR rated pilot!

Soon after, the clouds cleared to a perfect blue sky and the trip was smooth. As we headed to Cowra, Melbourne Centre (Radar) advised on the area frequency that there are 12 aircraft converging on Cowra with similar ETA's by what his computer could show him. I could not see any aircraft in front of me yet ML CEN was reporting a number of aircraft in my vicinity and near the altitude I was flying. I was actually the only pilot who grabbed a flight following after his announcement which helps to ensure my safety.

After landing in a very busy pattern (6 aircraft at once), we walked through the flight line and looked at some of the show aircraft. As soon as I entered the main tarmac area I saw none other than Jon Johanson, the famous Australian with an unbelievable number of flying world records. He was standing near his plane and was just getting off the phone. I had a nice chat with him and also enquired about his services to ferry aircraft from the US back to Australia for me. I also bumped into a fellow pilot and builder, Richard, who had also taken his father but was staying for the full weekend.

It is fantastic seeing a huge number of GA aircraft parked for an event like this and congratulations to Cowra council and the SAAA by putting on a great event.

Maintenance & APEC

2007-09-11T12:10:00.000+10:00

Flight hours: 3

I haven't posted over the last few months so have quite a bit to cover.

The windshield was replaced and is fantastic. Photos turn out so much better and now I will have no problem with glare when landing into the sun.

The hail damage post I made some months back, well it has been decided to take the money from the insurance company offered and increase the premiums a little to bring the insured value of the aircraft back into acceptable figures.

What this means is that instead of total replacement of the hail damaged skins, I will have the control surface skins replaced and use the remainder of the money to buy the new engine (the engine is 25% over TBO, but running really well). This will see an upgrade to 180HP.

Recently I have also taken a few more managers from the US and India for flights around the Sydney basin area. Flying however was put on hold for some period of time due to APEC being in the city. A 45nm radius around Sydney was evoked and if you flew without proper procedures and clearance you would be visited by a couple of F-18's. One such pilot had the privilege of this on the second last day of the restrictions even though procedures were followed.

Apart from that, some more news coming down the line soon regarding my flying and what the future holds.

AirNav VFR

2007-07-02T09:00:00.000+10:00

Flight hours: 0
Aviation Reading: Aviation Magazines

Over the last few months I have had a few emails from readers asking about the web-based application I designed to help with tracking the aircraft hours and maintenance as well as whether I use flight planning software. This post will be about the flight planning software I use.

This article was written sometime ago, however I never got around to taking screenshots of the software. Seeing as George, a work colleague from Western Australia and fellow pilot, will be in Sydney for a work junket in the next few months, I decided to quickly whip up a flight plan for a possible trip we will take and present some screenshots on the process as well as telling you why I choose this piece of flight planning software (for Australia).

The software I use is AirNav VFR from Sentient Software.

The reason I chose this software is primarily for its point-and-click interface on official Airservices Australia maps. I can essentially plan flights on suitable maps and instantly cross-check them with airspace requirements, PRD type zones and selecting suitable waypoints. Totally cool!

Below is a planned route. I simply opened the three charts to determine the best route (WAC, VNC and VTC), double clicked on Bankstown for takeoff and proceeded to mark my route via easily identify features or points of interest. Click on the picture for a closer look.

In addition, it has a whole swag of features such as adding notes to the flight plan on the actual map, GPS coordinate uploads into my GPSMap 296 (it's in a standard format so it can be used on most GPS's), moving map display options (if you take a laptop/tablet PC with a GPS connection) etc.

Below you can see how useful it is to make thorough notes in the planning stage so as the flight progresses, you have taken some considerable workload off your in-cockpit decision making. Again, click on the picture for a closer look.

You can then print out official Airservices maps (Best to print them out on a colour printer to obatin the full benefit), customised to your flight along with flight plan details, navigation information, radio frequencies etc. Obviously, a safe pilot will also spend a small portion of the planning stages on basic cross checking of the software navigational plans with old fashioned real map work.

A final checklist helps ensure you have covered the major aspects of planning a cross country flight such as fuel requirements, altitudes to fly and even winds aloft so you can have your magnetic tracks already worked out. Goodbye E6B use for flight planning fuel burn, ETA's and wind correction angles.

I fully recommend that pilots (even students doing NAV’s) or hard-core simulation pilots, forget the competition to AirNav and seriously consider putting this piece of software into your digital flight bag. Primarily due to the fact that this is the only software with approved full colour Airservices maps which is one hell of an advantage as well as being generally easier to use than the others on the market.

The thing that blew me away is the cost of the software, starting at $225 for a map pack for instance Western Australian WAC’s, VTC’s, VNC’s, ERC-L and going to $300 for all VFR maps (You can also get IFR map packs).

Now THAT price is very reasonable, even for pilots flying low hours per year. In fact, if you think about the time you will save in planning a flight from fully traditional methods, you have certainly paid for the software many times over in just one or two cross country flights as well as improving your safety in the air by enhancing your ability to plan thoroughly thus reducing your cockpit workload.

The subscription for all maps currently comes to under $60 per year. So if you purchase the software and all the maps you will ever require, Sentient supplies you with all of the Airservices updates at that low price. You just cannot beat that.

Do yourself a favour and obtain a demo of the software (suited for Australia only unless you are a real hardcore overseas simulation pilot looking for reality planning). Email Paul Boxer and tell him OzPilot sent you. Alternatively give Sentient a call on (03) 9646 3331 (+613 9646 3331 for your overseas folk).

Note: I'm not employed by Sentient Software. This is just an unbiased post about how happy I am with the software and their customer service.

How to win friends and influence people

2007-06-14T15:00:00.000+10:00

Flight hours: 1.1
Aviation Reading: Aviation Magazines

Or should that title say, influence managers?

The company I work for has gone through a major shift in organisation models and business process. The outcome of this was to have the new leader, Terry, visit Australia to meet with the highly successful and skilled teams.

Seeing as Terry's trip was to be a very small one due to other commitments, it was asked if I can take Terry and his wife Annette for a flight around Sydney.

It was a crisp day, the weather was very calm with some inversion layers to be seen floating around. The best part of this kind of weather and the time of year is that I enjoy looking at the fog within the valleys on the northern rivers and seeing the mountain tops poking through. The downside is it can make for bad photos depending on the clouds above the aircraft and the lighting conditions.

Terry has his Private Pilots license in the U.S, however he has not exercised those rights in over 7 years. I let Terry fly for around 25 minutes and aside from the "chasing the needle" aspect, he did quite well. Annette mentioned in later correspondence that after they returned to the U.S, Terry mentioned he has the flying bug again. Excellent :-)

We did a few full laps of the city, waved hello to Johnny Howard (The passengers forgot to thank Johnny for the solidarity in Iraq) and then completed Victor 1 with a longer trek down South before returning to Bankstown.

As for influencing managers, I shouldn't have let this opportunity slip by, I could have asked for another raise as we were inbound for landing.

"Hey Terry, The concepts and techniques on landing are a bit sketchy to me at the moment, I am drawing a mental blank as to what I need to do. I don't believe I attended that class when they taught landings."

"For some reason, I have this feeling that by getting a salary increase, this wealth of knowledge will come flooding back, along with cut scenes from movies like Top Gun and Iron Eagle, and then we should be able to successfully land. Until then, I think we need to discuss the increase or other viable options."

We landed shortly after the successful negotiations. I am proud to say I can keep my job. Lucky, because I have to pay for the windshield this week!

Yeah, that is how it would have gone :-)

Maintenance hell is frozen… For now.

2007-06-13T08:00:00.000+10:00

Flight hours: 0
Aviation Reading: Aviation Magazines

Well, what a pleasant surprise!

The mechanic (actually a L.A.M.E (Licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineer)) cleared the plane for another hundred hours before engine overhaul! That extra hundred hourly on-condition sign-off allows me to take the engine up to 400 hours past TBO.

The Lycoming O-320 in the plane was compression tested and oil consumption was in the middle of normal limits along with no metal being found in the oil filter.

What does this mean? Financial raping of engine overhaul/replacement has been diverted for now. Hell is frozen and is thawing over the next hundred hours of flight. It also gives me a few months reprieve in departing with my cash.

On other financial news, the windsheild will get replaced in the coming week or so.

The Stallion and the Hen

2007-05-27T12:00:00.000+10:00

Flight hours: 1.3
Aviation Reading: Aviation Magazines

It was just one of those nights.

I went out on the town with a few friends and before I knew it, plans were in place for later that weekend to take a few chicks for a flight around Sydney.

Backing up a little... My ANZAC flight went swimmingly and I will also be able to squeeze a few more flights in before the hundred hourly.

Back to the story. A tourist (Roberta aka The Italian) and the local hosting the tourist (Liana aka Mother Hen) would be blessed with a magical flight before winter wonderland arrives.

The weather was great and as I was preparing to get them into the aircraft, they both decided they need to go to the toilet (is that from excitement or fear?). Off I take them across the airfield and apron to the toilets (I don't happen to have any near my hangar).

On approaching the city, I was told that due to navigational beacon testing, I would be unable to get over the city for at least thirty minutes. What a perfect opportunity to head south on Victor 1 before returning for a round 2 and closer look of the city when testing was complete.

During the phases of Victor 1 on both South and North bound, I took the girls through Zero G a number of times.. They loved it! I didn't record the girls laughing during Zero G as they weren't funny like Wade, who screams like a girl. (You can find the sound file in a previous post).

Back to the city I was cleared to take them into the harbour. It looked great in the afternoon sun.

A few orbits later, we headed back to Bankstown for a greaser touchdown despite the worst possible visibility from the windshield and the afternoon sun glaring on it. I could barely make out what height the aircraft was in relation to the runway so instead, I opted to land by looking out the side window. Can't wait to get that windshield replaced!

Special VFR

2007-04-23T12:00:00.000+10:00

Flight hours: 0.3 (air switch time)
Study hours: 0
Aviation Reading: Killing Zone: How and why pilots die

The weather forecast looked promising at the start of the weekend and Saturday was a great day to fly. As I was still a little tired from a previous big night out, I decided to postpone and go flying on the Sunday.

The weather changed overnight and by morning, a broken to overcast cloud cover rested at around 3000 feet. The weather was calm with almost no wind. I decided to take the flight anyway, bringing someone along for the ride. The plan was to do a simple CBD orbit and the low altitude Victor 1 route under the clouds.

Pre-flighting was a breeze and I pulled the plane out of the hangar, had a fuel truck fill her up and then started to taxi for the run-up bay. The ATIS reported visibility at greater than 8km below 3000 feet at that time.

Soon after, we took off and straight into fairly crap visibility above 1000 feet. I would have estimated a distance of around 6 kilometres by this stage and in haze. It certainly looked much better from the ground, just not great for photos.

As we approached Parramatta and then started for Pennant Hills, I told my passenger we will reschedule this flight for another time due to visibility, which by now, was more like 5 kilometres, still legal in the VFR sense as I was clear of clouds, however it could easily deteriorate further. I started a descent and swung the aircraft towards Prospect to go back to Bankstown. I did however manage a small diversion to allow my passenger to take a photo of their apartment.

The visibility in the area of Prospect and looking South-East to Bankstown must have dropped to around 3 kilometres. The ATIS was still reporting the original weather.

After my inbound call, I was needing to reference the instruments a lot more to ensure I was on track for joining downwind on 29R. I also was utilising my colour GPS, which is a much quicker way of confirming instruments along with landmark identification.

As I joined the extended downwind, the tower informed of a new ATIS, which was now Special VFR with a visibility of 3 kilometres. I was mid-downwind when the call was completed and soon after, the landing was a greaser.

On other news, the plane has only 10 hours to run before the hundred hourly maintenance release expires and we all know what this means... Prepare for financial rape! Engine replacement, windshield replacement along with most of the aircraft panels.

My next flight will be on ANZAC day and I am sure this flight will be the last before it's massive maintenance.

Sydney Jaunt

2007-04-17T18:00:00.000+10:00

Flight hours: 6 (3 via Human Mailing Tubes)
Study hours: 0
Aviation Reading: None

I finally managed to get some time in the air and not just my usual RPT flying, yes folks, I took my plane for a spin.

It ended up being a very late afternoon flight and very pleasant. I let Ajanta control the aircraft at times and she did quite well... that is if your discount the screeching of excitement at various times.

We flew over the harbour and Johnny Howard's Kirribilli residence a few times before heading back into an excellent sunset. I will post photos when AJ gets back from New Zealand.

AJ decided to extend her trip downunder up to her maximum 3 month visa limit (she has been continually extending her trip since it originally was only going to be for 3 or so weeks) and now she has decided to move to Australia. Until that time, her visa tourist day count needs resetting, so she flew over to New Zealand for a couple of weeks so that when back in Oz, the count will be zeroed off again.

The plane has around 45 hours left until its hundred hourly, which also coincides with the engine and windshield replacement along with some insurance work on the hail damaged areas. Time to buckle down on the money saving.

Hail!!

2007-03-25T11:00:00.000+10:00

Flight hours: 3 (via Human Mailing Tubes)
Study hours: 0
Aviation Reading: Aviation Safety

So much has happened over the last few weeks, this thing called life is getting in the way of my aviation adventures. At least I'm still having an adventurous life. If only I can put the two closer together. Hmm. Possible, but not for a while.

I still haven't had the time to get a podcast episode out. This episode is actually an interview with an Airservices Australia Air Traffic Controller. We need to record a few sections again and after mixing, voila!

A few weeks ago, my aircraft was parked at Bathurst when a storm came through and dumped large hail stones everywhere. The aircraft did take some damage, luckily all cosmetic, although it does reduce the value of the plane.

It was decided through different discussions with insurance and my mechanic that when the engine gets replaced (The engine is reaching TBO), it would be a good opportunity to replace the main canopy (windshield) along with replacing or repairing the hail damaged panels.

Because of the large amounts of money needed for engine replacement and repairs, I have significantly reduced my flying time so that my wallet still has a little bit of weight to it after I get financially raped.

For maintaining currency I'm going up for a spin during this week, just a little jaunt around Sydney with someone I met in India. She is going back home to the US in a week, so best we get this done when the weather clears.

India and Podcasting don't mix

2007-02-26T20:30:00.000+11:00

Flight hours: 12 (via Human Mailing Tubes)
Study hours: 0
Aviation Reading: Flying

I believe India is jinxed for actually getting a podcast out. Working long hours, broken equipment and the Windows Vista audio drivers I'm using are not recording as well as they could. L.A.M.E Lame lame.

Appreciate the man-handling of my bags and the outcome to the microphone I was going to use whilst travelling. Slightly functioning through only ear piece, damaged head band, inability to clip the earphones into the holder and a crackling mic when recording. Joy.

I will endeavour to push out one of the planned episodes this week on my normal recording rig. Stay tuned!

Crazy Air Deccan

2007-02-07T09:00:00.000+11:00

Flight hours: 2.2
Study hours: 0
Aviation Reading: Plane and Pilot

I survived getting to Goa and returning to Bangalore, however feel the need to highlight the actual experience.

Air Deccan have certainly revolutionised the low cost carrier concept. It's really an unreliable airline as far as schedules and seating are concerned, but at least they did SMS me the fact that the plane had been delayed... twice.

Booking the tickets were fairly simple besides the fact that they don't take foreign credit cards online. So I had forced my newly minted IT Manager of India to pay for all of the 3 tickets on his Indian credit card. I did pay him back!

We were supposed to leave at 2:45pm, which was bumped on the same day to 3:30pm, no big deal, but on the way to the airport another SMS arrived saying 4:45pm.

After check-in, We waited quite awhile in a fairly dirty and old lounge area of Bangalore airport. There was a power point to charge our laptops and do some emailing and net surfing. Bonus.

Boarding time actually became the departure time. So at 4:45pm, we handed in our ticket stubs and jumped on a bus. The amount of pushing and shoving on the bus was unbelievable. I had to step up and use my size a number of times. I was wondering why everyone wanted to be near the door of the bus instead of spreading out and sitting down.

When we arrived at the rear of the plane for boarding (there was also another bus at the front of the plane), it became apparent why people were striving to stay near the entrance. When the bus came to a halt, there was a mad free-for-all dash for the steps of the plane. The reason being, there are no seating allocations.

I managed to secure seats and two lucky people had to leave the aircraft for not finding one in time. I wonder if the ticketing people at check-in learnt to count.

The seating space is incredibly small. I'm 6'4" and it was small enough that the person in front would not be able to recline and my legs had to be suspended in the air by raising my knees in order to fit in the seat. Oh look, a few small Indians are seated in the exit aisles and they don't want to swap seats. I hope you get trampled in an emergency.

1.2 hours behind the already changed schedule and we were airborne.

The flight was fairly non-eventful, however two things caught my attention. One being that the hostess on a number of occasions during the flight, provided some advertising for the airline and its services over the intercom.

The other being that people have the ability to "bid" on items that are normally sold in the back of the in flight magazine. The headrest cover in the seat in front had the prices on it, showing the product RRP and the minimum bid amount. The idea is that you fill in your name, seat number and bid on a bid sheet and hand it in.

Depending on the number of items available, the x number of highest bids, win those items and the winner must pay for them before the flight has terminated.

Crazy Air Deccan.

Goa

2007-01-25T09:45:00.000+11:00

Flight hours: 0
Study hours: 0
Aviation Reading: Flight Safety Magazine (Australia)

I have been in India for almost 3 weeks and it is very apparent I am lacking two favourite activities... Flying and not working.

The flying component consists of two things:

1) Actually taking an aircraft for a flight, I wasn't impressed by the aircraft available in India (no wonder many Indian's do their flight training in places like Australia) nor the hoops I would have to jump to be allowed to take a "semi-wrecked" aircraft for a flight. I did see some nice looking ones on the flight line, but was unable to locate the owners.

2) Finishing the recording of a podcast for my show. This has been a little harder as I almost totally lost my voice in the first 10 days. I managed to get a sore throat before leaving for India and it progressed into Laryngitis from all of the talking I have been doing at work. Hopefully after this weekend, I might be able to get one released. (Thanks for all the fan mail and no, I have not been killed or kidnapped in India).

When I arrived at the office in India, it was at the same time as another employee from overseas. I could hear a Russian accent speaking American English. After quick introductions, we have been hanging out and going out on the town in Bangalore.

Did you know? for the last few years, Bangalore pubs/clubs shut at 11pm. They get busy at 10pm-10:30pm. You do the math. By curfew, I mean lights on, music off, police or security inside to escort everyone outside and then clear the crowd from the street. It is madness.

Being annoyed at this, I planned a holiday trip to Goa, a long string of beaches where the law is more relaxed and people come to party!

There is a public holiday in India on the 26th of January (Just like Australia day at home, but I will not be having lamb, I have been lucky enough not to get an Indian food enema/Delhi Belly etc thankyou very much, I'll have my lamb back in Oz). Due to this holiday, I planned to take a half day off on Thursday before the public holiday and a full day off on Monday. This saw me plan for a full 5 day holiday in Goa for both of us. Good Times! I Like! (In my best Borat voice).

Arezo, a co-worker from my Sydney office, is also arriving in Bangalore on Thursday night, so she booked a flight for Friday and cancelled training on Monday to give her a 4 day holiday in Goa.

So, the only flying I will be doing so far is in a crazy local Indian airline. I hope to take some pictures of me arriving safely in Goa. Perhaps I should fly the plane?

India

2007-01-03T13:30:00.000+11:00

Flight hours: 22 (via Human Mailing Tubes)
Study hours: 2
Aviation Reading: Killer Caldwell

I haven't done any GA flying in the last few weeks as you can see. I have been thinking about it though and occasionally looking skyward.

The reason for this short hiatus is that I was over in Western Australia (thanks to Virgin Blue), for the Christmas break. I stayed on a homestead near the edge of Perth civilisation and dreamed about the possibilities of having a property with my own landing strip. One day.

We left Perth in the afternoon on NYE and landed at 10:10pm in Sydney. Just enough time to get home, change clothes, grab booze and fireworks and head out to Matty's house party. We arrived at 11:30pm. Yay!

The first week of 2007, I'm finalising my plans for the 5.5 weeks of work in India. I'm in contact with an aero club in Bangalore, so hopefully I can get some air sightseeing done.

I will be podcasting in India, albeit on inferior equipment and hopefully will get to release two planned episodes.

My flight to India via Qantas (for the frequent flyer points), would have seen me arrive in Bangalore around 3:30am. That wasn't going to happen. Instead I'm flying Singapore airlines and now arrive at a more respectable 11pm.

Going to 'The Dish' (Parkes)

2006-12-15T16:00:00.000+11:00

Flight hours: 3.3
Study hours: 0

Note: This event occurred during October

Preface: The plan was to fly out to Parkes and go visit the dish. The only preparation outside of flight planning was to ensure that the radio telescope was open for tours. Hilarity ensues.

Guest writer: Wade Beattie AKA Turtle

It was an ordinary day, besides waking up late next to a few empty bottles of Bacardi Rum. Today we were going to fly out to the dish, the same radio telescope that was used in the movie 'The Dish'.

Getting out to the airport, it was the first time I had seen a light aircraft up close. I was surprised at how cramped you could get inside a small plane when you pack a couple of motorised scooters. Also the fact that weight and balance can be an issue and that the windows opened... Cool.

Geoff's preparation of the navigation logs, fuel, charts and instruments seemed complex, but he assures me that anyone can learn. Before pulling the aircraft out of the hangar, I was shown how to perform the first daily inspection, a detailed check of the various aircraft systems and flight controls.

We taxied out to the run-up area and had discovered a rough running engine when only using one magneto. That was soon sorted out by leaning the engine and running a slightly higher rpm.

Before long we were airborne after a crosswind takeoff, which I found interesting as when we gained altitude, the plane was turned into the wind by a large degree, yet we were still flying straight ahead.

We flew west over the Blue Mountains and initially the bumpiness and hangover started to gain control. Soon after, the air smoothed out and everything was 'plane' sailing. Geoff never tired of me speaking as a captain or randomly yelling out "Contact!".

Approaching Parkes, we flew over the airfield and the windsock was swinging in different directions up to 180 degrees making it harder to pick the best runway. I was a little worried as when I asked the captain what we were going to do because of the changing wind, his reply was "Not sure, I think I need to use a lifeline and phone an instructor. Can you pass me the phone? We didn't cover landings in training".

After a smooth landing, we parked the plane and prepared the scooters. We were using the scooters to get ourselves around town. The airfield is about 6 kilometres from the town centre and we found out that the road to get there was a highway. Perhaps we should have booked a taxi!

Leaving the airfield on our scooters, stunt driver Geoff decided to navigate himself over a cattle grate at full speed. In the process, the scooter partially disintegrated when the rear wheel was forcefully ripped off the scooter after it was launched skyward from hitting the first grate.

The scooter came to a sliding stop, sparks being generated from the steel frame sliding along the bitumen, with Geoff perfectly balancing on it. The engine was still producing power and the rear wheel flicked up into the air, over Geoff's head and bounced down the road. To put this into perspective, Geoff is 6 foot 4.

He turned around to face me and cut the engine. Now we had to find the wheel and I had to manage to not crash my scooter by the fact that I couldn't stop laughing. On quickly inspecting the scooter, we found we could fix it if we could get some tools. Amazingly the chain had not broken.

Taking the scooter back to the airport, we found an aircraft mechanic and borrowed some tools so that we could start our repairs. This involved bending the frame straight, removing the rear brakes and re-inserting/re-tensioning the rear wheel.

One hour later we were back on the highway, but only after we lifted the scooters over the cattle grate. Travelling along the open highway at 40 kilometres an hour, we soon reach the town centre only to find that my scooter now needed a service, the clutch was no longer supplying power properly to the rear wheel.

After borrowing more tools and fixing my scooter as best we could, taking the better part of another hour, it was time to think about flying home. At least we know how to find Parkes and that scooters were impractical for this airport. Perhaps we should spend a night or leave earlier in the morning so that if we have to conduct ad-hoc repairs, we have enough time for a tour as well.

Flying back home, Geoff let me fly most of the way back. I had trouble with altitude and directional control initially, so that we were heading south instead of east, but this was fairly short lived and I felt relaxed at the controls.

Geoff performed a wing over near a Sydney's Warragamba dam. Wingovers are fun. Back at Bankstown, we cleaned the plane and put it away.

Still looking forward to seeing the dish.

Brisbane Scenic and the flight home

2006-12-11T21:00:00.000+11:00

Flight hours: 5.2
Study hours: 0
Aviation Reading: None

Wade and I decided to take a leisurely scenic flight around Brisbane and the islands before I had to finalise my preparation to depart for Sydney.

There is a published VFR track that takes you south of the city, over to Stradbroke island, tracking north to Moreton island before crossing water to the west for Bribie island and finally now being north of the city, returning to Archerfield.

There were some interesting colours to be seen, the coast and islands looked great from the air. Pity about the low cloud which reduced picture clarity.

During some of the island hopping, I decided to provide Wade with a taste of what a zero G environment feels like. Seeing as I still had the sound recorder hooked up, I decided to record the experience. You can listen to it here (Warning: Contains Explicit Language).

On the return trip to Sydney, I decided to re-record most of the radio conversations again for my Student Pilot Training podcast listeners. This is because I totally screwed up major portions of the radio conversations on the first trip by failing to ensure that the unit was able to record at the correct volume and also because I needed better settings to transfer the recordings to my laptop.

The weather ahead looked like it wanted me to make a diversion back to Byron Bay, where my friends Bill and John were still staying. No drama, diversion adventures crop up occasionally when flying light aircraft.

The cloud cover was getting increasingly lower than forecast and I had to transit the Gold Coast Class C airspace at 1,500 ft, whilst dodging small areas of rain.

The cloud cover was lighter and higher when passing Byron Bay, which saw me climb to 6,500 ft. Visually ahead however, the clouds looked broken to overcast, below my current altitude, covered the entire horizon and extended one hundred miles or more.

I didn't want to find myself above an overcast and unable to descend when needed. Calling up Flightwatch, I was informed that Sydney has unlimited VFR. I decided to fly VFR on top, using the breaks in the cloud every few minutes to maintain visual tracking along with using navigational aids to backup my track made good.

Passing Coffs Habour, the clouds started to clear over the coast and I was able to maintain 6,500 ft for most of the trip home.

The Bankstown ATIS on my return had the wind at 05010G20KT. That means the wind was coming from 50 degrees, at 10 knots gusting to 20kt. The ATIS broadcast crosswind maximum was at 18kts, 3 knots higher than my Cessna 172's crosswind limitation.

The landing was quite interesting, having to adjust the aircraft at all stages of the circuit for landing. The flare, landing and roll out all required correct crosswind technique, otherwise it may have been an unhappy landing.

Flying between Sydney and Brisbane is quite fun in terms of the radio work, the number of differing airspace areas and the different weather patterns you may encounter. I would recommend it to any private pilot for flying, radio and decision making experience.

Byron Bay and BrisVegas

2006-12-07T10:00:00.000+11:00

Flight hours: 3.7
Study hours: 0
Aviation Reading: Aiming High

A good friend of mine lives in Brisbane whilst another is taking a short holiday on the eastern most point of Australia, Byron Bay. What a perfect excuse to take a short break and fly myself up the coast to visit them and score some free accommodation.

The Sydney area had quite a lot of low cloud hanging about, however it was forecast as fine and sunny along the coast up to Brisbane. The clouds wouldn't present a problem as they were high enough for me to fly the Sydney lane of entry and soon after, I would be descending to 500ft to pass the Williamtown military area, which would then open up into better weather.

My trip today would take me to Tyagarah, a grass landing strip right on the water near Byron Bay. I planned to fly coastal most of the way, with only a detour around a restricted area used as airforce firing grounds if it was active.

During the flight, I recorded the radio conversations as an opportunity to present my podcast listeners with a wide range of radio calls including GAAP, CTAF, CTAF(R), Class C, Class D, Sarwatch and Restricted airspace. I will put the radio calls together and publish it in the next podcast.

The sky was BKN55 (read: Broken cloud at 5500 feet) and I didn't have enough light to take good photos, so hopefully the trip back will present better conditions for photo opportunities.

The weather was much better in Byron Bay and after meeting up with my friends, we hung out at the beach and went for a swim, followed by some relaxing drinks at the beach hotel.

The next day, I left the boys, prepped the plane and flew up to Archerfield, the GAAP airport in Brisbane. I have never been to Archerfield before, so it was important to read all of the relevant material and instructions in the airport directory (ERSA).

I will be staying in Brisbane for 3 days before flying back home, but my next flight may be a scenic around Brisbane and the coast.

The DJ's mums B'day

2006-12-01T10:00:00.000+11:00

Flight hours: 1.0
Study hours: 0
Aviation Reading: Aiming High

I've been fortunate enough recently to be regularly judging or being a VIP of the local Inside Sport model search events. These events allow me to have unfettered access to the models and because I have been taking Trieu, my friendly Asian photographer, he has been snapping up literally hundreds of excellent semi-naked photos at each event both backstage and on.

But that isn't the point of this "aviation" blog. What point am I trying to make? Oh that's right.

The main host on some of the nights was none other than MJ, a Saturday night DJ from Nova 969 (radio station). It was his birthday the night we met and I was soon invited to the crazy party that was to ensue on the following Saturday.

During the party I met MJ's parents and soon after, MJ asked if I would be able to take his Gold Coast living parents out for a flight around Sydney for his mothers 50th birthday. No sweat.

A few days later, the trip was arranged and it was looking like a great day from the ground albeit with some smoke haze from recent bush fires. The visibility was forecast as 8 kilometres in haze and a high was over the Sydney basin area along with light winds. Fairly stable weather.

I arrived early to the hangar, pre-flighted and swept the hangar in preparation for my syndicate's annual general meeting the following night.

The sweeping was interrupted due to my required attendance on a global conference call. Soon after and about 2 hours after I actually arrived at the airfield, the whole tribe arrived being his parents and his two brothers. MJ knew I would only take two people on board my Cessna and everything was cool, the boys would wait near the car whilst we went flying.

Briefings were performed and we were soon in the air. Climbing straight into thicker than forecast haze. The go-no go decision was made harder by the fact you couldn't determine what the haze was doing from the ground.

The haze wasn't a problem below one thousand feet, with visibility ranging between 6 and 8 kilometres (confirmed by reference to what towns I can see and how far away we were according to GPS), but around 2500 hundred feet, visibility was significantly reduced. Still legally visual, but not the best weather for a scenic flight over the city.

I descended back to 1500 feet and on approaching the control zone, requested clearance to the harbour which was approved. Approaching the city, the haze was quite thick and would have made for terrible photos. I amended my clearance request and descended to 500 feet to fly along the Victor one coastal route.

It was much clearer at this level and if I didn't like the look of the haze at Wollongong, I would return north along Victor one before returning home. The horizon was becoming quite difficult to see, so as to require straight and level flight to be based on instruments.

The haze down south was much the same, so we continued the flight back home over the national park and around the Holsworthy military restricted zone by use of instruments for flight and navaids for pilotage.

On approaching the airfield, the ATIS was now reporting 3 kilometres visibility and restricted VFR. The winds had also picked up in the area, thickening the haze band and making it denser in the process.

I was told by ATC to hold at my inbound reporting point known as 2RN. I put the Hoxton Park frequency on my second radio unit to improve my situational awareness, as the departing traffic from Hoxton can come close to 2RN, my holding location.

I positioned myself further west of 2RN so as to not be right over the top of 2RN at the same altitude as other traffic that may be approaching the airfield via 2RN.

Just as I was completing an orbit, I had spotted another inbound aircraft (Cessna 172) that proceeded to fly over the top of 2RN and continue north-east bound. It had no strobe or navigational lights switched on.

I kept a close eye on the traffic and was soon cleared to join crosswind as number one in the circuit. I informed the tower of the unidentified aircraft approaching the GAAP control zone.

I noticed that the other traffic was turning left and right and changing altitude by up to 300 feet either side of the required inbound altitude over the next few minutes. Keeping an eye on the other traffic at all times, I joined crosswind and as I was starting my right turn to downwind, I noticed the other traffic was also turning downwind and was now at a much higher speed possibly from a descent. I decided to slow down and would inform the tower that I am going to manoeuvre behind this other aircraft and that it may have an electrical fault.

The radio soon sprang to life with the pilot in the other plane reporting inbound 2 miles north of 2RN. (In fact, they were around 4 miles north east, towards the airfield and on an extended downwind).

The tower mentioned the other traffic in the circuit (me), and the pilot mentioned he didn't have me in sight.

I was on the right hand side in relation to the other aircraft, at his 2 o'clock and no more than one mile away. He was also now at the correct altitude.

As we were effectively on a collision course, I radioed the tower to say that seeing as he didn't see me, I would further slow down and slot in behind him. I also mentioned to the pilot that his lights were not on. He acknowledged but no lights ever were switched on (I noticed this much later after seeing him land).

The poor visibility was easily confirmed by the fact that it was difficult to see the airfield when on downwind.

The other pilot flew the largest circuit I have ever seen, so wide that to maintain my usually very tight circuits, I had to slow down to roughly 60 knots to await his return from outback Australia and turn final on 29R.

Again this other pilot astonished me by ignoring the crosswind alert on final and allowing the wind to swing him through the runway centre airspace.

I didn't have a chance to go up and talk to this person after shutdown, but I wonder sometimes if these types of pilots ever learn that they made mistakes, could have made better decisions and that they were putting other peoples lives at risk.

A seedy joy flight

2006-11-25T11:00:00.000+11:00

Flight hours: 0.6
Study hours: 0
Aviation Reading: Killing Zone: How and why pilots die

As you can see, the flight was of short duration. Matty had planned to go flying with me on the Friday after his dentist appointment, however due to low cloud, we decided to make it the Saturday for a better viewing experience.

The departure was set for around 12pm via SMS, the only issue was that Matty, who is usually quite prompt on replying to messages, was not to be heard from. I decided to try calling a few times, but was not successful.

At around about 1pm, I was planning to head out for a flight of my own, perhaps to fly up north to meet an instructor whom I have been thinking I want to use to complete my aerobatics training. These thoughts were interrupted with Matty calling to say that he just woke up and he would be over in an hour.

One hour and forty five minutes later, Matty arrived safely. The reason for the sleep-in was that the night before saw him polish off a keg of beer. Good work. At this stage, I was secretly wondering if I still have passenger sick bags in my flight kit. Affirmative.

I pre-flighted the plane and before we knew it, Matty had successfully performed the take-off. Heading towards the coast, we overflew some of the surfing beaches that Matt uses, but before too long, the steep turns had him feeling a bit queasy and he mentioned that he was faded (read: tired) and seedy from the night before. Oh well, looks like we will cut the trip short.

I requested clearance into Sydney airspace and was given a complex set of clearance instructions, along with holds, that allowed us to see a greater part of the city and surrounding areas.

"Track Long Reef, Manly, Spit bridge, one thousand five hundred, hold overhead and to the east of spit bridge and await further clearance".

At Spit Bridge, "Track direct Chatswood, 1500 and await clearance for left turn to track towards city".

At Chatswood, "Make left turn and track towards Darling harbour, 1500, single orbit approved overhead Bridge, between Darling harbour and the Opera house, North of Circular Quay".

After the orbit, "Would you be wanting a track direct west, north of Parramatta river?"

Yes please! I asked the controller to say hello to Paul and wished him a G'day, The airswitch showed 0.5, probably the quickest scenic flight I have taken from Bankstown to the City and back.

Avalon Airshow Planning

2006-11-21T17:00:00.000+11:00

Flight hours: 1.2
Study hours: 0
Aviation Reading: Killing Zone: How and why pilots die

A friend of mine, Pauly along with myself and possibly a few others are planning to go to Avalon airshow in March 2007.

Paul is an air traffic controller here in Sydney and he at one time rated as a multi-engine command instrument instructor. The ATC work suits him much better and I would have to say that I enjoy the fact that he is a controller as I can catch wind of new procedures, learn how it all operates within Australia and also get to know the people who can give me better clearances for scenic flights etc. Excellent!

Seeing as I don't take many photos of things, I also invited Trieu to Avalon. We will most likely go on a trade day as there is less crowd and the airshow is usually condensed, so you don't have to hang around to see the entire show.

A fellow podcaster, Steven Pam from http://www.houndtv.com fame, contacted me through my podcast a while back and we may use Avalon as a meeting ground. Steven's background is in photography and aviation appears as a significant part in his online collection.

Paul and I are not sure how long we are going to stay in Melbourne along with how we will get there. Perhaps I should take my aircraft? We will have to wait and see.

As for flying, Trieu and I had a classic boys night last Saturday sans Alcohol. This included a crazy session at the gym, pizza, movies and a flight around Sydney at dusk/night. The pictures are not up to the normal Asian standard according to Trieu, but I will see if some are acceptable for posting.

Night VFR Instruments

2006-11-19T19:00:00.000+11:00

Flight Hours: 2.9
Study Hours: 1
Aviation Reading: Killing Zone: How and why pilots die

Note: This event occurred around early-November

A few days ago, I was booked in to complete a component of the Night VFR rating, which is instrument flight, instrument failures and unusual attitudes with recovery based on instruments only of which some may be failed (by covering the instruments up) at certain times.

One of the other members of the syndicate is an instructor at a Bankstown based aviation college, so I decided to transfer my integrated CPL training over to that school.

I arrived earlier than required as the session would start after closure of the fuel trucks and I also wanted to inspect the aircraft before last light to make things easier.

I taxied the aircraft across the airport to the college and met up with the instructor. After a quick chat and seeing as last light would be over 35 minutes away, I decided to bang out some crosswind circuits.

Doing circuits as the sun is setting is interesting at times when the sun is directly in your eyes, but it was nothing that intermittent use of sunglasses couldn't fix.

Finishing the circuits, I headed back to the college for the training brief. I was to take off visually and once 3nm from the airport boundary, I would be under the hood for the next 2 hours.

During this time we went over some instrument flight, quickly getting more complex such as failed vacuum pump (no Attitude Indicator or Directional Gyro), No instrument or cockpit lights, climbing and descending turns to a certain altitude and heading, whilst determining my exact location on a chart using two differing navaids and if needed, broadcasting on the appropriate CTAF frequencies. No sweat.

We then covered unusual attitude recovery under the hood along with covering the instruments completely from my field of view and flying towards an area with no lighting to see what night visual effects can occur.

The training was coming to an end and finished up with some circuits at Hoxton Park before heading back to Bankstown.

South Korea

2006-11-17T11:00:00.000+11:00

Flight hours: 1.2
Study hours: 0
Aviation Reading: Killing Zone: How and why pilots die

My company just hired a new IT Manager for South Korea, Joung-Ho, who we brought over to Australia so that he can meet the team and learn the intricacies of the company.

On the second day of his orientation and training, the weather was quite good, so after my training time with Joung-Ho, I asked if he would like to fly around Sydney in a small aircraft. At first he didn't understand even though his English is great, then I said "I am a pilot and would you like to fly around Sydney?"

He explained that in South Korea, there is no General Aviation at all, so he didn't grasp what I was saying straight away. I also grabbed Michael and the three of us headed out for a Sydney and Victor one jaunt.

Simulator Training

2006-11-15T16:00:00.000+11:00

Flight Hours: 1.2 (Simulator)
Study Hours: 0

Note: This event occurred around mid-October

As part of the NVFR training requirements, it is better to learn on the ground with an approved synthetic trainer where it is cheaper and you can pause the session to go over items.

My simulator training involved general instrument flight, tracking navaids and practicing intercepts. For fun we even covered some instrument approaches along with random and frequent equipment failures.

Tracking (not homing) to navaids I find easy. The only issue for me was that I would take around 6-10 seconds to create a mental picture in relation to my position from reading the directional gyro and VOR in order to execute random intercepts. I will want to get this down to a second or two at most, although a greater understanding of where I am on a chart would help reduce my mental lag.

I found the simulator work fairly simple, probably due to the frequency of my childhood flight sim usage along with my Xbox/Xbox 360 l33t skillz.

Aerobatics 101

2006-11-13T14:00:00.001+11:00

Flight hours: 0.9
Study hours: 0
Aviation Reading: Killing Zone: How and why pilots die

Note: This event occurred around late-September

After having a chance to contact people after being away for some time, I rang Greg from the SAAA Chapter 11 to say hello and catch up. Greg was the previous chapter president who happens to have his ear to the ground in many things aviation related.

During my phone call, Greg asked if I would be interested in flying in an Extra 300L with Richard Wiltshire as there was an available spot. Richard is the current Australian Aerobatic Champion and State Unlimited Aerobatic Champion.

On hearing this, I immediately accepted and looked forward to the weekend. After a briefing, I jumped into the aircraft and we were soon in a zoom climb for take off (I don't have my tailwheel endorsement as yet). Richard handed the controls over to me and I was immediately surprised that the aircraft was so nimble.

The aircraft danced around the sky for a few minutes whilst my hand adjusted to the necessary small control inputs and by the time we were in the training area of Sydney I had the aircraft under finer control. The Extra has an incredible roll rate of 360 degrees per second, which means if you hold the control to the left or right for a second, you would have completed an aileron roll.

Richard was great, he allowed me to do any and all of the maneuvers I could possibly imagine, such as the hammerhead (stall turn), loops, rolls, inverted flying, spins (normal and inverted), snap rolls and all variations and combinations I could manage on my own.

Richard also took over and kept up a non-stop commentary on what he was about to show me including how to perform knife edge flying, tumbles and other moves that I cant remember because the ground and sky were swapping places in all geometric planes far too quickly for my mind to determine the maneuver.

If you are in Sydney and would like to fly in a very nimble aerobatic aircraft with a top-notch aerobatic pilot, give Richard a shout via his website www.extraaerobatics.com.au

Now I want to get my aerobatics endorsement!

Night VFR Nav

2006-11-11T01:30:00.000+11:00

Flight Hours: 3.3
Study Hours: 1

Note: This event occurred around mid-October

I was given the following route to plan for my first night VFR nav:

YSBK - PAA - YPEC - YCNK (Circuits) - MQD - CAA - HBB - YSBK

Simple enough, track the lane of entry, follow the coast north until Aeropelican, swing inbound to Cessnock for some circuits. After the circuits, track to a VOR followed by an NDB and practising intercepts at both navaids, then finish off with a direct track to Sydney for some orbits around the city before tracking home.

The first few circuits at Cessnock where okay but could be much better. I'm generally hard on myself with flying skills so that I keep at it them until I am comfortable and proficient. Because of this, I ended up wanting to keep doing circuits which saw me complete around 10 touch and goes before continuing the navigation.

With less light available, the landing perspective takes some time getting used to, however after a few circuits, things looked and felt much better. Happy with this, I tuned in the navaids and tracked to the VOR followed by the NDB.

After the last navaid, I headed towards Sydney, requested airways clearance and proceeded to do some orbits of the harbour, then the city and a practiced missed approach at Sydney airport (it's great to have a good friend who works for Airservices (the air traffic controllers within Australia). After frolicking around the city, I took a direct track back home.

Sydney at night looks amazing so after my NVFR check ride, I will have to take some photos.

Night VFR Circuits

2006-11-09T13:00:00.000+11:00

Flight Hours: 3.5
Study Hours: 0

Note: This event occurred around mid-October

Now that I have access to an aircraft, it will be much cheaper for me to chase
endorsements and ratings. A school rental + instructor runs upwards of $250 AUD with taxes applied. By using my aircraft, an instructor only costs between $60 and $85.

I did find a neat trick with flying training in Australia though. Sign a form stating that you will pursue your commercial rating (CPL) and you can fly GST tax exempt. This takes 10% of the price away, which at least provides an extra incentive.

A night rating (NVFR) is the first new rating that I will complete. The rating provides me with greater options if the weather is going to pose a problem during daylight or if I am needing to leave earlier or later than planned. Before I get a chance to use it for weather related issues, I will probably be instrument rated, but none the less, I could let my IFR recency slide, but still have Night VFR options and the ability to fly scenic at night.

My only obstacle was to find an instructor who would be willing to teach NVFR-SE. Not many instructors in Australia seem to be interested in teaching single engine night VFR, however I believe you can mitigate the risks by thorough and smarter flight planning, managing not to go over areas that provide little option for emergency landings without a proper light source. An engine doesn't know whether it is day or night, although it usually performs better at night in the cooler air.

Funnily enough, it is either the young instructors or the very old war pilot type instructors who seem to enjoy providing the training and rating check ride for NVFR. Flying at night is great fun. Smooth air, completely different viewing of the same items, especially scenic flights around cities. The rating also resets my BFR time.

My first lesson involved circuits. I had only a few hours in a C172 by this stage, but landing a 172 is nothing compared to a Sundowner, Sierra or Mooney. The 172 is a piece of cake most of the time and greaser landings are fun to rinse and repeat.

The perspective at night is quite different and I noticed the cockpit workload felt like it was higher few the first few minutes, but that isn't really the case. By the end of the hour, the instructor felt confident enough to provide me with a solo night circuit endorsement along with telling me to plan a NAV with circuits at other airfields.

Shiny Headset

2006-11-06T14:00:00.000+11:00

Flight hours: 1.2 (Simulator)
Study hours: 0
Aviation Reading: Killing Zone: How and why pilots die

"Imagine a headset so comfortable you may forget you're even wearing it! You'll think it was designed for you personally. Made from new, handcrafted materials that refuse to sacrifice lightweight comfort [and provide] long term durability….

Now imagine it's yours - the new X-11 ENC from David Clark."

I actually don't have my own headset. Let's rephrase that. I have a headset, but I do not "own" it. Michael (the work colleague I flew with on the previous weekend), was a student pilot well before I was. He was in limbo with flying training when I decided to get my license, so we established a temporary trade of his David Clark H10-13.4 headset for an AGV motorcycle helmet of mine. I would commence my flight training using his headset and Michael can race his Subaru WRX with my helmet.

That trade continued to be in place for over 6 years as Michael never picked up flying training again. Now that I have the Cessna, I cannot possibly let all passengers who fly with me to use one of the spare old headsets we have in the rear baggage compartment. Using an old headset can ruin the experience some.

I decided to check out the ANR headsets and made my decision on procuring the new X11. Now one lucky passenger on each flight can use my old (trade) headset, whilst I use the X11.

It weighs only 12.1 ounces and has a music input which means I can listen to some tunes/podcasts whilst I am flying. The good thing about it is that the music cuts out for a period of time whenever it detects a carrier signal on the listening frequency.

Syndicate: 2010

2006-11-01T16:00:00.000+11:00

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

When I joined the syndicate, one of the owners was introducing me to the way things operated. I queried him on how bookings are made, which I discovered was via email to all owners and first-in, first-served.

Seeing as I try to make everything I do in my role within I.T. as automated or simple as possible, I immediately asked if they had considered using a website that could be the recording point of bookings. He said they may consider it and he would put it to the other owners.

I saw that as the green light to fully code the site using PHP and mySQL.
It provides us with:

Booking Management
Maintenance Tracking
Reports

Pilot Hours
Hours per month
Trending the 100 hourly inspection

Photo Gallery
Medical and Rating tracker (for currency and renewals)
Contact information of the owners
Newsletters
Share-a-ride posting
Weather briefings
Submission of flight plans for our more common flights

I host the site myself (WAMP) and purchased a domain name for the site which is the tail registration. Naturally the site was accepted and voted as the only means for bookings along with recording maintenance etc, thus moving the syndicate further into the internet age.

That blue line represents our 100 hourly that is rapidly approaching.

Sunday fun

2006-10-30T10:00:00.000+11:00

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

2006-10-27T13:00:00.000+10:00

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

2006-10-22T19:00:00.000+10:00

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

2006-10-20T15:11:00.000+10:00

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

2006-10-19T09:26:00.000+10:00

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

2006-10-18T15:16:00.000+10:00

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.