Goodbye Sydney and Hello again

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.

How to win friends and influence people

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 :-)

The Stallion and the Hen

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!

Sydney Jaunt

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.

Brisbane Scenic and the flight home

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.

The DJ's mums B'day

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

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.

South Korea

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.

Sunday fun

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

There's work to be had in Canberra

Flight hours: 2.5
Study Hours: 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Flying myself for work purposes is fun!

Sightseeing Sydney by air

Flying hours: 3
Study hours: 5

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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