Escape to Cowra

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

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

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

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.

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

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!