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You can read the first article in this series by clicking here.
For those that haven't flown around Melbourne CBD the procedure is to change the transponder frequency to 0100 and then request an airways clearance from Essendon for an orbit (left or right) around the city. It was a bit of a surprise when we were denied our airways clearance and told to stay outside controlled airspace. So what was going on?
 It just so happens that there were already three aircraft doing both left and right orbits of the CBD at varying altitudes combined with about five helicopters going in and out. Behind us there was another aircraft requesting their airways clearance plus another coming in from the south-west. I knew I wanted a controlled airspace work-out but this was getting ridiculous!
I pulled the Archer over the water to the south and began orbiting while I waited for the helpful guys at Essendon to give me the verbal thumbs up. It just so happened that where I was orbiting was relatively close to a VFR route south of the city so the passengers and I had our eyes well and truly outside the cockpit. Needless to say the chatter in the headset was almost continuous as the tower kept everyone safe and secure.
We finally received our clearance for a right hand orbit and were told to climb another five hundred feet. The tension in the cockpit immediately reduced as my passengers heard the helpful traffic controllers guide us to a spectacular view of the city while sticking a mattress of protection around us from all the other bits of metal hovering or flying around.
After peering down for the second time to watch a game of Aussie Rules taking place in the Melbourne Cricket Ground the ATC directed us along our designated flight plan to the south-west and eventually gave us permission to changed frequencies.
With the Point Cook airfield looming close I was doing a two-step on the radio to ensure that they knew what was going on and to let any aircraft know our intentions. If you plan on doing a similar flight plan make sure you have all of your radios and frequencies lined up well before hand as you'll be doing a lot of swapping in this area.
With Point Cook past us we flew on down to Avalon. Yes, I know that we could have avoided Avalon by heading across the bay earlier but that would have required wearing life jackets and for some reason I still have an aversion to potentially having to land on a large expanse of water.
Avalon is categorised as Class-D so we had a chat with the tower and let them know what we planned on doing. Personally, I just wanted to see an A320 land beneath us as we did an overfly. I did this in my training and wanted to show my wife and daughter what it was all about. Sadly, the A320 didn't turn up so we headed on down to the Port Phillip Heads without that little buzz.
The heads are a narrow gap between two headlands which form the mouth of the bay and the ocean currents can be seen ripping through the area. They are so strong that ships often have to time the tide before traversing this stretch of water. From the air it's an absolutely stunning view with the ocean side and bay side of the coastline of the Mornington Peninsula painted out before us with incredible colours.
The final installment in this series covers a Cessna in a lot of trouble and the problem with wake turbulence.
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Was wondering which is better? Around the bay or the Great Ocean Road? Your thoughts?