Recently I took up my son & two mates (1 young fella & 1 not so young) for a flight out to Cressbrook Dam & then back into Toowoomba for some circuits.
A friend and I planned a flight from Moorabbin to Bendigo and return in a Piper Archer III.
I planned the flight IFR.
Conditions for departure where cloudy with poor / hazy visibility .
The planned route would be as one of the routes outlined in the ERSA for IFR departure to the north from Moorabbin.
Route : MB-ML-OWENS-RAVEN-BDG at 6000 (Land at Bendigo) and then BDG-ARBEY-ML-MB at 6000
6000 is the minimum altitude you can plan to overfly Melbourne Airport.
Departure was straight forward , cloud was higher than it appeared from the ground although visibility to the north was quite poor.
We entered a thin layer of cloud at around 4500 and were soon on top , blue skies , 10K plus vis and brilliant white cloud beneath us.
I kicked myself for allowing my passenger to distract me , it seemed I had only turn my attention from the task at hand for a few moments and before you knew it I had drifted 120 feet or so off my assigned altitude.
I no sooner push forward on the yoke to get back down when ATC where on to me and wanted me to confirm I had the correct QNH.
I think it was a nice way for them to say get your act together . I was after all flying through Melbourne Class C, with this brings some serious responsibility.
Needless to say I ensured there wasn't a repeat of this for the remainder of the trip.
Our descent into Bendigo was delayed. When flying IFR you need to inform ATC prior to changing altitude even OCTA. Further to this you also need to obtain a status on traffic in your area prior to descent.
Approaching Bendigo I contacted ATC for descent and he asked me to standby. The controller became really busy. Ages seemed to go by without a break in him working with other aircraft, meanwhile were up at
6000 only 3 or 4 miles out of Bendigo. I didn't want to be pushy but I quickly jumped in and requested traffic for a descent to Bendigo .
He replied no traffic , so I was good to go , down we came . There was extensive cloud cover over Bendigo at the time although looking through breaks in the cloud it didn't look as though the layer was very thick.
We'd have to do the NDB approach to get down.
We were only in cloud for a minute or so and then we broke out with good vis below. Did an upwind join of 35 and a normal circuit and landing.
Touched down with a little too much speed and skipped it , ok maybe you could call it a bounce :( Bugger. It was smooth nonetheless no cruncher.
We spent a little time in Bendigo and by the time we were ready to depart the weather had cleared to a really nice sunny afternoon.
We departed Bendigo headed for ARBEY our first waypoint. ARBEY was also on the CTA boundary so I needed a clearance before then. Fortunately the clearance came with plenty of time spare.
Just prior to reaching ARBEY ATC informed us that direct Moorabbin was available did we want it. Absolutely we'll take it .
This worked out really well as it allow us a great view of Melbourne airport. Normally you fly directly over it and can’t see much. We also got a really good view of Melbourne CBD.
The video below doesn't do it justice, the CBD look magnificent basking in the later afternoon sun. My passenger commented on how lucky we were to see the CBD from such a vantage. I think when we fly it’s easy to forget that it’s a privilege to see some of the sights we get see out the windows of our aircraft.
ATC seem to wait until your fair distance past ML before stepping you down. I find it can be challenging to get down by the time you reach Moorabbin CTR zone.
The rest was a standard visual approach into Moorabbin.
Great afternoons flying really enjoyed it . If you’re interested have a look at the video of the flight below.
My friend is a bit of video nut and tends to bring along a few cameras when he comes flying with me.
I have just completed a very exciting and challenging 2 day Navex from YPPF to YPLC. Departure was for Thursday 13th Oct, Wx CAVOK, however Friday was looking pretty ordinary. So I contacted the MET and spoke to a really nice guy, who gave me the heads up on the progress of the trough and thunderstorms. So I made the decison to go and if necessary I would wait it out on the Friday.
Last weekend I had the great opportunity to fly down to Kangaroo Island for a night. Friends of ours were staying down there and had offered to provide us with accommodation, food and transport. All we had to do was get there. As if we’d say no!
I was inspired by fellow midlife pilot Dave's recent post on passing his PPL that I thought I'd have a crack at relaying my own recent checkride completed on September 13th.
