Lsalt

Pilot Bloggers

rozuz (70)
themit (26)
Jack (16)
DarkSarcasm (8)
pahlot (8)
methylnick (9)
Bungee (8)
brettkp (7)
Hitch (8)
tommyg (9)
Braysie (6)
Jump Pilot (6)
silo (4)
Owen Zupp (5)
Evo (5)
BlackHart (4)
Raptor (5)
FlygirlTam (4)
Steve A (3)
Diddoo (4)

Home

Community

Pilot Blogs

MyFlight

A short description about your blog

Afternoon Flight Moorabbin to Bendigo and return.

Posted by: Lsalt on 18 Oct 2011

Tagged in: Untagged

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.

- Lsalt

Comment (6)

Some fun over Cowes

Posted by: Lsalt on 02 Sep 2011

Tagged in: Untagged

In a bid to keep IFR current, I booked an Archer III with the intention of heading to Cowes to conduct some IFR practice over the NDB there.

Was hoping for some IMC to make things a little more interesting however as we all know when it comes to aviation and weather, you rarely get what you wish for.

Weather turned out to be glorious , bright blue skies and light winds.

Decided to still go IFR, at least I could practice IFR procedures better than nothing.

Approaching Cowes, Melbourne Centre informed us of another aircraft that was already performing airwork there. I negotiated with the pilot of that Aircraft and we agreed that I would stay at 6000 over Cowes whilst he finished off his airwork, as he expected to be only another 10 minutes or so.

I practiced a hold and some intercepts whilst waiting at 6000 , with a small amount of cloud at this level I did manage to log some IMC time be it extremely brief. Flying in and out of those fair weather clouds can make for some nice out of window visuals which my buddy captured on his video cam (thanks Dave).

Comment (0)

Weekend away to Mount Gambier.

Posted by: Lsalt on 21 Apr 2011

Tagged in: Untagged

Recently a friend and I flew to Mount Gambier to spend the weekend with some friends who are staying up there.

Comment (2) Read More...