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Today I went up on my first cross country solo flight- a very enjoyable flight indeed. The weather in the morning was in good shape with light variable winds and some cloud higher up. Nothing that could stop this nav from going ahead. Once I arrived at the airport, the CFI was ready and waiting to run through everything before departure. The route was planned to be Nav 1 but in reverse- that being Barwon Heads -> Camperdown -> Skipton -> Barwon Heads. There would be no landings. The weather forecast showed variable winds at 10 knots up at 2000 feet. Local TAFs at every airport in the region showed a south easterly wind- so this was planned for. C172 VH-ADR had 140 litres of fuel onboard, and was preflighted and ready to go. I set my SARTIME for 2:30pm and started ADR up. It was good to be solo once again with a routine taxi and departure from 17. There was no problem the aircraft climbing quickly, and soon I was back over the airport ready to turn to a heading of 254 degrees. The time was 10:56am. Once I passed Geelong Airport, it became apparant that the heading hadn't allowed enough for drift- the wind must have been more southerly up here. To avoid being blown further off course I decided to forget about the heading for this leg and track crawl, soon picking up the Princes Higway and the railway line which would take me to Winchelsea. From Winchelsea, Lake Colac soon came into view, and I switched to the Colac frequency to hear a flourish of activity with aircraft doing precautionary search and other circuit traffic. I had marked a point abeam Lake Colac for a groundspeed check, which suggested a strong tailwind giving a ground speed of almost 120 knots. From this new information, I revised my Camperdown arrival time from 11:31am to 11:26am. I had already learnt to things about solo navs- firstly the luxury of having the flightbag on the seat where the instructor would normally sit was priceless- everything could be thrown back into the bag and secured there and everything was in reach. There would be no trouble with pulling out ERSA or other charts if need be. Secondly, without an instructor asking complex questions, I was free to just fly the plane and found the whole experience less stressful. From Colac, Lake Corangamite was soon in view, and I was aware of which part of the lake I would have to cross to be on track for Camperdown. The path to Camperdown was between two smaller bodies of water, and soon, Camperdown was visible. I verified Camperdown with the time, the only railway line in the area running through the town and nearby bodies of water. I stayed ahead of the aircraft and did all the CLEAR checks before arrival, so all that was left was to turn the aircraft onto my new heading of 010 and climb to 3500. I was two minutes late at Camperdown at 11:28am. This leg, I was determined to hold a heading and practice my 1 in 60 rule work. I maintained 010 and watched Mt. Elephant carefully. The course was expected to take me just over the western shores of Lake Tolbrook next to Mt. Elephant. It didn't take long to become abeam Mt. Elephant at 11:36am, and I worked out that I was about a mile of course. I adjusted my heading with the 1 in 60 with the airspeed being exactly as planned. With the landmarks of Mt. Elephant and the lake now behind me, there was a slight feeling of heading out into the unknown as Skipton was not yet visible. I continued to hold the heading, and, about ten minutes later, Skipton came into view. I quickly verified Skipton against the road configuration and the bodies of water. The 1 in 60 heading took me straight over Skipton which proves that the 1 in 60 will always work out. I arrived 2 minutes early at 11:47am, and turned onto the final leg with a heading of 118. I was soon following the road out of Skipton and just focussed on keeping heading and altitude. A town passed below, so I put the figures into the whizwheel and found it to be Rokewood. All the towns out here seem very similar with only a couple of basic landmarks to identify them. We then passed over Shelford, a reference point and were slightly off course, so a 1 in 60 was applied. We were travelling slightly faster than expected, so I ammended the Barwon Heads arrival time to 12:22pm- 4 minutes early. As I was abeam Teesdale, I made a courtesy call to Ceres, and started a descent to 1500 so that Avalon could be dodged. The radio was switched back to Barwon Heads frequency, and I made my inboud call. An ultralight aircraft was ahead of me, and announced that he was joining midfield crosswind for Runway 17. To save some time, I went down to 1000 feet and also joined crosswind for Runway 17. The runway 17 arrival was just another routine landing, and soon I was tying down ADR back at the parking spot with 1.8 more command hours in the logbook. It was a great flight with great weather, and now the navs are starting to get towards the pointy end. There are a couple more dual to do, with the next being out towards the east and Tyabb, then a solo 'hour building' flight out to the west. I also need to study and pass the theory exam. The PPL dream is fast becoming a reality.
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It's great to see you progressing so far with your training and I read your blogs with great interest. I am a little bit behind you with my training and am working towards an area solo at Moorabbin so I am wondering what is the 1 in 60 rule?
No doubt I will eventually come across this in my training but am keen to know about it now.
Cheers
Nick