Welcome to My Second Diary
Onwards to PPL
Having passed my General Flying Progress Test (GFPT) on Friday 27 July, 2007, I have moved onto the Private Pilot Licence training (PPL) which involves navigation training amongst other things. The entries appear on a "Most Recent" first basis. So if you would like to start at the beginning click on the link below. I've included a few photos with my entries but for lots more photos see my photo gallery. If you have only just started reading my adventures, check out my lesson diary from GFPT.
[ To First Diary Entry for PPL: Sunday 29 July, 2007 ]

18th March...English Proficiency Test
Don't know about English, but I'm pretty good at Australian!!!

As part of the new ICAO law, CASA introduced a new criteria on 5th March this year.  All new license applicants issued after this date have to complete an English Language Proficiency test.  For more information here is the link to CASA on this reg.  Rob (Redcliffe's CFI) gave me the number of a CASA testing officer located at the Redcliffe Aerodrome, so I rang Bill on Monday and he very nicely said "Well come down to the airfield tomorrow at 3:30". WOW, I thought I'd have to wait weeks!!!!  So today is the day for this test.  I'm a bit worried really, not too sure about English, BUT, I can speak fluent Australian ..."crikey mate" HA HA!!!!!  I arrive at the airfield and park up near the Bob Tait aviation school hangar, and search for the hangar that Bill said he would be working in.  And of course snap a few shots of planes along the way!   I meet up with Bill and he runs over why we are doing this test and asks we where I'm going with my license. Bill was very supportive about me going to CPL at "my age".  Bill has over 15000 hours (awsome!!) and he tells me that he actually rewrote most of the Air Law for Vanuatu, WOW!!!  AND the coolest thing is Bill owns a CAC CA-25 Winjeel, so hopefully, I will be able get some photos of it to show you at a later date!!!  OK, so after speaking to Bill for 15 or so mins, he plays a CD for me to show examples of how the English language is either misinterpreted or completely misunderstood in internation aviation, WOW actually is an eye opener really.  Anyway Bill signs off on my English Language Proficiency and now I can send the paper work off to CASA to get my licenses papers issued!!! 

16th March...Bob Tait's Open day at YRED
What a great afternoon of planes, food, beers and Bob showing us what a Decathlon can do!!!!
>>To Bob Tait Open Day Gallery

Well, what a great way to slow down after the excitement and pure nerves of the test day, going back to the areo club and looking at planes ...HA HA!!!  DG and I arrive at the club to the sounds of a Jazz-Swing band, certainly is a different sound for Redcliffe Aero Club!!  Today's event is to celebrate the opening of  Bob Tait's Aviation Theory School at Redcliffe Aerodrome. After many years at Archerfield Bob has moved over to here.  Bob writes the text books used by most students from PPL to CPL and beyond, and he also runs his Aviation Theory School for full time CPL and PPL students, as well as his own Aerobatics school. How does he get time for all of this!!!  So between Bob and the Aero Club they organised this open day, with the Jazz-Swing band (11 PIECE!!!!!), food being brought around and members of the aero club and Bob's invited guests all having a great time.  I caught up with a few of the guys I have met over my timeat Redcliffe and introduced DG to them all, AND met some new friends along the way. 

But the highlight of the afternoon was Bob himself showing us all what a Super Decathlon can do in the right hands!!!  See the photos I took during Bob's display.  WOW, this certainly was impressive!!  The crowd all had their favourites - DG's was the one wheeled wheelie down the runway, but I must say I was impresssed with the wing overs and loops! Later on, we met Bob himself and thanked him ever so much for the afternoon and the aerial display.  Probably a day I won't forget for quite a while!!!!

15th March…THE DAY OF RECKONING!!!
HERE IT IS THE FINAL DAY (hopefully) OF MY PPL QUEST!!
>> To PPL Test Gallery

Woke up at 0410…can’t sleep, my mind is going over and over the route for the PPL test today!!!  Got up and went over the flight plan…AGAIN… to make sure all was done before I go down to the club.  Quick run over of the procedures at Archerfield and Maroochy.  Ok, pack up the flight bag and have breakfast with DG, with my mind still going over and over the route and procedures.  “OK, I’d had better get going”, I announced to DG, “OK, good luck, you’ll do well….I KNOW YOU WILL”, DG tries to reassure me, I think the nerves might have already been showing.  Drove to the Aero Club.  On arrival all was good, some scattered rain around, but I don’t think it will stop us today. NO X-WINDS TODAY EITHER YAY!!!!  Todays plane….MSJ, the oldest plane in the fleet, she is a 172N 1981 model, but still a very reliable plane.  Rob (the club's CFI) says “OK, give Mal a hand to get the planes out and preflight MSJ mate”  OK, off I go.  Nerves are getting worse now.  We pulled the planes out and I “patted” MSJ, MMM, the cargo door won’t close properly, I grab the keys and unlock and relock it… but it still pops open, grrrrr, try it again and it seems to work this time. “Hope it is OK” I muse as I walk back to the club house.  Next I get the weather forecasts and NOTAMS printed out and sit down to finalise the flight plan now that I have the full weather and winds.  MMM there is a slight chance of rain around.  Rob and I go over the plan, D’OH I rightly stuffed up the fuel calculations, stupid brain locked up, this is the first time in all of my navs that I have absolutely stuffed the fuel calcs…OH DEAR… this isn’t starting well.  After a quick recalc and redo it was all go.  Next submit the flight plan.  Then Rob says he will meet me at the plane, GLUP, the reckoning IS HERE, I shakily gather everything up and go out to MSJ.  One of the CPL students, Andrew, wishes me luck, “Thanks mate” trying not to show too many nerves ..ha ha!  I check that cargo door once more, all looks good…PHEW!

I taxi MSJ over to the refueling area and top the tanks up.  Then Rob hops in and I give him the passenger brief, and we taxi for runway 07. Then I hear, “Mike Sierra Joliet, November Echo Lima, advising your cargo door is open.”  WHAT!!!  OOOOO D’OH, no not now!!!  “Copy, Mike Sierra Joliet”  I get to end of the taxi way, shut down and get out and REDO THE LOCK AGAIN!!!  This time I pushed the door hard in and locked it with the key…AGAIN…after a couple of firm pulls to make sure it would stay CLOSED this time, I climb back in a little embarrassed.  “I saw you fiddling with that door on my way out”, Rob says, “Yeah it wouldn’t lock properly on Pre-flight, and I really thought it had, but all is good now” (and it was for the rest of the flight…I didn’t dare touch it again ..ha!)  OK the route is, YRED (Redcliffe) - Full Stop Landing YBAF (Archerfield) - Full Stop Landing YTMB (Toowoomba) - Overfly Kilcoy - Full Stop YBMC (Maroochydore) and finally Full stop YRED.  You can see the route map in my PPL Gallery. I won’t go over the full details of the trip, lost procedures etc….don’t want to give away Robs secret diversions etc for this test route…HA HA.  Made a few mistakes along the way, don’t think Rob was all that happy with the field I chose for forced landing, but I FOUND my correct position on the lost procedure, think I did OK on the diversion and (this made me the happiest) didn’t get any landings wrong!!!!  WOO HOO, didn’t bounce it when it counted…PHEW!!!!  Followed the route pretty much as planned, and ended up doing a touch and go at YBMC and then returned to Redcliffe.  OK this landing counts!!!!  WOO HOO a neato one, Rob says “All your landings have been pretty smooth, just like to see you get the nose up just a little more mate”…ROGER THAT ROB!!!!  Taxi MSJ back to the club tarmac and park and shut her down.  Rob says he will meet me back in the club house, I finalize tidying up the plane and walk back.  Post-flight brief, Rob goes over the mistakes I made, how it should have gone, I started thinking “OH dear I haven’t passed”, then Rob reaches his right hand out and say congratulations!!!!!  WOO HOO…..I PASSED, I PASSED!!!!!  OH WOW!!!!!!!  After 14 months and 2 weeks, I have finally gotten to the end of my PPL journey!!!  THEN, the slight bad news, CASA (the Conspiracy Against Shane Aviating…hee hee) has brought in a new law (5 March this year) in accordane with the IOAC ruling I (and all new License applications) now have to do an English Comprehension Test, before my PPL license is issued to me…GGRRRRR!!!! Oh well it is only a minor one BUT I had better get onto the testing officer on Monday!!!!  But it hasn’t taken any shine off the fact that I am now a PPL holder!!! 

I have so many people to thank for helping me get here, first and foremost DG of course, all of my instructors at Redcliffe Aero Club (past and present) , DG, DG’s dad Bill who has encouraged me from the get go, my mum for sending up in a 172 at age 13, DG’s mum, my dad, DG, my internet forum friends from Chicken Wings, Mary, Jim, Gilly, Mikey and Matt, DG, also everyone who has contacted me and supported me via this web site and e-mail. Thanks everyone for the support. Thanks to you guys, oh yeah did I thank DG??  Hee hee! …..now..TA DAAAaaa…stay tuned for EVEN MORE flying adventures as I have now decided to go for CPL…the skies the limit…well…soon it is!

11th March…Remedial Landings HA HA!!!
Thought I would do an hour of Touch and Goes before the BIG DAY...

I thought I would brush up on landings before the big test this Saturday, just to be sure.  Arrived at the club to find, oh dear, a quite heavy crosswind blowing.  Well crosswind landings need work too I thought. Lee and I went up in SPQ (YAY!!) and ran though a few glide approaches and…of course…every landing was crosswind…YIKES…glide crosswinds!!!!  HA, Lee reckons if I have to land in a strong crosswind I should just do a glide approach, as i pulled the glide cross-wind landings off better than the standard ones..hee hee!!   All went well but, wow was that hard work.  Well if there is a crosswind on Saturday…I should be able to handle it.  ANYWAY SATURDAY IS THE DAY…THE PPL TEST DAY IS NIGH…..stay tuned!!

26th February…PPL Pre-test day
Lets go over the early stuff shall we?

Now before you can do the actual PPL Flight Test (Check Ride as my US friends call it) the club puts you through a Pre-Test day, just to make sure you are up to the standard needed to pass the PPL test.  So, today is the day!!!!  Lee is once again my instructor for this flight, which will incorporate all of the early lesson skills, stalls, steep turns (WOO HOO!!!) forced landings, glide approaches, flapless approaches etc.  There is also a small short Nav exercise and I will land at Caloundra and Caboolture.  Arrived at the aero club and saw, yep, once again gloomy grey skies….OH DEAR!!!!  Lee talks me through what we are going to do today, then sends me off to pre-flight good ol’ SPQ!!
Weather forecast is OK, light showers and 3000ft cloud base, so we should be all good to go over the exercises.  We depart the circuit and head over to the training area at Bribie for the general handling maneuvers. First up clean stalls…keeping clear of the cloud… then flap down stalls (these are a bit harder), then steep turns (my favorites ha ha).  “OK that’s all good”, informs Lee, “Now I want you to get us to Caloundra airport” OK!! Here we go!!  Join the Caloundra circuit for a touch and go, it’s an OK landing. Next two more touch and goes a glide and then a flapless.  The biggest problem at Caloundra is that the slight hill to the north of it gives you the illusion that you are too low and then you end up too high on short final, but I had this sorted after the first touch and go.  *Groan* Glide approach needs a bit of work (mental note to self…see if you can book a 1 hour session on glide and flapless approaches…grrrrr)  OK Climb out and Lee gets me to turn West and puts me under the IFR hood for a bit of Instrument Flying.  We do a quick lost procedure, I work out where we are, and then I perform a low level navigation back to Caboolture for more landings.  WOW the cloud is getting low, at one stage we have to go just under the 500 ft ceiling due to cloud and vis to get to Caboolture.  OK on arrival to YCAB I join for late downwind runway 12 and come in for a short field landing…ummm…with a BIG bounce…Go a round, (D’OH I WILL have to book that landing session, can’t do the test landing like this!!) Lee heads us back to Redcliffe for precautionary search and landing, 500 overshoot and then 100 overshoot, AHHHhh this landing is HEAPS better!!!! Then around for another flapless approach, YAY that’s more like it.  OK back in the training room, Lee gets all of my paper work out and then declares it’s time for lunch.
After lunch Lee and I go over the mountain of paper work and look at my previous flying records from day one, this brings back memories!!!  We need to make sure that all of my hours are correct and that I have indeed done all of the hours necessary to do the PPL test.  After what seems an eternity, Lee and I finally finish signing "this", and checking "that" and it is time to book my "remedial landing day" (ha ha) and the head for home.  WOW the test is only a matter of weeks away!!! Stay tuned!

13th February PPL THEORY EXAM!!!
GLUP the 13TH!!!…Consideration, Trepidation, but will it be annihilation?!?!?!

For the past 5 weeks I have SERIOUSLY had my head in the books!!!  This exam is going to be tough... I have been told… and I quote… “MMM PPL theory exam. Gee if you pass that you can pass ANY CPL theory exam!!!”  CRIKEY… WHAT… I thought that it would get heaps harder into CPL…oh well the guy who told me this IS a CPL!!!  Right then back to today, woke up this morning, head still going a million miles full of facts and figures.  Resisted the temptation to re-read anything, I thought “if you don’t know it now…well… you won’t know it later!!” HA!!!  Tried to stop thinking about it over breakfast with DG, rechecked that I had everything in the flight bag, phew… sooooo much to carry, ERSA, COA’s, CAR’s, CAAP, AIP’s, VFG, Whizzwheels (hee hee both of them) 2 calculators (NEVER trust batteries… EVER), pencils, sharpener, rubber (eraser), rulers, square, (takes a breath), Pilot Logbook, Flight Crew Lisence, ASIC card and just in case my Passport… PHEW!!!! OH yeah and the confirmation printout to show that I ACTUALLY have booked the exam.  Said “BYE” to DG and set off for Archerfield.  I arrived well before time and met a guy parked next to me who was doing his New Zealand Air Law exam, for the second time, “Oh don’t tell me stuff like that” I said to him “Oh no I just didn’t take it as seriously as I should have that’s why I’m resitting it”.  Now I know it isn’t the same exam as I am about to do, but, it was written by the same people... GLUP!!!  Anyway we both discussed the people he knew at Redcliffe and where he had been working and then we decided that we had better go and sign in.  To say that nerves started to creep in while I ascended the stairs to the first level, is an understatement.  I got really nervous by the time I was going through the front door of the exam room.  There where heaps of people there to do exams, one lady doing her IREX exam, heaps of guys doing all facets of the CPL exams and a girl doing her last CPL exam, and me, the only one doing a PPL exam, hee hee.  First thing was to sign in and prove who I was, was over.  Next the invigilator (don’t you just love that word!!??) ran us through what to do to start the exam (it is a Cyber-Exam) and then set us on our way.  I won’t bore you with the gory details of the exam (and I can’t actually tell you any of the questions etc either) but there where a few times I was stunned at the next question and what it was asking.  “EEK!!” went through my mind a few times.  Anyway I spent the FULL 210 minutes considering and working out each question and then going over and over my answers.  By this stage there were just two examinees left in the exam room, the lady doing her IREX and... well… me, when the computer gave me the “3 mins to go” warning I just couldn’t go any further…SO…with great trepidation I pressed the END EXAMINATION button.  This takes you to a screen that’s says, “Please wait while your score is retrived”.  This wait was possibly the worst wait I have ever endured, it felt like years, unlike the 210 mins that the exam allowed, which felt like 210 seconds.  I stared at the screen, wishing for a pass, OH PLEEEEZZZZEEEE, even 70% (which is the pass mark) I’ll be happy!!!! PLLLLLEEEEEZZZZEEEE!!!!!!  And then I waited more and more, I think you could have measured hair growth in the time it took HA HA HA!!!! And then it FINALLY came back……and…….IT WAS A PASS!!!!! WOO HOO!!!!  I received my certificate of my pass, packed up and ran off to ring DG and tell her of the great news.  WOO HOO that’s over and I am ssooooooo relieved all of the study paid off!!!!!! Oh and the lady doing her IREX passed too!!!! Umm, she said that the IREX was the hardest exam she had EVER done…WHAT!!!… MMMM that guy told me mine was the hardest you’ll ever do… EEEKKKK!!!!!  Next up Pre-test day and then the Flight Exam, stay tuned, it is SOOOO close now!!!

Saturday 1 February, 2007
Aviators in the Family!!!
My father in law has 150 Hours and NOW!!!!

Right-E-O, DG’s dad, Bill, attained his PPL in the 80’s and notched up quite a few endorsments, CSU (Constant Speed Prop Unit), Retractable undercarriage and NVFR (night rating!!!) and 150 hours to boot!!!  With all of the hype surrounding my impending PPL qualification, he has decided to become current again!!!  Bill went for his medical, and organised a meeting with Rob (Redcliffe’s CFI) to talk about regaining his PPL, how cool is THIS!!!!!  So today I accompanied Bill to the aero club for his meeting with Rob.  We arrived at the same time as Rob and followed him into the club house.  I was making us coffee when Rob came out to speak to Bill “You can blame Shane for this” Bill informed Rob, “Yep that’s it blame the student pilot for spreading the enthusiasm!!” I replied HEE HEE!!!  I left the guys to talk about what Bill had to do and ran down to Bob Taits office to see if he was in today (I needed to collect a text book I had ordered), by the time I had gotten back it was all over!!!  I signed Bill’s Redcliffe Aero Club membership form and we went in and paid his fees for that, NOW he is officially a RAC member!  On the drive home Bill ran me through what he had to do to get current again. He has to do a couple of hours of touch and go’s and general aircraft handling in the Piper Arrow and he’s off… ummm… AGAIN... YAY!!  HEY HANG ON A MINUTE… at this rate Bill will be flying before I have my PPL test!!!  YIKES, I had better get to it!!!  HA HA, see Father (in-law)-Son competitiveness creeping in already HA HA!!!! Back home at our place for coffee, saw Bill already starting to plan his first trip!!! So I got out a few maps, we looked them over together and ‘mini-planned’ it.  So now we have 2 aviators in the family, I’ll keep you up to date on how Bill’s progress… AND if he beats me into the air as a PPL!!!

Friday 25 January, 2008
NAV 7…WOW, out to Goondiwindi, and I cover 367NM SOLO!!!!
>> To NAV 7 Photo Gallery

Once again this mornings weather looked on the no-go side, I wasn’t going to be happy if I have to put off NAV 7 3 times like NAV6!!  Packed up the flight bag and said good-bye to DG, declaring to her that I’m the MOST nervous of ANY flight beforehand. You see today’s NAV is SOLO….the route goes like this YRED – YBAF (Archerfield) – YXCAS (Gatton Hospital) – YWCK (Warwick) – YGDI (Goondiwindi) – YMMN (Millmerran) – YTWB (Toowoomba) – YXES (Esk) – YRED (see here for the Google map of the route)…THAT’S 367 NAUTICAL MILES, ALONE, in a 172…just me…YIKES!!!! Did I mention that I have to do this SOLO!?!?!?! 

OK arrived at the club, still nervous, the weather north is looking much better than the forecast, but, I’m going south and then west…GULP…not looking the best in that direction.  Inside the club, I say “Hi” to everyone, print off the weather forecast and NOTAMS, and sit down to go through it.  Intermittent Showers, general forecast is showers, cloud at 3000 in places, gloom and doom, even a 30 INTER on my return, so I have to add 30 mins holding to my fuel calculations.  But after I spoke to Mal and ran through the forecast, we agree that the most likely place to run into any really bad cloud and showers would be between Gatton and Warwick, so I start planning the flight, fuel calcs etc.  Mal and I run through the overall flight plan and discuss airspace clearances through the Military areas, getting fuel at Archerfield etc. It seems I should have had a NAV7 brief for this flight but it escaped us all, so I really am solo!!  Mal was happy with the way I had planned the route and told me to finish up the planning and he would look it over.  I run over the finished product with Mal, we make 2 alterations and plan to run with 155 Litres in the tanks and refuel at Archerfield, and possibly again at Toowoomba on the way home depending on the weather conditions in Brisbane.  OH, did I mention the today’s plane is none other than SPQ, I can add another milestone in this plane, my longest cross-country solo!!  I submit my flight plan and bundle up my maps etc and head out to SPQ.

Nerves had disappeared somewhat my that I’m out at SPQ, I arrange everything I need in the cockpit, run through pre-flight and look over my maps one last time before deciding that everything is in a logical order and ready to go.  Startup SPQ and taxi out for runway 07.  Run though the pre-takeoff checks, all good, radio call for enter and backtrack 07, turn and point SPQ down the centre line and quickly run through my new check: Lights, Camera, Action (one final check that Lee turned me onto in NAV6). So we are off, we being SPQ and I, hee hee!  Depart the circuit and head for Mount Sampson, turn to follow the “lane” to the Mt Cootha TV towers, my first reporting point for clearance to Archerfield.  THEN out of no-where, a YAK44 overtakes me on the portside, no radio calls, nothing.  I make my abeam TV towers call to Archer Tower and then what feels like ages afterwards the YAK makes his call, but he is miles past the towers and me!!!  Archer tower advise me of the planes presence, “Traffic Sighted, Sierra Papa Quebec” and I actually wanted to respond, “Traffic sighted 5 minutes ago!!!”  Anyway, it wasn’t like a near miss, just took me by surprise a bit.  Entered the circuit number 3 for runway 10L, the Cessna in front of me started doing S turns and really slowing down, so Archer Tower told me to go around.  After the go around and a full circuit, I landed the second time, nicely <insert a large grin here>, OOPS I forgot to punch in Archer Ground!!!!  Quickly what is the code…done and I switch over after leaving the runway….PHEW!!!  Taxi over to the visitor parking area and shut down.  Make a quick phone call to the fuel guy and once I have given him my details, ring DG and tell her I’m safe and sound at Archer, and then ring the Aero club to report in.  Fuel guy arrives and fills SPQ for me, cool I love the service, I've got a larger photo in my gallery!!!  Pay him (Aero club fuel card) and thank him very much.  Do a fuel drain and quick pre-flight, reorganise the maps etc, then ring Amberley Clearance on the phone and get my Sqwark code for clearance through Amberley airspace.  Taxi to 10R and do my run-ups, and get clearance to take off. 

I contact Amberley Approach, announce my Sqwark code and they ask me what level I’d like to fly at, 3500ft is my request, they then ask me to climb at my Best Rate of Climb to 2500, I point SPQ’s nose to the skies and hold 80Kts. At 3500 they ask my if I am happy at 3500 (how nice) I reply that I don’t think I can get to 4500 due to cloud, all good.  They pass me out of their controlled airspace and I must say they were really professional AND polite.  Gatton is coming up in front about 4 mins later that I had estimated, make my area radios calls and, over head Gatton turn for Warwick.  Now, as Mal and I saw it, this was, going to be the leg in which I would have to really keep an eye on the weather and make some decision on what I saw, wwweeeeeeellllllll, ALL IS CLEAR up to 4500, so I maintain my 3500 and keep a keen eye on the weather. 

With Warwick township in sight I notice a large rain shower to the west which I will have to keep an eye on, you'll see a photo of this in my gallery.  Overfly the Warwick township and turn onto my heading for Goondiwindi for my longest leg EVER 91 NM in a straight line…wow!!  After taking up my heading I see that the rain is right in my way and being VFR I cannot fly through clouds or heavy rain. So I decide to use a technique I read about for flying around this kind of thing and get back on course.  I decide to head 30 degrees to the south of my track for 5 mins then I’ll turn 30 to the north of my original track for 5 mins and then turn back onto my original track, it turned out to be 10 mins in both directions, BUT IT WORKED!!!! And I lined up on my track right where I had planned, too happy with that. I also had a visual fix on the Lake before my next town which helped too.  I then tune the NDB in on the Goondiwindi frequency and add NDB practice to the flight. I requested a weather forecast update from Brisbane Centre, they came back with forecast THUNDERSTORMS… GLUP… at Goondiwindi at 0500Z, which is 3:00 pm. YIKES, my plan (amended after my rain diversion) gets me into Goondi at 1:40 pm so there is no real time to muck around.  Goondiwindi comes up right on time and I held the heading and NDB right on the nose!!!!

I come in and join the circuit for runway 04 in a light x-wind, but wasn’t happy so I went around, second attempt, though, all good!!  Taxied to the parking area, and shut down.  Rang DG and told her “I MADE IT!!” and then rang the Aero Club to report in again.  Mal was pretty happy that I got here, I told him about the rain diversion and that I was going to refuel here as the fuel guy was already on his way to 2 other planes that were waiting.  I dipped the tanks and did some quick calculations and if I didn’t refuel here I would have to refuel at Toowoomba, so I decided to play it safe in-case of any more rain showers on the way home.  I taxied SPQ over and lined up behind an older 182, the guys where from Dalby and actually taking the same course to Toowoomba as me, they asked where I was from and said “Redcliffe WOW that’s a long way on your own”. I think they meant the no company side of it.. HA!  I told them about the forecast I had from Bris Centre and they said “Well we’ll be outta here before then.”  By the time I refuelled and was ready to taxi out it was 2:20, and I wasn’t keen to be anywhere near Goondiwindi at 3.00. Fuel drain and pre-flight done, I was off!! 

I took up my course for Millmerran and also decided to keep the Goondi NDB on, as a “from” course.  Millmerran came up a little early and I calculated the ground speed of 125 Kts which accounted for it, BUT up ahead, Yep, RAIN…AGAIN.  One good thing though, I could see Toowoomba in the distance. I diverted 2 more times just as I did on the Warwick - Goondi leg, and came back on course and around the rain with Toowoomba coming up. I overflew the field and headed for Esk through a small shower and then turned for home!!!!!  Cleared the range, keeping in mind the controlled airspace above me at 3500ft and visually fixed Redcliffe.  Made my inbound calls, “Welcome home Shane” Mal called over the radio, “Thanks Mal”!  I joined the circuit for 07 and landed beautifully. I taxied back, shut SPQ down, rang to cancel my SARTIME on the mobile and packed up my maps etc and locked SPQ up for the day.  After dipping the tanks and comparing the figures with that from Goondiwindi, I could see that I would have been well under on my minimums for fuel so my decisions at Goondiwindi was a good one (although I would have stopped at Toowoomba)!! My diversions around the rain today added about 20 nautical miles to the whole trip bringing the total somewhere near 390 NM!!!!! SOLO!!! JUST ME!!! Oh and SPQ!! Returned to the office exhilarated but happy to be home!!!!!  Mal and Rob (CFI) where very happy with my description of the flight, my diversion etc, so that made me fells great about the decisions I made as “PIC”.  BOY DO I NEED A BEER!!!!

4.30 am and I check the area forecast from home. Did I say 4.30, yep, I am due at the club by 6 am to get away early – after so many missed attempts at this NAV they are fitting me in and I have to have the plane back by 2pm!!! Anyway, the area forecast wasn’t looking good, oh dear will NAV6 get put off again!?!?!  Looks like rain everywhere on the way to the Gold Coast and low cloud at the range east of the Gold Coast, oh dear.  Anyway I gathered everything up, said Bye to DG and drove to the Aero Club….not very hopeful…although the sun was starting to break through.  I must mention this NAV is pretty important because it is a kind of pre-pre-PPL test flight, which means the instructor is just there for a day out, and I have to do everything like, airways clearances, all of my radio calls, Navigation…etc etc, on my own…and completely right….YIKES!!!  And if I get this all right they clear me for my NAV 7 solo, followed by my PPL pre-flight test. (lots of pre-somethings going on here!!).On arrival and rechecking the weather it was looking a lot more like we could go!! YAY!!  After discussion with Lee (today’s instructor) we agree that we will takeoff for the Gold Coast and see what the weather is doing, we can always come back (and I will have at least been flying..hee hee).  I finalised the flight plan and fuel logs, submitted our SARTIME and went off to pre-flight RAQ.  Taxied over and topped the tanks, and we where off.  On taxi for 07, I got my Sqwark code from Brisbane Radar, rechecked that all my maps etc were ready to go.  Pre-take off checks complete, we enter and back track 07, Lee gives me a new idea for final takeoff, Light, Camera, Action, Lights…make sure the lights you want are on(e.g., Strobes etc), Camera, the ATC “look” at us through their “camera” the Transponder, so make sure it is on, Action (in a low wing this is a check of the booster pump) GO!!!!  I like this Lights, Camera, Action idea and will incorporate it from now on…Thanks Lee!!!

We depart the circuit on x-wind leg and climb to 1500 and contact Brisbane Radar on the way up, they hand us over to Brisbane Approach who issue us with our tracking instructions. I read that back and turn for the Hornibrook Bridge, then over head that direct to the Brisbane Control tower.  About half way to the tower they ask us to do one right hand orbit and then report back when finished.  I do a rate 1 (a 360° turn which will take one minute) report back and we are cleared to overfly the tower at 1500, then track for Manly boat harbour.  Flying over the Brisbane International Airport was quite a buzz, with Airbuses and 737s landing and taking of underneath us…WOW!!  As we approach the boat harbour we haven’t heard back from ATC so I make a quick call to let them know we are overhead, we a then changed over and quickly placed out of Controlled airspace for own navigation to Jacobs Well.  In front of us there are rain showers everywhere, so we weave around the bigger ones, and fly through the smaller ones that I can see through.  All this and I have to stay on course …phew, fun but a bit of work!  The Gold Coast appears in front of us with more showers out behind Surfers Paradise, but they won’t worry us.  I make an over fly call to Southport Traffic with intents etc, “Southport CTAFR if you don’t mind” come back over the radio…WHAT?...Lee and I both look at each other and shrug our shoulders, and …well…just keep going. 

Abeam Q1 (the tallest residential building in the world apparently), and even at 1500ft it looks close, I report inbound to Gold Coast tower, and then receive instructions to expect to join a right-hand downwind.  As we get closer they tell us to join close downwind for runway 32, I descend and start setting up for landing into a slight x-wind.  We get a call “Clear to land, and turn base now” WOAH, still at 1000 and turning for base and final and have to drop HEAPS of height to lineup to land, pressure is on for this newbie pilot now.  All goes well and we land, OK, and taxi off, I switch to the GC Ground frequency (albeit a bit early) and receive my taxi instruction to GA parking.  We waddle over to GA and park out the front of the old CG Aero Club building.  We got a few good photos of the Gold Coast and QI so check out the gallery. “All good”, Lee informs me after I shutdown RAQ.  OK, now we have another assessment of the weather and we look out at the direction we are about to fly on the next leg.  It doesn’t look too bad, “We might just stick out noses over the range and see what is what” Lee suggests, “Happy for that” I say.  I regroup and reorganise the maps etc, and dip the tanks, restart my fuel log.  I get Taxi and airways clearance, and we are off to the run up bay.  After runups are completed I report to the tower “Romeo Alpha Quebec is ready” “Cleared to take-off, left turn”  WOO HOO here we go for Glen Innes. 

Takeoff, turn left, and take up my heading for Glen Innes, ahead the clouds close in a little and on report to Brisbane Radar I request amended altitude to 3000 due to the cloud, all good, they give it to me.  Once over the range Lee puts me through some low level flying, and we fly around and through a few valleys on the way to Kyogle.  I pick up Kyogle, the weather here is great, you wouldn’t believe we were only a few minutes away from that gloomy weather we just flew through.  Then, at Kyogle, I am put under the “Hood” for some Instrument flying during which Lee has to get me lost.  Except the hood isn’t in the plane so we pull down my cap – would probably been a funny photo but we were all business!!!  After about 10 mins under the hood, Lee says “OK, you can take off the “hood” and where are we?” Up comes the cap and I work out we have been off bout 30° to the Compass, for about 10 mins which is approx 20NM, I draw a line on the map approximating 30° and draw another to intercept.  In this area are Bonalbo and Old Bonalbo townships and where these line cross in my calculations is Bonalbo. We are over head a town so I slow the plane down and circle the town and check what I can see against the VTC map. The roads don’t quite look right for Bonalbo, so I say that I think I’m at Old Bonalbo (which isn’t far away) …WRONG…I recheck and come up with Bonalbo, which is correct.  Don’t ask me why I didn’t believe what I crossed on the map, I don’t know why!!! Probably a lesson here!!! Then we divert to Laravale for Archerfield, so we don’t get to go to Glen Innes at all.  Run through the planning for Laravale direct and takeup the heading.

Using the VOR to help us track to Laravale we see more lowish clouds and rain, I decide to go east of Mount Lindsay and continue from there.  Good decision as it turns out as the clouds to the west start dumping rain.  Overhead Laravale and I decide to track using the Mount Lindsay highway as my visual fix, as it runs directly to the Park Ridge water tower, which is the southern reporting point for entry to Archerfield.  Spot the water tower and report over head, make a small mistake on the call but it isn’t too critical, report at Logan Motorway and I am given joining instructions for runway 28L.  Setup for landing and turn base after being told cleared to land.  Come on short final and flare, RAQ seems to float and float and float along the runway…mmmmm…this has happened to my before, I think to myself…the wind had swung around (forecast was light and variable) and we are now landing with a tail wind.  We land safely after what seemed an eternity floating down the runway, taxi off and park in the GA area. We shutdown, and get out to stretch our legs.  Lee has to return a folder to the Pilot Supply Shop so we both walk off to find it, ummm, we never do, ha ha, no big deal, we needed the stretch after being in the plane so long. 

Well off we go again, after checking the ATIS (and watching some planes land) we discover that the wind had indeed changed and we where now operating from runway 10L to depart.  Taxi down, runup and off we go heading for home.  This is a nice flight path as we are on the city side of Mount Cootha and can see the whole of Brissy, Lee takes a few snaps of Brisbane river and the city for the record (thanks again mate) and we head home to join the circuit at YRED for 07 and come in to land.  NOW I was going to omit this part, but, I think I have to own up…the landing at Redcliffe (the same place is have landed since day one of my training) was an ABSOLUTE ABOMINATION!!!  I really bounced it, twice…GULP…before settling it back down for and OK landing, I was fairly disgusted with myself.  Anyway, at the post-flight brief (and discounting that AWFUL landing, actually don’t ink I have ever landed quite that badly yet) Lee has signed me off for NAV7, the final, and longest, Solo NAV to Goondiwindi, so stay tuned it is in 4 days.  Better run I have a BIG NAV to plan!!!

0530
I have been up since 0455….a bit too excited about today to go back to sleep really, as today is the day I go for a burn around the skies of Vanuatu!!  I took a few shots of the sunrise, bored now… so I ran over the specs of MSJ, just to put the speeds firmly in my head, as YJ-RV14, the Air Club Vila 172N is the same model as MSJ!!  Wonder what today will bring?  There won’t be the familiar Deception Bay Shopping centre to line up with on the Downwind leg, no WOW Sight and Sound to look at as I turn final….HEEEYYYY no Meat Bomber to keep a listen out for….ummmm just 737’s and Twin Otters…HA HA!!  Although I have landed at several airports/fields now, this one just seems somehow a little more daunting, this just isn’t a different airport …. HELL…. This is a DIFFERENT COUNTRY…. YIKES! Well I suppose my peers do this stuff everyday, there again they have had just a couple of more hours up on me!!

0930
With hours to fill and traveling companions to placate, we spent the morning on Hideaway Island, a small island just off the main land (about 3 mins in a ferry) and enjoyed some great snorkeling.  UH-OH now the rain starts, then the wind..EEKKK!!! Oh dear, will Mother Nature stamp all over my fun ….AGAIN??!? Then as quickly as it came, the weather went! YAY!!

1240
Arrived at the Aero Club, and met Pip, the Chief Pilot.  Pip is from New Zealand and took over the Cheif Pilot role at Air Club Vila recently.  Pip went through my log book and asked about my training at Redcliffe and the planes if fly there etc.  Then asked what I’d like to do today, and suggested maybe we fly around Efate (the island that Port Vila is on) and maybe landing at an old fighter strip at the top of the island, COOL that’d be great.  Then she asked if DG and her Mum where coming….HUH?!.... in Australia I can’t take passengers on a training flight so this is more like a In Charge Under Instruction flight.  WOW, DG didn’t think this would happen, ummm neither did I, so this will be way to much fun now.  This is especially great for DG’s Mum as she was all set for a flight with me in the Redcliffe training area in August and we were rained out ... so her first flight in a small plane in over 20 years and it is in Vila … pretty good!!!

1330
OK, ran through the pre-flight on RV14, checked the tanks and reported my findings to Pip.  Bundled DG and her Mum into the back of RV14, but unfortunately the intercom in RV14 is only 2 place so the rear passengers can’t hear what is going on in the front through the headsets .…mmmm…. this could be a good thing HA!! But they have to wear the headsets to keep the cabin noise down.  Start up RV14, (hey it starts better than MSJ!!) and prepare for taxi.  The comms here are VHF AND UHF!!!  So Pip shows me how to tune in the UHF and then I call the tower “Vila Tower, Romeo Victor 14”  the tower comes back and we request taxi and airways clearance for the Vila township up to 3500, very hard to hear the tower, the radio is the same as MSJ, ha ha ha!  Pip helps with the radio calls as I miss what they say, taxi to the runway and enter and backtrack for 29.  Turn and line up and call “Vila Tower Romeo Victor 14 READY!!”, “Romeo Victor Clear for take-off 29”,  “Clear For Take-off 29 Romeo Victor 14”  Woo Hoo here we go, my first flight outside Australia!!!  We turn left at 500 and continue to 1000 and turn for the township of Vila.  There is hardly a bump in the sky and ol’ RV14 handles beautifully, dare I say BETTER than MSJ!!!!  Then we turn and follow the coast line north over a few places that we have been to by road on this and our previous trips to Vanuatu, I try to point a few places out to DG but, not being able to hear me and not really getting my charades, I think she missed a couple of them.  We drop down to 500 ft which made the flight a little more ‘scenic’ for our passengers….and me, ha!  Although my concentration was way over the top!!  Then at the north-eastern point of Efate is Quoin Hill (pronounced coin) which was a fighter base in WWII, and operated mainly Corsairs, but today a 172!!  We perform 2 touch and goes here for a spot of fun, but first a quick over fly to make sure the grass isn’t too long!!!!  The first landing was OK, strayed a bit on takeoff,  although if you check out the photo of the strip, it’s not exactly a straight path! The second touch and go was better though and the after we lifted off Pip took over and we hunted the coastline nearby to see one of the crashed Corsairs that is in about 4-5 metres of water. We can’t find that corsair but we do see the other one that sits in about 1-2 meters. DG and I visited this plane by dinghy on our first ever trip to Vanuatu and there is a photo now of this wreck from the air as well as close up, see my Vanuatu gallery for these photos.  Pip hands RV14 back over to me and we climb back to 500 and continue our circumnavigation of the island.  The pictures in my Vanuatu gallery tell the story here, DG snapped off quite a few on the trip.  Righty ‘O, Pip reports to the tower that we are at Havana Bay, inbound, we hear that an Islander is coming in from the west, so we keep an eye out for that, cool he is spotted, we line up number 2 for joining downwind.  You can see a photo ofturning base for final at Bauerfield to the right. With the two of us in the circuit the Air Vanuatu 737 is placed on hold, HA imagine, “Ladies and gentleman we have been put in hold due to traffic”  HA an Islander and a 172!!!!  Run through my pre-landing checks and we get clearance to land, come in and …. Bounce! D’OH, correct it and bring RV14 in the second time for a better touch down.  Taxi back and park, all good, shut down and tie RV14 down.  This was WAY TOO MUCH FUN!!!!!  Wish I could go around again!!  We all walk back to the Aero Club with Pip after what I would say is one of my stand out flight experiences thus far!!!!

BOB The Builder!!!!

After talking to Pip about her career and what she wants to do (flying Biz Jets…tooo cool Pip) a couple of guys arrive in a ute and Pip excuses herself to go and talk to them. When she returns, Pip asks “What are you doing for the next couple of hours?” HUH?!!?  “Do you want to come for a run up to Tongoa to drop this passenger off?” WOW!!! HELL YEAH!!  DG and her Mum, say goodbye to Pip and head home to the resort for a swim. Pip and Robert (now Bob in my mind because he is a builder) jump in the back of the ute and off we go to RV14 again…mmmm now what was it that I said to myself before… “Wish I could go again!!” well here we go.  Pip calls the refueling truck over, hey you don’t have to refuel your own planes here!!! (Stupid me forgot to photograph the refueling…sorry).  We load the plane with Bob’s tools and other luggage, climb in and prepare to go, we had a small issue with the radio and Pip and I swap seats, HA now I’m back in the left hand seat!!  Radio issues out of the way, and we set off for the runway, 29 again, and we are off.  Pip had never flown to this island either so it was a bit of an adventure for both of us.  Bob sat in the back and worked on his notebook while Pip and I talked away about flying and other plane related stuff and enjoyed the flight.  It only took about 35 mins to get there (felt like 10 mins) and after a quick hunt for the strip we had Bob on the ground, the local kids came from everywhere to see the plane (got some great photos of that), and Bob’s mates met us at the ‘terminal’ and helped unload the plane.  Pip and I said “Bye” to Bob and jumped back into RV14, now it’s my turn again to fly us home.  Back tracked to the end of the airstrip and off we go, shortfield takeoff here, I have to admit I was a little concerned about the trees at the end of the field but all was good … we actually had HEAPS of room.  In the air and we turned south for Efate again.  We flew most of the trip at about 1300ft so we could see lots.  I got a few shots along the way, see my Vanuatu photo gallery, and once again it felt like 10 mins before we where back at Havana Harbor and reporting in to rejoin for downwind.  After running through my pre-landing checks I place RV14 on the ground for a much better landing than the one with DG and her Mum on board.  Taxied back and parked and tied down RV14 for another day.  I thanked Pip over and over again, this was THE BEST day!!!!  I had a ball!!! And I added 1.8 hours to the log book to boot! They say that you never forget your first solo, that’s true, it is still clearly in my head, but this day will be one I’ll never forget either!!!  Thanks again Pip and thanks again to DG for organizing a fantastic day!!!!!!

HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A GREAT NEW YEAR!!!! Blue skies and level wings to you all.

BAUERFIELD (NVVV) HERE WE COME!!!!
Does this make me an “International” Pilot… HA??!!

WOW!!!, yet another merit badge for DG!!!  We are off to Vanuatu this year for our Christmas holidays, and I was planning on dropping into the Air Club Vila and say Hi.  BUT, unbeknownst to me, DG had sneakily arranged a dual flight with Pip Schofield the CFI.  That’s why I needed to grab my Logbook from the Aero Club here, so I can get Pip to sign off on the flight and add it to my hours. Being the keen student, I then went in search of any data I could find on the Ops at NVVV,  I found an ERCR page off the net dated Oct 2007 so it’s probably not current, but I can get a feel for it, and I’ll get the updated info from Pip on Pre-Flight Brief.  I’ll be flying their C172 YJ-RV14 which is exactly the same model as MSJ, so at least I’ll feel in familiar surrounds in the cockpit.   THIS IS GOING TO BE COOL!!! So I’ll make sure we have heaps of photos to put up when we get back.

Thursday 20th December
Still no NAV6!!!

Well no one cancelled, so I’m not flying today either, but the weather is still bad, so no great big loss.  Grabbed my Flight Log (story on why soon) snapped a few more planes and ran home to wrap DG’s Christmas presents.

RightyO, after the excitement of last night, I’m off to the club for more fun….CRIKEY how much Aviation can you fit into a weekend?????  WWWWWeeeeeellllll, after this flight I have NAV6 brief with Andrew!!!!! Ha, so this weekend has gone, NAV5 Brief, Wings dinner, NAV5 flight AND THEN NAV6 Brief, WOW!!!!!!

ANYWAY, back to it, check of the weather looks good, possible storms building but we will be home way before that.  I finalise my flight plan and Lee checks it over and gives it the green light, and its faxed off to Flighwatch. Oops no need to call them up to confirm, they rang me to check if the written YBGC was actually supposed to be YBCG for the Gold Coast, um, slight over sight there... then off to “pat” SPQ…hey another first for SPQ…into controlled airspace!!!!  Top the tanks and Taxi out to 07 and request our squawk code from Brisbane Radar along the way,  pre-takeoff checks, line up and off we go!!!  Made departing call on crosswind and continued the climb towards 1500 ft, where we switched over to Brisbane Radar and requested airways clearance.  Then we are handed over to Brisbane approach and they give us our heading 190 and height 5500ft.  This means we are staying in controlled airspace all the way to the Gold Coast.  HEY!! Our track takes us over my house, too cool!!  OOps back to the job at hand!!!  We over flew the eastern side of Brisbane CBD…no photos sorry too busy to look at it. Once abeam Archerfield, our heading was changed to head directly to YBCG. 

We are handed over to Gold Coast tower, and they told us to report when we had the field in sight. The visibility was OK with a bit of sea spray mist around so the airport was a bit hard to see at first.  After reporting sighting the field the tower comes back, “OK descend to 2000 ft, expect runway 32, join for left downwind, report when ready for base”, now, see I can type what was told and asked of me BUT do you think I could repeat I correctly??!!?!  “2000, runway 32 (which I didn’t need to read back) left downwind (got that bit right) report when turning base (EEKK !!) Sierra Papa Quebec”, “Sierra Papa Quebec, I want you to report when ready for base”, “Affirm, report when turning base (D’OH!!) Sierra Papa Quebec”, the words just WOULDN’T come out right, I think the second time the controller was OK with but a third??!! Oh dear, anyway I got the third call correct, YAY finally…you idiot…but I got through it and I don’t think the controller was TOO upset with me.  With pre-landing checks done, slow SPQ down, lowered first stage of flap, REPORTED WHEN I WAS READY TO TURN BASE, kept on course “Sierra Papa Quebec, turn base cleared to land”.  Phew, the tower was still talking to me…HA HA. “Turn base, cleared to land Sierra Papa Quebec”.  WOW this is a wide runway!!!!  Lee shows me how the landing guidance lights beside the runway work, and we line up SPQ for a slight undershoot of them to touchdown just after the “keys” in about 7 Kt crosswind for a NICE landing. Get taxi clearance from Ground and park at the GA parking area to re-group maps etc and talk about all of the events that just unfolded.

OK ready to go again, I check the ATIS…EEEKKKK!!!!  MODERATE TURBULANCE expected to the WEST of the (Gold Coast) airfield…”Well we will go out there and if it is too bad we’ll divert straight for home” Lee suggests.  Cool sounds good!  We get our airways clearance and squawk code, then our taxi Clearance…OK this is what I had to take in and read back…” Sierra Papa Quebec taxi via Gulf, Cross 35, follow Charlie to Foxtrot for 32”.  PHEW. I say all of that, correctly this time, and taxi to the runway, reporting “Ready, Sierra Papa Quebec”. We get a Line-up call, which means we are to enter the runway, point the nose down the runway and wait…and wait...”Maybe he’s not talking to me anymore” I smiled.  Then after what seemed an eternity, we are off, turn left and we take up track. The turbulence wasn’t all that bad and only lasted for a little while. On the way to Cheerabah we did a bit of instrument flying under the hood, a lost procedure and a quick one in 60 as well.  Found Cherrabah, it has been sealed since my information was printed.  Overflew to determine the wind direction and then did a 100 ft precautionary overpass. We decided not to land and Lee changed our plan. We headed for Warwick flying low level (500ft AGL) pretending that a cloud base had descended to 600 AGL.  When flying like this you slow the plane down and fly at around 80Kts, with first stage of flap, and follow a land feature e.g: a road. So that’s what I did, along the way I asked Lee “Do we have to give way at this cross-roads?” “Nah it’s a turn left at anytime with care” HA HA!! I checked the ERSA for airfield details since we hadn’t planned on Warwick!! After we ascend back to 3000ft I make our inbound call, and  a gruff female voice comes over the radio “Inbound aircraft, be aware, glider operations in progress, several gliders in the air!!!”  I acknowledge, and we start scanning for gliders, we spot 2.  Land at Warwick and taxi to the parking area, for a quick bite to eat.  THE FLIES!!!!! My god they were everywhere, MILLIONS of them, Lee and I reckon Warwick is the indigenous word for “Place of Many Flies” Hee Hee!!! Some great photos from Warwick, check out my Cherrabah gallery here. We take off again and head for Toowoomba. Along the way we divert direct to Redcliffe over head Allora.  We radio Brisbane Centre to amend our SARTIME and we head for home. Lee makes sure, along the way, that I can place where we are and makes sure that I am aware of Controlled airspace.  We get to Redcliffe and land in another crosswind (well I wanted more cross-wind practice). Park SPQ and go back in to the Club to finalise the paper work and cancel SARTIME.  PHEW long day BUT WHAT FUN!!!!!!!  Now I have NAV6 Brief…GOOD GRIEF!!

Later... on Saturday 3rd November 2007
RAC "Wings Dinner" what a surprise!!!!!
>> To Wings Annual Dinner Photo Gallery

OK, with the NAV5 brief over, off home to get ready for the Wings Dinner.  Tonight is the Aero Club's "night of nights" with pilots being presented with awards and certificates for thier achievements during the past year.  DG and I arrived, I was surprised with the amount of people who turned out  for the dinner.  We sat next to a guy who I thought I recognised but was too busy talking about flying to click!!  DG spoke to Simon and found out that we both knew each other, Simon is the manager of my favorite musical instrument store here in Brisbane... HAH talk about a small world.  Simon, pictured here, was there to accept his NVFR (Night rating) certificate.  He was telling me all about his training for that, WOW, that sounds like fun, hard, but fun!!  The festivities started off with the ex-Club president saying a few words, and then Tony, RAC's CEO presented trophies. Some of the people weren't there so the announcements went quite quickly.  Then Tony announced the award for "Outstanding Effort" with 3 recipients, AND I WAS ONE OF THEM.....WOW...TOTALLY UNEXPECTED!!!!!!!!!  This made all of my reading, studying, trying, listening and striving to be the best pilot I can be, all worth it ... IT REALLY TOPPED OFF A GREAT YEAR!! I'm STILL buzzing from this.  Anyway, after the meals where served, the certificates of achievement where handed out, with my Solo wings and Solo certificate being presented and my GFPT certificate.  DG and I have a few laughs about exactly what Solo wings were, one of the funniest ones was "They're wings...but there is only one of them" HA, anyway I digress, Simon recived his Night rating, Regan (one of the other guests at our table) was awarded RAC Pilot of the Year, so we really had a winning table!!! Check out my photo gallery from the evening.

OK, NAV5 brief today and the flight is tomorrow.  Talk about a quick turnaround!!! This NAV takes me into the controlled airspace for Brisbane and Gold Coast Airports with a landing at the Gold Coast.  Lee is my instructor for both the brief and the flight.  We run through the procedures and check out my flight plan.  All good here.  And check over the radio calls and airspace for Brisbane and Gold Coast to make sure I have a good understanding of these new procedures.  This flight I am learning how to use the ADF/VOR NAVAIDS. I was going to fly in the club’s simulator to learn to use these NAVAIDS, but, due to bookings, we decided to run through their use in the air... EEEKKK!!!! Also we have to do a low level Nav leg (500ft above ground level), lost proceedure and a diversion.  Well, we will see how I go.  Now all we have to wait for is the weather tomorrow, finish off the flight plan ... and off we go!!

The Redcliffe Aero Club has an annual awards night and tonight's the night for 2007.  I started my lessons about a week after the 2006 dinner so this is my first dinner.  I am looking forward to the night because I will receive my "Solo Wings" and my certificate for passing GFPT. I am also looking forward to meeting some more people from the club!! Should be a good night. 

Sunday 21st October 2007
NAV4 – Going solo to Wondai
>> To NAV 4 Photo Gallery

A quick back space to Friday, I thought I had better check on the health of MSJ after the alternator problem, lucky I did I say.  MSJ by the way is OK now, BUT Kelly and I made the booking for my flight next week and NOT this week. Oh NO, not another aborted attempt at NAV 4 – this is too much!!! LUCKY ME,  Rob, the club CFI, found a space for me on Sunday with (none other than) VH-SPQ.   WOW!!!! Another first in SPQ! 
 So, now it is Sunday. MMMm, I wasn’t real sure how the weather was going to shape up after waking up this morning.  Overcast, some heavy clouds to the south …. OH dear.  BUT after firing up the computer and checking the TAF it is looking a bit more promising!!! 
OK back to the job at hand, double check that I have every thing, HEADSET included, off to the club and see how the weather shapes up.  Rechecked the TAF at 0800 and printed it out, Mal asks “Have you had a look over the TAF?  What do you think?”  “Well the cloud base is low but still above my planned cruising height and it appears to be lifting a bit from the last report I got at 0600.  Also the rain patches are isolated to the coast and shouldn’t pose a problem.”  Mal agreed and sent me off to finalise my plan.  Plan finalized and checked over by Mal, HEY no corrections…I must be getting better at this HA HA!!  We both agree that it should be all good, but, I’m going to fly to Kilcoy and see how it looks from there.  Brad has SPQ out on a charter flight so I have to wait until he returns.  So I finalise the Flightwatch notification and SARtime (which comes back to get me later…oopps) and send it off to them.  30 minutes later I ring up and confirm that it was received …all good to go.  Brad returns and I go out to pre-flight SPQ, with nerves creeping in a bit now. 
With the pre-flight done and maps all organized (I’m trying YET another system this week), taxi over to the fuel bowser and top the tanks to full.  Check the time, start my fuel log and taxi to runway 07, no nerves now, just have a job to do.  After run-ups and pre-takeoff checks completed, “Enter and backtrack call” Uh Oh …Meat Bomber inbound. It look like the parachute club has a new Navajo!! (read here to see what happened to the last one!)  Take off climb to 500 ft, check right and left skies in case the Navajo doesn’t see me, all clear, and turn Crosswind…”Navajo joins crosswind for runway 07, Redcliffe” What?!?!? EEKKK WHERE IS HE????....Oh Phew there he is just off the portside wing….all good, WOW Navajo’s are fast!!!  Right Turn downwind, and trim SPQ out, make my departure call and take up my first heading on my own!!!!.  HOW COOL!!!  Climb to 2500, actually just under and stay there for a while, while I sort out time departed, eta’s etc and making sure that I don’t fly into controlled airspace, which is just above me. OK, well clear of Burpengary now, I can climb a bit higher to 3500 nearer the range and up to my specified cruising altitude.  With Kilcoy in sight and listening in on the area frequency, I heard a call from a plane taking off from Kilcoy ALA, so I added my position, height intentions to make him aware I was flying through.  Over head Kilcoy turned and took up my next heading for Wondai, made an overhead Kilcoy township call just to let that other plane know that I was turning for Wondai. 
This leg is really quite scenic the green tree covered hills are really quite pretty, BUT there aren’t many places to land if there is a problem…EEKKK!!!  I saw a couple of nice potential spots noted the time and approx mark on my map.  After fixing Cherbourg and Boondooma Dam (photo to left) I found Wondai Airstrip right in front of me AND right on time, WOO HOO!!!!  Over fly the field and check the windsock, mmmmm, looking like runway 18, make all my CTAFr calls, and bring SPQ in for final, just about to touch down and SPQ seems to gather a bit of momentum, what the!??!  Touched down safely and slowed down, all good, then I find out what happened, the windsock is now pointing the other way!!!! I ended up with a slight tail wind!!!  Taxied to the parking area, shutdown and secured SPQ, got out and had a look around, WOW there is no-one around at all. BUT I can’t stay too long, Mal has a charter in SPQ this afternoon.  I took a few photos, and while eating my apple I was watching the windsock spin around between 18 and 36 but mainly on 36 now so I make a decision that I will have to take off from 36.  Check the tanks, oil level and restart my fuel log for the trip home.  I heard a Warrior inbound to Wondai while taxing out to 36.  After pre-take off runups, make entering and back tracking 36 and off I go bound for Kumbia.  On climb I announce to Kingaroy traffic that I’m bound for Kumbia at 4500 after departing the circuit at Wondai.  At about the 10 min mark I run through CLEAROF checks and find the Directional Gyro is horribly out, which means I have been flying off course…UH OH!!!!  Correct the Directional Gyro to the compass and turn to the correct heading and try to fix where I am. Yep, that’s where I am,  so perform a 1 in 60 correction and I’m back on track and Kumbia comes up. All this and I am only about 3 minutes late.  Turn and head for home, climb to 5500 ft and pass Tarong Powerstation, positive fix on Blackbutt, mark that on my map, CLEAROF again and all is good.  WOW the clouds are getting a little thick here, but will not affect me as I soon have to start descending to avoid Controlled Airspace again.  Somerset dam comes up, (some good photos here)  and I start a slow descent to 4500, then continue down, once I’m over the range, to 2500.  YAY, I made it and the nose is still pointing towards Redcliffe.  Make my 10 mile in bound and drop down to 1500 just to ensure the Controlled Airspace won’t be broken.  Rejoin the circuit for 07 and land….WOO HOO my first solo cross country, with little error AND I didn’t get lost!!!!!!  Well LITTLE error might not be too accurate -  I park SPQ next to the hangar and start cleaning it up, gather my maps etc, taking down the figures and am about to dip the tanks when Brad comes out and says, “As soon as you are finished you need to call Flightwatch, they have already called looking for you”  EEEKKKKKKK!!!! Oh dear!, when we planned the Flightwatch form we calculated the departure time as 1000 and I actually left at 1030 which put me 30 mins behind AND we should have added another hour to the return time.  So I quickly finish off and run into the office and ring them and cancel the flightwatch..phew!!!  Very comforting to know that they are so on the ball though!! Think I’ll stick to the map organization system I tried this time ….for now anyways!!!!  This map system is now christened Map Origami and you can read about my system, and the ones that preceded it, here. All in all this has been a great day, I learnt LOTS, had LOTS of fun and most of all I think I did well at my first solo NAV!!!!!
 ‘Till next time…NAV5!!!

Wednesday 17th October 2007
HE FLIES, HE FLIES, My Dad that is!!!!!!
Well I STILL don’t believe this, but my dad rang me tonight and told me that he has to go to Birdsville to help my uncle drive back to Brisbane….how’s he getting there…..WOW!!!! he’s flying with MacAir!!!!!  I've written at length about my Dad and (not) flying, read the full story here. He is actually getting in a plane, probably a SAAB 320 or a Swearinger Metro, and flying, ummm as a passenger of course, how cool is that??  I told him “Well now you’ll have no excuses not to come up in a 172 hee hee!!” his response is “Let’s just see how I go on this first”, anyway what I though would never happen, will happen tomorrow!!!  *HUMPH* I really wanted to be the one who got him up there….oh well at least he will finally fly!!

Saturday 13th October 2007
NAV4 …. I’m NOT superstitious BUT today is the 13th!!!

This mornings weather is looking great!!  After reading the TAF's there is a bit of wind around, but, all should be good, I worked out there maybe a 4-6Kt cross wind at Wondai, that's no big deal.  Breakfast, coffee, say bye to DG grab my bag, HEADSET and Sunnies, and off to the club.  Get there at about 0730 and all of the planes are already out on the tarmac, and my plane for the day, VH-MSJ is out there as well. I go in and sit down and finalise my plan to hand to Kelly.  We go over it and find a few minor mistakes, so I head for a briefing room to fix these up and finalise the plan.  Then Andrew walks in and says, I'll check it over if you want, "Yeah OK that'd be great" I reply.  One more minor adjustment and all is good.  THEN, just what I didn;t want to hear, for the second time in a row with MSJ booked it appears that there is a problem with the battery.  Andrew and Mal go out to talk to one of the LAME's (Licenesed Aircraft Maitneance Engineers) from  Flinders Aviation, and the hand start it, PHEW, it goes!!! YAY, UH OH, Andrew shuts MSJ down after only about 3 minutes of running.....could it be....Andrew and Mal make their way back to the club house and break the bad news, the Alternator appears to be kaput (ha ha that technical LAME speak) so unfortunately today is off......NNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooo was it because it is the 13th!!!/?? Don't be stupid!!!!!!!!!!! Oh well what can you do?  I go back to the breifing room and pack up my things and talk to Kelly about what planes are available next week, "Hey you have a plane already booked!!" OH YEAH I was going to take DG for a local flight, and UMMM i think i was supposed to cancel that one, phew lucky!!  So we swap out my booking across to WHAT MSJ??? "It will be fixed by then"  OOHHHH NNOO hopefully it will be, the next plane I can get isn't until the 4th of NEXT MONTH!!!!  Oh well we will see if next week is the week for NAV4 Solo cross country....*sniff*sniff* where's a hanky?  No no, i think I beer would be better!!!!

Tuesday 9th October 2007
NAV4 .... Brief

OK, I have a day off from work to the aero club to have the NAV4 brief with Kelly. On my arrival, one of the Navy choppers is doing some test flights after some maintenance, awesome stuff to see!!! Last night I had drawn up all of the flight details, marked the route on the maps, started my flight plan and fuel log and had the flightwatch form drawn up.  So I presented them all to Kelly who went over them and said "Well now all you need is the weather on the day and you'll be right" COOL, so my plan is good, "Looks like the weather is going to be good for Saturday as well" Kelly adds, THIS IS GOING TO BE GREAT!!!!  We go over the route leg by leg and Kelly asks me what I'm looking out for and what frequencies I need in these areas and adds a few suggestions that I might try along the way.  "AND if it is blowing a horrendous cross-wind at Wondai have a go, but if you don't like it try a landing at Kingaroy", OK that’s a great plan, I would hate to do my first cross country solo and not land somewhere!!  Anyway that's that,  now just a few more sleeps and I'll be off on my own!!!!! 

Sunday 7th October 2007
NAV3…. With Thunderstorms and Rain on the forecast…will we go???!!!!
>> To NAV 3 Photo Gallery

On checking the NAIPS TAF first up, I found the forecast telling me that there thunderstorms predicted, oh dear, AND they are between 2:00pm and 4:00pm, AND within the Oakey Terminal area..EKKKKK!!!!  That’s right in my flight time and on my destination!!!  Well I’ll wait to see if it changes by the time I go to the Club, so I gather up everything, DG wishes me a great flight and off I go to Redcliffe to see if NAV3 is all go!

Arrive at the club and Mal (today’s instructor) is out on a training flight still, so I go over the plan again.  Oh dear, I have left my headset at home (read my Tips to see why this is never a good idea).  Mal returns “Ready to go?”, “Just got the weather to finalise”….”Well, it won’t get itself done mate”  Oh yeah D’OH, I should have done the weather as soon as I got here, but I thought I would wait until the last possible minute.  Printed out the TAF and… Oh dear….. STILL thunderstorms predicted, and rain.  OK finalise the flight plane and fuel log now that I have wind info, and fax off the flight notification to Flightwatch.   Mal is a bit concerned about the weather report, “Well we can poke our heads over the range and see what it’s like, if it’s bad we can turn around and come home”,  “Yep….let’s do that” I said.  Grab a hire headset (after this flight I will NEVER forget my headset again….EVER!!) and go out to pre-flight RAQ, this is the newest 172SP at Redcliffe.  Taxied over and fueled her up. Soon after Mal arrives and we make a start.

Taxied to runway 07, finished run checks and input the radio frequencies I would need on the first leg.  Off we go!!!  Make departing call on downwind and take up our heading, while staying under controlled airspace.  Now the winds are a bit different to the forecast, and I used the wrong height wind for the first leg, so we are off course by the 15 NM mark, but I quickly realize this and do a quick 1 in 60 calculation (and a slight guess on top) and correct the heading to get us back on track.  AND IT WORKED, as we clear the range we are pointing the nose directly at Esk township…YAY!!! 

Overhead Esk we turn onto the next heading to take us to Oakey, on listening to the Oakey ATIS we find that Oakey is de-active, which means the tower is not manned.  Part of the purpose of this flight is to introduce me to Controlled airspace and clearances etc.  SO we won’t be doing this today, oh well, so Mal suggests that we do a touch and go at Oakey, OK then…”Hey, what’s that coming up on our port side” I ask myself,  WOW!!! A wedge tailed eagle, just gliding around at….5500 feet  WOW!!!!!  We approach Oakey and make CTAFr calls inbound to let the KingAir waiting to take off, and other surrounding traffic, know our intentions.  Touch and Go done, and we are back in the air to overfly the airfield and head for Kingaroy.
 
All goes well, track is good and we make Kingaroy. Ground speed check shows us that 95 Kts is the speed that we are averaging on this leg (RAQ’s Cruise is 115 Kts), so we are a little slow due to the head wind.  Closer to Kingaroy, after fixing my hire headset up after it slipped off the back of my head, we make an over flying call and start to hear gliders making calls. Spotting gliders is hard because they a long and thin!!  Spot one, opps two, all good we keep an eye on them and keep tracking until we are over head the Kingaroy strip.  Turn to our new heading for Gayndah, then Mal gets me to don the IFR hood for some IFR flying.  For the next 20 mins I run through the instrument scans, trying to stay level, at altitude and on course…..PHEW!!!!!  Mal then gets me to take the hood off and informs me that he set the DG 10 degrees out so now I’m “lost”. We run through the lost procedure, slow down and circle and try to ascertain where we are.  I fix our position as over head Wondai….mmmmm… think I may have been here before ha ha!!!  Right now Mal gets us to perform a diversion, so instead of going to Gayndah and then Maroochy we are going direct to Maroochy from Wondai.  Draw a new line on the map, while flying (wow!!)  and add the 10 mile markers, reassess the fuel and ETA.  As we head for Nambour the smoke haze makes seeing the coast line hard.  Mal explains how to call Flightwatch and what to say regarding amending our flight plan with them.  So I call Flightwatch and let them know. Next, overhead Nambour we make our call to Maroochy Tower and request airways clearance. I have to read back any airways clearances that the tower give ( I have to work on this a bit) so work here is a bit more of a load. I responded and obeyed, while keeping a good look out, and flying the plane.  We land into a 17 Kt gusting headwind and taxi off to the GA parking.  We shut down and have a bite to eat and stretch our legs after nearly 3 hours flying!!!!  I get a few photos of RAQ at Maroochy, we recheck the tanks and startup, THEN in front of us a Cessna Float plane that has just landed and is taxing to the GA area looses right-hand brakes and is blocking the taxiway.  We get taxi clearance straight down the GA tarmac, run-up and then go to hold and call “Ready” to the tower.  “Clear to take off, turn right” …cool, of we go on the home leg.  Climb to 500 and turn right, then we settle into a climb and give the tower our departure report, they come back with “report when clear of airways”.  Five mins later we report that we are clear, and off we go home, “If you get lost from here I’m gunna have to slap you” Mal smiles at me…ha ha, “if we get lost from here Mal, I’LL SLAP ME TOO!!!”   We fly along Bribie Island and rejoin for Redcliffe, into a EEEEEKKKKKKK horrendous cross wind. With a small bit of assistance from Mal we land on 07 and taxi back to the hangars to park RAQ.  “All good mate!!” Mal informs me, then he leaves me to lock RAQ up and take down all of the numbers and remaining fuel figures and I rejoin him in the Training rooms.  I fill out my logbook this time and correct it from last week as well.  Mal gives me a quick post-brief, informing all was well and I’m signed of to go on…GULP..MY SOLO NAV ….EEKKK!! next week on Saturday 13th …WOT THA!!??!! The 13th !!!! UH OH!!!

Saturday 29th September 2007
NAV 3 Brief for Oakey and Maroochydore
Yay,  its the weekend, no flying, BUT, this morning I have the NAV 3 brief for next week’s flight!  I have already marked out the route (see the 3rd Cross Country photo gallery for the route) on all of the maps and started the flight log.  The route will take me to Oakey Airbase west of Brisbane, and then up to Gayndah to turn and track to Maroochydore to land there and then back to good ol’ Redcliffe.  All up, approximately 3.5 hrs flight time, in …RAQ (haven’t been in RAQ for AGES!!), with Mal (definitely this time) as my instructor.  Today’s instructor for the brief is Sean, whom I had for my first precautionary search and landing flight, which seems ages ago.  “Wow, you’re up to cross-country’s now”, Sean (and I) are amazed how fast time has traveled; last time we flew together I didn’t even have GFPT!!!!  Anyway, we all pull the planes out of the hanger and then Sean and I are off to the briefing room to go over this NAV.  We run through the 2 new parts, Controlled air space and Class D airspace, because next week we will be in the mix with Commercial Jets, Helicopters and Military Hardware… EEKKK!!!!!  So there are a few new radio and flight procedures to learn and look over again and again over the next week.  In the brief, we look over the new radio call procedures, arrival and departure for both Oakey (YBOK) and Maroochydore (YBMC). Both of these airports have a few additional procedures than those I learnt from landing at Archerfield, so we are building up the skills..YAY!!  ALSO…GULP…this is the flight that I am judged on to see if the instructors reckon I’m ready to …..GULP….fly my first SOLO NAV….EEKKK….!!!  So Mal will be scrutinizing my departure from Redcliffe and awareness of controlled airspace on the way out and then the same on the way back into Redcliffe.  NAV 3 flight coming up Sunday 7 October, stand-by!!!!

Sunday 23rd September 2007
NAV 2 ….. Tenterfield here we come!!!!
>> To NAV 2 Photo Gallery

The weather yesterday (Saturday) was particularly unsettled, late storms, rain high winds, so it started to look like NAV 2 was going to be postponed.  Even when I woke up this morning it was not looking good, I checked the TAF on NAIPS and it looked slim but …hopeful. 

So I packed everything up in my bag and shot off to the club, the weather was actually getting better from the time I woke up until now and the cloud was breaking up and blue sky was appearing…YAY!!!  I am nice and early so I check-out the planes that are there, COOL!! A straight backed 172, see my planes gallery for a photo of this!!!! NEATO!!  Change of instructors, Leigh is flying with me today, and the plane is MSJ the 172N, the oldest 172 in the Redcliffe fleet. Leigh and I went over the TAF (which had changed again!!) and all looked good to go for NAV 2!!!!  So after printing out the TAF, I went to a briefing room and sat down to finalise the fuel calculations and anticipated ground speeds and tracks for today, in Variable 15Kt winds.  UH OH, near disaster!!!!!  MSJ was going off to do circuits with another student before my flight, when the pilot came back in and said, “Looks like MSJ’s battery is dead!!!”….EEEEKKKKKK, NOOOOOoooo we aren’t allowed to have a failure THIS CLOSE TO GOING!!!!!  Leigh went out and got her going, and all looked good after her circuits….PHEW!  OK so Leigh and I checked over all of my fuel calculations, headings and tracks and ran through with me the procedures for getting in and out of YBAF (Archerfield).  “You go and pre-flight the plane and I’ll meet you at the bowser”, KEWL off to pre-flight MSJ.  After pre-flight and organizing my Maps, ERSA, Whiz wheel, pens etc, “CLEAR PROP!!!” and taxied over to the bowser (she started!!! That’s a relief!!)  Topped the tanks and did the fuel drain, checked we had an extra oil bottle in the back.  Off we go, and, hey, the weather has really gotten its act together too, mostly clear skies ahead.  We track over lake Sampson, WOW, is the water level low here or what?  Turned and headed for the Mt Cootha TV Towers and beyond that Archerfield!!  I made the inbound call when we were abeam the Towers, see this is easy HEE HEE!!  OOOPPss maybe spoke too soon, when we were overhear the Jindalee bridge Archer Tower gave us clearance to turn and join for upwind 10L, “Have you got Seneca (a Piper twin) traffic on final sighted?”, ummm nope, EEKK where is he???, “Traffic not sighted, MSJ” I quickly called back, then we were sent around for a circuit following another 172 and we were number 2 in line….PHEW now the traffic is easier to see!!!  Felt funny not making “Turning Downwind” “Turning Base” etc calls.  Remembered the “M” (mixture rich) in my pre-landing checks this time and to turn on AND off the carby heat (something SPQ and RAQ don’t have).  Landed well and taxied to the old terminal building and parked.  Stopped and we reorganized maps and paper work for the long leg to Tenterfield.  “Nice and busy for your first entry to Archerfield, but well handled” Leigh gives me a vote of confidence.  KEWL!!  Caught some great photos of the ex-Canadian Firebomber Invader on the tarmac (see my Planes Spotted Gallery!) Quick tank dip and restart the fuel log, startup, and taxi down to 10R, “Archer tower MSJ Ready, south east departure” “Cleared for take off 10R, MSJ”  Yay off we go, remembering not to stray over to the other active runway, keep a good look out, turn onto our new heading at 500 and then climb and remain at 1000 until we are clear of Archer Control AND still do all of the checks that have been ground into my psyche.  PHEW, but then this all adds to the excitement of flying, seeing other places and going through other procedures. 

OK, over head Logan Village and turn onto new track, bound for Tenterfield!!!  I had planned to fly this leg at 6500 ft, but cloud (which I’m not allowed to fly through) kept us between 4500 and 5500 for the whole leg.  And I must say, from the air, this is awesome countryside, massive granite mountains just appear in front….HEY!!!! stop looking at the scenery and keep doing your checks…hee hee.  Here’s an interesting bit, just to the east of Wallangarra there is a Danger zone (explosives demolition area), designated R640A. So we have to call Flightwatch and confirm whether R640A is active or not, which it is not today.….AWESOME!!  We are blown about 2 Nautical miles off our intended course, no biggy, we perform our 1 in 60 rule and correct our heading to re-meet our proper track. With Bald Mtn in sight, I fix our position, we are STILL to the right of our track but not real far out, then just about on time (by my planned eta) I spot the Tenterfield airfield, YAY!!!!!  Overfly and check the wind sock and decide on runway 08, make CTAFr radio calls just like Redcliffe. Now for the fun bit, with such an undulating grass runway we land and takeoff again and land again and takeoff again and finally land (quite nicely if I say so myself). Andrew and Leigh both told me this would happen on this runway! We pull up and shutdown in the parking area and Leigh and I have lunch and discuss how quiet is was there. It is amazing, there wasn’t a sound, not a car, plane animal noise….nothing!!!  I took a few photos for posterity, finished lunch and pre-flighted MSJ for the trip home. See my Nav 2 Gallery for all my photos from this trip. Re-start my fuel log, and off we go, this time off from runway 26, the wind really is variable today!  Over fly the field and head north for Toowoomba, via our abeam point Warwick.  All good on this leg and we do a ground speed check and work out we have a quite good tailwind!!  Leigh asking me at various points “What town is that?” just to make sure that I’m able to determine where I am, (got one wrong, it was Allora not Hendon..D'OH!) and taking what he tells me about knowing exactly where you are on board for the future.

Toowoomba comes up a bit early but we had revised our estimate and we are looking good, make our call to let the traffic know we are overflying and keep heading for the Toowoomba airfield our next turning point. Another call overflying and changing track for Esk, our last way-point for the trip.  This leg we have to really keep in mind the Controlled Airspace coming up in front of us, so we start a slow descent from 4500 to 3500 to stay under this.  Esk coming up and turn for home over head, WOW!!!!!  Wivenhoe dam is like a river instead of an expanse of water. I’ll get a photo of this on NAV 3 (we fly back this way on that).  Clouds starting to come in but they won’t affect us, but WOW does the cockpit temp change from a nice sun drench warmth to icy cold as soon as we are under the clouds…brrrr, and I took my jacket off at Tenterfield.  As we clear the ranges Redcliffe comes into view in the distance, “So we just fly visual from here” Leigh informs me, so maps between the seat after rechecking the fuel logs, Controlled airspace restrictions and HEAD HOME at 1500 ft!!!  Funny, flying is so awsome but as soon as you see the home airfield you go “Phew can’t wait to get there now”  that’s weird!!  Anyway, we had listened in to Redcliffe’s radio calls and we already know it’s runway 07 for landing.  Fly over to the dead side to join cross wind 07, fly the circuit and land in a slight cross wind, the worst landing of the day AND on my home field ..D’OH!  OOPs forgot to turn the carby heat off!!!  Taxi back and park good ol’ MSJ beside the hanger and shut down.  Back in side for a post brief, “All that was good” Leigh informs me, he was very happy with the radio calls and my work cycles, need to tidy up my maps a little (they are ungainly things) and just keep a very real awareness of Controlled airspace.  This is all good, I’ll work on that for NAV 3!!  BUT at the end of the day WHAT FUN!!!!  Whoops forgot to fill out my logbook….mental note to self….ummm…nope that won’t work way too much stuff in there, hee hee!! Better put a reminder in my phone to do this on Saturday.  Now the next break isn’t so long, NAV 3 Brief is coming up, sooooooooooooooooooo I had better go and hit the books, ummm, I mean maps, to get ready for that, destination….Oakey airbase AND Maroochy Airport!!!!

Saturday 15th September 2007
NAV 2 ….. Tenterfield Pre-flight Brief

Sigh…today was the first time I have been to the Aero club in 3 WEEKS!!!!!!!!!!!!  The break nearly killed me..LOL!!!!!  AND I won’t be flying either, as today is the pre-flight brief for NAV 2. Destination…..Tenterfield, New South Wales. Nav 2 is the longest of the NAV’s at around 4 hours if you fly in one of the newer 172’s like SPQ or RAQ. But, in a change of fortune, I will not be flying in either of these! For a change I will be flying in ….MSJ, the 172N (not SPQ!),a photo of MSJ is included here. It’s a bit slower than SPQ or RAQ, about 10Kts slower so that adds to the time on this flight.  I had already marked the route on all the charts (here is the Google map version of the Tenterfield route for you) during my “break” and checked over the restricted areas, planning height, AND the GAAPs (General Aviation Airport Procedures) for Archerfield. Archerfield will be my first GAAP airport landing….lots of planes, have to talk to the tower and get clearances etc.  Andrew is my instructor today, we go over the flight plan that I had prepared, “all looks good on your track to Tenterfield” …neato, then we discuss landing and departure at Acherfield, “They like to be called Archer Tower and not Archerfield Tower” Andrews informs me, mmmm, will they correct me? … make me wait??, if I say Archerfield????  Well… we won’t push our luck, “Looks like you have read up the VFR Archerfield guide, keep reading that and try and get all of the procedures down in your head, we (the instructors)  will help you through this one, but if you can go in and out without instruction we would be stoked!!”  RIGHT that’s the main aim of this game then!!!  My personal goal will be to try and get the procedures down pat for Archerfield and get in and out!!  OK, next my pre-flight fuel log, I worked out that we would have to refuel at Tenterfield. WRONG.  I will have to re-do the log this week at home, I added the flight distance and not the flight times into the log, oh well, it’ll be right next week when Mal does my final check over.  OH by the way Andrew is only doing the brief, I’m flying this one next week with Mal, “I seem to do all the briefs for your cross-country flights, one of these days I’ll have to fly one with you” Andrew said.  Hopefully soon mate!

Sunday 19th August 2007
NAV 1….Washed out!!!!
Well no flying last weekend, BUT I had MSJ booked for last Wednesday to take DG and her mum (see dad she’ll go flying!!! See here for full story about my dad and flying) for a flight around the Glass House Mountains…but alas…. High wind and rain put a stop to that fun.
So I was really looking forward to today for two reasons, One, to JUST GO FLYING and Two, it was to be my first flight cross-country.  The forecast wasn’t looking very good, light rain to the south, and forecast to heavier rain later today.  Oh well, that may not affect my northern flight plans (hopeful grin), so off we went to the aero club.  DG came down to take some shots before this first Nav flight, “Hey look they have a guy cleaning the windscreens!” DG pointed out.  Hey look at that, and where was he two weekends ago when SPQ had a bug splattered screen?  DG went home without any photos, as it looked like nothing was going to happen, flying-wise today, BUT, there is always…ummm hope…yeah that’s it hope,  HA HA.  New instructor today, Brad, he and I ran through my finalized planning and answered my outstanding questions.  We rechecked the weather forecast, “We will be able to get out there but probably won’t get back” Brad’s assessment of the weather situation and forecast wasn’t good.  So we went outside and checked the bleak grey skies, “Not boding well huh?” I asked, “Nope”, ARRRGHH stupid weather. Then it came….rain…. now I know and acknowledge we are in a very bad drought, BUT hey, of all the days for Mother Nature to pick to try and break the drought.  WHY NOT TOMORROW just one more day PPPLLLEEEZZZEE??!!! The answer…NO!!!  Well with no more questions on the Nav planning, Brad and I rechecked my future bookings and I packed up my maps, flight plan, whiz wheel, lunch box (DG made sure I had light refreshments to take) and bag, sighed, said good-bye to the guys at the club, walked outside to see SPQ sitting, dripping with rain, sighed again (today’s nav was to be another first for SPQ and I).  Rang DG to tell her I’m on my way and didn’t get to go, and drove home….cursing the weather….as Douglas Bader once said “Bad show what?!” Well, next weekend I’m on the standby list for a plane (heavy bookings) so it may be another 2 weeks until my first Nav flight! 
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Friday 10 August, 2007
No flying this weekend
Well, HRMPH!!!  No flying this weekend, so I have to look forward to next weekend to get my fix, when I do my first cross-country flight in SPQ.