New Years day flight to PPKA and back in the Foxy

[alf jessup]

Morning all,

 

Looks like a few of us did a new years day flight today.

 

Doc and I flew in the LSA Foxbat from Wsl to Ppka and back this morning and it was a beautiful flight.

 

Out at the aerodrome at West Sale at 6:15 to pull the bird out the hanger, top up the tanks and a thorough preflight complete we were off departing overhead the field at 07:00 on the knocker for our 82nm flight to Porepunkah and back just for the hell of it.

 

We commenced a cruise climb of 70kts indicated all the way to our 8500 agl and flew in silky smooth air as we watched the majestic great divide pass beneath our wings at a gs of 103kts once at altitude

 

We commenced a slow decent from our cruising altitute about 15nm out from PPKA, and slid off to our right to overfly Bright township before heading to the field and landing on 18 at PPKA exactly 1 hr from departing home base.

 

Greg and Rosemary Withers (Bright Micro Flights) were our only inhabitants at the airfield this fine morning and kindly offered us a coffee while we chewed the fat so to speak while Greg waited for a customer who booked a flight.

 

Doc and i commented on how nice the flight over was and how spectacular the scenery is with all these hidden valleys along the route giving you an out so to speak if the trusty 40hr old rotax & shagbat decided to cause us some grief.

 

We waited until our trike instructor Steve Ruffels rocked up and wished him and the family all the best for the up coming year and decided to make a move back home before the heat in the day started to build.

 

We departed 36 at 09:20 and direct tracked back to WSL once again enjoying the view from this mighty and capable little airplane, 30nm out from Wsl and still over the hills I started a slow letdow from our cruising altitude with a smooth ride all the way back until the last 10nm from home at 1000 agl where we copped athe odd bump or two from the thermal activity starting to build.

 

Inbound calls made joining overhead for 09 we landed 1 hr and 8 mins after departing PPKA and capped off a beautiful start to 2012.

 

Footnote:

 

Pretty sad isn't it that you can take off at 7am fly to Porepunkah and land, spend an 1hr 20 on the ground and catch up with friends and fly back home all in the time that if we drove and left at the same time we did we would have only been at Mt Hotham on our way up. (flying just rocks and I just love rocking the skies)

 

Cheers

 

Alf

 

 

[HeadInTheClouds]

Sounds fun! What power setting were you using to get 103kts out of the Foxbat? Or was there a nice tailwind helping you along?

 

 

[kaz3g]

Morning all,Footnote:

 

Pretty sad isn't it that you can take off at 7am fly to Porepunkah and land, spend an 1hr 20 on the ground and catch up with friends and fly back home all in the time that if we drove and left at the same time we did we would have only been at Mt Hotham on our way up. (flying just rocks and I just love rocking the skies)

 

Cheers

 

Alf

Hey Alf

 

Sounds like a wonderful flight was had by all. I took a run down to LTV yesterday in company with a mate and his son in their C172 and it was beautifully still down there. Had a couple of snags for lunch and then headed back againtaking off into a slight SE breeze.

 

The northerly was blowing back at home and there were a few bumps about but nothing violent. I gather it was a lot rougher heading north over the Divide.

 

kaz

 

 

[alf jessup]

Hi Jake,

 

We were running at 5000rpm at cruise indicating about 90kts, considering the forecast for winds aloft were supposed to be NW at 15kts and heading over we were flying true Nth then NW i think they may have got it wrong but we didnt complain with the tailwind component.

 

Tooks us about 13 minutes longer coming back due to the slight headwind component but we tracked direct from PPKA to WSL, going over we tracked Nth from WSL just west of the Dargo valley and turned NW then direct for Mt Buffalo then 5 miles out we turned right and did a circut over Bright then back to PPKA.

 

Kaz,

 

Glad you enjoyed your flight down to LTV and the snags.

 

Where is home base for you?

 

You want to pop down to WSL next time RAAF base is deactivated until about the 17th of Jan and never on the weekends the rest of the year, only 24 nm further on mate and a nice little cafe on the eastern tarmac with awesome cuppachinos.

 

Cheers

 

Alf