Tell us about your last flight

Peter008 · October 6, 2014

Yesterday I took my wife for a flight out over Bribie Island and Moreton Bay to do a little bit of whale watching off Cape Moreton. Quite an amazing feat really considering my wife has had a lifetime fear of two things, light aircraft and flying/travelling over water.The weather was glorious with hardly a cloud in the sky. We did manage to see one whale and her calf heading south about 500 metres of Cape Moreton but never managed to get a photo of her.

I was visiting my folks on Bribie for the last few days Geoff so I recon I saw you flying over. In fact I was quite surprised at how many small aircraft flew over the island during the time we were there. I won't mention how I just had to walk outside each time I heard a plane engine. Got caught once with an inboard boat engine.......

Stewy · October 6, 2014

Thursday took commercial flight to Bundaberg to pick up my new (second hand ) plane J160. Met the little fella on the tarmac Thursday night and introduced myself as his new owner and gave him a brief run down of what was expected of him :-) The rules were quite simple as I explained to him all that was required was to be sweet running, fun loving none gas guzzling little plane and we would get along just fine! After looking over my new friend and playing with all his fancy buttons on his fancy glass panel I let him have a good nights sleep ready for our first big adventure together.

Awoke Friday morning to calm skies and hoped that my new friend had slept better than me, I must have been a bit excited :-). Got my forecasts etc @ 4.30am and updated flight plane and walked to the airport to see how 24-7019 had slept. Upon arrival I found him raring to go so gave him a good check over and headed to the fuel bowser to fill him up.

One final check of fuel etc and we took to the skies at 6.22am for the 304nm trip to Moree, Nice smooth conditions cruising at 2500 and getting about 110kts with nice tail wind.

Climbed to 4500 over the ranges and some low scattered cloud still maintaining about 110kts with visibility reduced by what looked like smoke haze. Landed in Moree at 9.22am and refueled the tanks and then went and emptied mine and got the cockpit re organised.

Departed Moree for the 170nm trip down to Warren climbing to 4500ft again as we headed over the Piliga scrub and back to about 90 kts as we found a head wind for what would be the rest of the trip home. Started to get a few bumps after Moree as the plains started to heat up but nothing to bad and cruised down to Warren arriving at about 12.00pm for another bladder relief stop and stretch of the legs.

After giving 7019 a pat of encouragement to keep up the good work we departed for the 118nm leg to Lake Cargelligo, with bladder feeling fine at that stage decided to over fly and continue the 107nm to Hay. With the benefit of hind site a stop would have been good as the bladder was we and truly full by Hay :-( Coming into Hay I started to get a low oil pressure alarm on the Dynon which woke me up and took my mind off the full bladder problem that was for sure. Landed in Hay and check had a good look over and could see nothing wrong, trying to check oil I could not get the dip stick to undo due to it being a bit cramped for my hand in the oil inspection lid and the cap being a bit tight due to it being hot. Decided to remove cowl and have a good look just to be sure anyhow and checked oil to find it slightly down so added oil to bring up to the right level.

Departed Hay for the final 80nm leg home to Swan Hill after checking oil pressure alarm was all good and flew the final leg home with no problems. My home being on the flight path in I gave the mandatory fly over to let the kids know dad was back at continued to the airport.

Giving a 3 mile final call for a straight in approach for 22 and lined up to see about 25 planes on the ground for the Antiquers' Spring Flyin I thought shit I hope they are not all watching :-), proceeded to produce a pretty fair landing and me and my new best mate were home.

All in all we spent 10 hours together for the day and had a great flight, could not have asked for better conditions really for the distance traveled.

Here is the GPS data

Duration:

10:02:59

Distance:

1,479.5 km

Minimum Latitude:

35°22'30.37" S

Maximum Latitude:

24°53'31.48" S

Minimum Longitude:

143°32'26.78" E

Maximum Longitude:

152°20'10.25" E

Average Speed:

92.7 knots

Minimum Speed:

43.5 knots

Maximum Speed:

117.7 knots

Average Altitude:

3,343 ft

Minimum Altitude:

7.9 ft

Maximum Altitude:

4,773 ft

It was a long and tiring day but a lot of fun as well

Stewy

aj_richo · October 6, 2014

Saturday 4 Oct 14 took Sonex 19-8213 for its first flight at Callington Airstrip SA, after an 8 year on/off build.

3 circuits and 6-7 landings in warm and moderately windy weather for 32 minutes flight time logged.

Airframe and the Jab 2200 performed well. No 3 CHT was a little high on runup and climbout it got to 180C but lowering the nose got it back to 150C.

Pretty normal for Sonex aircraft, a little work with baffling should fine tune the airflow.

Only 24.5 Hours to go... looking forward to getting out and about!

Will it fly.. ready to go waiting for wind to drop.

Yup.. it did! On final to runway 34

Taxi back in

They call this the "Sonex Grin"

October 6, 2014

Tony

Fantastic and well done!........180degrees! is the engine solid lifter or hydraulic and are the heads the newer fine finned heads or the older thicker ones......if fine finned then 180 is too hot by far according to the L4 I used for my Jab work....what were the other CHT's, and do you have EGT's fitted as well, if so how were they?

Andy

kaz3g · October 7, 2014

Thursday took commercial flight to Bundaberg to pick up my new (second hand ) plane J160. ...Giving a 3 mile final call for a straight in approach for 22 and lined up to see about 25 planes on the ground for the Antiquers' Spring Flyin I thought **** I hope they are not all watching :-), proceeded to produce a pretty fair landing and me and my new best mate were home.

All in all we spent 10 hours together for the day and had a great flight, could not have asked for better conditions really for the distance traveled.

Stewy

So that was YOUR little Jab sitting there?

Congrats on the purchase Stewy...looks nice. Hope you get heaps of enjoyment from it.

Kaz

Stewy · October 7, 2014

Yeh that would be the one around between the hangers

Should provide plenty of fun shame I had other commitments over the weekend would have loved to stayed and looked over all the old planes and mingled on sat arvo

Have to catch up over shep one day

Stewy

kaz3g · October 7, 2014

Does Swan Hill club do a meal on the weekends?

At their price of avgas I'll be back to fill up!

Kaz

Graham Pukallus · October 7, 2014

Attended the Australian Camp Oven Festival at the Millmerran Airfield / Showgrounds as advertised Australia wide and in the Trips and Events section here.

What an outstanding event !

Met up with Mick Scott in his Drifter, just missed the Jabiru that flew in and everyone enjoyed the 95-10 Scale Spitfire flight late Saturday.

Some 6,000 people attended Saturday with the organisers confirmed the same numbers for the Sunday with over 700 caravans were present.

As you would expect the food and selection was excellent, as was the wide and varied entertainment the entire time.

The show ground facilities were great as we're the airfield and terminal hut, right across the fence.

Took the organiser up for a photo shoot on the Sunday who confirmed their interest and support to have a flyin for Aviation / Ultralight Aircraft, possibly in conjunction with the Millmerran Show early in March 2015

Top venue and great support for a future Flyin.

Stewy · October 7, 2014

Not that I know of kaz but you can always give me a call and I will pick you up for the $100 breaky/lunch if you like couple of nice cafés etc in town

Stewy

Graham Pukallus · October 18, 2014

Dunwich Breakie today, great roll up of 30 planes.

Great views as usual and good to catch up with fellow flyers and their partners.

Geoff13 · October 18, 2014

Ahh the beautiful Morton Bay. Can anyone think of a better place to learn to fly.

Geoff13 · October 18, 2014

I flew my first totally free flight on Thursday. I dropped my darling wife at the airport, so she could go and spend a long weekend with the

Grandies in Mildura for number 1 sons birthday. I then went to the airfield and went for my first totally unsupervised free and my choice xcountry flight. I left from Ycab at about 0630 down across the bay islands to the Gold Coast. A circuit of Q1 followed by a quick stop at Heck field, then on via Boonah and Woodenbong to Warwick for a stop, a snack and toilet break then home via Watts Bridge to Caboolture. It really doesn't get much better than that. But wait, tomorrow I have a dawn flight so when the sun comes up I will be there and ready to go.

Cheers Geoff13

Old Koreelah · October 18, 2014

...then on via Boonah and Woodenbong to Warwick...Cheers Geoff13

...that's my home country, Geoff. Proper Yowie country too; I haven't flown over it yet, but hope to one day, after I improve my emergency landing technique.

dazza 38 · October 18, 2014

...that's my home country, Geoff. Proper Yowie country too; I haven't flown over it yet, but hope to one day, after I improve my emergency landing technique.

I fly around that area all the time.

eliassmith02 · October 18, 2014

My last flight was a couple of weeks ago. Took my wife whale spotting over moreton island from redcliffe.

Old Koreelah · October 18, 2014

I fly around that area all the time.

Rotax?

dazza 38 · October 18, 2014

Rotax?

Yes

Keith W · October 21, 2014

After flying my gazelle for awhile took the club 160 jabi up for a few circuits on the weekend, well feel like I should give my pilots certificate back after the bouncy landings, don't realise how quick you lose touch with one type of plane after not having flown it for a while, need more practice, cheers Keith.

Geoff13 · October 21, 2014

...that's my home country, Geoff. Proper Yowie country too; I haven't flown over it yet, but hope to one day, after I improve my emergency landing technique.

I actually felt quite comfortable. As the country below got a bit rougher I went higher. At no stage do I feel that I was unable to glide from where I was to a safe landing spot. Obviously I was aware of what was below and always on the lookout for reasonable outlanding sites. It was really a case of making sure you can identify something ahead of you before leaving the last one behind. There are actually quite a lot of large open areas to be found when you start looking.

Cheers Geoff13

dazza 38 · October 21, 2014

After flying my gazelle for awhile took the club 160 jabi up for a few circuits on the weekend, well feel like I should give my pilots certificate back after the bouncy landings, don't realise how quick you lose touch with one type of plane after not having flown it for a while, need more practice, cheers Keith.

Some aircraft you have to pilot and with some aircraft, all you have to do is baby sit them.

Old Koreelah · October 21, 2014

I actually felt quite comfortable. As the country below got a bit rougher I went higher. At no stage do I feel that I was unable to glide from where I was to a safe landing spot. Obviously I was aware of what was below and always on the lookout for reasonable outlanding sites. It was really a case of making sure you can identify something ahead of you before leaving the last one behind. There are actually quite a lot of large open areas to be found when you start looking.Cheers Geoff13

I know the country around there pretty well, Geoff and close up there are few decent landable spots. To make matters worse, a lot of open farmland has been turned into eucalyptus plantations.

It's spectacularly beautiful country and my life's ambition is to fly over it. First I have to do everything I can to improve engine reliability, shorten my landing roll and reduced drag in case I'm suddenly flying a glider.

SDQDI · October 21, 2014

I know the country around there pretty well, Geoff and close up there are few decent landable spots. To make matters worse, a lot of open farmland has been turned into eucalyptus plantations.It's spectacularly beautiful country and my life's ambition is to fly over it. First I have to do everything I can to improve engine reliability, shorten my landing roll and reduced drag in case I'm suddenly flying a glider.

Don't worry too much about your landing roll OK I hear that eucalyptus plantations reduce your ground roll considerably:sad angel:

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What worries me with flying over that sort of country is the fact that the nice flat clearing you spot from 5000 feet happens to be a 60 degrees sloping hillside! alls well while things keep purring I guess:prop:.

As an afterthought I went up to the tamworth festival of flight on Saturday and it was an awesome show:thumb up: With flying displays from midday till 3 it was beautiful. Quiet a few different types including but not limited to Catalina, Caribou, 3 Pitts, yaks and nanchangs?(not sure I got that right), L39, hawk (from the boys in 73??rd squadron) avenger, wirraway, gyros, a spitfire replica (90%) another jet I can't remember and a few other odds and sods:thumb up:

And to top it all off I got an hour or two myself in the evening nice and slow, Beautiful scenery

DWF · October 21, 2014

..... There are actually quite a lot of large open areas to be found when you start looking.

[Murphy says:] Except when you REALLY need one!

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Old Koreelah · October 21, 2014

[Murphy says:] Except when you REALLY need one!

Google earth lies...

...clearings covered in deep bladeygrass which hides the rocks. Lots of small paddocks (cleared as dairying country) with rusty old fences everywhere. Gee, that sounds a bit negative. Maybe it's great paraglider country...