Starting my Cross Country Endorsement tomorrow

[Nightmare]

Nightmare like your new found knowledge -Now for practical - Lets see how well you hold a heading and height by hands on flying, and no cheating with autopilot, and in turbulence and doing all the maps and radio changes and radio procedures and don't forget to change fuel tanks if in a left or right tank only aircraft, like the "ands".And because we fly for fun I always like the best scenic route with the coast as it has plenty of doglegs blows my PAX away seeing Australia the way we do and not a 45,ooo ft. Inland is fun too. Enjoy your Navs and don't stress.

Thanks SSCBD, but have you seen the cockpit of a Lightwing? The only autopilot is if a qualified pilot sits in the right seat. It's all pretty basic stuff, that's why I love the Lightwings so much I guess. No bells or whistles, just pure flying. The fuel taps are always left on except when shutting down.

Been doing a couple of practice plans to get more familiar with all the processes. But yeah, no stress here. I'm of the firm opinion that like learning the basics, it was hard at first but got easier with practice, navs will be no different. And yes, I'm enjoying it a lot and I haven't gone on my first nav yet!

 

I'm looking forward to stretching my wings and seeing more of our excellent country from under 5000ft, but one step and flight lesson at a time

 

Cheers,

 

Tony

 

 

[ab3198]

Hi tony, did you do you first navex? How did it go? I have just finished my third nav with my instructor on board and will be doing my solo on Sunday. If the weather holds out i will do my theory test and prac test on Wednesday next week. Cheers, Andrew

 

 

[Nightmare]

Hi tony, did you do you first navex? How did it go? I have just finished my third nav with my instructor on board and will be doing my solo on Sunday. If the weather holds out i will do my theory test and prac test on Wednesday next week. Cheers, Andrew

Hi Andrew, Yes, I finally got to go yesterday (Wednesday). I was booked to go on Monday, postponed due to weather for the next day and that one was postponed again due to more bad weather. It was good, however, I did feel a bit overloaded with all the new tasks as well as flying the plane. It's been a little while for me since I've had my instructor in the plane with me, so he was pulling me up on some bad habits that were creeping into my flying. In short, it was a steep learning curve, but a valuable learning experience. I can see myself really enjoying this phase of my flight training. The nav: YBCM - YPWH - YWCK - YBCM

 

But it was real nice to be flying outside the 25nm radius.

 

My next nav, that I've already started the planning for, is YBCM - YGYM - YCDR - YBCM. Hopefully I'll do better, I'm sure I will, it's all starting to come together, I think.

 

All the best for Sunday Andrew, I hope the weather holds for you, and all the best with your test. Let us know how you go.

 

Cheers

 

Tony

 

 

[Nightmare]

Yesterday I completed my 6th Nav YBCM - YTWB - YNAN - YBCM with a diversion to YKCY on the last leg. All came together beautifully. I can confidently say I have the hang of it now. I'm taking the exam this afternoon, and fly my solo nav next week.

 

 

[DGL Fox]

Well done Tony, good luck with your solo... I did some work at Kingaroy a week or so ago and I stopped into the airfield at Nanango on the home, looks very rough when I was there, what was the strip like...

 

David

 

 

[Nightmare]

Well done Tony, good luck with your solo...David

Thanks David, How's your nav training going?

[DGL Fox]

Tony, 2 more to go and then my exam and solo...couple of weeks and I hope to be done as well...

 

David

 

 

[Cal Air 63]

Yesterday I completed my 6th Nav YBCM - YTWB - YNAN - YBCM with a diversion to YKCY on the last leg. All came together beautifully. I can confidently say I have the hang of it now. I'm taking the exam this afternoon, and fly my solo nav next week.

Good Luck Tony

 

Brent

 

 

[Nightmare]

Good Luck Tony Brent

Thanks Brent

Exam passed! Now onto the solo nav...

 

 

[Nightmare]

Well done Tony, good luck with your solo... I did some work at Kingaroy a week or so ago and I stopped into the airfield at Nanango on the home, looks very rough when I was there, what was the strip like...David

It is rough David. It's a great place to practice your short field take offs and landings. It was very bumpy backtracking and taxiing along the runway. Also there's a bit of a hump in the middle, like at YTWB. My landing there at YNAN was not one of my better ones, the approach was good, but it got real gusty in the ground effect. I made up for it on the T&G at Kilcoy and the full stop at Coominya

[Nightmare]

Well, I passed the exam last week, and after 2 postponements due to bad weather, I flew my solo xc today. YBCM-YSPE-YCFN-YBCM. All went very well, couldn't land at Clifton though, the runway was still boggy from all the recent rain, so I just over flew it instead. I really enjoyed the day!

 

I now have a nice new entry under the "Endorsements" page of my log book

 

Time now to see this wonderful country of ours!

 

Tony

 

 

[Robbo]

Well, I passed the exam last week, and after 2 postponements due to bad weather, I flew my solo xc today. YBCM-YSPE-YCFN-YBCM. All went very well, couldn't land at Clifton though, the runway was still boggy from all the recent rain, so I just over flew it instead. I really enjoyed the day!I now have a nice new entry under the "Endorsements" page of my log book

 

Time now to see this wonderful country of ours!

 

Tony

Congrats mate

 

 

[Cal Air 63]

Congrats Tony

 

 

[DGL Fox]

Well done Tony..congrats mate...you can now come over for a chat and a coffee to Redcliffe one day?

 

David

 

 

[Nightmare]

Well done Tony..congrats mate...you can now come over for a chat and a coffee to Redcliffe one day?David

Thanks David, Sounds like an excuse to stretch the wings again. I will do that soon! I'll PM you when I'm good to go, probably within the next 3 weeks.Cheers Tony

 

 

[DrZoos]

Great job,well done.... one bit of advice you can take or dump, keep studying the weather to learn as much as you can about predicting a 1-4 days ahead...

 

I found the XC endorsement good for predicting weather on the day of flight. But to be honest when i go XC now, it is mostly predicting the day or window of return that's the hard bit...if Im on an over nighter or multi day trip..90% of my XC stuff early on was short, but that gets repetitive and so its now much further a field.

 

Clearly you don't fly if it is not safe, but learning to forecast a few days ahead takes a lot of pressure off you and takes a lot of worry out of going away for a night or few. It is the most difficult aspect of xcountry, but the one that can make trips the safest and most enjoyable. It's particularly difficult when we are having higher than average rainfall from La Nina like 2016...once El Nino returns its a bit easier.

 

Accommodation and hire car booking websites that have free cancellation or free no shows have become my tool of choice for some overnighters.

 

High-definition satellite images

 

MetEye

 

Colour Forecast map for next 4 days

 

National Radar Loop

 

Resources - RA-Aus Pilot Practice Exams

 

Australian Weathercam Network

 

 

[Steve G]

In 1981 went flying to Adelaide and without any of todays aids to navigating ended up landing out away from home base and had to ferry home by car and retrieve A/C a few days later.

 

In those days we made out a 225 report because you ended up at an unplanned destination.

 

First and last time I ever did that, never landed out again due bad weather from that day to this.

 

Two weeks ago decided on an ambitious flight from Hamilton to Townsville and after a half an evening of flight planning using OZ-RUNWAYS

 

looking at weather coming (a ridge line) forecast winds, the range and endurance of my 5.5 hour Cherokee, came to conclusion the only way to fly to Townsville was by domestic. As it turned out weather front came through, ridge line went right up through centre to Cairns along with storms and bad weather.

 

Would have burned up $1200 worth of AVGAs landing fees and spent 20 hours in the air pushing weather.

 

Moral to the story, there is none.

 

Hindesite well that's good after the event.

 

Best laid plans of mice and men often go astray.

 

The five Pees about planning don't really apply over this distance.

 

After 1981 event and by 1987 after trying to operate VFR out of an AD sited near the Great Divide which divides weather and climate I went to a Class Three then Class One rating and have been IFR rated some 30 years now.

 

During my flying life have seen pilots push weather to their own demise on countless occasions and I have come across pilots pushing it in IMC when IFR, nothing surprises me anymore stories abound.

 

IMO there is no other way and if you can do a BFR you can do a PIFR rating and that removes many limitations on flying.

 

I plan IFR everywhere except ferry flights to Horsham.