RA-Aus Maintenance Workshop at Bairnsdale

[Guest PeterW]

I attended the latest RA-Aus Line Maintenance workshop on Saturday 13th June which was hosted by Bairnsdale Aero Club. I had been keen to go when I first heard about it but I was still doing my Cross Country Endorsement but booked a plane anyway in the hope that I would have my training complete. I finally passed my endorsement a few weeks ago after quite a few cancellations due to bad weather, so I was pleased that I would get to go and it would be my first excursion as pilot-in-command.

 

 

Two aircraft from the Tooradin Flying School’s fleet of four Jabiru’s had been booked for the Maintenance Workshop, with two other Tooradin Flyers taking one plane and myself and a friend from Geelong in the other. The day before (Friday), I received a call to say that two of the Jabiru’s were temporarily out of action and because we had the other two booked there were none left for training on the Saturday. My instructor who called me asked if I would be able to take his own plane, a Texan Top Class which would leave a Jabiru for training. I jumped at the opportunity as this is a very nice plane to fly.

 

 

We were all watching the weather reports on the Friday night which were not good and none of us knew whether we would be able to do the trip until we got down to the airfield early on Saturday morning. After a windy night and a wet trip up from Geelong for my passenger, we were surprised how calm and dry it was at Tooradin and certainly it appeared the trip to Bairnsdale would be good but there was still a possibility of patchy rain on the return trip.

 

 

We did the longer route first, flying from Tooradin to Foster to the start of VFR Route Three, up the Ninety Mile beach and then to Bairnsdale once we reached Loch Sport. The scenery was fantastic, the flying mostly smooth and the cloud was high which enabled us to fly at our planned altitude.

 

 

We arrived for the training right on starting time but were still able to grab a nice hot cuppa before getting into it which was nice considering how cold the morning was.

 

 

The training covered Level 1 Maintenance and included what you can and cannot do, safety, general maintenance, engine maintenance and airframe maintenance and we also had a rundown over an actual aircraft to look for corrosion, cracking etc. I am sure many have already done the workshops and from reading the RA-Aus magazine article regarding feedback on the workshops, we agreed also that it would be nice for more hands on stuff and I notice RA-Aus are calling for help with parts to be donated. But our presenter, Bill Cain did a great job and the workshop was well worth attending.

 

 

Our hosts, the Bairnsdale Aero Club were terrific and put on a magnificent lunch which was enjoyed by everyone.

 

 

Following the course we departed Bairnsdale and flew North to Lindenow South and followed VFR Route One to Cowwarr then flew onto Latrobe Valley and then to Tooradin.

 

 

The weather held up and it was a great trip back to Tooradin. Overall, it was a fantastic days flying and we all learnt a bit more about Line Maintenance.

 

 

 

 

[Guest OzChris]

Great report Peter - sounds like a great day!!