Wagga Aero Club's Twilight Flight last night

[Captain]

Yesterday evening, Wagga Aero Club organised a twilight flight before their BBQ.

 

And what a great and simple event it was.

 

Briefing & a chat outside someone's hangar at 05.30 pm, then about 8 aircraft of all types from a Siris, to an RV6, a few Pipers, a 182, my 230 and ahlocks's SportStar all departed YSWG to join the Murrumbidgee at Oura, then along the river to Wantabadgery at 500 ft AGL, then a left turn & climb to 2500 to Junee Jail for another left turn for Downside to join a right downwind for a missed approach on 02 at Federation, then a left hand climbing turn to 2000 ft for Wagga Racecourse, then follow the river again to over fly Lake Albert and join downwind for 23 at YSWG.

 

Great fun, not hard to organise but still well thought out, a good social occasion ..... and a great reminder of how enjoyable this caper really is when brought back to basics.

 

Highly recommended.

 

 

[markendee]

How good is that! This is what the whole thing is about.

 

Mark

 

 

[ahlocks]

Brought the GPS home do to a firmware update afterwards, so I've downloaded my track. (Being a lazy bastard and prone to cheating, I did take some liberties with the lie of the river.)

 

[ATTACH]9277.vB[/ATTACH]

 

The white line is the approximate ten mile straight in approach path for 23 and guess who was going to be right in the way of an inbound RPT. So, seeing as how I'm allergic to SAAB enemas, I overshot the turn at Wantabadgery and kept tracking overhead the river until the RPT called established at ten miles. (Thought he was sounding a bit grumpy about all the traffic on the CTAF too.)

 

Turned Nth West at Mundarlo Bridge and then climbed to 2500 for the run to the Junee Hilton.

 

[ATTACH]9279.vB[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]9280.vB[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]9281.vB[/ATTACH]

 

(Taken on previous runs out that way)

 

Thought about taking a couple of short cuts as the chatter on CTAF started to include the front runners entering the circuit back at WGA....170 knot posers..."Nah bugger it!" Decided I'd keep slogging along, as I could hear a RAT in plastic up ahead somewhere and he'd probably catch me out and dob me in.

 

The countryside has certainly dried off in the last few weeks and it certainly was a tad warm under the plastic bubble. The aforementioned RAT, with his tricked out Jabarooter, told me that the OAT was 32 degrees at 2500 according to his dashboard TV. And there I was thinking that there was something wrong with the beer can's air conditioning.

 

Getting back to the CTAF chatter. It was as funny as with a couple of the go fasts trying to figure out just who was downwind Federation at the same time and who wasn't. Kinda glad I was the tail end charlie.

 

The Junee to Wagga leg at 2000ft included an approach and right hand circuit onto 02 at Federation with a missed approach and then south to overhead Wagga city. All pretty straight forward until I remembered that I hadn’t done a right hand circuit since, ummm,...never that I can recall....

 

All good though. Climb out and track to Lake Albert via overhead the city and then on to the airport. Simple aye? Wrong! The RPT wanted to depart for Sydney.

 

The last couple of the aeroclub guys and El Ratto were either in or entering the Wagga circuit and I was overhead the city about 8 miles to the west. They got in OK after sorting separation out with the SAAB, but I wussed out, diverted and held over the north of town while the SAAB backtracked and lined up, then track inbound for midfield crosswind as the SAAB climbed out.

 

[ATTACH]9283.vB[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]9284.vB[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]9282.vB[/ATTACH]

 

Must be something I like about midfield joins as the GPS tracks usually show nice tight and square circuits when I do join that way. Not yesterday though. One of the Bank runners wanted to get away for Bankstown off 05. Not a problem. Slowed down, tracked a bit wider and extended downwind so he could get away. A bit embarrassing that dogleg on the downwind track though.

 

All up. A great way to spend an hour in the air.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tracktop]

Thanks for sharing :thumb_up:

 

 

[Captain]

All up. A great way to spend an hour in the air. (gotta go again. Will dredge up some piccies later)

Nice post Steve.

 

 

[ahlocks]

Hey Geoff,

 

Is the rumour that you and the two cirrus jockeys were having a video conference while enroute true?

 

Cheers!

 

P.S. Tubz needs a smackin' around in NES too.

 

He's taking liberties with the truth.....again!

 

 

[winsor68]

Twighlight flight? Does this involve getting dressed up as Vampires and flying around the circuit?

 

Sorry...this is an insider joke for those of us with teenagers in the house...

 

 

[ahlocks]

Nah, having to wear Hi-Vis cloaks spoils the asthetics.....

 

 

[Captain]

Hey Geoff,Is the rumour that you and the two cirrus jockeys were having a video conference while enroute true?

Cheers!

 

P.S. Tubz needs a smackin' around in NES too.

 

He's taking liberties with the truth.....again!

 

That was the plan, Goldie, but the video units were incompatible, as Cirrus are set up for Nintendo and the unit in my 230 is PlayStation based. (That doesn't mean that I had to play with myself though).

 

PS The TurboBangholmeBanger needs a kicking almost constantly these days.

 

 

[turboplanner]

Turbobangholmebanger has been overcome with emotion listening to the pre-Christmas (it won't last) cameraderie ozzing out of the cracks of Wagga Wagga.

 

Just remember though it was NSW which was colonised by convicts.

 

I must admit though, it sounded like one of those magic moments that only comes now and again.