Robs first fly-in to Natfly.

[Ultralights]

well, my first ever time flying in to Temora, and its has been a great experience, all beginning with the radio chatter apon arrival to the temora circuit. that was an experience i dont want to repeat to many times.

 

well, we departed bankstown and tracked south west to Goulburn then turned west direct to Temora, avoiding all the tiger country, and enjoying the VFR on top of scattered cloud at 8500 ft.

 

 

 

 

my co-pilot

 

 

nothing like smooooth higher level cruising.

 

20 Nm out i changed to Temora CTAF and just listened to all the chatter! amazing! and shocking as well.

 

10 miles out i managed to get an inbound call in, then all went quiet, only a few calls here and there, i started to relax thinking we might get a traffic free arrival! how wrong was i! as we arrived overhead it was a real struggle to get just the minimum required calls in, but we got them in thankfully.

 

 

descending on the dead side to join at circuit height on crosswind

 

 

joining crosswind runway 18

 

 

finally made it to short final

 

 

nice shallow flare

 

 

not to mention the loud impacts of numerous locusts getting smashed into the airframe!

 

finally arrived! YAY..

 

 

tent up, time to relax before getting food and catching up with everyone!

 

 

i was really impressed with the camping facilities, nice and clean and powered as well. not bad for $10.

 

Friday night was great catching up with Slarti, Bluey the fly, Tomo and many others.

 

 

[Ultralights]

Day 2, a beautiful morning, hot showers and a nice bacon and egg roll for breakfast.

 

 

who could that be?

 

spent most of the day looking, drooling and going to seminars, once lunch time rolled around, we wandered back to the tent and decided to check the weather back home, forecast wasn't good, low cloud, rain and cloud on ground at the critical location we needed to cross at Bowral, from 5 pm, and forcast to stay all sunday and monday.

 

after much umming and arring, we made the call to depart early, packed up, loaded up and refuelled with the calculated 70 ltrs required.

 

flight home was a bit bumpy cruising at 5500 below the cloud layer

 

passing Goulburn the cloud level lowered as forcast. sadly to a point where we could no longer continue forward and had to return to Goulburn.

 

 

 

short finals runway 08 Goulburn.... and is that a rough strip or what!

 

 

we were fortunate enough to get a room in goulburn, and returning sat morning proved the forecast correct, low cloud, scattered showers and cloud on ground at Bowral.

 

so now im back in syd less 1 aircraft and a car. hopefully tomorrow will be clear enough to return to goulburn to retrieve the Jabiru, get to bankstown and get me car back. fingers crossed!

 

 

[chrsq]

Ultralights,

 

Wonderful pics and thanks for sharing your trip. This makes me more determined to finish my navs and get myself to a fly-in.

 

chrsq

 

 

[Relfy]

Excellent trip report ultra and great pics. That's what it's all about! :thumb_up:

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

Really great shots Ultra. Is that a phone camera or other ? And thanks for the good look at Goulburn airport. Haven't seen it since the early 70s, when I had my wedding reception in the Aero club there. (first wifey).:thumb_up:....................................................................Maj..

 

 

[Ultralights]

The Final leg home, 24 hrs later.

 

I finally managed to bribe my brother in dropping me back at Goulburn to pick up the Jab we left in the cold the previous day. weather in Syd still didnt look promising, so i repacked the camping gear just in case.

 

driving down we saw a few cessnas passing Bowral below cloud level and still about 500 ft AGL, so that was encouraging, funnily enough soon after passing mittagong, the cloud cleared and revealed a almost clear sky at goulburn.

 

 

Rolling runway 04. into a beautiful smooth sky

 

 

goodbye goulburn.

 

 

Wasnt long before i was at cruise height of 5500, but the cloud ahead was getting lower and darker... pressing on.. fortunatly the route behind back to YGLB would be clear.

 

 

Approaching Bowral/Mittagong gap. i was down to 3500Ft, or 1000 ft AGL, but fortunatly i could see through the gap to the other side, at this point i decided to go IFR, I follow roads, as i dont feel real comfortable flying over heavily wooded terrain or built up areas when there is a perfectly good runway called the Hume Hwy if something should go wrong.

 

 

IFR

 

 

and the view ahead

 

 

fortunatly that was the lowest of the cloud.. yay.

 

A few mins later i was clear of the low level cumulous and into the sydney basin with a cloudbase of 6000ft.

 

 

and safely back home! trip officially complete..

 

 

now for the locust removal washing process.

 

all in all a great trip with pleasant detour overnight n Goulburn where i got to meet Ross on his return from Natfly, and a few others. the guys at Goulburn were very helpful and i am greatful for their assistance and wish them all a very big Thank you! so if its not to much trouble Slarti, can you pass on my sincerest thank you to everyone at Goulburn who helped me with letting me park the Jab where i did, and offered a ride into town to find accommodation.

 

a great bunch of Guys!!! :thumb_up: it was very much appreciated.

 

thanks everyone!

 

 

[Ultralights]

oh, Maj, the camera i took on this trip is a Cannon Eos 450D. my co-pilot taking the pictures.

 

 

[slartibartfast]

all in all a great trip with pleasant detour overnight n Goulburn where i got to meet Ross on his return from Natfly, and a few others. the guys at Goulburn were very helpful and i am greatful for their assistance and wish them all a very big Thank you! so if its not to much trouble Slarti, can you pass on my sincerest thank you to everyone at Goulburn who helped me with letting me park the Jab where i did, and offered a ride into town to find accommodation.a great bunch of Guys!!! :thumb_up: it was very much appreciated.

thanks everyone!

Sure will Rob. Glad you got home OK.

 

I missed you today. Decided the Temora trip was too short, so to get my fill for the weekend I decided to cruise to Wollongong and down the coast to Moruya today. I'll catch you next time.

 

 

[Tomo]

Great work Rob, and it was great to catch up with you and copilot. :thumb_up:

 

 

[Guest Sharp End]

QUOTE]

 

Hey UL, how'd you get your chinagraph to float like that? Zero G on short final?!!!

 

S-E

[shags_j]

Great report Rob. Motivation to pull my finger out and do my navs

 

 

[MrH]

Terrific post :thumb_up:, thanks for sharing the experience

 

Cheers

 

H

 

 

[Ultralights]

the pencil is my new invention, zero G pens, so they weigh nothing, all the better for saving weight! but can be annoying when reaching for them as they tend to just float around, can get ugly when you open a vent or 2 :P