Back seat to Tamworth

Yesterday I had a great trip to Tamworth with Danial and Brett - thanks for inviting me along guys. We left Sydney Bankstown at around 09:00 for Tamworth before returning via Port Marquirie arriving back at 18:50. Whilst I was just a passenger, I enjoyed the flight, tour of Tamworth (including the big guitar) experience in a Twin and the night flight.
Tamworth photos

Weekend in Scone

Enroute to Scone

With a new aircraft type authorised in my log book and some training on the procedures at Bankstown, the time had finally come to put all this new knowledge to some use. A friend of mine, Dave, was driving from Sydney to Scone to see some relatives and I took the opportunity to fly up to meet him on Saturday, stay overnight before returning on Sunday. Billy was pleased to come along for the ride.

This was a virgin navigation flight for me in many ways. Id not headed north from Sydney in a light aircraft apart from as a passenger on one occasion. There are a few things to consider in particular The Lane. The lane is a strip of airspace between Williamstown military airspace and Sydney control zone. I had flown this a few times previously so all was good and my flight planning took this into consideration.

Saturday morning came and after getting a rather good weather forecast we headed off to Bankstown. I did delay the departure time until mid-day as there was supposed to be cloud and mist at Scone. Departure was delayed a little further whilst I got instruction on how to operate a new combined radio and GPS unit in SFK. Id not used such a unit before but after the instruction, found it intuitive to use and the GPS with a massive colour screen a good support fornavigation. At 12:30 we finally took off on runway 11C with the route being Bankstown, Prospect Reservoir, Parramatta, Brooklyn Bridge, Maitland and Scone. It was not the shortest route but did avoid the rougher terrain and associated rougher turbulence and the road network below helped with the navigation.

I happily got into the habit of changing fuel tanks on a regular basis a new requirement when flying a Warrior. The warning from my instructor that there are two types of pilot, those who have forgot to switch tanks and those that are going to probably helped to remind me. I choose to switch tanks every 15 minutes (on the hour, quarter and half past the hour) marking each switch on my flight plan and this worked well keeping the tanks even throughout the flight.

Whilst there were only a few clouds around and the mist had gone there was plenty of turbulence but good visibility. The airfield at Scone was easy to spot after I realised it wasnt the racetrack which is adjacent to it. With little wind around and no other traffic I had the best kind of landing an uneventful one. I then had to backtrack along the runway to the parking area on the east side of the field where I found a nice spot to park complete with tie downs. I was concerned I may be using someones parking spot but the phone call the day before did inform me to park on the easy side of the field.

Dave was waiting at the airfield and he picked us up to take us to the Motel. We then had some good food and a tour of the area before heading off met up with Daves relatives. We finally hit the sack at the Colonial Motor Inn which at $95 was a reasonable place to stay.

The motel had a socket I could plug my laptop in to get the weather. This was convenient and helped me complete my return flight plan conveniently. We then got breakfast in Scone and had a wander round before calling the Scone Taxi Service. Apparently there are just two cars with only one on duty at a time. It was around 11am and we were the drivers first call of the day. The trip from the centre of scone to the Airport took around 10 minutes at $12.

Thankfully the Warrior was still where we left it! I took the same route back which again was pretty uneventful apart from continued turbulence. An earlier start may have helped on that front. One thing of note was a general broadcast on the area frequency advising Williamstown control zone was going to become active for just 15 minutes whilst an aircraft flew in. My plan did not take me through here but it was worth knowing it can become active at such shortnotice and for such a short duration of time. The cloud was certainly getting lower and denser the further south we came but still fine for the necessary ground clearance.

Arrival at Bankstown was greeted with a change of runway. All my training and subsequent arrivals and departures had been on a 11 runway. This time the ATIS broadcast advised arrivals and departures were on runway 29. I remembered the procedure of continuing to the airfield at 1500 ft before descending to a circuit height of 1,000 ft once past the tower. This worked out fine and a reasonable landing followed. The taxi route to the flying club required that I held for clearance to cross an active but this was soon given and we were parked up in no time.

All in all I enjoyed the weekend very much. Im now looking forward to more cross country flights around NSW and hopefully beyond.

Bankstown and the Warrior - Part 3

At thirty three degrees, today was another hot one for flying. Leaving the air conditioned club house was not easy when welcomed by the heat and humidity at the airfield. Nonetheless, after completing the pre-flight and being joined by Danial, the engine started and the breeze from the propellar finally clicked in.

Today's aircraft - FTU

This was the final part of my Bankstown and Warrior familiarisation training and what fun I had! In addition to practicing a engine failure on take off, an engine failure in the circuit requiring a glide approach a go around and a normal landing, I was signed off to go solo on the new aircraft type and the airfield.

Danial left the aircraft (whilst on the ground!) and off I went. First a standard circuit before departing into the local area and back to Prospect Reservoir before making my way back to the airfield. Most my training and flying to date have been in Cessna aircraft but I'm now pleased to add another type to my log book. In addition to making another aircraft type available, they are a nice aircraft to fly.

Warrier and Bankstown familiarisation continues

Another Saturday afternoon and another flying lesson. This time continuing my familiarisation of the Warrier and Bankstown airport. With Danial running a bit late the lesson was for spot on an hour, but with temperatures and humidity soaring, it wasnt a problem!
We started off flying from Bankstown into the local training area. After climbing to 3,000ft it was still pretty bumpy due to turbulance so decided against stall practice. Instead, I had to practice an engine failure, thankfully making it to the nominated field before taking off again heading to Hoxton Park where I did a touch and go.

To finish off we headed back to Prospect Reservoir to get permission to land again at Bankstown. Landing on the centre runway this time it was soon back to the club house where chilled drinks were the order of the day!

Hoxton Park

Bankstown and the Warrior

After a couple of months break whilst I got the final theory subjects for my CPL under my belt I was very glad to get back in the air with my instructor to learn the ins and outs of operating from Bankstown, one of Australia’s busiest General Aviation airfields, and a new aircraft type, the Warrior.

The move came as I felt ready to get experience at a busier airport and also to continue to make use of my excellent instructor who recently moved flying schools. The airport is about 40 minutes nearer than Camden, my previous flying home, so quicker to get to.
Whilst I thought I only had an hours flying lesson booked, the actual introduction took most the afternoon, arriving for 2pm and not leaving before 7pm. After a tour of the fleet at the Scholfield Flying Club it was inside for some ground school on the various procedures at Bankstown. This covered radio, arrival and departure procedures and a look at the map on how to taxi to one of the three runway strips.

If anyone reading this is looking for more information on flying from Bankstown or any of the main Sydney airports, take a look at the excellent Sydney Basin Visual Pilot Guide. The main points to note are:

- Different arrival and departure altitudes depending upon the active runway.
- The southern runway is typically used for circuit training and is on frequency 123.6
- Centre and northern runways are typically used for arrivals and departures on 132.8
- Approach points of 2CN in the south and Prospect Reservoir in the north
- Care not to intrude on the joining Sydney International class C airspace.

At the same time as looking to find my way around Bankstown airport was the interesting learning of a new aircraft, the Piper Alpha Warrior. Having nearly always trained and flown Cessna's I was rather daunted by this challenge. However, once I had a detailed brief from Daniel and started the plane up, I started to feel at home with Sierra Foxtrot Romeo (SFR).
Checking the aircraft was quite similar to the Cessna. Perhaps the most alarming difference though was finding water in the fuel. I was however assured this is quite normal for aircraft that stand outside frequently such as this one. Nonetheless, a first for me and I was relieved when the second fuel test revealed just fuel.

The main control differences between the Warrior and the Cessna I noted are:
- No ignition key. Just switches for power, alternator and mags. Switches to remain switched on during flight have a nice little guard around them.
- Two fuel tanks and no duel feed option - i.e. you must select left or right tank - and remember to interchange them!
- Fuel pump has to be used at critical stages of flight. Switch it on at the run-up bay and turn off at 500ft. Turn on when performing downwind checks prior to landing and off when exiting the runway.
- Flaps are operated by a 'handbrake' style leaver rather than electric. They can stick in the down position too until some wind resistance forces them up.
- Carb heat is present as there is no fuel injection.
- Nice reminder for shutdown - Lights, Camera (radio), Action (Mixture).

In flight the aircraft was quite comparable to the Cessna to fly and probably a touch easier to land. Hopefully I will be signed off after just one more lesson.