Another List Item - TICK! ....A flight with Dad.

Today was a day I had been looking forward to for a long time. Today was the day I flew with my Dad.

It has been a long time in the making, but I couldn't have asked for a better day for it to happen. Mel and I headed down to the Latrobe Valley to spend the weekend with my folks. Dad is in the process of getting his PPL re-activated after many years of not flying (y'know, kids and stuff!), and as you may have read previously I've been working on my pilot certificate. If you havent, then why not?! I always thought that Dad would take me for our first flight, but as it turned out, I was to be the Pilot in Command for it.

I had previously tried to get in contact with a local flying school at Latrobe Valley Airport (YLTV) that operated Jabirus with the view to privately renting their aircraft. Unfortunately, they have all but shut their doors except for very rare days and it was going to be very difficult to organise a check flight with the CFI.

Thankfully, Dad has a friend (Andrew) that privately owns a Jabiru J-170 (the slightly bigger brother ((bigger wings)) to the J-160 that I trained in), and very kindly offered to let me borrow it for a flight. This aircraft is quite new - only having around one hundred hours on the clock. It even had a new car smell in the cockpit!

Andrew jumped in the left hand seat and took me up for a quick circuit to make sure that everything was working as it should, then taxied back to the hangar. I was fully expecting to swap seats so he could make sure I could fly the thing when he threw me the keys and said, "There you go, see you in a while!" He then walked off to talk with his mates in an adjacent hangar.

So - there was actually a few firsts going on here:
1. First flight with my Dad
2. First flight in a J-170
3. First flight from a new airport (i.e. other than YBLT)
4. Dad's first flight in a recreational ("ultralight") aircraft
5. First use of a lovely (and expensive) active noise reduction (ANR) headset.

Needless to say - I was a bit nervous. I didn't want to stuff it up in front of Dad, who is an experienced pilot, and I didn't want to wreck a shiny new plane. Dad laughed when I told him, "Don't worry, once you get going your training will kick in. You'll be fine!"

Well, he was right.

I made sure I did everything as accurately and positively as I could. The radio calls came out well, except for one, where I closed my radio call with "Ballarat Traffic". Oops! I quickly amended it. Dad laughed.

One good thing was that Dad had fairly recently flown into YLTV while doing some local NAVs, so he knew the lay of the land as far as the airport went and could point me in the right direction while on the ground. As for the operation of the aircraft, it was all up to me.

The flight.

It was a perfect day for flying. I know, it's been said before, but it was definitely true today. There was almost no wind at all, and it was blue skies as far as the eye could see. We took off and flew crosswind and downwind legs, then after talking to some microlight pilots in the area (to make sure we wouldn't meet) we departed to the East.  We flew over my Folks' house, and then out towards where my Sister used to live out in Glengarry.

Dad, in the right hand seat of the J-170, while we were heading out to Glengarry.

I also wanted to see Loy Yang from the air, and then fly over the estate I grew up in out in Traralgon South.  Out on the flatter part of the valley it was fairly easy to navigate and see where things were, but once we headed South and got closer to the Strezleckis I was struck by how different it all looked!  The hills looked taller and the valleys between them looked much deeper.  It took me a while to locate the estate.

Looking South over Mt Tassie.  Wilsons Prom can be seen in the distance, just in front of the spar.

The estate where I spent most of my childhood.

It was amazing for me.  I had climbed up to 3500' to ensure we could avoid the tiger country below if the worst were to happen.  I levelled out, and suddenly noticed that I could see Yarram, Wilsons Promontory, AND the Wonthaggi wind farm!  Wow.  I also noticed a quarry that was only a few kilometres from my childhood home, but I didn't even know it existed.

A quarry not far from my old house that I didn't even know was there!

After enjoying all of these sights, it wasn't long before I had to think of my circuit re-entry strategy.  I figured that since we were already on the South side of the airport and the circuit wasn't busy, I'd descend to circuit height and join downwind. 

Short Final, Runway 21.  Hazelwood Power Station can be seen in the distance almost exactly in line with the runway.

Coming in to land was not something I wanted to mess up.  Especially in front of my Dad, and especially with an aircraft that wasn't mine.  I made sure I accurately flew the correct speeds and attitudes all the way down from base to final.  I flew the same approach speed as I do in the J-160, which the aircraft almost did perfectly by itself.  I pulled the throttle to idle as I reached the piano keys, rotated and held off.  And held off.  And held off.  Wow, the stories are true... With the bigger wings, this thing doesn't want to stop flying.  The runway is long, so I simply waited patiently for it to slow down and settle in it's own time on to the asphalt.  Yep, you guessed it:  An absolute greaser.  What a relief!

We taxied back to the hangar, past the rows and rows of small private hangars (most that fit one or two aircraft) and flicked the magnetos off when we were once again back in front of Andrew's hangar.  The J-170 is a lovely aircraft to fly.  It seems a bit heavier in the controls than the J-160, but it is easier to set it up for hands off flying.  The new oversized ventral fin looks a little unusual (I'm glad Jabiru have fixed that on the new model), but it seems to do the job.  I think Dad was impressed with the simplicity and the clever design of the Jabirus.

The best thing is: I don't think I scared him away from flying with me again in the future.

I am very impressed with the quality of the ANR headset (like this one).  It was so very quiet once I managed to find the controller and switch the active system on.  The clarity of incoming transmissions increased as well.  I would love to buy a pair of them one day.

Thanks to Andrew for kindly allowing us to use the aircraft, and thanks to Dad for teeing it all up for us.  It is an important moment in my little flying career.  I hope Dad enjoyed it as much as I did.