It seems that the Aviation Gods have largely been conspiring against me lately, but today was a different story. A couple of weeks ago, I formulated a cunning plan to get my friend Shane up to Ballarat for a fly. Shane is in the process of studying for his PPL, but is finding the costs and the availability of aircraft/instructors at Moorabbin somewhat crippling. Every time an aircraft flies overhead while we're at work, we both stare wistfully at the sky and sigh.
We've tried previously to coordinate a flying date, but nothing had succeeded so far. This time however, things were working in our favour. We saw that we had today off early enough to book the aircraft, but most importantly on a day that didn't get in the way of our Significant Others. In the past few days, I'd been watching the weather predictions like a hawk. In the last few days it has told me that it will be "Fog, then sunny with light winds". Excellent. The fog should have lifted by my lunchtime booking.
Well, this morning dawned clear and bright:
I pre-flighted the aircraft and got Shane settled in his seat. There is a knack to getting into the Jabiru, kind of like getting into a sports car. I demonstrated once, then Shane got in. I explained where the emergency exits are, and explained that the flight crew would not be serving alcohol during this flight - that would come after!
The flight:
It turned out to be a perfect day for flying! As smooth as silk almost all the way, with almost no wind at all. We took off and departed crosswind to follow the Avenue of Honour out to Lake Burrumbeet, then on to the Waubra wind farm. A small lake had appeared high in the hills amongst the turbines which reflected the motionless towers perfectly. An amazing sight.
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| Approaching Lake Burrumbeet - Cardigan Village in the foreground. (Pic courtesy of Shane.) |
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| Waubra Wind Farm - Looking South East. (Pic courtesy of Shane.) |
Turning South East to track parallel with the Sunrasia Highway, we headed towards the next point of interest: Lake Learmonth. Over this lake, I showed Shane how manoeuvrable the J160 can be with a couple of steep turns (good practice for me, too!). Shane clicked away with his camera as his wing was almost pointing straight towards the ground. It was then time to show him how stable this aircraft can be. I trimmed it out and flew 'hands off' for a time. He was suitably impressed.
I made my inbound call and we tracked one thousand feet above circuit height to overfly the aerodrome. It was interesting to see it from a bit higher up. There were aircraft moving around me left and right, but I wasn't worried because we were well above them all! A crop duster came back in from a run, and flew at five hundred feet all the way. Shane and I both agreed that from our height, that looks really low!
We continued over towards the actual township of Ballarat. I made sure that I kept plenty of height (just in case), but there was still plenty to see. I saw an old open cut mine, the old and the new cemeteries, and the many sporting fields of the private schools. It was not long before I had to formulate my plan for circuit re-entry.
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| Lake Wendouree - Now with added water! (Pic courtesy of Shane.) |
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| Ballarat Base and St John of God Hospitals. (Pic courtesy of Shane.) |
As we were already on the 'dead side' of the circuit for runway 18, all I had to do was to descend to circuit height and I could join midfield crosswind. Good, time for an inbound call and then there'd be plenty of time before the hour ticks over for some circuits. The AWIS wasn't working, so I just slotted in with what everyone else was using.
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| Me, getting ready for circuit re-entry. (Pic courtesy of Shane.) |
It wasn't all plain sailing. My circuits have been stretching out of late, making for a shallow approach profile. This time, I thought that I'd keep it nice and close. Unfortunately, I kept it too close, and upon turning final found myself far too high. I pulled the throttle to idle, hoping that the little wings on the J160 will mean plenty of sink. Not enough, though. When I was sure that I wouldn't be able to land in the first third of the runway, it was time for a go-around. Looked like Shane was getting the whole show today!
Try number two... Looked quite a bit better. This time I was able to bring it down nicely, it was still effectively a glide approach, but it was a more positive outcome. The third went much smoother. I had the spacing right, the speed right, the aspect the way I wanted. However, as I completed the round out and held off, the aircraft suddenly lost the last foot or so of height very quickly and we had a not-so-greaser-ish landing. The aircraft didn't bounce, so I didn't have to go into go-around mode, but it sure wasn't comfortable.
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| Mid-Downwind for Runway 18. (Pic courtesy of Shane.) |
Keeping an eye on the clock, I called the next one a full stop. I was determined to get this one perfect. I set up the approach correctly, and flew final just right. I held off and really tried to finesse this one so it was a soft landing (which it was), however I'd drifted to the left ever so slightly.
When we got back to the hangar, I told Manny that we couldn't raise the AWIS on the radio. He had looked it up on the internet while we were out, and told us that we were actually operating in a slight tailwind scenario! The sudden loss of height on that earlier circuit could have been attributed to a small gust of tailwind. The drift to the left was also attributed to the fact that it was actually a quartering tailwind. This made me feel a little better.
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| Shane all smiles after a great days' flying. (Pic courtesy of Me!) |
After a chat with Manny and Shane, I got a call from my Wife asking if we wanted to meet her for lunch. We all went down to a lovely café (one of Mel's favourite places) and sat in the sunshine. Beers were had in celebration of the flying adventure, and then Shane topped it off with a great coffee (to obliterate the memory of the crap one this morning) and a lemon tart, which this particular café is famous for. Shane made a big call, and described it as perfect. Big call, but true I think!
One could not wipe the smile off of Shane's face when I dropped him back at the station. He was very impressed with the Jabiru. I'm so glad he enjoyed himself, as I certainly did, and hope we can do it all again some day soon.
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