Low Level Nav (The Proper One!)

"G'day guys!"

"Hi, how are you going?"

"Pretty good.  I heard you guys come in and thought you might me my mate that owns a Jabiru.  We're going to a fly-in at Boort and he was going to pick me up.... But I couldn't remember what weekend it was, so I thought I'd come over and see if it was him."

"Sorry, no.  Just us from Ballarat"

(Continued aviation small-talk)

"OK, see you later then!"

It seems that we had been watched the entire time we were at this unscheduled township.  When we got into the circuit I could see a little ute parked near the gate.  Once we pulled up on the apron this bloke jumped the fence and came over to say hello.


The Planned Route:

Ballarat - Maryborough - Wedderburn - St Arnaud - Ballarat

The Actual Route:

Hmmm... Not quite that.

I arrived at the hangar early in the morning to find low cloud.  About five hundred feet AGL, sometimes even less.  It wasn't looking good.

Mount Blowhard's top obscured by the low cloud.

No Mount Beckworth, either!

I preflighted the aircraft and it wasn't long before Manny arrived.  He was quite certain that we'd eventually be able to fly, but I'd been watching the clouds for over an hour and there wasn't a lot of improvement.  I told him that while we couldn't see the tops of the hills, I wouldn't feel right about going.  He agreed and said that by the time we complete and check the flight plan, the clouds will have burned off enough to allow us to go.

The forecast winds were 209° at 20 knots.  I plugged them into my computer (seen on the left here), and worked out fuel requirements.  With the weather being a little unstable (the weather bureau advised TEMPOs through the day - temporary changes to the base weather for periods of up to 60 minutes at a time), so we made sure we had plenty of extra fuel. By 10:30, the tops of the hills became clear.  Manny told me to put everything I'd need for the flight into the plane and then we'd blast off after locking up the hangar.

The outbound track is the slightly squiggly one  to the East, up past Maryborough and Dunolly.  It's squiggly because at low level, one is not permitted to fly over built up areas so we 'track crawled' left and right to avoid overflying buildings and towns.  After departing overhead, Manny transitioned the aircraft to low level and demonstrated the first leg.


Outbound from Ballarat.

Then it was my turn from Maryborough onward.  As you can see from the video, at low level you have a good sense of speed.  Also, in order to maintain 500' AGL you have to be aware of rising/lowering terrain and climb/descend accordingly.  It's not quite like what the Commanche helicopter pilots do (terrain following at 50 feet), but it's about as close as I'll ever get!

We continued North, and I positively identified Dunnoly - owing to the giant fork in the train line going through the town.  At this stage we were on track.  However, the wind was no where near the forecast strength.  All of our calculations were well out.  Instead of 20 knots, I think it was closer to 7 or 10.  I also think we applied a course correction in the wrong direction.  I believe we should have added more - instead we subtracted it.  Later, on the ground I could see from the GPS readout that we were never really headed towards Wedderburn.

The time for the leg ran out.  I started looking for features to identify our position.  I could see a good sized town off to our left, and we were about to parallel a major road, so we turned and headed towards it in the hope that we could identify this unknown town.  As we approached, I could see a rail line coming into the town.  "That can't be Wedderburn... It's a rail town!"  I said.  Just as I did, I looked further to the South West and saw a paved runway on the other side of the town.  "The only town in the area with a runway so close is... Charlton!"

We both agreed that we were now in Charlton, and I hastily looked up the ERSA for details of the Charlton Aerodrome.  But there was no entry.  It was officially an Authorised Landing Area (ALA).  There was a hard standing area with one tiny shed, and a large area with "Air Ambulance Only" painted on it.  Manny said that the best thing we can do is a couple of circuits, land, take a quick break and re-plan our next leg.


Being located so close to the town, I didn't want to fly too much over houses.  I opted to keep the circuit as tight as I possibly could.  I should have reduced the throttle a little more on base and lost a little more height, because on final I basically did a glide approach.  I touched down and then Manny took over for a circuit for himself.  We called it a full stop, turned towards the apron.  That's when we met the local.  I had seen his little Subaru ute parked on the roadside right near the gate.  Once we shut down, he came through the fence to say hi.  Nice bloke.  We chatted about Charlton, ultralights, and fly-ins.  He then turned, jumped the fence and got back in his car.   I guess an aircraft landing in a small town is a big thing!

On the apron at Charlton.

It struck me that this is the first time I had flown to a new place to stop and get out.  I then planned a route straight back to Ballarat.  As I didn't have all of my planning equipment (protractor, etc), I had to do it quick-and-dirty style... But not as quick-and-dirty as an impromptu diversion whilst in the air!  This time, we both agreed to not use any wind variation and fly the track course.  It turned out to be the best way to go - our most accurate leg yet!

Mount Beckworth Scenic Park.  The "Lollypop Tree" can be clearly seen on the summit.

Clunes township.  Nearly home now.

Manny asked me to fly the return leg at medium level for the first half, and then transition to low level for the last.  I would also have to decide where it is appropriate to climb back up to circuit height in order to rejoin the circuit at Ballarat.  We had to do one slight adjustment at a little town called Bealiba, but aside from that it was quite straightforward!

We got back to Ballarat just in time to watch a beautiful King Air B200 take off below us as we joined mid-field crosswind.  Wow, those thing accelerate quickly!  I flew the pattern and landed.  Manny wanted to do one touch-and-go himself, so he flew a low level circuit and completed the full stop.

(For the record [Shhh...Don't tell Manny this!], but I think my landing was much softer than his!!!  Hehe!)

We shut down and debriefed.  It was handy to have the GPS readout already to go from my phone (using an app called MyTracks).  We tried to work out what had happened to get us so off course.  Maybe Manny meant us to go astray, so I could work out where we are and what to do, but I guess he'll never tell me that!

The nav test is getting closer and closer!  Next step is the pre-ticket test which will include controlled airspace avoidance and lots of diversion practice I'm sure!  Not long now...