Saturday was a huge day of flying. Heading down to La Trobe Valley airport by air to visit my parents had always been a hope of mine. I grew up in a little town not too far from this airport. I'd managed to get half way there previously; to meet at Tyabb airport and have lunch with my Dad, who flew across from West Sale airport.
This time it was my Mother's birthday. I booked the Tecnam for the whole day and called Dad to tell him. He was excited and booked a lunch at a winery in the foothills only a few minutes' drive from the airport. It was to be a surprise for Mum. I kept an eye on the weather forecasts for the week leading up; the worst was to be Saturday evening into Sunday morning. I figured if I could get there and back fairly quickly, I should be ok.
I awoke Saturday morning to a high overcast and light winds. It was looking good so far! The rain RADAR was showing showers in the far Northwest of the State, associated with a large cold front. If I was going to make this happen, there was no time to waste. My wife Mel was coming with me this time, so we got up early and headed to the airport. I offered to preflight the aircraft while Mel sat in the relative comfort of the Aero Club lounge. Lots of the club members were there this day because it was the annual 'Cops and Kids' day (a wonderful event organised by a local policeman, ill children have a chance to ride in a police car, a prime mover and/or an aeroplane; plus jumping castles, fun foods, crafts, etc.). The aircraft were all out on the tarmac lined up perfectly. I apologised to them that I'd be spoiling their perfect line.
I fuelled the aircraft (assisted by another club member) and completed the daily inspection. There was a cool breeze by this stage, which Mel didn't appreciate too much as I packed our stuff in behind the seats. She was thankful when I finally got in and closed the canopy. I fired up the aircraft and went through the pre-flight checks - also sending a tracking link to Dad, so he could follow our live progress on his phone. I'd considered going past Melbourne and via the Coastal Route, but it was fairly gloomy towards the city and I was hoping to make the trip as comfortable and smooth as possible - so I decided to go around the South of Port Phillip Bay instead. It only adds 9 or 10 miles to the trip, and the airspace is much less crowded which would allow more freedom to climb and cruise at higher (and hopefully smoother) altitudes.
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| Preparing to go. (Photo by Mel) |
Departing Ballarat was straightforward. I cruise-climbed to 5500 feet and above 3500' it was as smooth as silk. 'If only it could be like this the whole way!' I thought. It didn't last too long, because as we approached Geelong, there was a thin band of stratocumulus cloud that from a distance looked to be not broken enough to go 'VFR on top', so I descended below them. Almost straight away the bumps returned - thankfully, Mel isn't bothered by them.
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| Our route to La Trobe Valley |
Negotiating around the parachute drop aircraft on one side and the warbird adventure flight on the other, we threaded the eye of the needle between Barwon Heads and Torquay airports. By the time we had crossed the heads (otherwise known as 'The Rip'), I was over the bumps and started looking closely at the cloud formations.
It turned out that when viewed from a much closer angle, the gaps between the clouds were quite large. I then made the decision to climb above them and do something that was a first for me - VFR on top.
On top it was once again smooth as silk - and visibility was much better, too. There was plenty of gaps in the cloud that I could recognise the towns as we flew over them. I'd planned to fly straight over French Island and directly to the airport, however when I looked towards La Trobe Valley I saw that the cloud was thicker closer to the coast. To my relief it stayed broken further inland, so I made my way up to the Princes Freeway at Packenham and followed it all the way.
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| Planned route vs. actual route. |
I found a nice, long gap in the clouds and descended through it. At the same time, I switched the radio to the airport's Common Traffic Advisory Frequency. At first it sounded pretty straightforward. Two already in the circuit, with one overhead the field and joining from the dead side. Good so far. Then, one after the other four helicopters reported they were on a long final of varying lengths for the runway we were all using. There was suddenly so many, I lost track of all the callsigns and where exactly everybody was. I decided to do a little orbit, because my original plan of joining mid-field crosswind didn't seem to be panning out with the traffic. After the orbit, I saw my chance - join regular crosswind and tuck in behind a 172 that had just turned from crosswind to downwind.
Once established on downwind, I watched the helicopters stream in. By the time we'd be on final they'd be all out of the way. The landing was uneventful - I had memories of flying that exact same approach with Dad in his friends' Jabiru 170 a couple of years earlier. I could barely believe that I was now landing a plane that brought me from the other side of the State!
I pulled the aircraft up out the front of the Aero Club - which was absolutely brimming with people. I got out to ask someone where I could park that wouldn't be in the way. Noticing the 172 that was ahead of us in the circuit, I went over and talked to the instructor that had just got out. I introduced myself to Webb, telling him of our plans, who then offered to move his aircraft out of the way so we could park and tie down in his spot. He even pushed ours into position! The tie-downs were actually chains with a clip on the end - easy (although they were usually designed for high-wing aircraft, so I had to loop it around to shorten it for my little low-wing).
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| All tied down. The extra loop of chain is visible hanging down under the wing. |
Mum and Dad picked us up and we headed to the Narkoojee Winery. Mum was very happy to see us - Dad had kept the plans a surprise. The lunch was lovely, but we couldn't stay. In the back of my mind the whole time was the predicted showers and possible storms building in the afternoon. The last thing we wanted to do was get stuck somewhere, but at the same time it was nice to know that there were plenty of places to stop along the way if things got bad. Mel and I ordered quickly made meals and ate them without delay. We booked a taxi and thanked the helpful staff for assisting with our timely departure. Saying goodbye to everyone after such a fleeting visit was tough, but necessary for the success of the flight.
Arriving back at the airport, the club was now much quieter. I got a chance to chat to Webb about our return journey plans. I topped up the tanks with a couple of litres of Avgas, just to have a nice buffer. A big shout-out to the La Trobe Valley Aero Club. Everyone was welcoming, and nothing was too much trouble to help us out!
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| YLTV - the clouds had lifted as the day progressed. |
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| A quick pre-departure selfie by Mel. |
Departing the airport, I turned and tracked for Moe, while missing Yallourn power station on our right and the rising ground to our left. There was the a tiny thin band of showers hovering over Drouin; passing under them only resulted in about 15 drops of rain, so it was nothing to fear. Once clear, I climbed up to a nice cruising altitude of 6500 feet.
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| Return journey - much more direct this time. |
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| Approaching Port Phillip Bay once again. |
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| About to overfly Tyabb (YTYA) Airport. |
As we approached the top of descent into Ballarat, I noticed a rain squall off to our left sitting over Lake Burrumbeet. I watched it like a hawk as we made our way closer to the city of Ballarat - the last thing we needed was to get so close and have a shower move in over the airport. Thankfully, I could see it tracking more to the South. I had heard someone in the circuit minutes before, but they were now on the ground. I elected to take the runway with the shortest circuit and taxi time to reduce the chance of getting rained on in the process - this also meant taking the crosswind too, which was steady at about 9 or 10 knots crosswind component.
Mel hadn't experienced a crosswind landing before, so I made sure I didn't do anything too extreme. I crabbed it in for most of final (nose pointing slightly into wind), then transitioned to a wing-low approach at about 150 feet AGL (nose now pointed down the runway, a small amount of lift is tilted into the wind). Touching down was a controlled one wheel at a time landing - awesome!
As no one else was around, I backtracked to the club and shut down. Mel got out and I invited her to chill out in the club lounge while I sorted out the aircraft and helped the instructor and duty pilot put them all away. By this time, the Cops and Kids had long packed up and gone. Taking a few minutes once back inside the club to sort out the post-flight paperwork, I gathered up our stuff and headed towards the door. Just as I did that, we heard a rumble, then saw the sky absolutely open up!
We'd made it back with some time to spare - but not much! Dad rang to see if we made it back before the rain. He'd been watching the approaching front on his rain RADAR app. I assured him that we'd made a successful return. I was very glad at this moment that we hadn't prolonged lunch too much!
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| The front, making its way to the South East. |
As I was walking to the car, I heard an aeroplane engine amongst the heavy rain and thunder. It was a Cessna completing a bad-weather circuit. I was glad to not be in his shoes!
I learned a lot this trip, and I even considered pulling the pin at several points during the flight. But, this time, I decided to expand my margins a little and take some slightly more calculated risks - but maintaining many outs at the same time. I doubt I'll ever reach an over-confidence level, but it's nice to expand my confidence in a step-by-step fashion. I'm very glad Mel could come and share this very worthwhile trip with me.
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