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Tuesday, 16 February 2010 18:59 |
Today was fifth time lucky as Nav 5 finally went ahead. My last nav was back on December 20, before I took a break for Christmas and New Year, then got down to business with the theory, passing that exam a few weeks ago.
I planned Nav 5 but had it cancelled four times in a row- but today was the day. The set route was from Barwon Heads to Tyabb (landing) to Latrobe Valley (landing) to Longwarry to Barwon Heads, taking all of three hours.
The weather was OK, cloud at 1500’ at Barwon Heads while Latrobe Valley had broken cloud at 2000’ AGL. This was as good as the Latrobe Valley weather was going to get, so I decided to just do it. On arrival at Barwon Heads, the wind was moderate with a crosswind on 17 and the clouds had disappeared. It took around an hour to get the latest weather and enter those details into my flight plan. I figured that I would be rusty, with three days short of two months between my last nav.
Tyabb was called to ask for permission to land there. A friendly telephone operator advised me to read ERSA (for their ‘fly neighbourly principals’ which basically means watch the power and keep all circuit traffic to the east). I was determined to keep thinking ahead, which would hopefully counter the accumulated rust, but, unfortunately, I forgot the portable ELT-this was quickly recovered and we were good to go.
C172N VH-ADR had around 150 litres of fuel onboard which would be more than enough for the proposed three hours. I left my SARTIME for 1600 with the team at the office and we were soon rolling down RWY 17, kicking off the crosswind with the rudder and aileron. Climbout was fine and I performed the CLEAROFF checks. Time over the top of YBRS was 1341 and we were soon on the initial heading of 091. We would travel via Arthur’s Seat for this leg to avoid going over the bay- this would require life jackets and would be unnecessary risky if the unfortunate happened. Arthur’s Seat came quickly, and by 1405, we were overhead the unmistakable hill of it. More CLEAROFF checks and then I set course for Tyabb- HDG 059. We were promptly there in 7 minutes, and this one was a landing (landing 2 away from YBRS). The windsock pointed to RWY 17 like at YBRS, so that it was. My circuit was a little close-and my approach a little high as a result. My first landing on asphalt ever (another for this blog of firsts) was smooth- I was happy with it even if it was a little too far down the runway. There was no time for stopping- it was a touch and go so off we went.
Course was set for Latrobe Valley- 084 degrees and I settled in for the longest leg of the trip- 40 minutes. We flew past Western Port and flew right past Tooradin- I could see it from way off having been there by air three times. This was the first airfield that I spotted before my instructor. We were tuned to the local frequency and heard a Jabiru up doing circuits- and a fair bit of other traffic around for a Tuesday afternoon.
To pass the time, my instructor and I played ‘identify the town’ which is always interesting. I suspected that a diversion was coming up, and I was right. I was told to turn at Athlope for Inverloch and then proceed directly home from there. I had no idea where Athlope was and still don’t know now. (does anyone out there know Athlope?) It was impossible to spot from the air, and may have been three houses on the river bank. So, I worked out where Athlope would be in relation to Drouin, a bigger town which I had already spotted near Warragul.
I turned right and headed almost due south for Inverloch. I was a little too early with my turn and we ended up over Wonthaggi, taking a parallel to track to what we should have. From there, going home was easy- just follow the cost. The wind farm and the site for the new desalination plant were very strong landmarks here. We passed over Phillip Island which I hadn’t seen in detail before- impressive before moving through restricted area 323A (not operating today) and back home. The approach into Barwon Heads was a little challenging with the crosswind, but I stuck with it and we got down with only a light bump.
Exactly two hours were on the clock. My instructor was happy with my nav work, and has set me up for the next nav which is the big solo for hour-building from YBRS to Hamilton to Warrnambool to YBRS. It's scheduled for Friday, so hopefully the weather is kind and it can happen then. I still need to do some VOR/ADFstuff, but the VOR radio wasn't working in ADR today, so we had to leave it for some other dual session.
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I flew a Cessna 172 recently. The maintenance release showed no reported defects. We wrote up the following defects that obviously had not been written up by the previous pilots who flew this aircraft which included.
1. Radio compass needle stuck and although callsigns from NDB's within five miles could be heard the needle failed to move from a fixed position.
2. Fuel seeping into cockpit from primer plunger situated adjacent to ignition switch.
3. Cabin fresh air selector knob jammed solid in close position. Examination of cabin air intake flapper valve situated on right side of engine cowl revealed the valve could be forced wide open by slipstream from prop in flight. The actuating cable was broken. The pilot operating handbook for the C172 in Emergency Section says in event of a fire in the engine the cabin air must be shut off as it will feed the flames if left open. In the case of this aircraft the pilot would not know that because of the broken actuating cable the cabin vent was permanently forced open even though the cabin air knob was fully in. This could have fatal consequences for the crew. Many instructors are reluctant to write up defects in the maintenance release because of fear of upsetting the aircraft owner who has to pay to get the defects rectified. It is not good enough to report the defects verbally. It is a legal requirement to write the defects in the maintenance release. In general aviation aircraft it is common to see the maintenance release has no reported defects. But experiences has shown there well may be defects that the previous pilot has elected not to write up.