12/4/14: Cross Country Navigation #3 (Dual): Casino and Inglewood (diversion to Stanthorpe)

A fantastic day for a cross country navigation exercise!  :-)  The weather in Brisbane was fine and sunny and not a cloud in the sky.

The weather forecast obtained the night before and checked again just before flight looked good.

Flight plan all done and lodged with Airservices.  My fuel calculations based on an estimate burn of 21L/hour saw that I wouldn't quite make it back to Archerfield if I flew the flight plan.  I made a note of aerodromes on or near my flight path with AVGAS.

My route today in the Cessna Skycatcher 162 is Archerfield (YBAF) - Logan Village (LOGAN) - Casino (YCAS) - Inglewood (YILW) - Goodna (GON) - Archerfield (YBAF).  Outbound to the South from Archerfield and returning inbound from the West to Archerfield.  As the West inbound arrival to Archerfield takes you through the Amberley military airspace, I noted the relevant YAMB frequencies as I'd plan to contact Brisbane Centre after Inglewood to check status of Amberley airspace and if deactivated, would do a West inbound arrival via Goodna.

Nav #3: YBAF - LOGAN - YCAS - YILW (diversion YSPE) - PKR - YBAF 

My Instructor and I departed Archerfield heading South towards Logan Village.  I overshot Logan before taking up my heading to Casino, hence the short dog-leg to get back on track.  My planned and revised ETA estimates were the same for this leg of the flight  :-)

Arriving at Casino, I did an overfly as usual to determine wind direction and therefore active runway before descending on the non-active side of the circuit to join mid-crosswind and onto downwind at circuit height.  I did a touch-and-go landing to track towards Inglewood.

About half way between Stanthorpe and Casino, my Instructor said let's divert to Stanthorpe for a full stop landing.  Luckily it was a diversion that didn't require a heading change just re-calculations in time and distance.

Parked on the apron at Stanthorpe

Stanthorpe terminal building

I landed at Stanthorpe and parked on the apron for a short break.  My Instructor asked I fly the next leg low level 500ft above terrain using pilotage only (ie following ground features with reference to the map) from Stanthorpe back to Archerfield via Park Ridge.  While on the ground at Stanthorpe, I drew some lines on my chart to follow major roads leading me East over the range then North back to Archerfield. 

This leg of the flight was particularly scenic as I flew East of Warwick over the range... amazing!  :-)

I landed back at Archerfield to finish off another enjoyable cross country flight.

Next one booked in for Saturday 10th May which is a dual cross country flight heading North to Kingaroy, Jimbour and Gympie.

Until next time, have fun and fly safe!