As this navigation exercise was scheduled for a 11.30am departure, I downloaded the weather forecast (ARFOR, TAFs and METARs) the morning of the flight. Now I had forecast winds, I completed my flight plan at home and arrived at Archerfield about an hour early to prepare for the flight.
Mick, the CFI would be going up with me today so at first I thought this was going to be my cross country endorsement test, but it was another navigation exercise with an Instructor.
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| Nav #8 (Dual): YBAF - DBO - YNAN - YCDR - DBO - YBAF |
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| WAC chart showing nav route |
A Northern departure from Archerfield off runway 10L saw me tracking initially towards the Walter Taylor Bridge (Indro bridge) and then onto Dayboro ensuring I remain West of Mt Cootha and clear of Class C airspace to my right.
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| Dayboro - Northern arrival & departure tracking point |
The first leg Dayboro to Nanango went well with my arrival joining mid-field crosswind and at Instructor request, a low pass along the airfield (go-kart track right next to the airstrip!) before departing off the upwind leg.
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| Nanango airstrip (YNAN) showing flight track |
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| Nanango airstrip |
Tracking East towards Caloundra, Mick showed me some GPS features of the Garmin G300, which when the Directional Indicator is paired with the GPS, it acts similar to a VOR. Cool stuff :-)
Approaching Caloundra with its cross runways, I selected runway 12 (right turn circuit) based on reported surface winds and elected to join right base for a runway 12 touch-and-go rather than a straight-in approach.
On joining base, on the area frequency we heard a pilot above us reporting he was about to drop some skydivers around the Caloundra area. My Instructor replied back advising we were already in the circuit for touch-and-go and asked for more details including ETA for drop... 1 minute! Ok, quick touch-and-go and lets get out of here :-) I departed Caloundra by extending the right crosswind leg off runway 12 tracking back towards Dayboro.
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| Caloundra aerodrome (YCDR) showing flight track |
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| Caloundra aerodrome |
Past Dayboro heading South I tracked West of Mt Cootha, checked Archerfield ATIS, radioed Tower and reported position again at Centenary bridge for circuit joining instructions. Join final runway 10L. I overshot my turn onto final for runway 10L so made a sharp bank left to pickup my runway line... whoops!
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| Archerfield Northern departure & arrival |
Landed and taxied back to the apron. Mick advised basically not to overthink things too much, keep it simple and watch my altitude... keep it consistent.
Next navigation flight 4th October will be my cross country endorsement test! :-) YBAF - LOGAN - YILW (Inglewood) - PKR - YBAF
Until next time, have fun and fly safe! :-)
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