15/6/14: Cross Country Navigation #5 (Solo): Wondai and Maryborough

Me in front of C162 24-8329

Sunday 15th CAVOK!  :-)

Completely different day weather wise than Saturday and perfect for a cross country flight albeit fairly windy.

I arrived to Archerfield just after 10am with my pre-flight planning done (except weather).  At home, I'd downloaded and printed the latest weather area forecast (ARFOR 40) and TAFs and NOTAMs for the route I'd be flying today - YBAF - DBO - Wondai (YWND) - Maryborough (YMYB) - DBO - YBAF.  This is the same route I did on my first navigation flight, although we didn't quite make it to Maryborough aerodrome due to weather and diverted back to Archerfield.

Taking the weather printouts and flight plan to Archerfield, I decoded the weather forecast to complete my flight plan with wind, heading, ground speed and ETI for each leg.  I completed the fuel table on the flight plan and checked I had all required charts, aerodrome maps, ERSA and other documents.  Lastly, I lodged my flight plan through NAIPS, did a pre-flight inspection on the aircraft and I was ready to go  :-)

Nav #5 (Solo): YBAF - DBO - YWND - YMYB - DBO - YBAF

My flight planned track with marked ground checks on WAC chart

Ground gave me taxi instructions to runway 28R for a Northern departure.  After take-off, I turned onto right crosswind extending my track towards Indooroopilly bridge.  Continuing my track just East of Mt Cootha (being careful not to invade Class C airspace!) towards the dam wall at Lake Samsonvale then onto Dayboro.

From here I headed to Wondai getting ground fixes along the way and taking my checkpoints.  I arrived just to the right of Wondai, overfly the aerodrome checking the wind sock, determined the active runway, joined the circuit and did a touch-and-go (making the required radio calls along the way).

Wondai (YWND) aerodrome

Extending my downwind leg off the Wondai circuit, I picked up my track to Maryborough.  As you can see from the GPS track, I was drifting left of my flight planned track, so would have flown past Maryborough to the left if I had not made a turn to the right to head for the aerodrome  :-)  Prior to arriving, I checked the AWIS on VHF radio to ascertain the active runway in advance.  I also overflew the aerodrome to check the windsock which showed either a runway 17 or runway 30 (grass) would be ok both with some crosswind.

I took the option of runway 17 given its a lot longer and asphalt.  Also one other aircraft was operating in the runway 17 circuit.  I joined 45 degree to downwind, turned base, turned final and landed pulling up to the parking area.

Maryborough (YMYB) aerodrome

Parked at Maryborough aerodrome

I stopped for about 20 minutes to stretch the legs, have a bite to eat and chat with some other pilots.  I took off runway 17 which was perfect as I was heading South to Archerfield.  This leg of the flight was very smooth cruising at 5500ft.  I was more conscious to monitor my "track made good" vs "flight planned track" noting ground references to give me an idea if I was left or right of track.

Maryborough aerodrome

I arrived to Dayboro and tracked to the Centenary bridge West of Mt Cootha TV Towers.  VERY bumpy coming back in parallel to the mountain with a 28kt crosswind showing on my PFD!

Archer Tower gave me a 28R downwind joining instruction which was an almost perfect headwind landing although the sun was right in my eyes  :-)

Landed, taxied back to parking, cancelled SARTIME... first cross country solo done!!  :-)

My next flight is another cross country with an Instructor this time scheduled in 4 weeks.  It will be like a pre-cross country flight test.  My planned route will be YBAF - LOGAN - Lismore - Grafton - Stanthorpe - PKR - YBAF with the Instructor throwing a few diversions in there I'm sure  :-)

Until next time, have fun and fly safe!