My first flight at a controlled airport

After a frustrating several weeks of being grounded by weather or instructor unavailability, I finally took my first practical step to switching from my Recreational Pilot Certificate (light sport for anyone reading this overseas) to my GA Recreational Pilot Licence.

The weather Gods were finally smiling at me when I rocked up to Moorabbin Airport, for my first fly in a Piper Warrior since I stopped my GA training at Ballarat more than three years ago.

This would be the first of what will be a few flights towards gaining my RPL having satisfying minimum practical flight requirements, culminating in a flight review to prove that I can handle the additional complexities of GA aircraft.

I’ve added an additional degree of difficulty by choosing to fly from Moorabbin Airport, which is a complex Class D aerodrome with four runways (eight directions) and is Australia’s busiest in terms of aircraft movements.

Responding with “cleared take off Juliet Oscar Mike” was one of those moments where I suddenly felt a bit more like a pilot.

So I’ve had to familiarise with its organised chaos as well as get my head around speaking with air traffic control, as well as re-acquainting myself with the Warrior and things such as the mixture control, carburetor heat and heavier yoke. Even wearing a flouro vest and my ASIC card around my neck was a new thing for me!

Jumping in for my first lesson the Warrior’s cockpit seemed familiar enough, though it took me a while to remember where things were, such as switches and the trim wheel.

After flying high-wing Tecnams for so long, it was nice to climb on to the wing and into the relatively roomy cockpit.

Warrior II Juliet India Oscar started first thing, its 160hp Lycoming engine feeling a lot smoother than I remember. I stumbled my way through the checklist, taxied to the run-up bay and completed the checks.

Radio ga ga

We listened to the ATIS and now it was time for my first ever radio call to ATC!

“Moorabbin Ground, Warrior Juliet India Oscar is at the southern run-up bay with information Romeo, request taxi to runway one-seven-right for training area.”

I selected the words OK, but found it difficult to get my lips around Juliet India Oscar so my call wasn’t quite as assertive as I hoped, but it was enough to get a taxi and hold clearance for 17R.

Before I knew it I was told to line-up and a moment later cleared for take off – responding with “cleared take off Juliet Oscar Mike” was one of those moments where I suddenly felt a bit more like a pilot.

Warrior JIO is a lovely, stable aircraft but for some reason I had trouble saying Juliet India Oscar on radio.

As we rolled down the runway, I was expecting the Warrior to lift off on its own accord like the Tecnam, but at 60 knots it needed some prompting. The Warrior’s yoke isn’t particularly heavy, but it felt like a B-17 compared to the Tecnam.

That’s said it’s so stable through the climb and as I levelled out I was pleased at how the high dashboard made it so much easier to reference the horizon. I love the view the Tecnam affords, but never mastered using that ample forward vision as a visual reference for flying straight and level.

We flew south east of the airport, with instructor Tim showing me the dogleg upwind tracks required to avoid incoming traffic, the landmarks denoting the training area boundaries, and the Carrum and GMH reporting points.

From GMH to the east we planned to overfly the airport at 2000ft to check out the western side. Tim told me what radio call to make, but it came out like I had a golf ball in my mouth and I made the mistake of saying we were inbound. The controller asked for clarification and Tim did the honours.

We flew out toward Brighton, another inbound reporting point, to be greeted by several parachute canopies over nearby Point Ormond. I made a descending turn to be 1500ft over Brighton and this time correctly made an inbound call to which I was instructed to set up for base for one-seven-right for a tough and go.

I’ve seen so many YouTube videos of people on final over the golf course on to this runway and to see that view live through the windscreen was a thrill. I pulled the throttle back over the arrows and, after cursing myself for having forgotten to turn on the carby heat on base, greased the landing before pushing the throttle remembering to push on the right rudder.

Early reports

This time we went out Carrum and, as we approached from over land, heard another pilot make an inbound call from there, but couldn’t see him in front. I caught him in my peripheral vision, pretty close by – he’d made the call while still well of south of Carrum and then complained to ATC that he wasn’t informed of our presence. Tim tactfully radioed that we had waited to actually be at Carrum to report our position. This was a good early lesson.

My radio calls were getting more confident by now and I was instructed to continue downwind for a flapless full stop. I swung around on to base, already knowing I’d have a stable approach and greased the landing again to take the middle exit.

I was pretty chuffed once I shut JIO down, but made a point to quickly wrote down the things I needed to work on such as remembering carby heat, keeping an eye on the tachometer, and learning how to use the Garmin dual comms (there’s a great YouTube video for that).

I booked another flight the following Saturday which will see me do air work just to get up to speed for the actual RPL flight review.

I can’t wait.