If there’s one aspect of all my flight training where I’ve felt most in my element, it’s been the first two steps toward my cross-country endorsement.
I’ve always enjoyed planning road trips or holidays, so to be able to decode TAFs and NOTAMs, and successfully calculate track, ground speed and travel time to plot a three-dimensional course on a VNC chart is next-level satisfying.
As we approached Ararat I got a little nervy at the thought of landing at a whole new airport for the first time.
But as I rocked up to Lethbridge for my first nav, a straightforward hop to Ararat via Mt Elephant, I was fully aware that I still had put that planning into practice.
A lowish morning cloud base meant keeping to about 2500ft, but even then the forward vision was excellent with Mt Elephant, my first turning point, already visible during the climb out from the airfield.
Light winds meant holding a track was pretty simple, I timed each waypoint to the minute and even had the trim set perfectly. It was so good to finally fly somewhere!
As we approached Ararat I got a little nervy at the thought of landing at a whole new airport for the first time. The TAF and the odd smoke plume showed an easterly, and having studying YARA on Google Earth like a bomber pilot before a mission, I envisaged landing on nice long RWY 12, using the edge of the lake for my downwind reference and turning base at the Hopkins River.
But the windsock had other ideas, imploring me to use the short grass RWY 04 instead, which threw me a little.
Important Nav Lesson No. 1: Prepare like hell, but never assume. With no landmarks to reference I turned base at the textbook 45 degrees ahead of the aim point and pretty much greased the landing only for the windsock to swing in line with RWY 12 as I called clear all runways.
The flight back was uneventful, thanks to subtle prompting from my instructor Lindy, who also advised me about kneeboard management including a handy hint of tying the pencil to the kneeboard with string in case I drop it.
Lindy noted I had made too much work for myself by adding too many waypoints and explained how navigation was about taking in the big picture ...
Nav 2 was more involved - Lethbridge to Warrnambool and back along the coast toward Peterborough, a touch-and-go at Cobden, and back to Lethbridge via Colac.
Lindy noted I had made too much work for myself by adding too many waypoints and explained how navigation was about taking in the big picture including one’s entire surroundings and not just landmarks along the pencil line.
YWBL was easy to spot, and a limp windsock and a clear circuit allowed us to choose RWY 13 to avoid backtracking and I again surprised myself by landing like I owned the joint.
After taking the obligatory selfie in front of the terminal building we were again on our way. The weather was perfect and the flight along the rugged coast toward Peterborough at 1500ft has to be highlight of all my flying so far.
I banked overhead Peterborough for Cobden, a nice little airfield favoured by our CFI Graham because of how it poses a couple of challenges to students including a right-hand circuit into RWY18 and the hill that leads down to short final. Fortunately a southerly breeze meant the challenge was on.
Having trained at Ballarat meant the right-hand circuit felt standard, and I loved the sensation of following the sloping ground down to the runway. So my record of acing landings at new airports remained intact, though my first touch and-go for a while could have done with a little more right rudder upon pushing the throttle.
The lakes and canola fields between Cobden and Lethbridge did their best to rival the coastal vistas, and I arrived overhead my home airfield feeling pretty satisfied my first two navs had gone well.
Apart from too many waypoints my flight planning was accurate, and I was pretty chuffed with my landings and air work. Hell, I've even managed to radio five different airfields without once saying “Lethbridge traffic” out of habit.
But all that good work was undermined when I turned downwind without descending from 1500ft to 1000ft, didn’t press the mic button when calling base, and had to go around because I was too high.
It’s like I checked out before I even landed, which would have been a crappy way to fail a check flight. Which brings me to Important Nav Lesson No. 2: A cross country flight isn’t over until the aircraft is back in the hangar!