First flight

A couple of weekends back I decided it was time my boys (4 and nearly 2 y.o) would experience their first flights courtesy the back seat of Cessna 172 VH-SCN, an aircraft I'd logged much of my flight training in. Fortunately, after weeks of dodgy weather we managed to land a cavok Saturday, and certainly good enough to offset wx risks given my low hours and possibly distracting passengers.

On the subject of risk, we decided that it'd be best if my wife would travel in the back with the boys to keep them settled and quiet during critical parts of the flight. As such, I'd checked and re-checked weights and in particular balances, and while we would be close to the aft-most limit of the COG and 20lb shy of MTOW (with full fuel) we were still legal. All this served as a timely reminder to get my CSU endorsement for the 182 under way before much longer.

After dispatch, pre-flight, refuelling and passenger loading, just over an hour had passed but we were finally ready to go. Thankfully after start-up, taxi and run-up induced chatter, there was (some) quiet while I got my ready call away at holding point 06. Lots of traffic in the circuit led to a delay of a few minutes, but after a Chipmunk performed a go around (thanks) I was asked to line-up and be-ready immediate.

 Rotating at 60kt to the tune of squealing I climbed out on runway heading to the north-east before following the M7 up toward Prospect Reservoir. With the initial excitement of take-off over my eldest decided this was now like a car ride – so asked to play some games on the iPad – oh well, so much for the magic of flight.

Looking east, the visibility was pretty diabolical, reducing to around 8km in inversion haze, so much so that I had trouble making out Bankstown airport. As a precaution I tuned up 132.80 (Bankstown tower) on COM2 to listen in on any traffic heading into the training area.

Turning toward Warragamba I now followed the pipeline, climbing to 4500' for an orbit over the dam. On the second orbit, I spotted a Cherokee and two high wings circling nearby so decided not to hang around and continued south-west into the gloriously clear air over Lake Burragorang. My eldest, poking his head up long enough to take in the jagged sandstone cliff-faces and undulating sea of eucalypts.

Continuing south, and for practice, I picked up the 060 radial from Bindook VOR and followed this back in to The Oaks reporting point. Looking over my shoulder to check my passengers and my youngest has disposed of his headset, but somehow managed to fall asleep regardless!

Arrival became a bit interesting as traffic in the circuit was as busy as when I left and the controller had me overfly upwind, turn mid crosswind, with Cleared Visual Approach not coming until I was late downwind. So...with an additional 500ft of height to lose it's power to idle, progressively get flap out and pushing the nose over to trade height for speed. Getting back on the glide path mid-final I crossed at 70kts for a pretty good landing.

What I didn't fully appreciate at the time was my wife's perpective from the backseat – a reduction of power followed by lots of trees and houses filling the windscreen caused a bit of quiet concern, though a chat about it on the ground sorted things out.

All in all, I felt the flight was enjoyable and safe, and despite some questionable interest levels it was a great introduction to flying for the boys.

 Night flight

That same evening found me back out at Camden as my instructor had offered myself and another student night circuits and cross country to Wollongong in the glass cockpit VH-PXW

(Dusk at Camden, awaiting nightfall)

 I'll not bore folks with the details, but I'd have to say flying the PAPI approach onto RWY 16 at Wollongong is amongst my most memorable flying moments (and not a bad landing I've gotta say). While I'm not sure that cross-country night flights in a single engine aircraft is something I'd look to do often - I was certainly glad to have had this fantastic experience.