Yarrawonga Flight Training

Andrew goes Solo.

Andrew has been committing aviation in public a lot lately over the skies of Yarrawonga. However today was different. Today, Andrew flew solo!

After 16 hours of ground school, and 10.7 hours in the air Andrew launched into the air for his solo flight, only to be confronted by a Mooney joining the circuit at 500 feet below him. The Mooney flew a very small circuit and landed. Although Andrew had right of way he took it in his stride and extended his downwind and came in for a perfect landing. Well Done Andrew.

Kyle gets airborne,

Kyle strapped the GoPro camera to the wingtip of his Wizard 3 wing on the weekend and got some great photos. Most of the YFT pilots were away last weekend, and the aerodrome was mostly busy with training flights. Three new student started training, and they are all doing well.

The weather was good, the sun was shining and our BBQ went off well, even if the attendance was down. The people that did turn up had a great time.  As you can see from Kyle’s photo the flying was good.

Air Creation Tanarg flies at YFT.

Chris Brandon and family called in to see us last weekend, and Chris brought along his beautiful Air Creation Tanarg Trike. I did Chris’s BFR, and then it was time to play.  Chris asked me if I would like to fly his Tanarg. I said ” Does a one-legged duck swim in circles?” Chris ran me through the operation of the Tanarg and off I went. Chris had told me that people has said that the Tanarg was heavy on the controls. I didn’t find this at all. I fact I felt so comfortable in the Tanarg that just after take-off I was throwing the aircraft around as if I had flown it for hours. I found the aircraft very easy to fly, and I did not find it heavy on the controls at all. To me it was little different from flying an Airborne Streak 3 or SST. The cockpit layout was very user friendly and the rudder pedals were adjustable for long- or short-legged people. I would like to thank Chris for giving me the chance to fly his beautiful Tanarg and I hope to see more of these aircraft around the skies in the near future.

Roy becomes a Solo Man.

After completing his training is the XT-912 SST Roy went solo in his own T-Lite this morning. CFI Peter had trimmed the XT-912 back to its slowest speeds to give Ray the feeling of how the T-Lite would handle. After a number of low slow circuits Roy had the feeling of how the T-Lite would be. It was time, and Roy started up the T-Lite and headed out to runway 23 for the take-off. It looked good and in no time at all Roy had the hang of the T-Lite, and he was doing circuit after circuit. Well don Roy.

Ian goes Solo.

Ian from Townsville went solo today.

After hours of circuits and weather that ranged from red hot thermals, to the icy blasts of Antarctic winds, Ian did it. Ian completed a number of circuits this morning and then it was time. CFI Peter asked Ian to backtrack on runway 19, and then CFI Peter got out. Ian was told the usual things. If you need to go around, do so. If you need me I will be on the radio. Thats when CFI Peter pulls out the plugs on the comms and the student pilot gets a thumbs up and off they go. They are on their own. It’s make it or break it time.

Ian rose into the sky, flew downwind completing his checks and making the correct radio call before turning base, and was coming in nicely on RWY 19, when the wind decided to play games and began flicking from left to right instead of blowing steadily down the runway. Ian attempted to land but then did the sensible thing, called a “go round” and lined up again. This time he made a successful landing and became  another YFT “SOLO man”!

Goolwa Fly-away for 2012

What a Fly-away…. Yes I can now claim the weather.

There will be a big article about the fly-away soon with lots of photos.

Watch this site.

U2 Landings

Training from Wangaratta…

Yesterday saw another great day of flying, starting with formation training at Wangaratta. Three aircraft from Yarrawonga, flew to Wangaratta independently, and arrived at YWGT to meet the fourth aircraft.

A formation Take-off was made and the three aircraft met up with the fourth over Wangaratta township. The formation formed up into a left echelon and headed for YYWG. On the way, the training exercise was to give each pilot a chance at the lead position. One by one the lead changed, until everyone had at least two goes at changing to the lead position. Once the formation had reached Lake Mulwala, the formation changed to a Diamond and tracked down the lake before conducting a formation landing on RWY 01. The Pilots flying this Training Session were Kelvin, Willem, Faye, and CFI Peter, with Aircrew observer, Jennifer.

The Earth IS Curved!

During a flight to the north at Savernake yesterday, at 8500 feet, the inversion layer was extremely prominent. Normally there would be a very large temperature difference between the two layers, however, yesterday, the lower layer had a temperature of 19 degrees Celsius, where the layer above the inversion was 16 degrees Celsius. When looking across towards the sun it appeared that someone had cut the atmosphere with a knife. This photo was not taken on wide angle, but at this altitude you could see the curvature of the earth in big sky country. You can only see this from an aircraft.