Yarrawonga Flight Training

Would you like to fly your new Aircraft home?

Coastal from Bundaberg

Yes, that’s the question we ask all our new aircraft owners. Most say “Hell, yes”! But, the question has a real effect on the aircrew. Anne and I have flown all our new aircraft home from the factory. We have made the flight seven times, and wouldn’t do it any other way.

It doesn’t matter whether your new aircraft is a Jabiru from Bundaberg, a Foxbat from Moorabbin, or a Trike from Newcastle.

So why fly your aircraft home? My opinion, it’s giving you, the new owner, a great trial run in your aircraft and you get to know your aircraft better.

So what’s the down side? The down side comes in a number of forms. Firstly you have to get yourself and all your necessary gear to the factory. This can be expensive and difficult. Then you have the weather. It might look good when you leave home, but when you get to the factory aerodrome, it could all go pear-shaped.

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On our Way

Kelvin and Jennifer were well through their flight training when they decided to buy a new aircraft. They decided to buy a new Airborne XT-912 SST Trike. The colour of the pod and wing were decided, and the avionics package was going to be the same as the Yarrawonga Flight Training aircraft.

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Dione Carter sent this photo taken from their Robinson R44 helicopter during our fly-away to Nyngan.

The flight line at Nyngan

Why Aircraft have Radios…

Cirrus Panel

In my flying career, almost every aircraft I have flown has had a flight radio. So basically, I have been brought up with a radio in each and every aircraft … except my hang gliders.

I hear some pilots say that radios are a waste of time and money, and they serve no real purpose….. Well this is fine, and CASA allow aircraft to operate at certain altitudes and from certain airfields without radio. Most of the ag pilots I knew around my area didn’t have a working VHF radio, until June the 3^rd this year.

So why have a radio? A flight radio gives you, the pilot, the chance to eavesdrop on the airwaves, … to establish who is in the area, what the weather is doing, and in an emergency, you have a means of telling someone where you are. (more…)

Megafauna Fly-away 2010.

This fly-away was the best one yet.

This year’s Meagafauna Fly-away had 30 aircraft and 53 aircrew, 2 bus drivers, and a ton of fun.

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Flight to the Snow

Ready for departure

Friday 17^th July 2009, one of those crisp midwinter mornings. We wake to see the pale pre-dawn light sifting through the blinds. Being a week day we will have to return in time to accept pilot shop deliveries and answer phone calls from students about whether the weather is suitable for their flight training, scheduled for the afternoon, but if we get airborne very soon we can manage a reasonable length recreational flight for ourselves!

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Saturday the sixth of March 2009 was a lovely day for pilots to fly to Hangar 19, Yarrawonga Aerodrome, to begin another flying adventure together. For some, the flight to the beginning of the Nav-ex trip is a longer excursion than the complete itinerary of the organized holiday, but it’s the camaraderie that is the prize for all the effort of joining the group. This year we took a gamble to fly along the south coast for a couple of days hoping to avoid bad weather. Local knowledge from Millicent, South Australia, suggested that March was probably the most stable month to attempt a group trip on the coast.

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In my flying career, almost every aircraft I have flown has had a flight radio. So basically, I have been brought up with a radio in each and every aircraft … except my hang gliders. (more…)