Peter's Flight Log

Why Flight Hour 39?

Up to now, I have been using "hours" to keep track of my training. This worked well in the beginning because most flights lasted for about an hour. So, my first flight was "Hour 1", the seventh flight was "Hour 7", and so on. 

However, as small deviations from the one hour per lesson rule started adding up to a point where flight 39 is no hour 39 (it is Hour 33).

So, I decided to change how I keep track of my flights, and use "Flight" instead of "Hour".

Summary

After finally completing my full-hour door-to-door solo circuits flight, it was time to fly beyond the confines of the Camden aerodrome. The purpose of this flight was to familiarise with the landmarks around the airport that I can use to depart and arrive to the airport. So far, the landmarks I used was specific to the circuit. Now, I would have to identify other landmarks, such as factories, dams, road intersections, and settlements. 

My main challenges for this flight were:

1. Flying the plane straight and level.
2. Turning in a coordinated way.
   
3. Monitoring the instruments.
   
4. Watching out for planes and birds (yes, birds, at 3500 feet!).
   
5. Listening to the radio for other traffic (Sydney Center and Camden Tower).
   
6. Communicating with Camden Tower for the departure and inbound parts of the flight.
   

This flight was different to all others, including the advanced stalls lesson which took place at the northern edge of the training area. The main objective of this flight was to help me become familiar with the area in which I will be doing the remainder of my RPL training and its landmarks.

I must know the boundaries (such as the water pipeline across the northern part of the training area and the mountains in the west) and its landmarks that I can use for navigation to and from the Camden Aerodrome.

To help document what I have learned, I will use screenshots from OzRunways. You can also see my flight path in the FlightRadar24 video.

Departure radio call

It should be no surprise that the radio call for a plane that wants to leave the airport area is different to that for circuits. After refueling, I made this call to Camden Ground (00:04:35):

"Camden Ground, Alfa Hotel Hotel, Cessna 172,Dual, at the bowser, request taxi clearance for departure, with information Delta."

I received clearance to taxi to Holding Point Alfa, Runway 06.

After completing the runup checks, we taxied to the holding point and made the ready call (00:19:07):

"Camden Tower, Alfa Hotel Hotel, holding point Alfa, Runway 06, ready for crosswind departure".

To which I received "cleared to take off".

And off we went!

Departure and northern edge of TA

Today we took off from Camden's runway 06. The most common way to leave the airport is via the crosswind leg. After takeoff, we flew upwind and then crosswind as usual, but instead of turning downwind, we continued straight. (See "1" and the orange arrows below).

The first landmark to note is the Mayfield (MYF) oval-shaped horse racecourse. That landmark is near the boundary of the 2-mile control area of Camden Airport (see "2" below). The departure procedure requires that airplanes will maintain circuit altitude until the exit the control area (1300 at Camden). This is important as it helps with separation of inbound aircraft which travel at 1800 ft.

After we exited the control area, I changed course to north, and started a full-power climb up to around 2500 feet. There was a bit of traffic above us, so we decided to not climb any more. There were a couple of other planes doing training there, and Bob expressed dislike for this area because of how busy it is. Airplanes from other airports (mostly from Bankstown) come up here, so it can get crowded.

As we headed north towards the Nepean bridge, Bob pointed out Bringelly (BRY) to our right, including the very visible brickworks plant and the road intersection (see "3" below). This intersection is also very well lit, so for anyone flying at night it provides a beacon on the approach to Camden airport. I would use these landmarks later to get back to the airport and land.

North of Bringelly is the new (WIP) Western Sydney airport. It's hard to miss.

We continued north and looked for the water pipeline (see "4" below). We use this pipeline as a marker for the northern boundary of the training area. The pipeline itself is well within the training area, separated by a few kilometers from the Richmond RAAF base and its military training area.

As we overflew the pipeline, we turned almost 180° left, to a south-west heading towards Bringelly and continued to explore the west and south parts of the training area.

From Bringelly, we continued west towards the mountain range which provided an excellent view of Warrangamba damn, the river, and the lake upstream. The terrain up there is rugged, so, although it is beautiful landscape, we don't like to overfly. There's not much flat earth to use in case of emergency. 

Before reaching the foot of the mountain range, we changed course towards south west and overflew a few small settlements.

Camden Airport was on our left, and visible by looking for the white buildings, not the runway.

We continued on the same course until reaching the Oaks, a small settlement with a grass strip that is conveniently located right on the extended runway for Camden's Runway 06.

Training area South

The two-mile boundary of the Camden Aerodrome's control area is very near The Oaks. If you are inbound to Camden from that direction, you can do the inbound radio call, and with a bit of luck you will be cleared to join final and land without having to fly the circuit.

We actually did this as a touch-and-go exercise (see 00:55:06).

The rest of the flight

After the touch and go on runway 06 from The Oaks, we still had a bit of time, so Bob suggested we fly via Bringelly and return to join the circuit on downwind for a full stop. Unfortunately I didn't manage to capture this on video as my GoPro became overheated and stopped recording. 

In this flight I did the radio calls, mostly successfully. I didn't have any issues with the departure calls, but inbound was harder as these calls are a bit more complicated. I'll be practicing more

Training feedback from instructor

Here's the feedback I received from Bob:

Runway 06, wind variable at 5 kts, occasional tail wind 5 kts, CAVOK, Temp 27, QNH 1019 Departed Camden and proceeded to the northern training area pointing out the pipeline as the northern boundary. Proceeded to Bringelly pointing out features to identify Bringelly. Then proceeded to Mayfield and again pointed out the features to locate Mayfield. We then traveled to The Oaks and then onto Picton point out the features and the southern training area limits. We then returned to Camden from The Oaks for a touch and go and then cross wind departure. FI requested Peter to return to Camden via Bringelly where Peter correctly identified Bringelly and returned to Camden. A minor inbound radio call error was made but all other radio calls were correct. Well done Peter.

Flight 39 on FlightRadar24.