Nav: My longest yet

[Agrajag]

With John, Vncent and others sharing some of their stories I thought I might share one of my own. This is a fun flight so there are no external pressures so I have scope to be more fluid than someone who has to fly for a living. The outbound trip was uneventful, coming back home was a bit more interesting!

Yesterday I did a nav from Aldinga to Maitland in South Australia in my new Jabiru 160 (part owner )). I know the numbers for this plane but I do not have much experience with it. This was my first nav in it and the longest one I have done.

I allowed 7 hours for the day. This was to allow for aircraft preperation, flight time and up to 1 hour at Maitland plus doing a little extra scenic flying if time allowed.

I got the the airfield about 45 minutes late. I did the aircraft checks and put some fuel in it. I estimated I needed 109 liters which is almost a full tank. I estimated the number of liters for each wing  and started pumping. The tanks seemed to be full before I put the required number of liters in. Odd, but I have never filled it up before. I checked the fuel guages in the aircraft and neither of them had moved! Definately not right, I thought I would see what they said after the runup.

I do the runup and my right wing says it is full, my left wing didn't was reading about 15 liters less than I wanted (1 hour flight time). Because I was so late already I decided to continue because I had allowed this sort of time for sight seeing so that would probably have to be dropped. I left over 1 hour later than I allowed for.

Outbound to Maitland was all good. I found it very difficult to use my kneeboard because there is an obstruction preventing me from writing on it easily. I will have to change how I log the flight progress next time, it is rather annoying. I was arriving at each checkpoint later than anticipated and the required heading was somewhat different so winds were not as forcast. More time and fuel.

I landed at Maitland, my eldest daughter came out to see me and I showed her and her fiance the aircraft. I felt like a ninja battleing the flies. My hands going all over the place, I have never seen anything like it.

Once I had done my runup and I did a taxi call, another aicraft in the circuit called that he was downwind. I taxies to the hold point, another first for me, I usually fly a low wing but the Jabiru is a high wing so I couldn't see him. I requested his current position, he was just turning base so I had plenty of time to linup and roll.

I expected a good tailwind most of the way and as predicted I had a 20 knot tailwind so the flight plan was going ok. About 15 minutes later the wind did a 180 so that really blew the time and fuel calculations. I knew I already had less in my tanks than I originally wanted so I decided that my planned sight seeing legs would be removed and I would do no ad hoc sight seeing. Straight back home I go.

When I was within about 40nm of my home airfield at Aldinga I saw that the visibility was poor near my airfield, there were no clouds. I figured it was mist. I could still see well enough but if it had been much worse (or as I got closer thought it was below VMC) I would have had to have landed at Strathalbyn or Murray Bridge. How annoying would that be! I kept thinking to myself, "no get-there-itis, if it is too bad bug-out!" It is the first time I have seen mist from the air and it was there at LSALT. 

So, there was mist, I didn't have as much fuel as I wanted as I think I had about 1 hour plus reserves and it would take another 30-40 minutes before I was on the ground, assuming no go-around. I say "think" because the whole trip was a little bumpy and the fuel needles jump around like a mad hen so it is hard to be accurate. A small sidelsip also causes fuel from one tank to drain into the other. In my plane the two wing tanks drain into a sump tank which then feeds the engine. When the fuel level is lowish a few seconds of a large slip can make one wing read zero fuel. That makes me rather nervous so I spent a fair bit of effort making sure that both wings read similar fuel, I found that difficult in the conditions.

I was able to get back with about 40 mins to last light. Once the plane was on level ground and I could read the gauges easily I had as much fuel as I thought I should have. Not lots but ok. If I had done any sight seeing I would have been really stressed be the time I landed thats for sure.

From this it may not seem particularly scary. And it wasn't, I was worried though because I really didn't want to park the plane at another airfield and possibly have to sleep in it during the night. (Near Christmas, no money to throw around )) but I kept reminding myself, alive is better than the alternative so I was ready to go somewhere else. So, I really felt last light, fuel and weather pressure compounded a little by idiosyncrasies that this plan has compare to the SportStar.  Being out of the comfort zone, it was a great flight to experience to help me work out what I am doing ok and what I need to think about.

It is really easy to see decision points and how a "wrong" decision can build up. This is my take

1. Accepting less fuel - not good but I had a contingency so acceptable

2. Considered putting a bit more fuel in at Maitland. There would probably have been a fair wait because it is "by appointment only". I had time pressures because that leg was a fair bit slower than planned and I left so much later. I also expected a tailwind so...

3. Tailwind changes to headwind. Omit sight seeing. No question that was good. I actually left the sight seeing to the return leg so I could _know_ how much time and fuel I had to play with.

4. Mist. I decided to press-on but was ready to turn back at any point. I did not actually have a lot to go though to reach my airfield. Literally 10-15 minutes. I had pondered whether the mist was over my airfield (which is on the other side of a small mountain range). It wasn't. This tured out ok but I don't know how quickly it can get denser so there was definately a risk. Legal at the point of decision, yes, smart, not sure.

Exercising decision making in stress situations is something that isn't taught enough when we are students (and by some instructors, not at all) and really is critical when we become PIC. You guys might want to read "Pilots in Command: Strategic Action Plan for Reducing Pilot Error by Paul A. Craig". A lot of it is about instrument flying but the issues pertains to all decision making.

Steven.