Last Saturday I took a Qantas flight to Melbourne to pick up the club’s Piper Warrior VH-DJR. I’d been planning the trip for a week or so and waiting for fine weather. I decided early to plan the safest and easiest trip possible – I didn’t want any surprises with restricted airspace, bad weather and headwinds. I closely monitored the Bureau of Meteorology web site and picked Monday 20th April 2015 as the best start date.
The pictures below start with a series of screen images from the iPad navigation software Avplan (www.avplan-efb.com). This software is a direct competitor to another Australian favorite OzRunways (www.ozrunways.com). Both companies are trying very hard to be the best and they’ve achieved remarkable things in a few short years. The best part is it provides all necessary navigation charts, current weather, notams, government aviation manuals and more. Also the pilot can submit a flight plan to Airservices with a click of a button on the screen. The aircraft was recently fitted with a Garmin GPS/Comm and apart from the radio the iPad puts it to shame.
DJR was repaired by Dave Marshall at Riddell Creek airfield a few miles north-west of Melbourne Tullamarine airport. He has a reputation for meticulous workmanship and I think the Club and the insurance company got a great deal. Dave is a real enthusiast – while I was travelling to Melbourne he was picking up a Dehavilland Beaver floatplane from Tasmania. The next day he took his trailer to pick up a damaged Cessna 182 that he had bought for restoration. Dave owns the airfield. It’s a popular area for aviation; within 5 km there are another 3 airfields.
The last picture in the series is a map of the actual track, downloaded from the iPad and imported into OziExplorer. It took three days, 6.5 hours on the first day from Riddell Field to Ceduna, 6.5 hours on day 2 from Ceduna to Kalgoorlie, and 3 hours on day 3 from Kalgoorlie to Serpentine.
So here is a collection of pictures and screen shots. I think I’ve captioned each picture but if you’d like more info just email me, phil at vk6ad.net
Phil Maley
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