Cozy Cruising Mittagong to Melbourne

[Chris Byrne]

COZY CRUISING.

 

Just thought I would let you know my how I have made use of my Cozy IV last week.

 

Sat the 12th was a short hop down to Goulbourn airport for a SAAA Chapter visit. A rather hastily organised visit due to changeable weather saw about 10 aircraft arrive. One of the members John Ten’Have has two rather very hangars there, one is three floors high and he has a rather elaborate living area on a mezzanine level. John has a Vari Eze that he purchased and a very nice Long Eze that he has built. The Long has been a month’s work away from flying for the past year or so, hangar building has gotten in the way. Anyway it just on 50nm from Mittagong, the airport where I keep my Cozy, and just over 15 mins saw me there. These two towns are joined by the main freeway to Melbourne and as such it’s a favourite VFR route for aircraft leaving the main airports in Sydney as it helps them avoid the higher ground and cloud. All this means it’s pretty busy, especially on the weekends and I passed two opposite direction aircraft with not much more than 500’ and a mile between us. Still have to get TCAS.

 

I had a son down in Melbourne on holidays and he had to come home on Monday. I had two options. Drive 1.5 hours to Sydney, wait 40 mins to board a Jet spend 1.5 hours on the jet getting to Melbourne (gate to gate) and hour on the ground and do it all in reverse on the way home. That’s just on 8 hours assuming no delays and no traffic on the way home. Or I could go by Cozy. Seven hours after leaving the house I was landing back at Mittagong and that included having to refuel before I left and spending and hour and ¾ on the ground in MEL chatting with my brother. No contest.

 

I filed IFR even though it was blue sky all the way to MEL and return. I find it much easier this way, ATC gives you all the frequency changes, comes up with clearances for CTA when required and keeps an eye on traffic for you, even calls up and offers the ATIS. I departed with full tanks for the flight of 346 nm, climbed to 6000’, plugged in the autopilot and watched the scenery go by. I planned just to the north of Canberra down to Albury and Eildon Weir and into Essendon ( MEL’s secondary airport).

Essendon is within a stone’s throw of the main Tullamarine airport. I went north of Canberra to avoid some of the more inhospitable terrain which was a good idea, but I didn’t think enough about the terrain around Eildon Weir, it’s pretty rugged below and next time I will find another way to plan into Essendon. I just like to have the option of descending if I encounter ice or the unthinkable happens and the engine cough’s. Anyway after watching the snow capped peaks of the Snowy Mountains (not really mountains, the highest terrain we have in OZ is 8000’) pass by on the left I was on approach in MEL. Requested and was granted an approach and landing on the non operational runway so I could carry out a practice ILS. The TT Digitrak and GRT EFIS did a very good job of that. I set up a HDG, armed the LOC and watched as the LOC was captured. All I had to do was wind in the appropriate descent rate on the TT Altrak/VS and down we went. Taxiing in, ground advised me to expect amended tracking on departure, apparently I had filed outbound on and inbound only route.

2 hrs and 13 minutes.

 

After nearly two hours on the ground I strapped Harrison in the front, threw his bags in the back, set up Dora the Explore on a portable DVD, pressed the isolation button on the intercom and set off. Taking off on RWY 35 required an early turn to the east to avoid bumping into a 767 on approach to Tullamarine, a few more vectors saw me clear of the Jets, heading north and on climb to 9000’. At about 8000’ I heard a pop or a crack; I looked around a bit and decided the cover over the control torque tubes had moved due to the change in temperature. A few minutes later I detected the unmistakable smell off chicken chips, Harrison’s bag of chips had decided to give it in. I had been warned! Except for the initial 1/3 of the trip I pretty much went home the way I departed. On the way back I decided to keep the RPMs up a bit more and cruised home with a TAS of 167kts and as I got closer to home with a bit of a tail wind I had a GS of 195kts. An interesting thing happened on the way home. I called ATC about 80 miles in advance and gave them an amended route. The response was that they would get back to me with an amended clearance as I was still in controlled airspace. I was a bit perplexed as I had just looked at the chart and it showed up as “E” airspace. Then it dawned on me, as I was IFR, I was controlled in Class E, funny thing is that if I was VFR in Class E I wouldn’t have been controlled and would not have needed a clearance to be there, strange. Anyway I think I’ve got that bit basically right, it just seems a bit strange but I guess it’s a good thing, it’s better than blasting along in G airspace, at least I have ATC keeping an eye on me and they know about most of the other traffic around me. Descent was started 35 miles out to lose the 6000’ and get me down to the circuit height of 2800’ at Mittagong. Dodged a couple of other aircraft that were following the freeway again. Touchdown was 2 hours and 6 minutes after liftoff for an average groundspeed of almost 170kts. Dora finished and Harrison had to be woken by his mother on arrival.

 

A few figures for the flight!

9400DA 2610RPM 21MAP IAS148 TAS171 Real TAS 166 32.5L/HR 8.5G/HR 50LOP

CYL TEMP’s 302 298 323 308 OIL Temp 160F

9400DA 2550RPM 19.8MAP IAS144 TAS166 Real TAS 161 29.5L/HR 7.8G/HR 50LOP

CYL TEMP’s 287 290 309 297 OIL Temp 160F

All speeds KTS and the IAS reads 5 kts fast at these speeds hence the Real TAS figure.

Total fuel used was 145 litres or 38 US gallons for those of you who refuse to change with the times.

 

Day two to follow

[Chris Byrne]

Day Two.

 

Sydney Harbour.

 

Tuesday was another brilliant day. The kids were sent to Granma’s and my wife Sarah and I set off to use a bit off the fuel I had left over from the day before trip. The beaches of Sydney are well known around the world and we are lucky enough to have a special VFR corridor that allows us to follow the coast up past Sydney’s International airport along the beaches Bondi, Maroubra, Bronte and past the entrance to Sydney Harbour. Travelling further north you pass Manly and Pittwater. As you pass within about 4 nm of Kingsford Smith airport you are required to be at 500’ for most of the trip to stay out of CTA and away from the Jets, all the better for sightseeing. As I had never done this before and certainly not in a plane I had built in the back yard we decided to take advantage of the free time. I decided to file a flight plan as I was intending to do something rather special. Depending upon traffic, usually helicopters on commercial sightseeing trips, you may be lucky and get a clearance to enter Sydney Harbour. We departed Mittagong headed east for 17 nm and were soon flying over the water just off the coast at 500’. In about fifteen minutes we were just south of the airport and beginning to pass the first of Sydney’s beaches. Maroubra, Bronte and Bondi slid past and soon after we passed Sydney Heads northbound I climbed to 1500’called up ATC and requested a clearance

for a scenic into the harbour. Well it was a bit congested and it was going to be up to thirty minutes before I could get in. I decided to hang around for 15 minutes OCTA and see what happened. Cruising around at 1500’off the coast and just north of Sydney is not all that hard to take.

Right on fifteen minutes our patience paid off and we were on our way, cleared Manly-Harbour Bridge for two orbits. In short order the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House were under our wing tip as we circled just east of the Bridge. The usual ferries and pleasure boats scurried across the harbour. There was an unusually high number of people (thousands) gathered on the shore in one particular spot, the police helicopter was buzzing around as well. It dawned on us, the Pope was in town and the youth of the world were gathering for their official welcome to World Youth Day. In hindsight we were probably lucky to get into the harbour. As I am sure any of you that have been to Sydney know, Sydney Harbour is one of the great sights of the world and to spinning above it in a plane you have put together yourself is really something. As we were allotted two orbits only, it was soon time to track towards the Sydney Heads, descend to 500’ and rejoin Victor 1. The runway in use at Sydney had changed and as we headed south at 500’ a couple of 737’s passed overhead a 2000’ on final for RWY 25. In total 1 hour and 20 minutes of very pleasant flying. Another plus was Sarah decided to have a go at this flying thing and hopped out quite chuffed with her tracking and altitude holding abilities.

 

There you have it, three days of Cozy cruising. If your still building, stick with it, these aircraft are not only fun to fly they actually come in pretty handy at times.

[ZUCZZ]

Great stuff, thank you for sharing it!

 

Now some pictures ...?

 

When you press "reply" and you're done typing, scroll down just a little further where you will see "Attach Files" then hit that "manage Attachments" button - this is the key to the photo uploading.

[JTest]

G'day Chris

 

Your comments about Sydney and VFR flight restirctions remind me of a few times I have got cleared into spaces usually ATC doesn't give approval to due to traffic.

 

In the States flights over the Grand Canyon are restricted below 14500 ft; but I have called ATC and asked to fly the south rim at 1000. I told them I had family from Oz in the plane and they cleared me to fly 1000 ft on the 270 radial of the Grand Canyon VOR. We never crossed over the rim but it was a great view for 100 miles....

 

ATC cleared us down the Vegas Strip 10 minutes after the fireworks at 1000 ft. The controller warned me to stay west of the strip as not to hit the space needle. We actually looked up at the folks eating dinner.

 

I have discovered if you tell ATC you have visiters from the other side of the pond then the controllers usually will assist the make the flight special.

 

Sounds like a great trip you had. If you flew over Cowra or Bathurst you flew over my family and friends.

 

Take care.

 

Jeff

[Chris Byrne]

Jeff.

 

Will be in Cowra on Sept 19th and 20th for Sports Aircraft fly in.

And with some luck there should be some pictures attached.

[ZUCZZ]

Thanks for sharing the pic's of the views and the plane

[JTest]

G'day Chris

 

My wife's family lives about 1K from the end of the runway at Cowra. I am sure we will get a call from Brian & Gail about the fly-in. I think this is the second year.

 

We will just miss you, we will return to the states the end of Aug. The youngies have school starting.

 

Enjoy the Cowra wines and I look forward to the picies.

 

Thanks;

 

Jeff

[tonyrothwell]

I gotta tell you, Chris's COZY Mk IV is one of the nicest Cozy's I have ever seen. The panel and finish and workmanship etc are all first class and he is my tip for this year's "Concourse" winner at Cowra.

[ZUCZZ]

Good luck for that one then!!!

[Chris Byrne]

Just thought I would share a bit of my latest trip.

I had a thirty year school reunion to attend and erect a monument dedicated to my father.

 

Anyway I wont talk about the trip on the way accross, it was into head winds and at times I was down to 120kts.

 

The way back was another story.

Wudinna to Mittagong. 758nm in 3 hrs and 35 minutes at FL130.

The pictures show the story, note the GS 225kts and the fuel flow 26.5L/HR (just less than 7US Gals). GS in cruise never less than 215 in the cruise.

 

Spodman from ATC saw me on the way across and said G'Day, hope he got to see the trip back.

 

Oh, nearly forgot. After my fast ride I arrived back over 8/8ths and couldnt get visual at the MSA (no aids) so had to divert to Goulborn (40nm). I sat on the ground for an hour and then crept back below the clouds.

 

Pretty amazing to think a plane built in the back yard can achieve such performance.

 

Keep glueing, sanding or whatever.

[Spodman]

Inspirational Chris. Didn't see you on the way back, but when you were heading west I saw a parallel P28A with a goundspeed of 70.

 

One of the ATC on 118.6/132.6 is a RV10 owner, so probably wouldn't have been TOO friendly...

[Chris Byrne]

Maybe you should print a copy of the two EFIS screens and stick it on his console. Circle the TAS and fuel flow.

 

Just out of interest Where Is shows the trip distance by car as 1823km (1141 SM) and 18 hrs 36 mins. Exactly 15 hours longer. They base their assumptions on 100km/hr (62 mile/hr) so you may be able to shave 2 hours from their time.

 

My car would have used 144 L of fuel, the Cozy used less than 90 L.

 

I had good conditions but even in nill wind I would have used 128 L

[Spodman]

Maybe you should print a copy of the two EFIS screens and stick it on his console.

They are marvellous figures, but I hope she'll take me for a spin sometime so i'd better be nice:cool:

 

Was just talking to your ATC on the way east who is sharing my night shift tonight, and he was impressed at your journey too.