Keeping your cool

In September, I went on my first of these flights with Monica and Abby, my two closest girlfriends from flight school. We were very excited about our “girl’s trip” as we called it. We had lunches packed with heaps of snacks and the plane booked for the whole day out. The route was Archerfield – Goondiwindi – Inverell – Ballina – Archerfield, and Monica was the PIC.

However, we woke up that morning to a sky full of clouds and scattered showers throughout the whole route. The cloud base was at 3,000ft. That’s fine to make it along a coastal route, but the terrain we wanted to pass was at 2,500ft. After doing a comprehensive risk analysis within the group and with a couple of the instructors, Monica decided we would go and Abby and I both supported her in this decision.

We took off and departed south west and had to hold 2,500ft due to cloud. Luckily, we were in less restricted airspace meaning that legally we only had to be clear of cloud. The closer to the ranges we flew, the lower the cloud seemed to get – much lower than forecast. By the time we were 40nm out of Archerfield, with the terrain beginning a sharp climb and the top of the mountains no longer visible, we decided it was time to make a diversion.

‘The closer to the ranges we flew, the lower the cloud seemed to get.’

Looking back on the flight, I think the diversion went really well. It was our first time in a group environment without instructors, let alone in a real-life situation. We worked as a team. Monica focused on the flying in the poor conditions, ensuring we were abiding by all air laws. Sitting in the back, I was able to look through the maps and charts for more suitable options for us to divert via and propose routes that we could take, while assisting in looking for traffic. Abby then worked accurate tracks to follow and sorted out all the smaller details such as ETA’s and radio frequencies. We chose to divert straight to Ballina as that was already on our route and we were able to make it through a break in the mountains.

We landed at Ballina without any problems and then caught an Uber to the beach. At the beach we had our picnic, hung out and had a good time. Monica chose to fly home via the Gold Coast and do a touch and go. Miraculously, the weather cleared up and it became a beautiful day to fly.

The flight was very eventful at the beginning when the weather was unfavourable, but we figured out how to work as a team and not let it ruin the day. It was very cool to see how everything we had learned came together in real life. Only months ago, we really didn’t know how to fly at all. Now, we can fly ourselves down to the beach to have a girls’ day and then just fly ourselves home again. I think that’s pretty cool.