Fly-away to Yarrawonga (03/08/2024)

On Saturday, 03/08/2024, the club met at Bacchus Marsh to undertake its largest fly-away yet. Twelve pilots gathered in the morning to take RFQ (Cessna 172), EAV (Cessna 150), EYU (Cessna 150), and MAQ (Cessna 152), in addition to club members' aircraft ITX (Cessna 172XP), VAG (RV8), and one RA-AUS to test their driving skills on the Yarrawonga Golf course.



The weather was forecast to be perfect for a cross-country to the state border with great cloud bases on the way there, but according to the BOM deteriorating weather in the afternoon, with some likely showers around the ranges and Melbourne.

Once all aircraft made it through the busy runup area we naturally spaced out our departures with the slower aircraft going first, and the faster aircraft departing last.


From a navigation point of view the flight was simple enough. Most teams chose to go past Mount Macedon, past Mangalore and Shepparton, straight up to Yarrawonga.

We chose to do a quick loop around Lake Mulwala before turning final to runway 01.


On the ground we realised that even though we had very different performing aircraft, ultimately, we all landed within 15 minutes of each other, even though we all took off within 5-10 minutes of each other. This all of course does not apply to the little rocket which is the RV8. 😁

We were quickly greeted by the golf club's complimentary bus shuttle (thank you!). Only 10 minutes drive from the airport and one state border crossing later we arrived at our destination and enjoyed a well-earned lunch before we all had a go on the driving range.


In some cases it was clear that we are better pilots than golfers, but to all our surprise there were some hidden talents.

With the shuttle back to the airport we realised that the "promised" weather did not really eventuate. If anything, around Yarrawonga, it only got even better. However, shortly after takeoff all pilots saw that at least the high cloud bases were were gone and replaced by "low" clouds, initially around 4000ft, eventually more like 2500ft.

While most teams decided to descend below the Melbourne class C airspace and go low around Melbourne, the crew of ITX followed the motto "don't ask, don't get" and initially requested flight following with Melbourne Centre and once in the system requested to enter airspace C to remain as high as possible above the higher terrain around the Kilmore Gap towards Rosslyne Reservoir, which indeed was promptly granted. It was another example of how easy it is to fly within controlled airspace and be "in the system" with another set of eyes watching out for you. The very helpful controllers even vectored one Virgin Australia flight approaching Melbourne around ITX. 😁

By the end of the day all seven aircraft and twelve pilots made it to Yarrawonga and back safely without any incidents. We enjoyed a round of golf and, as always, a fun day of flying with likeminded club members.


Check out the other pictures here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/xgDcaarodT6jLMo59