Moruya Open Day

Well it certainly has been a long time between posts! I am down to my last 2 CPL exams, Performance & Law, then onto the mighty IREX! I am really looking forward to that!
A little while ago my club put on a day trip to Moruya as part of a navigation competition and timed it with an open day at Moruya.

I had just passed my PPL the week before so unfortunately I couldn't fly, but really wanted to get out with other pilots. I seem to learn so much by even being a passenger with other pilots, little things like organising the paperwork, having a pen on a lanyard, that sort of thing.

Upon arrival at the club, the weather didn't look great, severe turbulence below A050 and scattered stratus/cumulus at A035 with passing showers. Not ideal conditions for a low level navigation competition! Things were a little tense to say the least!

After a brief meeting it was decided by group decision to scrap the comp and fly above it. It was at this point I was close to pulling the pin, this was certainly above my personal minima. After more discussion with my pilots, and as one of them was an PIFR rated I decided to have a shot.
The flight down was clear, once we got above the clouds, I was feeling much more confident and got some amazing shots. I must say it was nice to be able to spend the flight looking out the window for a change!

 We had a quick lunch and watched some pretty nifty exhibits by the army air wing parachutists.
At this point the darkness came in, along with it the rain. Off we went into the smallest patch of blue I'm yet to see from a light aircraft, ahh excuse me captain, WTBleep are we doing?

From here on it was nerve racking, big bumps that felt like being kicked in the pants, flying through showers, virga, clouds, around clouds and then finally broke out of it just after Nowra to clear skies and sunshine!

I definately think there needs to be more time spent with instructors in bad weather, well less than perfect weather anyway!

Thanks for reading!