Mike Norman, Michael Antolovich and I did the first of these triangular navexs to Mudgee, then to Dubbo and back to Bathurst. Sharing a journey like this makes trips a much more economic proposition and also provides a opportunity to compared notes about flight planning, submitting SARTIMEs, new gadgets like iPhone apps etc before departing. It was a timely reminder for me how you can get rusty when you don’t make many trips away.

Getting away was a challenge with the usual Bathurst mix of airliners, transiting aircraft on cross countries and swarming Jabirus keeping us holding for a while! Eventually we launched off 08 and Michael flew the leg to Mudgee. This was complicated by a layer of stratus lurking on the hills north of the Turon River but going VFR on top seemed better than slithering around the trees. With a big hole almost directly over YMDG it was a very pleasant trip although it did not afford much practice in map reading! One of the attractions of visiting Mudgee is that a couple of hundred metres walk through the vineyard beyond the aerodrome gates will bring you to the Blue Wren Restaurant and Winery. We couldn’t sample their wine but the morning coffee was much appreciated. (Handy note - Fuel at Mudgee is now available via a bowser with credit/debit card facility.)

Suitably fortified we swapped seats as Mike flew the leg across to Dubbo. The cloud had lifted but a layer was still hanging around Mudgee so we went at a relatively low level. This provided a great opportunity to revisit the art of matching the cryptic symbology of the chart to the actual terrain as it flows past especially as Mike wasn’t satisfied in going direct but had planned via some flyspeck on the map. Unfortunately the easterly wind had picked up and with the temperature rising, the resulting turbulence was getting uncomfortable. Our arrival at Dubbo was complicated by having a Citation doing circuits on the main runway when we required the cross strip – three pairs of eyes are very handy when you’re trying to find something moving a lot faster than you are and at right angles to your direction of travel. Sadly the café at YSDU had changed their opening hours so they were only present on weekends around the airline arrival/departure times so it was just as well that Mike had packed a bag of apples!

For the leg home, I opted for comfort over sightseeing and we cruised on up to 7500 feet putting us on top of the stratacu that was still about and into some smooth cool air. I had intended to explore some spots around Burrendong Dam since it hadn’t been full for so long but it was getting too rough lower down to be enjoyable. Our groundspeed wasn’t blistering but it’s all about the journey isn’t it? There’s also something special about motoring along amongst the clouds (maintaining VMC at all times of course!) because it’s a view that not many people outside aviation get to see. Made a tidy arrival back on 08 without any dramas as home base had quieted down upon our return. (That’s typical – there’s always a crowd if you stuff up!)

During our post flight drinks, we discovered the only real glitch of the day. I had submitted a SARTIME via Air Services website but when Mike rang CENSAR to cancel, they had no record of it. Apparently this is not uncommon so this suggestion was that you should ring CENSAR to confirm hey are holding a SARTIME for you. It wouldn’t be nice to be sitting out in the boonies somewhere wondering why nobody had come looking.

So it proved to be a most enjoyable and productive outing – get together with a couple of other members and do another Ticehurst Triangle as soon as you can!