Sierra Del Barón Rojo

The big trip, it was a toss-up between flying to Lightning Ridge or Tamworth Armidale.

Tamworth is a Class D airspace with Class C airspace above it. The Tamworth controller controls both airspaces from the tower frequency.

I have never flown into Tamworth before, and have only flown into the Albury Class-D airspace as part of my training. I have, however, flown into Bankstown several times, but it is a GAAP with special procedures.

Tamworth used to a simpler class-D airport only requiring a holding-point ready call, but now there is a NOTAM stating that Taxi Clearance is required, so it is a bit of a mixture. They also expect a departure report so that other traffic and the controller knows what you are doing. In fact, all through the area you hear departure reports from the non-towered aerodromes, however, you do not seem to hear them when departing Wagga Wagga, for example.

The trip up was over fairly friendly country with lots of places to land. I knew approximately where the airport was, but I couldn't see the runways, nor the tower until I got 4 nm away from R30R. What assisted greatly was that a Dash 8 was on final approach, so I got to follow that aircraft to the centre-line. Needless to say I asked for copious taxi instructions and I was shown the fuel bowsers and several access gates to leave the airside.

What was fairly interesting was that both tower frequencies were locked together and the tower controller was also the SMC.

The trip between Tamworth and Armidale was quite interesting because I had to climb at Vx to clear the range and climbed to 7500'. Uralla was directly on track and conveniently it is 10nm from Armidale making inbound calls very easy.

I have also not flown into Armidale's aerodrome but I was reasonably familiar with its location and orientation because I used to visit it. I spent 5 years in Armidale during my University days and have fond memories of the town. The main runway R23/15 is on top of an escarpment, and the runway itself is elevated slightly above the surrounding land - maybe to assist with drainage, but such a situation is a trap causing pilots to approach the threshold too low. R23 has PAPI lights which assist, and when you fly just north of the town at 5000' and aligned with the centreline you are right on the glideslope. Of course I do not have such long finals, but the Dash 8's do.

There was a southerly wind, and as you approach the threshold of R23 the wind is blowing down a slight downslope and then suddenly drops into the valley where Armidale lays. This causes a considerable amount of sink which requires more and more power on the approach until closer to the landing blocks. One way to avoid this is to be higher than the PAPI lights and to land further into the runway. To make matters worse the wind was a cross-wind as well, more inclined for R27 than for R23, however R27 is grass and a long way is a long way to taxi and backtrack along.

Well I visited my best man and his family and the next day I took the number 2 son over the Gorges near Armidale, a 36 minute flight, and my friend and his number 3 son on a city flight before departing for home.

I was delayed as I had a call of nature and then I decided to buy a chocolate, one of my vices, and I eventually got to leave at 0255. I had a severe headwind of 20 - 25 Kts so I decided that morning that I would fly directly from Armidale, to Nundle, cut-across the Tamworth Class C airspace (with permission) direct to Scone and thence direct to Canberra. The trip from Armidale to Nundle was over a fair bit of the great divide but there were several good looking flat spots I felt I could land in should I need to execute a forced landing. When I arrived at Scone there were quite a few paddocks and a good airstrip, but then I really hit the tiger country.

The country between Scone and Wallerawang is the worse country I have ever seen to fly over. On my direct track there was absolutely nowhere to land. I would have felt more comfortable had I tracked further to the west.

Here is a shot of Wolgan River in the tiger country that ripped from my video camera.
Wolgan River.

You can explore my tracks at Canberra, Tamworth Armidale
Armidale to the gorges near Hillgrove
Armidale Scone back to Canberra