Crosswind landing in the Cirrus SR20

On a blustery day in Melbourne I decided to take the Cirrus SR20 (VH-TDS) up for some circuit practise. I brought along Mike Walden, head of Walden Aviation Services and my original Cirrus Standardised Instructor Pilot (CSIP) who did my Cirrus transition last year. Weather conditions were pretty good, but the 14Kt crosswind from around 40 […]

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Safety briefing flying with kids

Anytime you fly with passengers, especially flying with kids, it’s critical to give an informative and easy to understand safety brief. This is especially important when flying with younger passengers. It’s school holidays here in Melbourne so I took my daughter flying for the morning. We shot a video of some of the parts of the safety briefing […]

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The Lost Episode: RNAV approach through cloud at Moorabbin Airport

Flying back from Horsham Airport in Victoria to Moorabbin I spent the last 30 minutes or so cloudsurfing just over the top of an unbroken cloud layer above Avalon and Port Phillip Bay I then had to descend to 2600 feet to shoot the RNAV approach to Moorabbin which meant descending through a layer of […]

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How to enter controlled airspace and Melbourne City orbits

In this week’s pilot vlog I show you how I request clearance to enter controlled airspace in order to fly a couple of orbits around Melbourne City. Requesting clearance is actually really straightforward if you remember three key things to include in your radio call: Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing OR what […]

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Flight plan mistake and Cirrus SR20 cloudsurfing

I made a mistake when filing an IFR flight plan for the Cirrus Sr20 this week. I had one of the waypoints in the wrong place, but Airservices Australia picked it up and called me to sort out the mistake. This week’s pilot vlog features part of that call so you can hear how great […]

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Cirrus lean assist and making an IFR airborne report

In this week’s pilot vlog we’re departing Shepparton Airport to track Southbound back home to Moorabbin. The departure is from an uncontrolled airport without ATC communication on the ground, so we have to depart visual and pickup our IFR flight plan with an airborne call. En route I also take a look at how the Cirrus Lean […]

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Pilot error, realising I’m an idiot!

Two weeks’ ago I flew the ILS approach at Avalon and my glideslope failed to appear. It took me ages to finally get to the bottom of what had happened. The maintenance team tested the aircraft and all was working fine, so I had assumed it was something silly I had done. I was right. It was […]

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21 tips for pilots in 60 seconds

Sadly this week we’re not going flying, but there are loads of things you can do as a private pilot to make the most of your time when you’re not flying. I made this video of my top 21 pilot tips to try and maximise your time and help prepare you for the next time you are flying. […]

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ILS glideslope failure on country IFR flight

On a flight from Moorabbin Airport to Warrnambool Airport in country Victoria I decided to include an ILS approach at Avalon en route. I’d flown this many times before as part of my Instrument Rating training, and had shot the ILS at Avalon just two weeks ago in the very same aircraft, a Cirrus SR20. However […]

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Pilot Vlog – first solo IFR flight to Latrobe Valley Airport

After several months training, a couple of conversion flights in the Cirrus SR20, examinations, and lots of simulator work it was finally time for me to fly my first solo flights under the Instrument Flight Rules (IFR). I’d briefed the flight with my Instructor before and had decided to keep things really simple for IFR flight number […]

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