In May 2016, after having spent a few months grinding along with my PIFR (Private Instrument Flight Rules) training it was time for an outing with the Aeroclub. It was a fairly casual affair, with a short hop to Caloundra to visit the Queensland Air Museum and then a 30 minutes flight out to Kingaroy. I paired up with Andrew Pearson, another relatively new PPL, who was looking for someone to share the cost. We took off from Redcliffe on a perfect blue sky day. Andrew was in command and I was in the right hand seat so had plenty of opportunity to take some photos. We headed up the coast past Beachmere and the mouth of the Caboolture River,

then passed over our old training ground of Bribie Island,

and descended into Caloundra with Moffat Head on our right hand side.

We were flying in IVW, a 172 that had just returned from being repaired after a student had run it off the runway into a ditch. It has a new engine so that had to be run in full rich and at high revs. There was only a very light wind from the east so we landed on Runway 05, giving direct access to the parking area.

On the ground we waited for the others to arrive. One of the other club members was in his Beechcraft Bonanza. It’s a lot faster than a 172 so he’d already been out to Moreton Island and up to Noosa before landing and taxiing into the GA parking area.

We spend about an hour at the museum then took off again out west towards Kingaroy. We passed over the Sunshine Coast hinterland and the Mary River valley.

It wasn’t long until we were approaching Kingaroy. There were a few gliders about so we negotiated a “landing slot” and joined the circuit.

It was a perfect day with almost no wind as we landed on runway 16.

While we waited for the others to join us we caught up with a friend of the family who lives nearby.

We then headed into town for lunch at the local pub. After lunch it was back to the Jo Bjelke Peterson airport for the trip home. Andrew handed control over to me and we gained a passenger. Kerry had flown up with Rob in the Bonanza but as Rob had to leave early he came back with us. He took over photographic duties from the rear seat.

We headed back via Nanango and Lake Somerset with the Glasshouse Mountains in the distance.

It was a pleasant trip back despite the fact that we couldn’t go above 5000ft with the new engine. There was some turbulence but not enough to cause any discomfort.  Soon we were on final into Redcliffe.

With no crosswind to speak of it was a gentle touch down, and we taxied back to the hangar. The end of a great day.