I flew down to Adelaide recently to have a couple of lessons with an instructor in HJV, a Cirrus SR20 that belongs to the Adelaide Aero Club and is based at Parafield Airport. The idea was to combine a check flight, that would allow me to hire the plane solo in future, while taking the opportunity to familiarise myself with the air space around Parafield. It’s quite congested, being located between Adelaide international to the south and the RAAF Edinburgh air base to the north. There are only two corridors of uncontrolled air space to the north west and north east and they’re quite tight so it’s important to know the visual cues for the boundaries of the controlled airspace either side. On Wednesday we flew out to the north west via St Kilda to Dublin and back to Parafield via Outer Harbour for a touch and go, followed by a departure to the north east via the substation towards Angaston in the Barossa Valley and back via the Warren Reservoir for a few circuits. That sorted out the Parafield airspace in my mind.

Planned route from YPPF to Dublin in the northwest and Angaston in the north east

The next day we departed via St Kilda again and then obtained a clearance to fly through the Adelaide controlled airspace to Aldinga aerodrome near McLaren Vale. We flew along the coast over the water at “not more than 500ft” and had stage wise clearances to avoid the aircraft arrivals into Adelaide.

Passing Adelaide International

We passed out of controlled airspace at Port Noarlunga and soon landed at Aldinga where we had a coffee at the lovely little cafe next to the taxiway.

On the ground in Aldinga

Aldinga is the centre for Adelaide Biplanes who do scenic flights around the area, as well as a many private pilots. Being a Thursday there were only two other aircraft around.

After the break we departed to the south and followed the coast to Cape Jervis at 4500ft. We could see Kangaroo Island in the distance over the strait.

Cape Jervis with KI in background

We then turned and headed east along the coast at 3500ftSoon with views back up the Fleurieu Peninsula as we went.

Looking north towards Aldinga

Soon we were passing Victor Harbour and Granite Island.

Victor Harbour

Then it was on to Goolwa where we had a great view of the Murray mouth.

Goolwa and Murray Mouth

Turning north we returned to Port Noarlunga at 2500ft. At Port Noarlunga we received another clearance from Air Traffic Control to fly through Adelaide air space northwards to Outer Harbour, then back into Parafield. I got the tick and am now approved for solo hire of HJV.