881

Hi all. Time for a new post as this public holiday i am by myself at home, with not much else to do apart from washing my sheets and making another coffee. So i am going to post about the 881 flight that we do. The 881 is a good flight, 4 and a bit hours, and you are home by 1pm! 881 serves the communities in the very northern areas of South Australia. So it takes an hour and a half to fly there and a little bit more to fly back. However its only a few minutes between all the stops, making the day very cruisey.

This is a photo of the passenger chieftan. He overtook me shortly after takeoff from Alice Springs. Im not sure if he is 500ft above or 1000ft in the photo. Although the photo doesnt look as though he was that close. We are both enroute to a community called Ernabella.

After Ernabella the passenger chieftan goes to Umuwa. In the 210 i have to go via a small cattle station called Kenmore Park and take them their mail bags. Occaisionally i get a passenger on this leg as the chieftan cannot land on the short strip at Kenmore. This leg is only 15nm, so its cruisy and a bit of fun departing over the hills that surround Ernabella. After Kenmore Park its off to a predominately white community called Umuwa. We wait here around 20 minutes to stay on time.

After Umuwa its off to Fregon. This is also only around 15nm down the road (Literally). There is a road straight after take-off which i follow which puts me on a straight in approach rwy 15.

Here is a photo of the strip at Fregon. Fregon gets busy sometimes and i have seen a few 402's on the ramp at one time.

Here is a Chieftan taking off from Fregon. Good looking plane! From here we go on the 30nm leg to Mimili. I forgot to mention - When i was at Umuwa i had a strange request. I was asked to transport an injured bird back to Alice Springs. I wasnt sure on the correct procedure for this, as im sure im not really allowed to fly animals in the cabin without them being properly caged etc etc. However, it was in a pretty bad shape, and without wings to fly i put it under the back seats for the flight. I figured it was a mercy flight for the bird and checked on him at every stop.

He was pretty angry and kept trying to bite me, but we got him to Alice in one piece and the Wildlife Department place picked him up the moment i landed.

Here is a picture of Mimili, our last stop. The strip is around 3nm to the right of this photo. This photo was actually taken on my first week of work at my company! Im pretty sure i was in the right seat for this leg as the other dude wanted to have a fly! From here its 205nm back to Alice Springs.

Happy Easter.