Odd Freight

At this new job, it seems nothing is impossible. I say that in the best possible way as well, because flying is all about repeat business and customer service. Having said that, I guess if there is a will, then there is a way. I haven't really had to deal with too much odd freight in my time. Sure we have had planes absolutely chocked full of mail, newspapers, mining equipment, books etc etc. But this last job caught me off guard a little. I didnt really know how to load it, or how to even get it into the plane. When the guy delivered it, i asked him to bring it inside to weight it. He laughed at me. Once i saw what it was i understood why. Having said that, it was all fairly liftable, so weight wasnt a problem. It was just.. not really suited to a single engine cessna even with the seats removed.




The freight offloaded!

Its not as clear in the photos as to how crazy it was loaded and what the freight was. I believe it was a small diesel generator, and its mounting, plus a few lengths of what i think was cement piping. When you have jobs like this in 34 degree tropical heat, it makes me wonder why i even bother ironing my white shirt or showering in the morning. I think id been at work a total of 40 minutes before i was drenched in sweat and dirty from loading.

The freight was for a community on the Tiwi islands called Snake Bay. Its a sealed strip and about 60nm away from Darwin. Anyway long story short we eventually got all the freight in. Even the bloke that helped me load it was laughing that we got it in. We got talking and apparently his brother is a Cathay Pacific 747 captain. He took a photo himself to show his brother.

Snake bay from the air and the ground. There is regular public transport operated here in C404's and C402's.

Some Recent Flying

I have been flying a lot lately. I have been back to Borroloola (Brl) twice now. Not quite as long as Alice to Brl, but within 40nm. Its 384nm from Darwin to Brl, which is longer than flying Sydney Melbourne, for those of you playing at home. Then obviously 384nm on the return leg. You usually get good winds one way which makes one of the legs semi enjoyable! I took off on the first trip early to get some night hours. The C210 that i was flying is decked out with all the gear so its nice to have good avionics.



This was taken after leaving controlled airspace. I was at 7500ft initially, but then decided to descent lower as the winds were better. You can see its got some good gear in the plane from the photo!



This is a photo looking into the Gulf of Carpentaria, which runs between the NT and Far North Queensland. Taken on the return leg.

This picture is similar!

Sunrise. Not quite at 35000, rather... 5500. Only 30000ft difference to a jet. Maybe one day i'll post photos from 35000ft. I hope so anyway.

I have lots of photos of storms, and weather, water, islands that i was going to post, but i'll save them for another post i think. I have one more photo of the community of Ngukurr. Pronounced "nooker" i always heard people talk about it, as a lot of pilots are based at remote communities, and Ngukurr was a reasonably common base for pilots. So on the way back from Brl i detoured to get a photo.

Enjoy.

NT news

Thought i would post some good headlines from the Northern Territory newspaper. There are actual websites/facebook groups dedicated to how silly some of it is, and i don't know whether they do it on purpose or whether there is simply nothing better to write about. Im not sure what percent of readers are Australian or international, but if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask!


(These are only a small percentage of silly headlines i have seen)