Man Vs Wild

Yes, thats me with Bear Grylls from Man vs Wild. Great show. He came into work as they were filming him and using our DC-3 which i wrote about last post.

Here are some recent photos flying. Loving the baron. The one in the photo is an E-55. Has an empty weight was 1581kg, instead of 1730kg of the BE58, but has the same engines, making it the pocket rocked. Indicates around 170kts which is pretty decent for a piston twin.

ciao!

DC-3

I recently got the experience to fly on a DC-3 recently. Unfortunately i didn't have my camera for the inflight part, as it was semi unexpected and i was actually walking out the gate to my car to go home when i was asked if i wanted to jump on for the quick flight. (Note: This is actually a C-47, which is the military variant of the DC-3)

But i did manage to get some photos earlier in the day when it was sitting in front of the hangar.

Its quite amazing how big they are inside and up close.

These are some photos i took before i had to go flying.

This is the flight deck of the DC-3.

Looking out the window. Massive engines and sits a lot higher off the ground than i realised!



Looking from the tail up to the flight deck. This DC-3 i believe holds 28 passengers.

From the ground looking up at the big Pratt and Whitney radial engines!

All in all a pretty cool experience. I can add DC-3 to the list planes i have been on.

New Plane!

You might notice there is something out the window that isn't usually there? Correct, its a second engine. Got checked to the Baron the other day and has been awesome flying it again. Beautiful plane, reasonably fast for a piston, and just good for a change. I have around 1200 hours on Cessna 200 series, so something new fast and a bit of a challenge is refreshing. We also fly them IFR so its good to have something to do in flight. Instead of monitoring centre, i actually talk to them.

So i got a charter to Gove. Normally a cringe at the sight of that in a single, but as im flying a new plane, it was quite refreshing to do a long leg, and get some hours. Its 350nm each way, and if you have read this blog enough, you will know i have done similar distant flights many times in singles.

Gove is basically a big mining town on the very northeastern part of the Northern Territory. As said before, apart from Far North Queensland, there isnt much of Australia that sits beyond it. But i had a good day in Gove. I met up with a few of the pilots that live in Gove for other companies, went into town and visited the beach. Apparently Gove is ok to swin at, despite sharks and crocodiles still being a threat. Its stinger season at the moment, so i resisted going in!

I got bored and started taking photos. Here is the main passenger cabin. It sits 4 people in club seating. 3 is bareable, but you can't really take 4, and usually put one up the front.

The photo below is part of Gove airport. I have no idea what it was used for or its function. I don't think it was ever a control tower, but was unaware what it was used for.

Anyway thanks for reading.