William Creek

Well, last monday i got a phone call telling me that i had to goto William Creek for a week. I cant tell you how much a phone call like this sinks even the highest spirits. Doing time in remote Australia can test anyone. So, i wont say i was negative about it, but my spirits were definately lifted when i found out another pilot i work with was going down with me. On top of that they didnt explain that id be flying for the week as well.

We were sent down to help a company out doing scenic flights over Lake Eyre in South Australia. All their pilots had run out of duty and hours and 2 planes needed maintenance. Its about 340nm to William Creek from Alice Springs.

So when i arrived it was dark, and met the owner and got set up in one of the houses they had. I should let you know, William Creek has literally a pub, a campground and the two houses that the company doing scenics owned. So its very remote, located on the Oodnadatta track, between Coober Pedy and Marree.

Here is a photo of the William Creek pub. The bloke on the left is Rich, who is an awesome bloke and hope i can somehow keep in contact with him.

Anyway all things considered, i had a ball! I was well looked after, good meals and accomodation, good fun with the boys that worked there full time, made some friends and learnt how to ride a quad bike. The flying and scenery was amazing to put lightly, so i didnt mind doing the scenic flying, although its not my first choice. I hate cramming 5 tourists into a C210. However, they all seemed to enjoy it, and i got to have some fun flying and a good change from doing mailruns every week! I can say that if i was looking for a first job all over again, i would definately consider this company, as they looked after their pilots, good flying and overall a lot of fun.

I'll leave you with some photos of the Lake taken at sunset.

Random

Not sure what i am going to post about, so i thought i would collect some random photos of the night flying and overnights i have done recently.

Here are some photos of my accomodation whilst i was in Lajamanu, which is also known as Hooker Creek. Apparently i was lucky to get this accomodation and the other facilities are quite a bit more rundown. I guess i was very lucky that it wasnt too hot and wasnt in summer,

I have been trying to get some night hours so when i have early departures i try to leave an hour or more earlier to get some night time. Same as a late departure, i will wait around till dark. Sometimes it doesnt feel the best to do in a single engine plane, but i guess the plane doesn't know it's night time.

These photos are a pictures of me flying home from Warburton, which is around 420 something nautical miles away. When IFR we go via waypoint rooks, Ayers Rock and arntu. The photos i'm going to post arent that clear, but its hard to get a good shot at night without a tripod and while flying a plane!

Alice rwy 12 ILS.

The next photo is primarily for my dad. Its a picture of some Bluff thingy he asked me about, and although i know the name of it, it eludes me everytime i think of it go to talk about it, but for him here it is!

I also recently did a tour of Giles meteorological station which is right near the community of Warakurna, which isnt too far from Warburton. I got the tour as i was flying a guy who is responsible for fixing some of the gear they have down there. Was an interesting day and i learnt a lot. I also had the absolute correct winds from the weather balloon they lauched earlier to me arriving, so i didnt need to get any extra fuel thanks to that knowledge, which worked out well as the bowser they have at Giles was broken.

The last photo i will leave you with is sunrise inbound to Tennant Creek. I cant remember what charter or mailrun this was, but its a cool photo and made getting up at around 3am worth it.

South East Mail

I did the south east mail recently, a run which i used to do a lot but hadn't touched in months. Its a good run for the hours and reasonably quick. Basically covers the top eastern cattle stations of South Australia, and some in the Northern Territory. Its good as its mainly cattle stations and not communities, so the load is light and there is nearly always someone to meet you, sometimes with a coke or pie!

I will let the photos do the talking today, as there is not a whole lot to say about it. The furthest south we go is a place called Todmorten. Its reasonably close to Coober Pedy, the opal mining town in South Australia.

This is at 6:55am, Alice Springs Airport. One 210 just departed doing a Western Mailrun, the plane in front is doing the same water run i posted about a while ago. This on holding point bravo, rwy 12.

Rwy 12 at Alice Springs. It has just been recently resurfaced, but they havent grooved the surface yet, so all the jets need to use the full length to backtrack when they land.

Nothing but sand dunes and barren landscape between 2 cattle stations, Numery and Andado. This was taken at around 8am.

This is on approach into Finke. Finke is the only community that we land at on this run. You can see we have no troubles buzzing the community when we land on rwy 15. Weirdly rwy 15 is also on the 150 radial from Alice airport, so to go directly to Finke from Alice, its a slight turn after take off and a straight in approach. Finke is also the the community where people overnight on the Finke desert race, for all those into motorcycles.

Approach into New Crown Station. It's about 15nm from Finke.

Mount Dare Strip! Took me a while to actually work out where it was the first time i flew here. It used to be our refuelling stop, but not anymore for some reason. It has a weird "taxiway" at the end of the runway, which is like a dirt road that leads up to the hangar.

The weird "taxiway." This is looking back towards the runway.

Typical bush Australia type photo! Couldnt resist.

This is a photo of Lambina Station. The runway looks a lot harder to see in this photo than it actually is.

I'll leave it at that, hope you enjoy. I also posted a video on youtube of a landing at Umuwa which i spoke about last post. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFJEpZADClw

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.

Camooweal

Well this was probably one of the best charters i have done. It was to take one kid home from Darwin for the school holidays. He was a good kid, as indigenous kids go. Talkative, helped me out and was well behaved. Had a lot of luggage for one person though!





That line you can see is the border between Qld and the NT. I was suprised to be able to see such a distinct borderline, but there it was, right where the GPS said it would be!



So i flew him home to Camooweal which was my first landing in the state of Queensland. Camooweal is just over the border from the Northern Territory on the Barkly Highway. It is a big refuelling stop for cars that are travelling from Queensland to the Northern Territory and vice versa. It even had a sealed strip which is a luxury with my flying. Means a lot less dirt on the underbelly when i have to clean it.

The top picture is of Camooweal from the ground. The second one is Camooweal from the air after departure. You can see the Barkly Highway going through the town, onto Cloncurry and Longreach.

The charter consisted of dropping him off where i met his father who shook my hand and drove off after. It was a 350nm leg and i had a groundspeed of 180 the whole way which is really impressive for a 210. I then took off for Baikal where i had a refuelling stop. On the return leg i expected to be very slow, but i still had a groundspeed of 150, which is decent for a 210.

A picture of "Baikal international Airport." That is our fuel supply, which is pretty much the only feature of the strip.

A photo showing how you refuel out of a drum by yourself in 35 degree heat!

At Baikal I just put 50L in to get me home. Probably could have gotten home without it, but would have been on minimum fuel. The trouble with that is, around Alice Springs there are pretty much no strips nearby if you cant get in for any reason. However, in the unlimited visibility blue skies it isnt a problem most days. Although more than a few pilots have been caught out by this. As per usual i will let the photos do the talking! I even uploaded a video this time, shows me landing rwy 15 at Baikal.

4 Hours to Go!

4 hours till im meant to take off too Murray Downs. It always seems like a short flight, but its the same distance of Ayers Rock to Alice Springs, about 180 miles. In a 210 thats around 75 minutes. Im not looking forward to todays flight for a few reason. Its in a plane with a new engine so im probably going to have to sit in the bumps and heat. And most likely i will get the plane ready and be at work for a few hours for a no show passenger. But such is life.

Anyway, i thought i would post some photos of last friday. I had to do a flight with one of the blokes i live with. He was flying the passenger Cheiftan and i was in the freight 210. Was a good day. We both operate efficiently and managed to get home a few minutes early. In doing so we managed to get a few photos of each other landing. I had some good opportunities to get him taking off, however my battery died as i was about to snap. Again, such is life.

Some of our photos to people who dont fly much would think they are a tad dodgy, but it was an extremely windy day and i thought we both handled it well. Its good when you fly with a mate, just makes the day go by a lot quicker. And you can have some fun!

This is the windsock at Mount Davies. I cant pronounce the Aboriginal name, although it sounds a bit like "pip-il-jarra."

An action shot of me landing at Mount Davies. As you can see by the windsock photo above, i needed some crosswind technique.

Ever wandered how much dust is blown over from a departing aircraft at all these unpaved strips we land at? Well this is an action shot Phil took of me taking off from Mount Lindsay or "Wattaru." This also demonstrates why we have to clean our aircraft so often!

I believe this shot is of yours truely taxiing out at Amata. Its the only paved community strip we goto on this run, apart from Ayers Rock and Alice Springs Airport.

An inflight shot of me in the 210 taken from the Chieftan. We were inbound to a place called Nyapari. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the stories! feel free to comment.

Thanks for reading.

VH-AJS

So i lost my handheld camera.. somehow. Im not sure how it happened, but it did. So i have been forced to learn how to use my SLR. Not a bad thing, but also not that convenient to carry.

However, back to the title of the post. This is the rego of a Westwind aircraft, operated by Pel-Air, that crashed on approach into Alice Springs back in 1995. This is the ATSB report for the crash for anyone interested.

http://http//www.atsb.gov.au/publications/investigation_reports/1995/AAIR/pdf/aair199501246_001.pdf

I wont go into much detail with it, but it was definately something, although a tad morbid, i enjoyed researching and seeing the wreckage. They were doing a NDB/Locator approach, which used 3 different navaids, which was at the time unique to Alice Springs airport. There were a whole list of things that went wrong, however the crux of the crash was that the FO set the minimums of the approach to 2,300 feet, rather than the 3,100 required for CAT C aeroplanes. However, the captain agreed with the minimums that the FO set. They also had excessive decent rates after the final approach fix. And finally decended to the circling minima before being within the circling area, and being well below the MDA. When you see the crash site, its sad to know that if they had been around 20ft higher, they would not have collided.

This is a photo of the rock where they first collided. You can see aluminium scratch marks on the rock and then the trail of destruction begins. This is on the Northern Side of the Ilparpa range.

Some wreckage which you can follow along the trail. I have taken various shots of aircraft pieces. We found everything from the DME, to some of the cargo that was on board. Apparently when it crashed it was carrying a fair bit of money and it was said to have scattered money all over the ranges.

This photo shows you the southern side of the Ilparpa range. You can see a tiger A320 coming into land on rwy 12. The Ilparpa is on the Southern side to the Macdonnell ranges.

This is part of the main wheel and wing assembly. This is located in a small valley down the southern side of the range.

This is a piece of the fuselage. Hard to tell if its part of the cockpit section or the side, but you can see how devastating the impact was. We found one of the cockpit seats and it was almost unrecognisable as a seat.