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.

Some new charters!

Its been a while since i have posted, and sorry for that. I have been incredibly busy working 2 jobs and seem to be constantly working or sleeping.. with the occaisional drinking and eating.

This post i will talk about a slow charter to Elcho Island in a C206. It is about 300nm, and with a headwind, it seemed to take ages. We had to take a 206 due to the heavy equipment they had for soil testing. Not sure what the reason was, but we were there for only 40 minutes before we headed back home. The return leg tailwind was much appreciated.

Anyway the trip to Elcho, goes over some of the most northern parts of the Australian continent. Probably the most northern parts, except for the Cape York and Horn Island areas in Far North Queensland. The direct route flown meant we pass near Maningrida and Milingimbi, which i have also flown to recently and will talk about in later posts.

All these areas are served by regular charter flights and RPT operations, with planes as large as the Emb. Brasilia and Metroliners. I believe Vincent Aviation operates Beech 1900's as well, but that might just be the Groote and Gove runs (2 Other places i have recently been to!) (Gove is also served by 717's that go between Darwin and Cairns).

So without boring you too much i'll go back to the usual post a bunch of pictures and talk about them.

A view from the street in Elcho that i sat for 40 minutes odd. I didn't really get many shots of Elcho itself, nor the airstrip, due to doing a straight in approach which was pretty much all over water! Next time i'm that way i'll take a photo of the relation of Elcho to the mainland.

The last 3 photos were from the very northern coast as we were flying. The pictures turned out well, and having been flying for so long around all areas that people pay a lot of money to see, i don't really appreciate nor look too hard out windows these days. But this definately made my head turn and i think some of the passengers even grabbed their cameras.

So i promise i will do another blog post sooner, that i did this one. I also went flying with a mate who visited from Sydney which was good, and got some photos of that, into Milingimbi.

Thanks for reading.

Class C to Class C

I know i have done it before, but it would have been when i was still training. That is flying from a radar controlled aerodrome to another radar controlled aerodrome. No CTAF calls, no changing squawk code etc. I have done Sydney to Canberra, Albury and Essendon. Possibly Tamworth? However its been years. So last Saturday i had to fly from Darwin to Tindal (Katherine) which is a military controlled aerodrome. Although not always active, it happened to be on Saturday. Nothing really overly exciting about it, but was kinda cool for a change. Katherine is about 350km south east of Darwin for those of you playing at home.

The town of Katherine. Fairly small, only 10,000 odd people. Have driven through there many times in my travels!

Most interesting thing i have seen in ages. A DC-10 tanker operated by Omni air. Not sure what it was doing in Tindal, but one would assume refuelling operations, of the mid-air variety.



Passengers on todays flight. Back home from school.

A rainbow. Turned out a lot better than i expected it would.

Finally - Tindal aerodrome. You can see all the military hardstands. The RPT/Charter apron is the far right side off the end of the rwy.

Anyway.. thanks for reading.

A few dodgy photos from my phone

I have been meaning to upload and edit some of the photos i took of my flight to Elcho Island and the shorelines of the very northern areas of the Australian continent, and thus have forgotten to take my camera with me recently. However, i had my phone with me to snap these shots! Not the best quality but still, you get the idea!

I'll spare all the details of what happened, the company etc etc. Not really fair to write about it, when the details of how it happened are cloudy at best. We all know the supposed story, but i dare say the real story is being held very close. There were 2 C206's involved at a remote airstrip. The other one is in a hanger across the way, but this one is probably here until they figure out what to do with it. So i snapped some pics while i still have the chance to see it!

I'll get some more blog happening soon so you can keep up to date with my flying adventures. Its very busy at work, but will remember to pack my camera soon!

All the best!

Sitting in Lake Evella

Im on a wait (again) in Lake Evella (again!). Its good though we get internet in the top end communities so the waits with my laptop, movies, food and ipod is pretty cruisey. Its hit March and it seems the wet season is virtually over. Not too many tempo periods on the forecast, no more insane scud running, no more instrument approaches (well.. on the ATIS anyway). So i thought i would post a few photos from the wet which i have taken.

Other than that i have not a whole lot to report, except moving apartments and starting a second job to help pay some bills. We have a big day ahead of us on Sunday as its a AFL grand final on the Tiwi Islands, and we are moving something like 300 people. This involves to my knowledge doing "hot" turn arounds in the metroliners, which involves leaving one engine running while deplaning and boarding the aircraft. I will hopefully capture some of this next weekend and post it here.

Big storm over Howard Springs which is the initial approach fix of the Darwin rwy 29 ILS. I was going to Bathurst Island and had to wait a little bit before i got back in.

Both were on the way to Borroloola. Not bad storms at all, but they are still cool to fly around.

This was taken on the ground in Palumpa. That was one of the worst days i have had to fly in terms of dodging weather.

Enjoy