Flying to Kununurra at Night

Back again to where i used to live and work for my first job! Kununurra-- is in the north-west area of Australia in the Kimberley region. It was a good flight, and i left late evening, almost at last light. Was nice to fly there in a twin finally and not worry so much about the crocodile infested water below.

At the moment in Darwin, there is a military exercise called pitch black, so getting slot times and taking note of the restricted airspace in the notams is important. My traffic for arrival into Kununurra was a squadron of F-111 jets doing low-level flying. Was also waiting at the holding point in darwin for 20 minutes for a squadron of F-18's to land. Always good (and loud) to see them in action.





Darwin after take-off.. lightish on fuel and empty down meant good performance.

Anyhoo, flight was last minute down to Kununurra (I had just returned from a charter to Elcho Island). The flight to knx from Darwin is 238nm. Got some good photos of the sunset which the photos really didn't do justice. Because it was night when i landed in Kununurra i did the RNAV rwy12 approach. Mainly because i don't like doing visual approaches at night and also to keep my instrument recency.



RNAV approach plate.. The baron doesnt have control column clips so you need to brief and understand the plate before you start the approach as its often hard to read it in the dark while flying.

This was the best photo of the sunset, but still, the photo does it no justice. Cheers for reading..

Bored doing an all day wait

The only reason im writing this is to cure boredom. So if its rambles or just pictures, apologies in advance. I get borred quite quickly, and with newly acquired music im happy to sit here typing away listening to it!

I have done a lot of flying recently. I went to Tennant Creek recently and flew back at night which was a cool charter. Was weird to be back in Central Australia. I had actually forgotten the dry heat, the smells and just how different it is to the top end. But it was good hours for the logbook, nice to meet up with some of the boys from my old company, and even a dude i worked with in Kununurra was there. Good news San Diego!




Flying down to Tennant. This is near the waypoint DOSAM which is about 150nm north of Tennant, near Elliot.





A blurry photo coming back into Darwin at around 1am. Was really hard to get a shot, and this was the best result!

Other than that the flying has been pretty routine. Similar places etc. I did goto Robinson River the other day. Its only about 100km from Borroloola which i have spoken about in 2 previous posts. Thats one place in the NT i hadn't been too which was pretty regular for my last company. So was interesting to go there, even if all i did all day was watch cable tv.

Lining up at Milingimbi with a conquest backtracking behind me.

Some of the coastline between Maningrida and Milingimbi.

Anyway till next time.

200nm Over Water

Not really a big deal, but was the longest i had ever been over water, especially in a piston twin. Was pretty cool seeing nothing but blue the entire way around the aeroplane. I was flying to Kalumburu (western Australia), which is probably on the most north-western area of Australia. I used to go there a lot when i worked at my first job in Kununurra, as its reasonably close.

As you can see there isn't much! No radar or VHF out here so all positon reports were made on HF radio.

The baron sitting at Kalumburu. Last time i was in Kalumburu it was a dirt strip! So it was good to see it was sealed.

Kalumburu from the air. I joined a right downwind for the purpose of the photo.

Welcome!

Flying to Gove, Groote and Bickerton Island.

I got the sort of charters i love doing. I got the fly to Gove empty at night (im always after night hours!), then overnighted, and flew a technician to Bickerton Island, which is about 15nm from Groote. We then flew to Groote, then back to Gove. I then flew home empty from Gove back to Darwin. Good flying. Although by the end of the return leg i went a bit crazy, plus my headset broke on that leg. I dont know how, but i ended up using earplugs, the hand mic in the plane and the speaker on the roof. Was ok when i was talking to centre, but was a bit tricky hand flying the plane and talking to approach.

Anyway was pretty cool. Its now hit the dry season, like someone turned a switch. No transition, just one day it suddenly wasnt humid, wasnt raining and is blue sky. Although there are a lot of fires all over the places, which makes everything really hazy.

This was the haze after take off from Darwin. Im sure the sun and light at the time didnt help, but it was almost like flying above a layer of cloud.

I get bored at night.. easily! This was the best photo i took. I think i had the overhead light on. Flying at night also means doing an instrument approach so i dont kill myself. I did the RNAV rwy 13 via WC.

Flying to Bickerton Island the next morning. Was awesome flying over the water!

Approach in to Bickerton, i think!

A picture from the main wharf thing on Groote. Was a nice day as well, so i didnt mind being outside.

Night flying.. Again!

So this post is all about the pictures. Had to do a charter where i picked up a doctor from Timber Creek and then flew her to Yarralin for the day. Then return to Darwin in the afternoon. I love night flying, and im less scared from it now that i have a second donk on the wing.

I think i departed at quarter to sixish, which is about an hour of flying at night. Anyway twin flying at night is one of the few things that still gets me really excited about flying.




Its really hard to take a photo at night, thats in focus, while waiting for a 1900 to take off before you on the runway at YPDN. This is with a bit of help from my friend boredom and photoshop is the final result.



Sitting on rwy 11, using my landing lights for a change as the 1900 taxis into position. They let him depart ahead of me due seperation, as we were both tracking south. And from memory a jet departed ahead of us, so also due wake turbulence.



1900 in position and holding..



Slowly rising sun and 8000ft.



Finally, sunrise from 8,000ft. Good times, good times.

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.