Interesting circuit area.

Springsure is not recommended to practice circuits.

• 1500' AGL hills at the end of the main runway.


• 1000' cliff faces on both the left and right hand side of the circuits.


• No straight in approaches are possible except if arriving from Emerald and a southerly wind is blowing.


• Idiots who build house's at the very end of any airstrip. (Within 15m with the roof just above the runway level.)

Who in their right mind would build a house at the very end of an airstrip. One nasty downdraft and you would have an aircraft in the lounge room. I would hope a court would knock back a claim for 3rd party damages due to the negligence of the owner. Wait for the noise complaints and damage to their TV aerials.

Flying from Springsure to Roma was rough with Thermals bouncing me around everywhere. I could not out climb them on several occasions with some downdrafts causing me to lose almost 1000' per minute. Biggest updraft caused me to gain almost 1500' in just over a minute. The hills of the Cannavaion Gourge national park can create some pretty nasty turbulence.

Queenslanders do not have the right to bag Victorian weather with Roma being just 3 degrees this afternoon. It was nice and sunny though.

And now for something completely different.

Now that looks strange, It's green. I have spent the last couple of days working between Monkira and South Galway stations in the channel country. The differance of just a hours flying is amazing.

I flew from Windorah to Emerald taking just under 4 (flying) hours to get across the 1000 kilometers. Encountered my first real tail wind of the trip just outside of Blackall (yes the saying is true... Bugger all in Blackall) and I was getting an extra 30 knots ground speed for quite a while. A few hundred feet of differance in altitude added almost 15 knots. If I had driven it would have taking at least 13 hours due to the state of the roads. Much better than sitting in the drivers seat getting a very sore back from the roads.

Air travel out here makes a huge differance. It is over a five hour drive from Windorah to Charlieville but only one and half hours in the slow jab. Getting rid of the corners and detours cuts at least a third off the trip.

I Had my first airbourne encounter with a Wedge tail eagle at 4900' about 30 miles from Emerald. Still don't know who was more surprised. There seems to be a common theme to any Australian travel. Road kill.

I am heading down to Springsure in the morning, ERSA makes special mention of avoiding hills around the airstrip so that may be interesting. Hodgson downs had no mention of the dog leg final approach so mmmmm.

Mud and Dust

Muddy shoes one day and red dust the next.

I spent the weekend in Melbourne after jumping on a 'commercial' flight. It was nice to see the house starting to look like the real thing and not just a empty shell. It did feel a bit strange scraping the mud of my shoes instead of the dust and stones inside of my boots.

I returned to Mount 'Rip off' Isa yesterday and flew out to Hillside this morning. You don't realise how busy the air traffic is in northern Australia until till you try and take off at 08:00. There were at least 15 other aircraft waiting for their opportunity to back track down the runway.

Spent a few hours talking to the owner about his 'proposed' system and then flew into Cloncurry for fuel. I timed things really well again and got mixed up the 'knock off' mine flights as I was coming into land. I Ended up waiting for 45 mins for fuel as the refueller was busy serving the bigger boys (read $$$). I managed to time the flight from Cloncurry to Boulia perfectly and touched down exactly 15 mins before the official sunset.

I am head out to Monkira in the morning to spend a day checking over the system and will then Head to IOR on Friday. I am aiming to be back in Melbourne in about 10 days time.

Coupladaysmate...

Well,

I spent the weekend waiting for parts at Daly waters pub suffering the never ending groundhog day and then got back out to Kidman Springs to upgrade the Motor controller hardware and C1 software.

ER series Kubota motors have not been designed to have 'any' automation installed on them. Small hint Big Bro... Great motor but the concept of trying to fit a rack puller solenoid is best left to the more patient types. Never day die... I managed to get everything working with a few hacks. Now if the motor had been mounted correctly from the start life would have been much easier with a log less swearing.

I headed into Tennant Creek last night and have now touched down in Mount Isa after a very boring (read - trim, stay awake, trim, stay awake oh I had better wait and fly in circles till the Qantas 737 and the Macair flight have gotten out of my way). The Barkly is looking very dry. I saw more vegetation when I crossed the Tanami Desert yesterday heading to Tennant Creek.

I am heading home to Melbourne for the weekend to have a good look at the new house as it is now at fixout stage. A couple more weeks and it will almost be ready to move in. :). I will be returning to Mt Isa on Tuesday to continue the trip. I might bump into a couple of people this weekend.

Everything is south from here and I should be home for a longer stay in about 2 weeks.

Back into civilisation.

Back into Daly Waters Pop. 27 (locals and 300 terrorists) to wait for the Friday night mail truck. There are only so many spare parts that can be carried at once and many more ways to break things you don't have spare parts for. I should be heading back to Kidman springs for a couple of hours work in the morning and then heading east to Cloncurry (QLD)on Sunday.

I've spent the last 3 days or so at Hogdson Downs working with some of the locals trying to set up their own cattle station. The weather everyday has been around 33-34 degrees with a nice sea breeze. The locations are amazing and the fishing is even better. Vincent (one of the community Elders) has been trying to convince me to come back for a weekends fishing just before the Wet.

The locals are trying to create a independent, successful community and are determined to do what they can to make it happen. The elders have all welcomed the 'intervention' and think it's great that the new local copper has taken on the challenge of coaching the local footy team.

I'm glad that followed rule number one of using bush airstrips... Precautionary overflys are highly recommended even though that I was told the airstrip would be the best place to land. Those little bushes are a little larger when you are on the ground and looking at them. The nice long runway at the community was the best option and all the local kids found it funny that someone my size could fit into a 'little' plane like the Jabiru. :)

Snakes alive.

Todays Count.

3 King Browns (one flattened under the Hilux :))
1 Whip Snake. (good for whip handles according to my guides and also meant to be very tasty)
2 Black headed Pythons.

Anybody would think that I was in Arnhem Land or something. One of the photos shows Vincent carring a crow bar. they are the best thing to drop onto a snake to slow them down when walking thru the grass up here.

The country side is amazing with numerous swamps, Donkeys, miles of Bull Dust (not just from the locals) and snakes by the thousands. The blokes made there own lunch on the run from a long neck turtle they found in a water hole. I will draw a line at eating locally on this trip.

Flying in here was interesting with a final approach requiring a little weaving thru the hills before touching down. The normal wind is from the east but has been blowing from the west for the past couple of days.

Heading further Bush...

I Completed the small job that I needed to do at VRD and 'Installed' a motor controller at Kidman Springs so the guys don't need to swim the creek during the wet. I'm sure the 'bloody lizards' would help the olympic swimming teams training. Those 'bloody lizards' also have some fine dining with Tony's prize fillet on offer. The beef just keeps getting better as I head further north. Nothing tastes as good a real steak sandwich at Kidman Springs.

The boys from Helimuster NT at VRD did a fantatic job on the service with the girl now absolutely purring. I was surpised to say the least at the food. Gary (resort chief) can put on a great feed and I would encourage anyone to book the Helimuster NT motel room for the night. Great place with some great fishing spots within walking distance from the work shop. Sunday is a day of recreational flying so avoid the blokes attached to the eleven meter kites running up and down the strip.

Barra fishing at VRD is the favourite hobby of most of the boys. Reef 'n' Beef is the staple diet.

I am currently sitting at Daly waters enjoying the shade of a previous employers pub.

It was a very interesting landing at Daly waters. It appears that the old copy of ERSA is a little out of date. (about 40 years). The runway is about 3000m long and about 40m wide. The trees growing out of the bituman at either end could make life interesting for anyone other than a Jabiru. Ok maybe a STOL would work. Look out for tourist's taking a scenic drive down the strip. I hope I scared the crap out of them.

It's a shame that a significant part of WW2 and early international flight history is slowly rotting away. The pre-world war 2 hanger is finally getting used for it's intended purpose after a break of several years.