Although I would be staying in Manjimup for two nights, my first task the next day after a breakfast of hot chocolate and a donut still took me back to the airport. There I was meeting the president of the flying club who had offered to help me refuel, and I was planning to perform an oil change on Planey during the same visit. Both of these tasks were accomplished straightforwardly, and I returned Planey to his parking space and…
By the next morning the rain had ceased. The hotel laid on the shuttle bus back to the airport. Driving across the river, the impact of the previous day’s rain was already obvious; sand bars which had had swimmers lounging on them the day before were now entirely submerged, and the speed of the river had picked up remarkably. It would not be long, just a matter of weeks, before this bridge was washed away entirely. A pilot was pre-flighting…
The various Darwin “Big Things” are quite widely scattered around the city and its surroundings; a rental car is really the only practical way to get around them. After breakfast in a coffeeshop, the “Budget” location around the corner provided a little white SUV for the day. I planned a route around the big things, starting with the furthest away, then working back towards the city. First stop; the “Big Jumping Crocodile”. This is located an hour’s drive outside Darwin…
There was still one “Big Thing” to see before departing Tully, and this was the Big Golden Gumboot, just a five-minute detour on the way back to the airport. The region around Tully is renowned for heavy rainfall, with regular flooding, and the Golden Gumboot is a nod to this reputation. Situated in the middle of town, overlooking the sugar mill, its height of 2.9 meters (25ft) is a nod to the highest recorded annual rainfall back in 1950. A…
There was heavy rain all through the night, loud on the tin roof of AJ’s home. I didn’t sleep well, worrying about the state of the runway and whether I’d be able to depart as planned. By the time I arrived at Luskintyre on the Monday morning Rhys already had the cowls off and the oil draining for the oil change. Water was running down the taxiway, but the ground was firm and Rhys told me the surface should be…
After a long journey from the UK my flight touched down in Sydney late on a Wednesday night. I had hand-carried a new 7kg starter motor for Planey half way around the world and was really looking forward to getting rid of the thing. By the time I had cleared immigration and made it out of the airport it was much too late to get the train north to my final destination, so I rode a couple of stops on…
An Uber carried me back to Archerfield, where I loaded my overnight bag into Planey and pre-flighted. I departed to the southeast, back towards the coast. My first destination was Heck Field, the home of the Gold Coast Sport Flying Club. I switched to the common traffic frequency a few minutes out, hearing two light sport aircraft in the pattern practicing their take-offs and landings. I slotted into the traffic pattern between them and landed, taxiing in to park in…
I started my day bright and early with a visit to the nearby market for some breakfast. This bustling assortment of stalls was mostly full of various juicy and exotic fruits, but there was no shortage of pastries and drinks to choose from. Now well-fed, I called an Uber and rode back to Cairns’ GA terminal. The gate was locked, so I called the posted number and waited on the airport operations truck to arrive on the other side of…
It was a peaceful night at Hell’s Gate and the temperature early the next morning was much more agreeable as I prepared Planey for departure. I taxied back across the road and set off down the runway, turning right away from the rocky escarpment and made my way east. I tracked east towards the small settlement at Doomadgee, a mostly indigenous community with a population of about 1,400. A mission was established here in 1933 with the intention of providing…
I had spent much longer in Western Australia than expected, and seen rather less than I had hoped. Today I would be leaving at last and entering the Northern Territory. I had filled in the required paperwork and received my travel approval a few days earlier, so I was good to go. This was a good thing given the lack of internet access in this part of the world! It was still before 7am, and reception was not yet open….