The commercial flight to Sydney was 17 hours long, but I was lucky enough to get a complete row to myself and arrived having slept comfortably most of the way. All the staff in the airport were wearing face masks, concerned about the coronavirus, and I was asked to confirm that I’d not been in China in the last 2 weeks. It didn’t take long before I was on the train north to Newcastle, and my aunt’s apartment. I collected…
It turned out that the day did in fact end up being a “catastrophic fire danger” day. As a result pretty much all of the visitor attractions on the island were closed. It wasn’t a big surprise; it was dry, and blisteringly hot. We had waited until mid-morning to phone around and check the status of various attractions, so decided to head out for a drive along the island’s north coast which was supposed to be stunning. The Hertz representative…
Coober Pedy was a lot of fun, but we had to leave before Rowan went native and ended up living in a hole in the ground. It was another early start, leaving the motel just after six in another of the manager’s rental cars. We stopped briefly at the Coober Pedy town sign for some photos, before heading out to the airport, loading, and refueling. We backtracked down the runway, and departed, with great views of the town off to…
The original plan had been to head to Perth for two nights from here, but it had become very apparent that this would be far too long a distance to fly for such a short stay. Instead, we flew a few hours south to the opal mining town of Coober Pedy. We departed from Ayers Rock airport and flew the official scenic flight route out towards and along one side of the rock, before doubling back around Kata Tjuta and…
The taxi pulled up right as we walked out the door of the inn, with 2 smiling faces already inside. We set off to collect Ollie and were soon back at the airport, which was unfortunately closed. Luckily, the fence was not high, and the gate opened from the inside. Pre-flight was quick now that we’d all fallen into our assigned roles. Ollie checked the aircraft, I removed the tie-downs and checked the fuel, and Rowan loaded the luggage. Jen…
We woke just after 7, and all met in the lobby at 7:40. Our Uber gave us an inadvertent city tour on the way to the airport due to some navigational difficulties, but by 9am we were fueled and ready for departure. Our first flight of the day would be a 3 hour run; first to the coast at Bundaberg, followed by tracking the coastline up to Rockaway. Things were still pretty hazy, but much better than they’d been 2…
I touched down at Sydney airport, and after a short wait was on a tiny Rex airplane out to the city of Albury, New South Wales, where the rental 206 was based. I walked straight around to the aviation business of the owner, Stephen, and we jumped in the aircraft to do a quick flight checkout as I’d not flown a 206 before. It was not at all difficult to get the hang of, being very similar indeed to the…
I had arranged with the water-sports crew for a ride to the airport; they offered many services. The price mysteriously quadrupled between the original agreement and the pick-up, but I managed to negotiate it down again. I arrived at the airport at 0730, for my 0800 take-off; this was in line with the suggestions of my handling agent given that fueling was done. Unfortunately, the agent didn’t appear until 0800, and then immigration were nowhere to be found. They took…
There was no fuel available at Yogyakarta, and this next leg would be a domestic flight. All paperwork and fees were being taken care of by the handling agent. All we had to do was turn up, stroll through security, and get going. It slightly made up for the enormous costs of flying in Indonesia (around $1,500 in fees for a 3 night stop) – but only slightly. Now much lighter in fuel load, we shot off the runway and…
Most countries will send the flight permit, if it is required, days or even weeks in advance. Not so with Indonesia. I received the permit at 9pm the evening before the flight and I was told by my contact at Wings of Asia that this was considered early; usually, they come in the early hours of the morning on the day of departure! I like to have everything ready in advance so this had been rather stressful, with me checking…