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#1
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'twas a day when the world was shut....
I walked outside on Saturday while the toast was cooking and glanced upward at the most oppressive sight in days. eight eights blue sky is a common term but doesnt convey the oppressive nature of all that blue. ...truely it was an impressive eleven elevenths blue sky that day. "Hmmm, got to make use of this" I thought as the muffled kerplung of the toaster resonated behind me. a quick flog on to the airservices web site showed that the day was doable. just the mere trifling of a 20 knot headwind to keep life interesting. the BOM site showed pretty coloured satellite photos that looked pretty if not interesting. winding the weather radar out to 256km showed not a cloud to darken the day. "myrtle wheeeers me road map. I've got some flying to do!" ....you idiots would love it if I actually said such things wouldnt you :-) no. down with the toast and coffee. out with the wac chart and lordy me it doesnt even need the creases glued back together this time. pencil and whizz wheel flew into action. up to northam 33 nautical, hmmm douglass protractor where have I left you???? ahhh there it is. bearing in the middle of (you'd just love to know that wouldnt you?) Northam to Goomalling with the egg digesters, 22 nautical and, tweaking for mag variation 20 degrees close enough. Goomalling to Dallwallinu 65 nautical and 353 degrees. Dallwallinu to Perenjori, 50 nautical and 340 degrees. hmmm 205 nautical miles or thereabouts. wind is 25 knots from 20 degrees. hmmm 96 knots to Northam, 95 knots to Goomalling, 98 knots to Dallwallinu, and 100knots for the final leg. slow as snails all the way but what a blue sky to do it in. hmmm about an hour 45 or so to do the trip. whats it on the way back? hmm turn the whizz wheel around backwards. 138 knots out of Perenjori, 142knots to Goomalling, 144knots to Northam and 142 knots back home. will we give phil a ring first? hmmm no this will just be a navex to check fuel consumption. besides he might have CASA see me as a trophy. nup we'll just check out the consumptions after the carby refurb. stuffing around when the weather is as good as this saw me takeoff fully fuelled at just after midday. the flight out to Northam saw lively traffic on the radio as all and sundry were told to nick off out of encroached airspace. the stealth pilot was flying on blue maps though 'cause he left the brown ones home by accident after studying them and realising that nothing had changed. the old blue maps knew better than to poke me into c. I just flew on with the circus occurring all around me. 'hey stupid wots yer altitude' '3700 feet' 'thats wot we thought, nick off outa our airspace 'n do it real quick or you'll end up as a hood ornament for that A300 that's making a bee line through where you are' lordy me you think that the aeroclub types would learn to read maps 'n stuff :-) over the top of Northam we started climb to 4,500ft and pointed toward Goomalling though for some reason the eggs werent visible in the distance. At about Karrabein Hill we trimmed out for the cruise at viewing height and realised that if we didnt keep looking at Dowerin then Goomalling would look suspiciously like the group of eggs off to the left. a little course correction and over the top of the eggs we went, turning left at the intersection in true procedural IFR style. (btw I've always wondered what the eggs actually are) Over the top of Konnongorring we corrected a little ( 'we' as in me and the aeroplane, which has probably almost forgotten that it's name was Penelope when I bought it :-) ) and poked out just to the right of Wongan Hills. about this time I noticed that the circus on the radio had gone quiet so I dragged out the brown erc low. a couple of minutes perusal and I was thinking to my self what a useless bodge job they'd done on the map. one of the frequecies I needed was overprinted with a brown strip and even in strong light with the glasses on it was indecipherable. you'd think they'd check what they put out. anyway the frequency wasnt critical because I wasnt transmitting so I picked the one for the destination end of the trip and amazingly got reception. While I was doing the pilotage stuff I noticed that the layout of the lakes wasnt matching the map. a bit of a peer in the sunlight revealed that Lake Ninan had vanished completely into the furry glued up edge of a fold in the map. hmmm time for a new wac chart I thought. Just past Dallwallinu with nungadong on the nose I saw something that would make an agronomists eyes water. there was a huge plowed and seeded paddock. very clearly through the paddock was the lines of an old water course, all the way along the side of the water course were plowed in small billabongs. how did I know this? they were all green! the rest of the paddock was brown and it was all as flat as a rice paddy. I wonder if the farmer has ever realised that the soil in the old water course is different from the rest of the paddock. my bet was that the soil had a trace of clay through it and this was retaining the water in the soil. the effect on the growth of the crop was astounding. I took a photo. Out over Wubin I could still make out the accomodation units beside the pub that we'd spent a month working out of in the early 70's when we were preparing for the topographic mapping through there. The bloody place hasnt changed in 30 years it seems. Buntine, Maya, Latham and Bunjil all slid slowly under the nose as the first popcorn whisps of cloud from the frontal activity up north passed just over my nose. It wasnt a trick of the light I'm sure but a sign of recent rains the area was greening up as the crops emerged. In fact over toward Perenjori off to the north the area looked positively verdant. From Caron I lowered the nose and managed to have the old girl over the ton for the first part of the flight. Off in the distance lay Phil's airstrip. a huge gravel Y shaped thing to the north of the town. Now as slack as he may seem the Stealth Pilot never lands at a remote stip without a good precautionary search or two. it's a bloody long way to walk home if you break the aeroplane. Down to 50ft for a fang along the side of the runway. hmmmmm I must say that this strip looks pretty damn good. Up and around for a circuit and one more look before committing. Luckily the town is all on the airfield side of the main road so I made a pass along the side of the town to determin where the shops were and whether any were open. An ice cold Coca Cola would go down really well. I realised by the end of the town that 2:30 on a saturday afternoon really did amount to what it had always done in these areas. the bloody town was shut! not a single sign of life existed, even the pub was sitting marooned on the side of the road with not a parked car in sight. nothing for it but to make my last precautionary search and land on what looked like the far side of the moon. the second precautionary reinforced the sense of quality that first run gave me so around for a last circuit and in. The second flight past the town showed that it was shut alright. dead as a drive in theatre at midday. The actual landing reinforced just how flat the strip was. Whoever built it did a beautiful job. the gravel was just large enough that it didnt flick up into the prop or the tailplane and just small enough that it didnt feel like ball bearings under the wheels. I pulled around into the flying doctor park. Not a single soul stirred. A barnstormer would die of poverty out here :-) I wonder if they're the guys buried just off the end of the runway :-) I hopped out and dipped the tank. after all this was a fuel usage test. My heart skipped a beat. the flight into the twenty something knot headwind had taken exactly half the tank. now you probably dont see the reason for the heart irregularity. half the tank up, half the tank back, what's the problem? well the last 50 miles of the return trip is over absolutely unlandable tiger country. running out of fuel there would be curtains. ah well tackle that later. I walked almost all the way into town and not a soul stirred which didnt really matter because I knew it was shut. I took photos to prove to Phil that I'd actually been there. Circulation restored I walked back to the aircraft pondering the future. It was 2:30 on a saturday afternoon. absolutely everything between me and perth was shut!!! you mere mortals who have never flown will not realise that we pilots are confident in our technology. the 25 knot tailwind, if it still existed, would sort the matter out. better get out of the town and be on the way before it abated. I took off and circled back past the town and still nothing had stirred. nothing at all! No wonder that Phil asked me to ring ahead, he probably has to fly in a "population" whenever anyone visits :-) Up around 4,500ft again the winds were pushing me along at the best speed of the flight. higher and lower altitudes were less so it was 200ft under the clouds and bugger the pilotage, gps plot me a course direct to Northam. At one stage a very reassuring 142 knots was on the GPS. The chosen height was also so that I would skim the underside of the class C into Northam. At Northam with 138 knots on the GPS it was 'goto Mt Dale'. Three quarters of an hour spent over tiger country soon passed and I was over the top of the emerald city and in for a circuit and an uneventful touchdown. The tank dipped a reassuring 26 litres beside the clubhouse and it was in for a goffer. 3 hours 28 minutes went into the log book that day for a flight to Perenjori and back averaging 20.2 litres per hour at 122 knots indicated. not a bad afternoon's trundle If I do say so myself. 98 litres of high octane avgas was all it took. Gee phil. you must have the best dirt runway in all australia up there. pity all the world for 50 miles around was shut when I visited :-) your pal Stealth Pilot ( Barwon Field ???? that's a bit pretentious isnt it? ) |
#2
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'twas a day when the world was shut....
On Jun 17, 12:11*am, Stealth Pilot
wrote: The tank dipped a reassuring 26 litres beside the clubhouse and it was in for a goffer. 3 hours 28 minutes went into the log book that day for a flight to Perenjori and back averaging 20.2 litres per hour at 122 knots indicated. not a bad afternoon's trundle If I do say so myself. 98 litres of high octane avgas was all it took. I'm puzzled, how do you figure 98 lters with a consumption of 20.2/hr fot 3.5 hours? Also did you log time on the ground or was your plan way out? Cheers |
#3
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'twas a day when the world was shut....
On Mon, 16 Jun 2008 19:04:49 -0700 (PDT), More_Flaps
wrote: On Jun 17, 12:11*am, Stealth Pilot wrote: The tank dipped a reassuring 26 litres beside the clubhouse and it was in for a goffer. 3 hours 28 minutes went into the log book that day for a flight to Perenjori and back averaging 20.2 litres per hour at 122 knots indicated. not a bad afternoon's trundle If I do say so myself. 98 litres of high octane avgas was all it took. I'm puzzled, how do you figure 98 lters with a consumption of 20.2/hr fot 3.5 hours? Also did you log time on the ground or was your plan way out? Cheers thanks for that! I diddled myself out of an hour in the logbook. the figures were figurative, some were beer blured :-) work it out yourself as an exercise. 88 litres consumption. depart 12:05, arrive 14:13 depart 14:42 land back at 16:15 home to northam 62nautical goomalling 23 nautical dallwallinu 65 nautical perenjori 50 nautical return was direct northam 135 nautical then home. you can have a beer out of your fridge if you work out the answer :-) Stealth Pilot |
#4
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'twas a day when the world was shut....
This post needs pictures. Next time you take a flight like this, take a camera. |
#5
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'twas a day when the world was shut....
On Jun 17, 10:10*pm, Stealth Pilot
wrote: On Mon, 16 Jun 2008 19:04:49 -0700 (PDT), More_Flaps wrote: On Jun 17, 12:11*am, Stealth Pilot wrote: The tank dipped a reassuring 26 litres beside the clubhouse and it was in for a goffer. 3 hours 28 minutes went into the log book that day for a flight to Perenjori and back averaging 20.2 litres per hour at 122 knots indicated. not a bad afternoon's trundle If I do say so myself. 98 litres of high octane avgas was all it took. I'm puzzled, how do you figure 98 lters with a consumption of 20.2/hr fot 3.5 hours? Also did you log time on the ground or was your plan way out? Cheers thanks for that! I diddled myself out of an hour in the logbook. the figures were figurative, some were beer blured :-) work it out yourself as an exercise. 88 litres consumption. depart 12:05, arrive 14:13 depart 14:42 land back at 16:15 home to northam 62nautical goomalling 23 nautical dallwallinu 65 nautical perenjori 50 nautical return was direct northam 135 nautical *then home. you can have a beer out of your fridge if you work out the answer :-) Thanks the beer was welcome. Cheers |
#6
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'twas a day when the world was shut....
On Tue, 17 Jun 2008 17:42:39 -0700 (PDT), More_Flaps
wrote: On Jun 17, 10:10*pm, Stealth Pilot wrote: On Mon, 16 Jun 2008 19:04:49 -0700 (PDT), More_Flaps wrote: On Jun 17, 12:11*am, Stealth Pilot wrote: The tank dipped a reassuring 26 litres beside the clubhouse and it was in for a goffer. 3 hours 28 minutes went into the log book that day for a flight to Perenjori and back averaging 20.2 litres per hour at 122 knots indicated. not a bad afternoon's trundle If I do say so myself. 98 litres of high octane avgas was all it took. I'm puzzled, how do you figure 98 lters with a consumption of 20.2/hr fot 3.5 hours? Also did you log time on the ground or was your plan way out? Cheers thanks for that! I diddled myself out of an hour in the logbook. the figures were figurative, some were beer blured :-) work it out yourself as an exercise. 88 litres consumption. depart 12:05, arrive 14:13 depart 14:42 land back at 16:15 home to northam 62nautical goomalling 23 nautical dallwallinu 65 nautical perenjori 50 nautical return was direct northam 135 nautical *then home. you can have a beer out of your fridge if you work out the answer :-) Thanks the beer was welcome. Cheers what figures did you get? I reworked the calcs on a spreadsheet today. they seem to be quite sensitive to rounding off of times. 23.89 litres per hour was my consumption by the numbers I recorded. when I worked it out on the whizz wheel at the time with some rounding of times I got 20.2 litres per hour. I cruise at 222km/hour with the fuel efficiency of a petrol vw beetle. I think about 24 and a bit miles per imperial gallon. the guy who flew my aircraft for the first 18 years of its life used 20 litres per hour as his planning figure. just goes to show that you dont have to be correct to be competent. you just need to make sure you dont run out of fuel. Stealth Pilot |
#7
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'twas a day when the world was shut....
On Tue, 17 Jun 2008 09:42:47 -0700 (PDT), xyzzy
wrote: This post needs pictures. Next time you take a flight like this, take a camera. I did take a camera. I must get my web site fired up again. |
#8
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'twas a day when the world was shut....
Now why can't us Yanks have some cool sounding places to fly to-like
Goomalling, Dallwallinu, & Perenjori (at least there aren't many here in Ohio!) I can however, fly into (over) Canada (Pelee Island) and back in an hour easy...my passengers always think it's the coolest thing: "we went to Canada"... Nice trip...makes we want to go out and commit more avaition! --Don Cleveland OH Don Byrer KJ5KB Radar Tech & Smilin' Commercial Pilot Guy Glider & CFI wannabe kj5kb-at-hotmail.com "I have slipped the surly bonds of earth; now if I can just land without bending the gear..." "Watch out for those doves...smack-smack-smack-smack..." |
#9
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'twas a day when the world was shut....
On Wed, 18 Jun 2008 18:10:22 -0400, Don Byrer
wrote in : Now why can't us Yanks have some cool sounding places to fly to-like Goomalling, Dallwallinu, & Perenjori How about Big Bear Lake, John Wayne International, and Santa Catalina Island? Cool, but in a different vein. Viv la Difference! |
#10
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'twas a day when the world was shut....
Don Byrer wrote:
Now why can't us Yanks have some cool sounding places to fly to-like Goomalling, Dallwallinu, & Perenjori How about these Yank locations: Oshkosh, Walla Walla, Rancho Cucamonga, Hoquiam, Humptulips, Snoqualmie, Puyallup, Ogallala... (at least there aren't many here in Ohio!) I haven't got an Ohio map handy, but I bet Ohio has a few doozy names with airstrips somewhere near them. Oh yeah - I cheated a tiny bit: I found this blog where people contributed a bunch of amusing and odd names: http://suburbdad.blogspot.com/2006/0...-smile-or.html As to the OP: I don't understand Strine, so I had no idea what his post was about! ;-) I sure as heck didn't understand eight eights till I found a reference to it elsewhere! |
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