That Townsville Trip 6 2007
April 12, 2009
Let’s rewind a few weeks.
Melbourne to Townsville is a straight line so it should be a straight forward flight right? About 1,200nm through three states in Australia. Just fly North until you get there.
Full fuel and off from Moorabbin, Victoria in good weather. Three hours later the ASI says 140kts and the GPS says 90kts, OK it’s the tail of a high but really was this necessary? If I was in my gyrocopter I’d be going backwards! Then just to make it interesting the aircraft develops a new vibration.
Oil temp and cylinder temps are down, oil pressure is good but I’m not happy. Slowing down doesn’t do much, a rate two turn makes the temps go up which seems odd. I’m into country New South Wales by now and think I might find an airfield and have a look at things.
I call up ATC and ask for ‘flight following’ to be told its not available. The next thing I hear is “Hi Dave”. So what happened to the big bad controllers who like intimidating low hour pilots? Its SPODMAN to the rescue!! He really is an air traffic controller not just some guy I met at an airfield with delusions. I look ahead on the map and declare an airfield. Quickly I realise with this wind I’ll just turn around for a nice long runway that’s a lot closer. As I’m half way through the turn Spodman’s suggesting the same thing.
Next up I’m asked if I want emergency services. I do NOT want to be asked that, ever, thank you very much. I made it OK to the field, coming in high just in case I have to practice gliding, its all fine so I get to show off my underbelly before dropping her in to Deniliquin airfield.
Of course nothing is wrong. It’s a couple of hours getting the cowls on and off and a good inspection by me and more to the point a local LAME and his hanger helpers. I owe them all a beer, not that I drink the stuff.
Maybe it was carb ice? I just didn’t think of it at the time. Conditions didn’t seem remotely like icing or high humidity. This aircraft has never had an icing issue since I’ve bought her or with the previous owner. Excuses right? In hindsight applying carb heat should have been one of the things to try.
Off I go again, everything is good. I pick a town on the map with last light closer than I’d prefer. At least the head wind has dropped a good 20 kts.
Check last light and that town again. Nope I’m not quite going to make it, so I divert well off track to a spot that looks big enough for a bed and a good feed.
When I say map, I’ve got 12 maps with 20nm marks on track, flight plan on my lap along with nicely sharpened pencils… so you have to be careful. Yes, frequencies and heights noted, all the good stuff they teach you.
OK, confession time. Nothing reduces navigational stress more than a Garmin GPS 296 right in front of you.
Its overnight in a town called Griffith and next morning there is still 901nm to run. Not much progress for the first day. By the time you get fueled up and in the air its always later than you think. Destination Charleville, 470nm which leaves me a reasonable flight for the following day.
Oh yeah, funny thing happened in Griffith. I met a professional pilot after landing and while I struggled to find some sort of taxi to town he kindly offered me a lift to a motel. He ask where I was going, I said well, “Cairns, I’m doing a talk about out of body experiences.” Just seemed like the thing to say. Wow it was like turning on a tap, this guy had been having continuous OBE’s and didn’t know why or what to do next as they seem to just get him to his front door each time it happened. I couldn’t get a word in. My job was listening, not talking. Time was short, I gave him a word, then thought again and scribbled down a website on a scrap of paper, www.eckankar.org
Now you tell me, those funny engine noises, an unexpected diversion, someone with a question that required a possible answer. I don’t believe there is any such thing as luck. If that’s true, this world is not as it appears.
Sure, I made Charleville but the weather was starting to close in. I was stuck there for two nights. It’s a real outback town with a nice museum, a weird display of rainmaking canons from the early 1900’s, one Chinese restaurant and a lot of pubs. You have to make your own fun. Turned out to be Chinese food.
Off to my destination, Townsville. Things were good despite some low cloud. I finally made 60 DME and called the approach frequency. This was my first time getting into a big Class C airport on my own. With a sports flying background this is not a comfort zone.
I’d phoned the tower a week before to check procedures, called them the day of the flight to let them know I was coming in and that morning put in a flight plan.
So when I requested a clearance they say, in controller speak, “You want a what?, Who are you and what’s a long ez anyway”? “So you want to land at Donnington, right?”, which is a local ultra light field enroute. So much for the preparation.
“Nope” I say, but in polite PPL speak, “Clearance for Townsville please” “Hmmm grump, grump whats a Long-EZ?”, Whats its ICAO designation?”. I say back in nice PPL, “LGEZ”. Silence…. I try “single engine 140kts 2 seats 1 POB” I get a clearance for 2500’ and a reporting point.
Great, I’m now in a valley with little mountains higher than me and nothing but a sea of trees ahead knowing I make a turn in this valley, somewhere. I’m not happy, then I get clearance for the Stuart VFR route. Oh, that’s great I’d planned another one on the map, but I do see a waypoint marked Stuart so that must be the way.
There’s the VTC on my lap, trees everywhere, hills I don’t want to bump into and zooming along at 140. The 296 has waypoints and this is definitely helping. Oh yeah, and I have to fly the plane. Well that was number one on the list.
I get a clearance for right base on 01. The book says its left hand so I was ready for that instead. OK I have to report visual but I can’t see the runway yet. I’m coming in from the side and still can not see any bitumen. No time to look at the toys. I see an open space, maybe that would be the airfield, hmmm looks like maybe a taxiway, maybe this is it?
Opps I’m on base and its time to turn final. Pity I’m still fast. 01 is over 7000 feet. Good! She finally slows down enough to get the wheel out and I do my thing with a long hold off. They have F/A18’s and our old F111’s from this airfield along with the commercial guys so my high speed approach probably looked cool, right? I get off the runway and request taxi guidance. Now they sound friendly! Sure was a hot day or maybe I was still sweating for other reasons.
Did my thing in Townsville then time to make a return. The drought that has gripped Australia for the past few years looked like it was about the break. I delayed my departure for several days until I could see 3000’ on the TAF for getting through those hills again. Massive weather was growing to the east side of Australia but there was a gap down the center of Queensland that looked OK if I could get that far. Forecast was fine weather on track. Liars!
Where I stayed the last night they only had cold showers, which might have been a clue as to how the day was going to go. I crept around a less eventful Townsville departure with cloud base only at 2000 and made it to the first alternate in VMC.
The way ahead was possible but I’m into the remote areas with limited VHF coverage. It was a while before the weather closed in. I made a precautionary landing at a place called Alpha in light rain that wasn’t improving. As conditions deteriorated this was my best and closest option.
Well let me tell you, Alpha has a runway maybe for air ambulance and nothing else except a shed and a telephone. A quick call to the weather people told me conditions were fine where I was. I had to yell into the phone because the rain was making so much noise on the tin roof!
“Oh, let me look at the radar. Seems there is a bit of a black spot near you.” Yep that would explain the noise they could hear from my end. So what towns were nearby not in rain? They said the town of Blackall was clear. I went for it when the rain paused. Let me tell you, it wasn’t clear when I got there.
Another experience in rain. The Long performed flawlessly, the wooden prop was not so happy. I waited a while for the weather to clear up and then started a long walk to town with a pack on my back. Then that rain really started up. By the time I found a motel I was not my usual pretty sight. Maybe that’s why no one gave me a lift.
Beautiful motel, I stripped off soaking clothes and put the shower on. Weird, I started to smell sulfur and would you believe it was another cold shower? Maybe I was in a bad bad place, but wasn’t it meant to be hot with sulfur?
Turns out the town is supplied by artesian water and sometimes you have to run the taps for 20 minutes to get the hot stuff coming through, this also explains the smell. That’s the story anyway.
Next day looked like just a narrow corridor if only I could get through then fine weather all the way home. A frog had taken up residence under my front wheel. You tell me what that means.
That narrow corridor was very narrow and enough said. Afterwards, a good run for five hours. I landed 30 minutes from home to grab a bit of safety fuel, just in case and tried to warm up. There is a little electric heater up front but apart from the current drain I couldn’t tell if it was on or off. My Long has air leaks everywhere. I was shaking so much from the cold I couldn’t write my fuel log.
Then into the VFR route around Melbourne class C space, with low cloud and so much traffic I was far better off going around anyway. The controllers were very busy and conditions not so nice. I made it home with a good hour’s daylight to spare.
Lessons learnt. Get an IFR ticket. I’d already started the training before I left. Now I’m motivated. I could have left earlier from Townsville and just popped over all the soup on the way back. I could have landed a bit after last light on the way up and made it into a two day trip. While not interested in all night flying, the idea of getting an extra hour or so at the end of the day is attractive.
As to all the bad weather. I guess you could postpone flying until summer. I always had a couple of alternates but it gets tough in remote areas. I kept full fuel where ever possible in case I had to turn around. I have appointments around Australia, any excuse to own a plane right?
Why write this up? Well I’m sitting at home instead of flying. I’ve been trying to get out of Melbourne for two weeks and time is running out. My bags are packed, flight plan done and the Long-EZ is fueled and ready.
Each morning I get up early and check the met. Ladies and Gentlemen the Aussie drought has broken! It looks like my planned 1600nm flight to Perth is going to be at 500kts with expensive instant coffee and a real in-flight bathroom instead. My little Long might be staying home.
Oh, there was a trip to Adelaide, South Australia recently, but that’s another story.
Approach to Townsville exit is via these hills
The frog that wanted to live in my plane at Blackall
Flying in rain, not recommended
Somewhere in Queensland
Prop damage from flying in the heavy rain
Inbound to Charleville
After the Townsville Hills