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natfly 2006

Loaded for sure !!!
Click here to see large foto

Manualleo from Barcelona, Romano from Columbia and Pedro from Gwartallamarta - two Jabiru and my PA28-160. We met at Caboolture Airfield at 07h00, Friday the 14th April 2006 for the start of our unforgetable trip from Caboolture to natfly 2006. The little Cherokee was loaded to 996 Kg, a mere mortal 2 Kg under it's all up maximum weight. We had a 22kg cooler bag, a gas-weber and a 9kg gas bottle in the boot, our two man tent, 2 camping chairs, 2 suitcases of clothes, a fold-up table, 189 Litres of petrol and much more. To my despair there was no wind either.

I suddenly got a little scared and stalled everybody, whilst I re-did my weight and bal calcs and had a hard look at the performance charts. The crisp cool morning added much in our favour, but the lack of any wind whatsoever churned my stomach. We actually got airborne quite quickly, but thats where the fun began. The plane really climbed very slowly at 75 knots and as soon as I'd lower the nose the trees got closer and the speed stayed the same. Well, my calculations seemed good and we slowly started gaining height. Our climb rate was a mere 250ft per minute, so it took ages to reach 3500 which we needed to clear the ranges to Somerset with safety.

My two compatriots were at 4500 feet asking what the heck I was doing so low !

We really struggled to get enough height to clear the ranges - I was on edge the entire time, looking at temps & presures and watching altutide closely - Stephanie continued asking me what the flashing red light on the dash was all about. In the end I had to admit to her that it was the stall-warning and I could not believe it flashing between 70 and 75 knots. I truly thought there was something wrong with my little plane - "Bluey" as she is now formally christened. Nevertheless, or rather "nevermind" as we would be saying the entire week-end, " derived from "Narromine". Anyway, nevermind, it was a beautiful crisp morning with patches of fleecy cloud all round. The scenerey was as beautiful and we arrived over Somerset VOR to soon set course for Inglewood, via Gatton and Clifton. By now the visibility had improved, allthough we had between 3 & 4 Octas cloud. To my surprise, the little 160 hp Cherokee was keeping up with the Jabirus and even getting a little ahead. Stephanie had been designated as official navigator and she was peering at the Sydney WAC chart for some or other reason, until I put her right of course.

Somerset Dam Click here to see large foto

More of Somerset Click here to see large foto

Clifton in the Distance

Five minutes past Clifton, Stephanie and I decided to haul out the coffee flask, cold eggs and steak strips prepared for "en-route food" or "padkos" in South African. We enjoyed our morning tea and merrily anounced the little event to our compatriots who let fly all sorts of Ozzie slang to try and alleviate their jealousy. The remainder of this leg was just flying at it's best. I had trimmed the plane to the point where I could simply sit back and absolutley relax. No, bumps, no clouds and miles and miles of Australian outback. As we flew past Northstar, I suddenly realised that the after effect of a few coffees had me in trouble - it was a painstaking trip from there to Moree. I could not hold much longer and ran like carzy for the toilets when we got there. We called the Shell guy on his mobile and had our planes filled in no-time. The Moree airfield has a beautiful lounge, with clean toilets and airconditioning. We ate and relaxed for about an hour before we decided to depart at around mid-day. Hop, jump, skip, bounce - Stephanie was getting a little white around the cheeks and I simply couldnt get the through a gap to in the clouds to go on top. So, we just had to perservere the turbulence for the time being.

Once we passed Wee Waa, we set course for Coonamble. The Sky was rapidly clearing and we climbed to 6500 feet and perfectly calm conditions. The air was incredibly smooth and flying became comfortable once again - before I knew it, my trusty navigator was fast asleep - a well deserved sleep anyway. She looked a little worse for wear from the turbulence. I woke her just before Coonamble as we were trying to take aerial shots and I struggled to fly and take fotos at the same time. The camera strap once got sucked out the storm window with some incredible force and luckily I had a firm grip. But, that was when I decided to ask Stephanie to help. We did not get any good shoots - nevermind.

Arrived at Norromine

Aerial Shots of the field

Rows & Rows of Aircraft

Arrived Alive !!!

Tired but happy

Our Camp site

Comfortable & content

Barbeque Style

The minute we arrived at Narromine, Stephanie and I taxied to the fuel area and refilled our plane. Manuello and Romano seeked a campsite for us and immediately started setting up their tents and getting camp ready. We met Mike and Priscilla from Heck Field and set-up our camp as well. We were very lucky to get three spots next to each other. Exactly what the doctor ordered.

That night we hauled out the new weber gas barbie "what a beaute". Absolutely fantastic. Romano introduced us to his way doing beef ribs and Stephanie and I presented genuine South African boerewors. We had a feast of feasts. The meat was good - the company was good and the flying was excellent.

We all had a fantastic day - we could not believe our eye when we saw the moon rising in the east as the sun setting in the west. It was beautiful. So, an unforgetable day came to an end as we all crept into our little tents.

It was with absolute shock and horror that I woke in the middle of the night to hear the wind howling and the ripping at the sides of our tent. Suddenly the howling became augmented by huge rain droplets falling and that was the end of my blissfull sleep. If you had even suggested the weather could turn so quickly, I'd have told you, no way !. The howling wind was also ice-cold, which in a way was a blessing for the next day. We could dress up for an ice-cold day, but could not do much the other way round.

Home-made as they come!!!

We spent the entire day walking from aircraft to aircraft - I got a flight in the Jabiru J160 and loved it - It is bigger on the inside than it's pre-decessors. Then, we also saw the Wright Brothers replica - it actually flies for groups of people, provided the weather is good. A marvelous project. Stephanie was allowed to sit inside whilst I took fotos of her. Antique Airways flew demo sorties with it's Beach 18 which impressed me.

The most unusual for me was the full-on simulator on the back of a trailer - how awsome is that. We saw hundreds of aircraft on the day.

A couple of pictures just to show a little bit of the landscape. Also one or two to show the CB's we had to contend with as we came over the ranges to Caboolture. It looked worse than it actually was.

Coonabranabran Hills !!!

Romano - Best Picture

At sunset Saturday 15th, the 25knot wind started dying down and we enjoyed a final barbie of beef-rib and boerewors together. Stephanie made us a gorgeous salad to go with the barbie. We invited a new friend Quintin to eat with us. Manuello and Punkie, his sun, had dinner in town. The next morning we got up early and took off in a beautifull cloudless day. We immediately climbed to 6500 feet, picked-up a huge 25 knot tail wind all the way to Inglewood. Here the weather turned a little and we had to stay below the cumulous clouds. It was very bumpy and Stephanie did not feel too good on this leg.

Closer to Caboolture the cloud base got right down to 3500 feet and we allmost had to go around Kilcoy to clear the ranges. We arrived home safely and agreed it was an absolute wonderful trip. We posed for our final photos and shook hands on a great trip.

Heck field has a fly-in on the Queen's Birthday - they have an open invitation to all pilots - more of that later.

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