Marc's Public Blog - Flying

lots of planes packed up on the main hangar

F111 bomber

remember this?

the air truk is definitely a weird airplane :)

cool beechcraft 2000A starship

they had a mirage III-O

'O' like 'Ostralia' :)

triple folding wing, nice...

Here is the whole trip:

Flying Red Tape

Yeah, it was entirely too simple before that

Flying Differences

Airspace Differences

The Australia I hadn't seen in my prior 12 visits

The trip definitely offered a lot of variety, and I now feel like we can say "we've seen Australia" :) (and by that, even more than most Australian :)

Aboriginals

So that was that, very interesting trip, but depressing to have learned more about the situation with aboriginals

After 21 days going around Australia, it was time to fly back to where we started: Toowoomba. We took a ferry back to mainland and Hervey Bay, got back to our planes, and went for a very scenic flight around Fraser Island, spotting wildlife from the air (Manta Rays, Turtles, and Whales).

Kingfisher Resort, where we stayed

the car ferry we had taken earlier

the lake we visited the previous day

very cool custom water plane

fly to the beach, walk away

lots of mantas

Thanks to reports from other pilots, we found a few whales:

awesome pretty

nice little runway on the other side of the island

We then flew back to the main coast:

big ass beach party

Eventually we got to sunshine coast

Ozzie world

kart racetrack

glasshouse mountain

And then back towards Toowoomba:

and the last landing of the trip.

After 37H of flying and 20 landings later, we got back "home" in Towoomba.
It was a great flying trip, kudos to Clare McEwan from airsafarisint for organizing it.

back on the ground

After the nice flights, we took the slow ferry to Fraser Island:

After dinner, we went for a night walk ranger led tour:

Around our eco hotel rooms, there was quite a bit of wildlife: water monitor, snakes, loads of spiders, and birds:

The next morning, we went for a 4WD tour of the island in a big bus:

fresh water lake

the roads are interesting, soft sand makes it more difficult to drive

sometimes it felt like we were on a boat :)

We finished with a nice fresh water stream emptying in the ocean:

We tried to go on a whale watching tour, but after 5H of rough sea, we didn't see a single one, which is super rare, so we got our money back although we sadly wasted a lot of time:

So, we went ona 4H walk in the afternoon. Sadly we spent most of our time dodging mosquitoes and didn't have much to show for it:

lots of snails as tide was getting lower

interesting green worms

Before long, on our walk back, we got our private sunset:

The next morning, we went to see the little soldeier crabs before heading out:

plenty of them

they make a pile of sand and hide under it, they're quite skilled

a army of them

I'm assming they get eaten by birds

Solider Crabs are really fun to watch, here's a video to show you:

And that was it for our last location, Fraser Island.

From Undara, we flew to another island, this time Hamilton Island, a big resort island with multiple airline flights, some international. The first part of the flight was totally VMC, I promise :) (but let's just say that it's a good thing all pilots were IFR rated). After takeoff the clouds went to the ground, and there was no clear path outside of climbing through a hole in the clouds:

where we stayed in Undara

VFR on top

glad to have others on scope, because I couldn't really see them

Hamilton Island's runway

Once on the ground, we waited for our transport in the hangar:

After arriving, we booked a 4WD buggy tour which didn't have extreme driving, but it was fun enough and mostly to climb to a few peaks with a few:

Top views:

our hotel

our planes

we drove down to a beach

some fish would surface to get food

We then went to our room, and I saw some sulfur crested cockatoos by our room, so I went to look for my seeds, and made an offering to the single bird:

then another one came and they fought a bit

this one won

then a few more showed up

Some became very friendly and eager quickly, but they have sharp claws, it hurt a bit :)

happy bird

We then went to hide back in our room, and the birds stayed, hopeful :)

jennifer felt bullied :)

Some pictures from our room:

Meals:

you could have breakfast by the koalas

wedding party outside

Most of our time was spent during 2 days going to the great barrier reef for diving

The last morning, we walked on the beach during low tide:

snails that make the shells that hermit crabs steal later :)

We then had a nice scenic flight on the way out:

our hotel and beach

one of our planes, taking off

fuel stop at normanton

I did loose formation flying

Undara dirt runway

Undara had interesting accommodations in railway carriages

Lots of birds causing mayhem

Undara had lots of walks. Sadly we didn't have much time for them, nor did I know about those walks until I had wasted time screwing around a bit, so I only had 55mn in the end to do a walk before our 15:30 lava tube tour. I ended up doing the Atkinson's lookout (3.8km/1.5h) and Bluff return (1.5km/25mn), or about 5km/1h55 in 55mn. It was a bit rush, but I made it :)

Atkinson's lookout

Bluff lookout with view of Undara lodging

Jack, grabbing some internet :)

We then went on our lava tube tour. Turns out that area has the biggest lava tube in the world, although it collapsed in a few places, so it's not the full original 120km length (or so):

After the lava tube tour, we went on an evening sightseeing tour:

little baby joey

At the end of the day, we went to see a cave from which thousands of bats were flying out. They were so fast that I was not able to get pictures of them, but a video shows a bit:

The next morning, I was up early, so I went for the 5.8km/1.5h bush walk which I was able to do in 1h or so, just before breakfast:

ants make those big holes so that insects and small animals fall in it, and then they eat them

those hills are built by termites

that's what they look inside (I didn't break this one)

happy kangaaroo :)

back for breakfast

brown your own toast in the fire

And that was it for Undara, nice location with both lava tubes, and lots of macropods you can see on one of the many walks.

We did a nice flight to Sweers Island, we flew by some rivers to look for crocks, but didn't get lucky:

finally made it to the ocean

sweers island's dirt runway

bring your own tie downs

We then spent 1.5 days on the island:

nice colorful bird

The next morning we went for a quick fishing trip, the conditions were not ideal due to the wind:

I caught 2 fish, but they were too small to eat

After the sun wasn't as hot, we did a walking loop around the island:

lots of mangroves

the aborigenes built this wall to catch fish

ack through the airport

Sunset:

While the island was not overly exciting, I guess it was a nice place to rest...

From Alice Springs, we went for Adels Grove, a little Oasis in the middle of northern Australia, we however got detained by the worst kind of mall cop ever, a ground truck who thought he had to make himself feel important by preventing us from leaving and giving us a ridiculous useless lecture that tried to explain how he was important (he was not) and how foolish we were to have walked to our airplanes without his "help" (yeah right). What a freaking idiot, I filed a report against him with the airport management, I hope they "take care of him"

Alice Springs is the main base of the flying doctors service

a single crop circle in the middle of nowhere

devil's marble round rock formations

if glaciers didn't do this, I don't know what did

We landed at Barkly's Roadhouse for lunch:

We eventually got to Adels Grove, and went for a nice swim in their river:

got stung by those lovely yellow jackets

a bird makes those nests

We then drove to Boodjamulla NP for a river cruise:

we got on a nice electric boat

and then we left for our next destination

After Ayers Rock, we flew to Alice Springs, where we had 3 nights (2.3 days). The flight there was also scenic, across lake Amadeus and then Kings Canyon

Later, we got to Gosses Bluff and impressive meteor impact crater, and eventually overflew Standley Chasm and Simpsons Gap before landing at Alice Springs.

Gosses Bluff

Simpson Gap

this looks like fun :)

Alice Springs had the first controlled airport we landed at, which really was no big deal when you're used to flying around san francisco and on flight following all the time :) Interestingly, there is no radar coverage over most of Australia, so the controllers vector us entirely based on position reports. Oh boy, that feels like 1980's and prior :) Thankfully now that planes are adding ADSB, the controllers are starting to get some airplane positions based on ADSB aircraft self position reports (my aircraft had both ADSB in and out, so I could also see other equipped aircrafts around me).
The controller nicely agreed to give us a tower tour, which was awesome:

ADSB planes

In Alice Springs, we were at the doubletree hote, which was nice, even if kind of out of the way from downtown:

it almost came to me

no luck with jennifer either

After arriving, we went to check out the reptile centre, and we got lucky, it was the day they fed snakes:

the thorny devil is very cool (albeit small)

Snake feeding:

I think the mice lose out in that display...

The next morning, we went to the original telegraph repeater station that caused Alice Springs to be founded (first telegraph route from Darwin to Adelaide):

Next, we went to check out the Royal Flying Doctor Museum. While they could do without the "royal" part, they are an impressive organization that brings medical care to people who need it in the outback. People live sometimes in small towns with a few as 10 or 20 people, so when they need medical care, the flying doctors can come to them (all those towns have small airports or roads that can be used as landing strips), which is very cool. They use modified pilatus PC12 planes with a hospital like treatment center right inside the plane:

an idea of scale, Australia is bigger than Europe

patients can be treated in the plane

Next, we went to the nearby (small) aviation museum:

and the (better even if not super big) natural history museum of central australia:

this one looks like a cartoon character from ice age :)

Next door was an aborigines art museum:

We then went back to downtown to check out its shopping street:

Dinner:

The next morning, we went to Alice Springs Desert Park:

termite mound

thorny devils

Piou!

We went to a talk on aborigines. While I knew there were over 100 tribes, it was still hard to visualize and comprehend how so many people could have diverged so much in culture and customs, and speak totally different languages. Europe did the same, but with 15 or so languages, not 100+

those are eaten as a delicacy

Clare then drove us to Standley Chasm, a nice formation:

we were not allowed to proceed further, the local aborigines say it's sacred land

I found a friendly chicken walking around :)

Next, Clare drove us to Simpsons Gap:

Last, we went to Anzac Hill for nice views:

Most people then went back to the hotel, but I went back to downtown for a walk:

From there I went to the nearby botanical garden:

I then had to wait until 19:15 for the night tour at Alice Springs Desert Park where we got to see endangered species that lived happily in an protected enclosure and came to see us because the guides feed them. Sadly, we were forced to only use red light:

rat wallaby with a joey, very cute.

echidnas enjoying dinner

some kind of mouse rat

the echidnas were curious and came to our feet. One came to sniff my hand with its little wet nose

and starry sky to be had of course

And that was it for Alice Springs, a fair amount to see, but I think we saw it all :) (not counting the small museum of transportation that closed so early that we couldn't get there in time).

But we first started with the flight from Coober Pedy, up the famous Stewart's Highway that goes from Adelaide to Darwin, and we were lucky enough to see the world solar race solar cars that were driving down, and also road trains:

this guy drove off the road and just abandonned the car there

cattle ranch on the way

Eventually we got to Mt Connor, a nice formation in the middle of nowhere:

And from there it was a short enough flight to Ayers Rock and its commercial airport:

that jetstar plane nicely waited for me to land before it went

After landing and dropping out stuff at the airport, we drove directly to Ayers Rock. Sadly when we got there, the walk to the top was open, and we didn't know how rare it was and how much the rangers are trying to find reasons to keep it closed until they can meet their quota of less than 20% of people climb it, so we can close it entirely (so as to respect the native's wishes, which is all nice and good, unless you equate that to not being able to climb El Capitain, Glacier Point, or other famous landmarks, because the native americans would rather that you don't):

I only had 10mn to climb maybe a 3rd of it

got as high as this before I had to go back down to get back to the group, something I much regret now

sigh, we could have been there...

instead we drove around the rock, which was nice too, but could have been done at some later time

little birds liked to live in there

That evening, we went for a dinner with view of the rock:

the olgas

the stars were nice

they even had a telescope so that we could see saturn

After not enough sleep, we got up at 04:15, to go to field of lights. This was followed by sunrise over the rock:

We then came back to our rooms, exhausted, and took a 1h nap before breakfast, and a tour with the group to the Olgas where we did a 7.4km hike:

We then got back to "town" a bit late but made it to our camel tour:

Sadly, by then when we went back to the Rock, not only had it been closed all day for winds that weren't there anymore when we arrived, but the rangers not only couldn't be bothered to staff their booth or answer the phone for the last 4 hours, nor did they of course reopen the climb when it was safe enough to climb. As a result, we never got up, and I'm quite pissed at them:

We checked out the nearby aboriginal center and visitor center where the park staff paid by our entrance ticket, couldn't be bothered to show up for work either, and then headed back:

We then had a "cook your own dinner":

The next morning, we headed out and got some nice pictures of the rock and the olgas on the way out:

last fly by the airport before heading out

So, the place was nice, but we were very unhappy with the rangers and basically how they're artificially trying to meet their "no one wants to climb the rock anymore" by keeping it closed most of the time. Sigh...

Coober Pedy was literally founded after early settlers randomly found opals, and the rest is history: many people moved it like a gold rush, although opals are not that easy to find (mostly random) and in the end aren't worth that much compared to the time and energy people put into finding them. Sadly many people lost their life's time and savings looking for them, and very few ended up ahead.

On the flight to and from Coober Pedy, we got to see the very many holes that were dug out to look for opals. From the gound it almost looks like the ground got shot by many big bullets and then finished off by bombs :)

It's only looking closer in the places that you see more:

Going for landing, and found a nice little dragon on the taxiway:

After going to our hotel with rooms dug in the hill, which is how people live to stay cool in the otherwise hot sun:

the clay gets a varnish on top so that it doesn't fall on you

We went to see the hotel museum and nearby mining museum:

Australia had a big island sea with prehistoric sea creatures

wicked

Lots of displays on how mining is done:

Opals:

The museums also showed multiple rooms cut into the hills how people lived/live. As a bonus, when you dig to add one room to your house, you might just find opals at the same time:

You could also tour some caves:

you can see the tunnel boring machine

Many stores selling opals in all different ways:

Visiting the town had a few left over props from multiple movies that were shot there:

From Pitch Black with Vin Diesel (a good SciFi movie actually)

not a movie prop, but super cool to see a DS so far from home

They also have landscape that looks close enough to Mars for Mars movies to have been shot there:

They also have a kangaroo sanctuary where they raise little joeys adpoted from killed moms:

We had a morning tour that took us to a mining area:

most holes are left unattended and are easy to fall into

Nearby was breakaways, a former inland sea:

A few shots of breakaways from the sky:

Nearby was the dingo fence, it kept Jennifer safe from being eaten :)

Last part of our tour was a church built into the side of a hill, very interesting:

We then went on our own to see another mine, and house built into a hill:

More housing quarters:

A fair amount of aborigines live there:

nice art

Misc:

Coober Pedy is definitely a cool place to visit, and learning about a different kind of mining that isn't really practiced anywhere else.

We left Birdsville early in the morning in pretty hellish winds and headed for Lake Eyre which was half dry but still interesting to fly over. One plane in our group flew low enough that they were able to spot wild camels in the sand dunes. Sadly we were a bit too high to see them, and probably didn't look carefully enough:

I first flew over big red, where we had gone for sunset the previous evening

by then I had a nice tailwind and was doing 159kts on a 125kt plane

when flying down lake eyre, I clocked a peak 169kt in level flight at 2500ft. Not bad for a 172 :)

finally arrived at William Creek

William Creek, population 12, doubled in size when we arrived for lunch :)

special planes with magnetic detection probes to do land surveying for minerals

most people arrive to William Creek the hard way, through harduous 4WD tracks

After lunch and a refuelling, we went to Coober Pedy via the very pretty Painted Hills:

one of our pilots did some low level flying

pretty

We then landed at Coober Pedy, which we visited in details the next day.

The first flight, we did some makeshift formation flying. That was definitely challenging and kept me on my toes, and I flew nowhere close to others compared to what the 2 best pilots, did:

morning pre-flight briefing

cute pink plane

formation takeoff

I was so happy to have a G1000 to show me where other planes, were.

'traffic alert, traffic alert!' :)

well done, guys

We then resumed our regular flight to Windorah, our lunch stop:

there were watering holes for cattle

Windorah had a small airliner from Regional Express (REX) that links the small australian towns that are a bit too far to reasonably drive in between:

we had to hold our planes when it left to make sure we didn't get blown over

We then resumed our flight to Birdsville, the gateway to the outback:

arriving at Birdsville

the hotel was walking distance from the airport gate

We then got a tour of town and to the Big Red, a nice sand dune. Birdsville has a big horse race once a year, which draws crowds from all over Australia, and requires days of driving for many, on outback tracks, kind of a rite of passage, apparently a bit burning man like in some ways:

I think I found some bilby holes

And that was it for Birdsville, we had dinner in their restaurant, and slept on location too, dodging the super annoying and plentiful flies that seemed to be everywhere.

Two legs of just under 2H, the first one took us to Surat, a small deserted airport with no facilities:

natural gas pipelines

seems that our planes were all equipped with ADS-B, so I was able to see other planes from our group

Surat

Our 2nd leg had a bit of convective weather, including this big rain cloud that shook the hell out of us when we had almost cleared the side of it

Charleville

Once in town, we got a short guided tour:

We started by checking out the Amex lounge in SFO that Jennifer got access to (sadly on the wrong side of security for us, so we had to go through security twice):

made it to Incheon/Seoul, and connected to Brisbane

very nice seats

We then arrived in Brisbane around 06:00 to meet Clare from Air Safaris Int and the start of our tour. I have a few pictures on the Brisbane page.

We then took a bus to Toowoomba, about 2h inland from Brisbane, and got some briefings on how to fly in Australia, as well as check rides from the club that was going to rent us planes for the next 21 days. I'll sheepishly admit that I kind of sucked during that check ride given how little sleep I had gotten, but I guess whatever I had left was enough to pass:

On day #2, I was up before sunrise, fog to the ground, and then we got some very loud birds that all went off at the same time exactly at sunrise, despite the heavy fog:

more planning with Oz charts

this was the C172 I was going to use for the next 3 weeks, with a slightly faster engine and a G1000