Outback NSW and Western Vic.

[Ultralights]

Sally and Myself just completed a holiday flying trip around SE Oz.

 

departed Bankstown, Landed at Wagga Wagga via Goulburn for fuel.

 

Landed for overnight at Echuca.

 

Departed for Asses Ears via Stawell for fuel top up.

 

overnight at Asses Ears, Highly recommended. then headed for Mildura for fuel.

 

Original idea was to head south to the 12 Apostles, but 20 kt headwinds and very low cloud to the south we decided to head north, so Mildura for a refuel, then up to Bindara Station, approx 160 km south of Broken Hill.

 

Again, a must stay fly-in location, brilliant place to go, cheap accomodation, Bill and Barb are brilliant hosts, loved the garden fresh roast dinner. airstrip is in excellent condition.

 

Next day, headed into Broken hill for fuel, via Menindee Lakes.

 

After Broken hill, then non stop to Narromine for overnight.

 

Narromine to Ryalston Airpark, again, a great fly-in location east south east of Mudgee. then home to Bankstown again.

 

total of 21.6 hrs flying over 5 days.

 

I am sorry i never made it thurther south, it would have been great to meet a few faces from the forums, but i will plan another trip to Vic to see the coastline and meet a few forumites.

 

plenty of pics. so heres a taste.

 

 

turning finals Wagga.

 

 

The Rock.

 

 

Do NOT fly into these. nice little dust devil.

 

 

Finals Echuca

 

 

The Grampians

 

 

Asses Ears.

 

 

 

finally cloud thinned out enough to get into some smooth air.

 

 

once you get toward Mildura, the scenery is just amazing.

 

 

 

Amazing colours in that part of the world. just north of Mildura.

 

 

Finally The Darling river, now just follow this for a few more hours.

 

 

Township of Pooncarie

 

 

This is NOT Bindara Station, but a station we dropped in at thinking it was Bindara station. Bindara is actually 5km to the north, as you can see in the very top of the pic towards the centre left.

 

 

short finals to Not Bindara Station.. fortunately the station owner was expecting someone, but in a car. and once on the ground informed us we actually landed in his old tip site that he had ploughed to bury all the rubbish, that explained the soft and undulating surface. no problem for the Savannah though.

 

 

The Actual Bindara Station Airstrip. Smooth as dirt can get.. smoother than some sealed runways!

 

 

Our accommodation. comfy, cool Just brilliant.

 

 

Bindara Station from the air. a must for a fly-in. it doesnt flood but becomes an Island in flood times, only access is via air.

 

 

some of the flooded channels off the main darling river.

 

 

Approaching Menindee Lakes from the south.

 

 

Menindee Lakes.

 

 

Between Menindee and Broken Hill.. is this where Roast Lamb comes from?

 

 

Approaching Broken Hill.

 

The return east phot0s to come later..

 

Broken Hill to Narromine was a 5.1 hr long leg. Landed at Narromine with 1 hrs fuel left. not too bad considering we had a 5 kt headwind the entire leg.

 

 

[Captain]

Great trip and great shots UL.

 

Really captures what it is all about.

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Great pics....more please

 

 

[Compulsion]

Makes me want to get out and explore even more. Great photos.

 

 

[Ultralights]

Part 2, the return east. Longest leg i have ever flown, at 5.1 hrs, non stop from Broken Hill to Narromine for an overnight stop.

 

and must have been the most boring section ever, interesting till about Wilcannia, then really nothing of interest for a few hrs. until about Nygan when the landscape becomes farmed again. not much to see from 9500 ft either as that was the height were out TAS countered the headwind and gave us a cruise speed the same as IAS. about 85 kts.

 

 

the highway east and a dry river bed.

 

 

The darling river again approaching Wilcannia

 

 

lakes east of Wilcannia

 

 

Approaching roadhouse with airstrip, cant remember its name just yet, but can get food and accomodation if you fly in

 

 

closer view

 

 

approaching more fertile lands. farm paddocks on the horizon.

 

 

well know location. made picking a runway direction interesting with no windsocks!

 

 

Wellington Airstrip, has a few more buildings on it now since the last time i landed here. was pretty much a deserted unused airport back then.

 

 

inbound to a very nice airpark at Ryalston, near Mudgee

 

 

Ryalston Airpark. Lovely airport.

 

 

from the Airpark, to Bathurst for fuel and a toilet break.

 

then direct to bankstown, sadly no more pics from here on in.

 

21.6 Hours flying time over 5 days..

 

 

[planedriver]

Looks like a wonderful trip Rob. Glad you and Sal made an un-eventual and safe return.

 

Thanks for posting the pics mate. They're up to the usual standard that we've come to expect from you.

 

Also pleased to see no pictures of Sal practicing spin recovery's in the Savvy.

 

Presumably, if you flew into Bankstown, the Savvy now boasts a transponder?

 

Shame you missed out on the 12 Appostles, but that"s the way it goes sometimes.

 

Something to look forward to next time.

 

Don't know how you managed the 5.1hr leg?, but you're a lot younger than me, so i'm sure that makes a hell of a difference. (Maybe it was that new washer from Bunnings that did the trick).

 

Kind regards

 

Planey

 

 

[Ultralights]

Gday Planey, hope you had wonderful Christmas and a great New Year, fortunately you do not need a transponder in class D, which bankstown is, you just need a PPL. though a transponder is still on the shopping list. the only advantage with the transponder is we could fly in Class C, but have no real need to, also the safety factor is probably more important reason to have it.

 

the 5 hr leg was interesting, it was a race to the toilet when we landed!

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

Love the shots Rob, a 5.1 hr leg ain't bad at all...you guys must have shared flying duties on that one ! I used to do 4+ hr legs in the Drifter, and a few in Lightwings, some quiet grueling on your own with nothing but a fuel-log to talk to !! Now happy to stick to about 3 hours or so.

 

Your shot of Ryalston bought back some memoriess as I did many skydives there in the 70's, and was once a member of the Rylston-Kandos Aero club as it was called back then. It was always a nice place to be on weekends and a great place to overnight. I would love to fly into it myself. I wasn't a pilot back then but I reckon it'd be a great area to fly. (well I did fly back then but only powered by gravity !) Looks like it was a magic trip for you and Sally, and a great demo of what a Savvy can do.....................Cheers Maj...

 

 

[ayavner]

What a great trip! Thanks for posting this, exactly what the Cap'n said "this is what its all about"!

 

 

[rankamateur]

Don't know how you managed the 5.1hr leg?, but you're a lot younger than me, so i'm sure that makes a hell of a difference.

Hey Paney, Glass juice bottles have a bigger neck, if that helps!

 

 

[ayavner]

Hey Paney, Glass juice bottles have a bigger neck, if that helps!

much easier to squat over for #2...

 

 

 

[.Evan.]

Thanks for sharing!

 

 

[planedriver]

Hey Paney, Glass juice bottles have a bigger neck, if that helps!

An Orchy bottle would probably suffice these days:crying:

 

Just don't use a shoping bag then try to push it through the hole in the side windows. Seen that trick fail before:yikes:

 

 

[pj8768]

I can't imagine navigating through that territory without gps back up with so few waypoints.

 

 

[djpacro]

Plenty of waypoints, the problem we used to have was finding them.

 

 

[.Evan.]

Was the Roadhouse Emmdale?

 

15981 Barrier Highway, Wilcannia NSW 2836

 

http://m.google.co.uk/u/m/dMbZls

 

 

[ausadvance]

yeah that is Emmdale road house, tex and Vivians place, and the station around it (including the strip) is liveldale station. however the strip is better known as the Emmdale strip. Andrew the station owner and skip the manager and always more than happy for people to use it if your are wanting to pop into the road house. camping and shower facilitys there to. its exactly 100ks from wilcannia and 164 k;s from cobar so a great little stop off for anyone heading through to get a feed etc. plus anyone who does ever want to fly though there, viv is really picy about her fuel quality, far more so than in wilcannia, so its a good place to stop if you need fuel, im pretty sure she has 98. if you do however stop in Wilcannia and you plan on running unleaded not avgas, make sure you get it from BP not liberty, fuel is always exactly 12c a litre cheaper, and far better quality. plus he has the airfield supply contract so hes far more helpful.

 

 

[flie43]

What and where is Asses Ears.

 

Great story and pics- we must have missed you by a day. Read the latest post in 12 apostles blog

 

 

[crashley]

asses ear is in the grampians google it for all the info

 

 

[DGL Fox]

Great pic's there thanks for sharing them, just for interest what camera did you use for these photo's?

 

David

 

 

[Guy s]

Awesome, stuff like this spurs other to go and do the same

 

Love thi pics, thanks for sharing...

 

 

[brilin_air]

the 5 hr leg was interesting, it was a race to the toilet when we landed!

Wow 5 hours...well done. I have done 4 and that was pushing it, although Brian usually has to go before me!

 

Great pictures Rob, thank you for sharing them.

 

The pictures north of Mildura are specatacular, the country out there is our favourite right up to Broken Hill.

 

Thank you for the picture of the Asses Ears too, makes looking for it a little easier from the air when you have some idea what it looks like.

 

Glad you got back safe and sound.

 

-Linda

 

 

[brilin_air]

It actually goes under "Grampians Airport"

 

-Linda

 

 

[Ultralights]

I can't imagine navigating through that territory without gps back up with so few waypoints.

actually, navigation in those parts wasnt that hard. we flew IFR almost all of the trip, we followed roads rivers and railways!

 

the leg from Wagga to Echuca was compass heading as there was nothing in the way of railways or roads going that direction, untill we crossed the Murray river. from Grampians to Bindara was pretty much railway IFR then River IFR along the Darling river until the clock and maps told us we should be nearing the station. which wasnt marked on the WAC. so the GPS helped there, even though we still landed at the wrong station initially. there was only 2 in the area.

 

Minindee lakes was visual, very easy to see from 1000ft above the station, then IFRoads into Broken hill.

 

The track direct from Broken hill to Narromine would have taken us a long way south of any main roads or railways, so we tracked a more northern route keeping the highway below the wingtip. probably added about 15 mins to the total leg time, it also provided some options for fuel at Wilcannia and Cobar as we constantly updated the fuel log, the leg planned to be about 15mins shorter than the limit of fuel endurance leaving 45 mins reserve. and considering the 10 kt planned headwind, that might have been stronger or weaker. as it turned out, everything went as planned and we made it to Narromine with a total of 15 mins fuel left above the fixed reserve. far safer and better piece of mind than following a magenta GPS line direct. the rest of the nav was a non event, as most of it was over fary familiar terrain, but we landed at Bathurst for a quick top up before heading over the great dividing range, even though full tanks from Narromine would have seen us back to Bankstown with plenty of fuel remaining.

 

 

[facthunter]

Taking a slightly longer but better defined way is good thinking. Having a feature like a powerline as a "limit" is helpfull. I don't find that "asses ears", jumps out at you but I came in from the Coorong, when I went there.

 

When conditions are hazy it is many times harder even though the vis is well above minimum. Your slow plane is much more likely to get high drift angles than a fast one, but you get lost slower. Great pics Rob. Having ridden an old motor bike over a lot of that stuff, last april, seeing the air view of it makes you realise how vast the place is. Nev