Tell us about your last flight

[Keenaviator]

Thanks for the tip re mogas availability at Armidale Andy. Laurie

 

 

[pmccarthy]

Last flight so long ago I've forgotten. Grey skies, clouds, fog and rain for weeks now. Aero club members huddle round the log fire, dreaming of other days. Too cold to work in the hangar. Water ankle deep across the car park. Stop tormenting us with these stories !

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

I'm currently enjoying 30 degree days in Darwin. We're near the airport and there's a lot of traffic; lighties (including plenty of turboprops) shuttling out to communities, mining camps and islands. Jets take off early in the morning to get into the big southern cities just after curfew.

 

 

[rdarby]

Enjoy the 30deg! I am in Brisbane and had to scrape ice off my windshield this morning! First time I have ever had to do that. It would be a perfect day for flying here though!

 

 

[ianwells]

This photo taken about 2 hours ago, on final runway 16!!!!! Beautiful winters day in the Whitsundays.

 

 

[Peter008]

Where is the airstrip Ian? Tried looking on OzRunways but cannot locate a runway 16 on anything near Whitsundays.

 

 

[SDQDI]

Where is the airstrip Ian? Tried looking on OzRunways but cannot locate a runway 16 on anything near Whitsundays.

I'm guessing by the look of the shadow that the plane has floats and I would guess the runway 16 is that patch of water straight ahead:thumb up:

 

 

[ianwells]

Was out again this morning and spotted this up the prosie river

 

 

[ianwells]

another glorious day in the tropics.

 

 

 

[facthunter]

How do floats handle the crocs? Nev

 

 

[ianwells]

I'm not going to get close enough to find out, I hope!!!!

 

 

[ianwells]

Fine with stingrays though.

 

 

 

[facthunter]

Steve Irwin doesn't think so.. Nev

 

 

[rgmwa]

Hope you brought a puncture repair kit along if you're going stingray watching.

 

rgmwa

 

 

[Graham Pukallus]

Photo Gallery of last Sunday's monthly Breakfast at Gympie Aero Club.

 

Very COLD, but much enjoyed the hospitality and warm Clubhouse.

 

Beautiful flying day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Graham Pukallus]

Murgon Breakfast Today, just keeps getting better all the time.

 

Enjoyed the best flying weather today to and from Murgon, and met up with a big gathering of planes and crews.

 

With Recent upgrades of equipment,amenities and especially runway /taxiway markers, windsock and webcam etc has made a huge difference to the club airfield.

 

Big Thank you to Ralph, Deb and all the helpers who make this monthly breakfast and club a big hit with an increasing popularity amongst flyers from near and far.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ballpoint 246niner]

Thanks Puk, gotta love SE. Qld in winter. Thank you also Ralph &Deb great to finally meet you.

 

 

[pmccarthy]

Qld looks great. We Mexicans had a clear day today so lots of activity. I flew to Echuca for a look around -lots of water lying in paddocks but the rivers are not high. Cabin heat on full, smooth conditions. Frost tonight so we draped the citrus trees. Maybe flyable wx again tomorrow, this is first clear day for a month.

 

 

[turboplanner]

[ATTACH=full]31128[/ATTACH]

We had to wait for a refuel (ERSA says there is a credit card operated bowser....but apparently that exited stage left about a year or more ago....hopefully ERSA will reflect that one day) which was done by the guys that do the QLink aircraft servicing and he was on his way back to the airport for the next Dash8... Nice and helpful Guy but suggested that AVGAS availability at Armidale was on its last legs......For those that use Mogas there is a servo directly out front accessible through a key coded gate, about a 30m walk if that.

 

Andy

That's one of my trucks Andy. Set up a batch of them for Shell with specifications and compliancing for the various States. It was always interesting with multiple deals and on this occasion someone decided to change the order of deliveries from the build, so that created a paper shuffle to get the trucks matching up again but Queensland had to be Queensland and wanted a Signatory to fly up to Mount Isa from Brisbane to inspect their "non-complaint" truck. I think I solved that by swearing out an affidavit that the Mount Isa truck was identical to one in Brisbane which they could inspect. That didn't wash, but somehow we fixed it.

 

Just when the heart palpitations stopped I got a call from Shell Kununurra on a Friday afternoon to say their truck, which had an air assisted range shift had an air leak around the gear lever. This was warranty, the nearest Dealer was Perth, and the word was that they didn't like the Darwin Dealer, so I phoned around but couldn't get a local mechanic, and eventually phoned the Darwin Dealer Service Manager to see if they knew anyone. Got a phone call 8 am Monday from the Darwin Service Manager to say it was all fixed. He'd gone out to the airport, hopped a ride out on the Santos plane which dropped him off in Kununurra, fixed the leak and came back on it's return trip.

 

 

[Guest Andys@coffs]

The truck that refuelled me had SA license plates, I commented on this to the refuelled and he said it wasn't registered and had been relocated by Shell to Armidale.....with words along the line of "we get everyone elses crap" He inferred it wasn't long for this world but to me looked like it had plenty of life left.....but what would I know except that a busy day for it is probably 3 starts and 3 less than 1km trips......not sure how it ever gets a good run.

 

It had a roughly 2ft by 2ft by ? metal box with a porthole glass observation window on it just forward of the RH side rear wheel. At the time I looked fuel?? was sloshing around just below the window, wasn't sure of its purpose in the scheme of things (slops maybe from pilot fuel checks just after refuel maybe???) In any event it was pretty big for the purpose of looking at something through the port hole....

 

Its a lot of $$ tied up in a truck where as I suggested $1000 of sales in a day is a big day....meanwhile the Petrol station out the front probably puts $1000 every hr on each of its pumps, each of which probably costs 1/100th of the cost of the truck.....

 

Andy

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Turbs you'd be impressed by the two AvGas trucks at Tamworth. The contractor is meticulous and keeps them in as-new condition, even though they are several decades old.

 

 

[turboplanner]

I think back then the fuel companies got a contract to ensure refueling at a selection of airports. Moorabbin an Bankstown would have subsidised the regional airports. I think that batch of trucks was the last of that system.

 

 

[turboplanner]

Turbs you'd be impressed by the two AvGas trucks at Tamworth. The contractor is meticulous and keeps them in as-new condition, even though they are several decades old.

Interesting; Tamworth was also the most switched on depot when I was processing the order.

 

 

[turboplanner]

This just prompted my memory of an interesting interruption to a boring day's work involving these two trucks.

 

Shell phoned to say the delivery driver of the truck for Tamworth had stopped in Wangaratta for lunch, locking his door with the inside latch, and when he came to get back in both locks wouldn't accept the key. I phoned the Albury dealer who got a local locksmith to drive down, and he unlocked the truck and reported the barrels and Ignition key didn't match.

 

The quality standard of the trucks was so high that it almost certainly wasn't a build problem, and after thinking it thought it might be possible that the barrels had been removed and mixed up when I had the fleet paint done, so phoned the painter who went out and asked his painters and came back and said no they hadn't mixed them up because each truck's hardware was kept separate. I asked him to do me a favour and ask them one more time, but tell them it would be a lot better for me if they had mixed them up, and sure enough they said they were doing them two at a time, and may have. The other truck was the Kununurra one, which was on a semi trailer west of Ballarat. I got Shell to call the driver and ask him to get up on the trailer and try the key in the lock of the truck and sure enough they didn't work, so I asked him to drop in to the Adelaide dealer on the way through for a barrel change, and got the truck which was nearing Albury by this time to drop in to the dealer to remove the barrels and fit two temporary barrels and a key. The Albury dealer flew his barrels to Adelaide, the Adelaide dealer flew his barrels to Tamworth, and the trucks were key lockable when they went into service.

 

Andy I didn't get involved in the pipework detail except for COG mass of the equipment and tank, so I could do the W&B calculations and set the tank position and wheelbase, but I suspect that what happens is they crack the delivery valve (which is at the lowest point) before each delivery into a sight glass circuit to check for water before dispensing, and then while the fuel is being delivered open a drain valve from the sight glass into that box, and over the day the window gives them some idea of when to dump the box contents back at the depot (however that's just a guess).

 

 

[Keenaviator]

After several days of very ordinary weather, I managed to squeeze in a nice hour or so after work today - from Latrobe Valley to Glen Maggie the West Sale to catch up with Daryl, Jill and Darren who were making tracks due to the low temperatures. The lighting from the setting sun was quite dramatic on the way back to YLTV from YWSL. Laurie.