Awpa Conference Trip - So Far

[Guest aviatrix27]

G'day all, someone asked to be kept up-to-date on our travels, so here goes:

 

Thursday 5th (? the day before Good Friday) drove to Yarrawonga, loaded up the plane and headed off to Coonamble via a fuel stop at Parkes. Now, who was it who said hello to me as I was leaving Temora airspace? Coonamble has become a favourite stop-over, we have the code for the club rooms, so take our bedding inside and make ourselves at home. If we need fuel, we have the code for that too, so are able to help ourselves.

 

Good Friday

 

SYF wouldn't start - she had a flat battery. Our mate Tony who originally gave us all the codes helped us out, he got us started so with full tanks we decided to fly direct to Bundaberg instead of having a comfort stop along the way. At Bundy, there was at least a chance of someone being able to help us out.

 

A rarity for us, we rented a car while at Bundy. We had gone there to attend a surprise party for an old school friend, and we have other friends in the area, so it made sense to have a car. We had 2 nights camped in Bundy, then had a quick look at the Hinkler Museum on our way to visit our friends at Lowmead. A couple of days with our friends at Lowmead, then the day after Easter Monday, we drove back to Bundy airport to see what we could do for our little plane.

 

We were put in touch with a LAME at Maryborough who ordered in a new battery for us, so we extended our car rental and headed off to Maryborough. The next morning after the battery arrived, we took it back to Bundy, installed it, loaded the plane, gave back the hire car and flew straight to Maryborough so SYF could be checked out - a 10 month old battery shouldn't just die like that. We ended up having another night in Maryborough, it had been decided that the problem was the regulator, a new one was ordered and we were right to go by 10 the next morning.

 

What date am I up to? Who knows!

 

From Maryborough, we flew to Kilcowera Station, owned by Zenonie, a member here. What a magnificent property! We will definitely visit again, just sorry we didn't get to meet Toni, she was in hospital having an operation on a broken finger. We were looked after very well by Greg.

 

The next morning (Friday - don't ask what date) we reluctantly left Kilcowera, bound for William Creek via Thargomindah and Innaminka (fuel and pilot swap stops). We have known Trevor Wright for nearly as long as we've owned our plane, he always looks after us when we visit. Such fun, as soon as Trevor saw us, he said he had a job for us. He had bought a vending machine for his Wrightsair office and needed help getting it inside and stocked. He thought it could go straight in the front door and everything would be simple. Unfortunately, the front door is only 750mm wide, the machine was designed to go through a standard 840mm doorway. With the use of a forklift, a trolley jack, a manual pallet trolley, various pieces of timber, and a standard trolley, as well as us, Trevor and at least 2 of his pilots, it took us 3 hours to get the machine inside and in place. Much to-ing and fro-ing with tape measures and much discussion. Meanwhile, the Chief Pilot was cooking dinner for everyone. The pilots eventually had enough, so it was left to us to stock the machine. We were well compensated though, we fully expected to end up on a mattress on the floor somewhere, but Trevor gave us the keys to one of his new motel units and we were fed brekkie as well as having had dinner. Never made it to the pub this time. Oh yeah, and William Creek now has a sealed runway!

 

From William Creek, we stopped at Coober Pedy on our way to Nullarbor Motel for the night. It's always nice to be able to taxi up to your motel room. The strip was in better condition than on our previous visit.

 

Next was Balladonia Hotel. We left Nullarbor and headed straight for the Bight, and flew over water at 700' almost all the way to Caiguna. What a gorgeous flight! All the way we could hear Virgin & Qantas complaining about light chop at all levels from about FL360 to FL400, it was very tempting to key the mike and say "it's gorgeous here at 700 feet" but I resisted. Caiguna for fuel, then Balladonia Hotel, another place where you can taxi up to within 100 yards or so of your motel room. Very friendly and excellent service, a pity the same couldn't be said for Nullarbor.

 

This morning, we left Balladonia and headed to Esperance for fuel, Katanning for a pilot swap, and then mid-afternoon we arrived at Bunbury. We are a day early, but that's ok, the tent is up, we've walked to town and back, and we have an extra day before the conference starts.

 

More in a week or two, after we work our way home.

 

 

[siznaudin]

... it was very tempting to key the mike and say "it's gorgeous here at 700 feet" but I resisted...

Probably wise not to, but I might not have been so strong willed.

Great story Kaye - and if you can access the latest "Rag & Tube" there's an article in it of some hardy souls who flew Aeronca Champs across to Langley Park ... the Nullabor price of an (empty!) 20 litre plastic jerry can - $60! Caiguna, a small beer $8 and Avgas $2.85/litre. A box of matches (needed for a minor repair, believe it or not) $1.

 

 

[Guest aviatrix27]

Yes, siz, they know how to charge. We won't be going to Nullarbor Motel on the return trip.

 

Just flown the nav trial, don't care how well we did or didn't do with the competition part, it was FUN!!!!!!!!

 

 

[Guest aviatrix27]

Another informative day at the conference, was great to catch up with our very own Bas again too!

 

 

[Guest aviatrix27]

Now that I'm home, I should probably finish the story.

 

The conference ended with the presentation dinner on Saturday 21st April. A terrific night, catching up with friends and seeing who got what awards. The chief pilot from William Creek, Tayla, got the one-off conversion to helicopter scholarship. We were absolutely thrilled for her.

 

Sunday we spent the afternoon with a friend who had driven down from Perth to see us. It seems we get to see her every 5 or 6 years. Definitely her turn to visit next time. Monday we packed up and were driven to the airport to pack our stuff into SYF. Somehow, we had managed to almost double what we normally carry, at least in the way of bags. We have been camping out of our vintage car more recently, we took things we wouldn't normally take. Not to worry, we were still within W&B.

 

Monday we flew from Bunbury to Esperance (fuel) then on to Caiguna for the night. The rooms don't look much from the outside, but are quite comfortable and most importantly clean on the inside. Tuesday morning we filled the fuel tanks and flew coastal to Nullarbor Motel (lunch) then Ceduna for the night. Wednesday we left Ceduna, intending to head for Whyalla, but with about 1/2 hour to run, the rain showers we had been dodging were too close together, so we changed our minds and went to Port Augusta. The diversion meant a bit of a re-think of our original plan, so we used the coffee table in Sharpie's office to re-draw some lines and look at lowest safes. I flew from Port Augusta to Waikerie, after diverting north of our track for the first 80 miles to remain clear of cloud and terrain, I just needed to dodge the occasional rain shower to finish another great flight. Love my bluetooth headsets, one of our most annoying friends called when I only had 15 minutes to run, it was easy to get off the phone after 10 minutes, I really needed to concentrate. Must tell him he's rung me in the plane more often!

 

At Waikerie on Anzac Day, luckily there was someone working on his plane and we were able to con him into a lift to town. He took us to the hotel/motel, I asked for a ground floor room and we got the last one available "it's a spa room, and is $115". Ok, I suppose so... It was the cheapest and best room we had on the whole trip.

 

We had been telling people that barring weather, we would be home Thursday and they had been telling us about filthy weather. Thursday morning, we got a lift back to the plane (the cabbie was used to driving onto the airfield and took us right up to SYF). We loaded her up, did a daily, had a good look towards the horizon to the east and set off for Swan Hill. Gorgeous conditions, I love solid cloud that is 2000' AGL so I can fly along at about 1500' in comfort. We stopped at Swan Hill for lunch and fuel, then I flew to Yarrawonga, to our waiting car and several more friends I hadn't seen in years just happened to be there.

 

Once on the ground, you would think the <2 hour drive home would be it. No, by the time we had our catch up with friends and left the airport, we should have already been home, but that doesn't matter, we eventually got there, about 2 hours after last light! Just as well we were driving.

 

Our poor old dog missed us dreadfully, the friend who house-sat for us watched him deteriorate the whole time we were away and begged him to wait until after we were home if he was going to leave us. He's still with us, but surely not for much longer, Pepper's birthday is in July and if he makes it that far he will be 16. Extremely old for a border collie!

 

 

[siznaudin]

What a great account Kaye ... thank you so much for sharing it all with us.

 

And... give The Old Dog a loving hug from us, please - we're old enough to know the pain & loss which occurs following any close attachment after a long relationship, whether it involve human:animal or human:human. :)

 

 

[Guest aviatrix27]

No worries Siz. I can hear Pepper moving around in his kennel, he's doing remarkably well for his age. I will pass on that hug in the morning, it's too cold out and I'm not wearing a fur coat!

 

 

[Shelley]

What a great trip, Kaye. I wish I could have made it this year. I loved hearing about all those waypoints you called in to. Gives me a handful of new places to research, particularly Balladonia. Thanks so much for sharing.

 

Cheers

 

Shelley

 

 

[Guest aviatrix27]

Thanks Shelley - make sure it's Balladonia Hotel, not Balladonia Station. They are about 5 miles apart, the hotel is further west. I hope to see you at Hervey Bay next year, it's been a fair while since I saw you.