17th Sept
to 23rd Sept 2012
Very early
on Monday the 17th, we departed out unit for the darkness of hanger
D at Jandakot Airport where VH KOG, a C172 N is hangered. At official first
light we departed Jandakot for Meekatharra via Armadale. It was a cold and
clear morning and all was good. On passing Paynes Find we were sipping our hot
coffee when there was a sudden bang followed by a shudder through the control
column. “Interesting” I thought…..wonder what that was. Once the heart rate and
blood pressure regained normality we discovered that the vacuum pump has let
fly and we had no A/H or Turn indicator. Not a problem for us. Very few RA Aus
aircraft have this sophisticated equipment on board so we’ll just push on. It
may even “recover” once we shut down and start up again who knows? Sadly it was
indeed terminal. Our arrival at YMEK coincided with the RPT flight which meant
we has serious whining during our refueling, so it was a quick turnaround and
off to Newman. Our arrival there was just after the arrival of the RPT jet.
Boy, do they take their time back tracking the runway. We could have done 2 circuits,
but decided to have an aerial tour of the mine and then came on in to load more
fuel in both ourselves and the aircraft. Again we had the continual whining of
the jets APU, but at least it was a little further away from us.
So far all
had gone exceptionally well timing wise, although the fuel burn was a little more
than we had planned. A quick chat to my friendly LAME and we had some new
techniques to try. Happily they made a difference on the future legs. Our
departure from YNEW was close to 1300hrs and the temperature was close to the
40 degree mark and didn't we feel it. Poor little KOG used a lot of runway with
the mixture leaned and eventually lifted off cleanly and then our adventures
really began! I have never felt so out of control in an aircraft before.
Nothing was making sense! The aircraft attitude was perfect. Full power was
being produced and the revs were as per usual. Yet the VSI was all over the
place. Fortunately the ups were more than the downs and after a while we had
reached 9,500 feet where the bumps were still between 250 & 500 ft on the
VSI, so tried 10,000 where it was finally “smooth”….but not very. One thing
about being that high was that the maps made perfect sense and were very easy
to read. Elena did an excellent job and even managed to keep me on track using
the 1 in 60 rule…well sort of anyway. Eventually we approached the coast near
Sandfire where we reduced our altitude to enter Broome airspace. Again we hit the money slot. After giving us
clearance to approach and report at 10 miles, there was pandemonium. The RFDS
jet had an emergency evacuation and was given priority, the jet was inbound,
the helicopters and tourist flights were all inbound. Planes were doing orbits
at Cable Beach Club and Gatheame Point and others were told to reduce speed. I
was just about to suggest to them that I take the tourist route when they asked
where I was. My intentions were conveyed and they seemed ok with it all. After
15 minutes we were at 5 miles having flown around Roebuck Bay and all was
quiet. The boys gave me a straight in approach over China Town and a very long
and challenging day was behind us.
Our friend
picked us up and we had a very enjoyable and restful night with them, before
departing for Kununurra via Mitchell Plateau the next morning. Our first stop
was Derby to top up the fuel. My radio work was at its very worst that morning,
but the nice lady was gentle with me and made it all very easy. We had a very
uneventful flight to Derby. After a quick refueling stop we were on our way.
First sight apart from everything was Kings Cascades on the Prince Regent
River. Bad timing!! The smoke haze was all over the Kimberley’s and we were
really starting to miss not having the A/H operational. Also, the water had
almost dried up so it was more like Kings Trickle, but still a striking
formation. From there we tracked direct to Mitchell Falls where we did a couple
of half orbits (does that make one full one?) before deciding to land at the
airstrip some 14klms away for lunch. We had planned to stop at Kalumbaru but it
would have meant arriving just as their siesta time commenced, so the YMIP
terminal seemed like a good place for a picnic. Not long after touching down
and starting our picnic, we heard the thumping of helicopter rotor blades and
thought it a bit unusual…they don’t need runways! Then we saw a bright orange
Bell Longranger flying low and fast along 06. It pulled up and landed fairly
close to us and out jumped my son Phil. He had heard the radio calls and come
over to say hi. He was supposed to be in Kununurra, but the resident machine
had issues that needed the attention of a LAME so he got to bring him out in a
serviceable helicopter and take the “sick machine” back. But as he said he’d
only fly it if the engineer was in there beside him! They did make it back and
were there to meet us at Kununurra.
After our
quick helicopter flight and lunch we departed for Kalumbaru. Since leaving
Derby, the scenery below us had all been breathtaking and the short flight over
kept up the breathlessness. We could write another chapter on our 2 hours at
Kalumbaru but all we’ll say now is that Michael looked after us very well. After
he exchanged 31 litres of fuel for $155, we were on our way again, this time to
Kununurra via King George Falls. Scenery still spectacular, but the falls were
dry. It’s still a fantastic part of WA to visit though and rock formations
alone are fascinating.
Our trip to
Kununurra was uneventful and we landed at a little after 1630 in reducing light
where my son was there waiting for us.
We spent the
next 2 nights in Kununurra and caught up with the changes in the town as well
as showing Phil and Elena the sights as I remembered them 32 years ago.
On Thursday
Morning we departed Kununurra at 0730 on Phil’s advice so as to miss the
regular tourist flights out over Lake Argyle and the Bungles. They depart at
0630 and 0830. The result was we were the only aircraft in the air over the
bungles as the others were all headed back to YPKU for more tourists. Just as
well really as the majority of the tourist aircraft are C210’s and Airvans
which are a little faster than the little C172. All I can say about his section
of the trip is that if you haven’t done it; put it on your bucket list. It is
really amazing. From there we proceeded on to Halls Creek to top up and on to Broome
for another overnight with our friends. We did point out to them we were just
using them up but would return later in the year and make it up to them. The
Mango Festival in November is always worth a visit I've found.
On Friday we
departed Broome for Hamelin Pool Station via Karratha and Carnarvon. Another
long day, but with 2 pilots aboard the workload was ok and the iPad was working
very well with the AvPlan app. Everything at my fingertips and easy to bring up
when needed. Also, we had a real horizon again so everything was back to
normal. As a matter of interest, we counted 40 ore carriers both being loaded
and waiting to be loaded at Port Hedland. Almost reminded me of Hong Kong Harbour many years ago!!
We arrived
at Hamelin Pool Station at 1545 where we were met at the airstrip and taken to
the “shearers quarters” for our 2 day stay. We were there for the wedding of
good friends who met at the Busselton Aero Club and both share the passion for
flying. We both consider ourselves lucky boys to have wives that share our
passion for aviation and love being involved. As Elena only has he RA Aus
license at the moment, she was referred to as my auto pilot which we renamed
“Elena”. It is great being able to have
a break every now and then and makes the human element of things much easier to
manage on the long legs.
The wedding
went very well and the few that made it here all had an excellent time. I was
very pleased to be flying home the next day. No fuzzy head and 3 hours of
flying compared with 11 hours of driving. With the 172 we could carry
everything we needed as the RPL only lets me carry one passenger and her name
is permanently on the manifest, even though she’s no passenger!!!
Our flight
home was a perfect end to an interesting week of flying. 30.3 hours added to
the tacho and I’m now starting to feel a little more comfortable behind the
controls again. All I need now is to find a nice fast RV that has some luggage
room so we can cover the miles at a C210 rate. Perhaps I should investigate
building one. Elena is a trained surgeon after all.
