> "Dorothy" (our J1 Auster) had been sorted the previous weekend, and
> flown to Kangaroo Island to commission her new "Slick" magnetos- with
> excellent results. In fact, when I first opened the throttle for
> takeoff with the new magnetos, I thought the crankshaft was going to
> tear itself out of the front of the engine. The old BTH maggies were
> clearly getting sick, and the difference was very obvious. And we had
> an accurately calibrated and overhauled tacho to prove that the revs
> were up- its shiny black face looking out of place among the other
> dials, and its needle giving only the smallest tremor instead of the
> wild gyrations that were typical of late. Well done, Parafield
> Instruments, and at a fraction of their quoted price (I don't mind
> giving a shameless plug to a good company.)
>
> Anyway, when we arrived early on Friday morning all that remained was
> to chuck in the last of the fuel and pre-flight the engine and
> airframe. The forecast had a low-level trough moving in from the west,
> and a front behind that. We were aiming for a sparrow-fart take-off to
> stay ahead of potential poor weather, but as usual, the sparrows were
> constipated and the sun was up before Dorothy's engine barked into
> life at Callington.
>
> The wind was from the northwest, so our easterly heading for Swan Hill
> gave us a good fifteen knot tailwind, the air was smooth, and the
> cloud advancing ahead of the trough was keeping the sun out of our
> eyes, so even with our comparatively late 8:15 am takeoff, the flying
> was good. Dorothy quickly settled at 2,500' in completely smooth air,
> and the ground began to unroll beneath us. We eased a little to the
> right of the direct track to avoid being targeted by the army mortar
> range just past Murray Bridge, and with that behind us we set out
> across the wheat paddocks towards Pinnaroo. This was familiar ground,
> and in line with our usual practice we skirted the scrub of the Big
> Desert (imaginative geographers, these Victorians), crossed the
> Sunraysia Highway, noted the dry salt pan called Lake Tyrrel (used to
> be full of water, even in summer) and commenced our descent into Swan
> Hill. The tail wind had decreased to an average of about 10 knots as
> we progressed east, but even with the relatively quick trip we were
> experiencing bumrot and bladdermax by the time we approached the
> circuit area.
>
> Four of the local aviators were doing a formation fly-over of the
> march at Swan Hill, and we tuned in to their chatter before alerting
> them to our presence. Runway 33 was into wind, and I elected to use
> the verge as the centrehad been chopped out by over use in the drought
> conditions. I let Dorothy touch too early, and she floated grumpily
> into the air again before collapsing onto the dry grass. This earned a
> rebuke from the Navigator to smarten up my act, as she did not want to
> earn the award for the Most Interesting Arrival when we landed at
> Temora.
>
> We parked Dorothy next to the bowser for refueling and decamped to the
> loos for personal defueling. By the time we had commenced replenishing
> Dorothy's belly tank, the two Piper Tomahawks had arrived from
> Stonefield, closely followed by the Yak from Noarlunga. With Dorothy
> filled and out of the way we settled down to a quick cuppa before the
> next leg. The local aero club members there are very hospitable.
> About 20 minutes out of Swan Hill, I suddenly realized that while I
> had noted that Dorothy needed oil, I'd allowed myself to be distracted
> by the other arrivals and hadn't added any. I usually maintain
> Dorothy's oil level between two and two and a half gallons, but I
> figured it could run down as low as one gallon before there would be
> any risk of lack of supply to the engine. On a hot day this could
> allow the oil temp to climb too high, but this was hardly a hot day. I
> mentally kicked myself for my carelessness, resolved to keep an eye on
> the temp and pressure (which were at the cold/high end of the range)
> and carried on.
>
> After about an hour, the coffee we drank at Swan Hill made its
> presence felt, and we figured a quick pee stop would also permit an
> oil top-up. A check of our AOPA directory revealed an airstrip at
> Coleambally (not mentioned in ERSA- an example of why it's best to
> carry more than the official sources). We spotted it from a few miles
> out, and I managed one of my smoothest landings for some time where
> there was no-one watching. This earned another rebuke from the
> Navigator, who suggested I save such perfection for Temora instead of
> wasting it on deserted country airstrips. (Some days you can't win….).
>
> Oil topped up and renal units pacified, we blasted off again and were
> soon approaching Temora. We listened closely to the local CTAF,
> building a picture of the location and intentions of the various
> aircraft converging on the airfield. We made our inbound call and
> heard a Piper Colt also call inbound with an arrival time near ours.
> The Vampire called taxiing for a practice run to the west of the
> field, and following the suggestions of the Temora Unicom, we tracked
> south of the town aiming for a long downwind for runway 18. We soon
> spotted the Piper sliding into the downwind leg ahead of us, and the
> Vampire called off his practice flight for "administrative reasons",
> so we didn't have to worry about getting tangled up with him. Then the
> local RPT called up wanting to backtrack 18. Not wanting to hold him
> up, Unicom asked the Piper ahead of us if she would mind "extending
> downwind". The Piper agreed, and we chimed in saying we would do
> likewise. The turboprop began laboriously taxiing down the runway
> while we kept on extending…. and extending…. and extending. Eventually
> the RPT began rolling, and the Piper turned onto base and final.
> Shortly afterwards we also turned onto base and I suggested to the
> Navigator that she get the map out so we could find our way back to
> the field. The RPT called to thank us for our patience as she climbed
> on track for Melbourne.
>
> Eventually we had the airfield in sight again, and managed a landing
> not quite as bad as the one at Swan Hill and not as good as the one at
> Coleambally, but good enough to avoid the bouncer's award (and the
> Navigator's displeasure) for another year.
>
> That night a significant number of us congregated at the Shamrock
> Hotel for a Chinese meal. That's right- to get a good Chinese meal in
> Temora, you have to go to the Irish pub. This is multiculturalism at
> its finest! Since they were practically booked out our gang was
> relegated to the beer garden out the back. By mutual consent we all
> ordered a "number one banquet" and at first we wondered if we had
> overloaded the kitchen as it took an hour between the spring rolls and
> the first real course. However, from then on the dishes appeared
> relatively quickly and by the time it was all over no-one was left
> dissatisfied. The floor show was provided by the sight of a well-known
> member of the Noarlunga mob trying to organize the drunken rabble so
> she could determine who wanted sweets and who wanted drinks and if so,
> what drinks…. A sergeant major in the army couldn't have done better….
>
> For me, the highlight of the airshow on Saturday was seeing the
> Canberra Bomber fly. The cartridge start with its puff of black smoke
> and shriek of the starting turbine is an unusual feature, and I reckon
> it's one of the best looking machines in the air. The dinner on
> Saturday night was a great event with many dressing up in 1940's
> style, and a fair smattering of uniforms among the furs and hats.
> However, I did note a few of the blokes (somewhat under the weather)
> struggling with the unfamiliar fly-buttons in the gents later on…..
>
> By Saturday evening some clouds and showers of rain had moved in, and
> the scene looked fairly grim on Sunday morning. The forecast was for
> headwinds, with scattered showers of rain and isolated thunderstorms
> with small hail. However, the cloudbase was high enough, and we hoped
> that we could dodge the rain and thunderstorms. We got airborne about
> 10:00am, fifteen or twenty minutes behind Noarlunga's Yak, intending
> to make for Hay and Wentworth in the hope that by staying well north
> we would avoid the worst of it.
>
> At first all looked well- blocked by a shower of rain we dodged to the
> south of track a little and slipped through a gap where there was only
> light drizzle. Our view further south obscured by another shower, we
> moved north of track and again avoided the worst of the precipitation.
> Emerging from this, we were then confronted by a line of showers
> extending well north. We dialed up Griffith on the GPS but it was
> clear that track would lead us straight into some heavy rain with no
> horizon visible. So we turned south and slid down the back of a line
> of hills hoping to get in to Narrandera where we could wait for this
> line of showers to pass through. But no such luck- the rain was just
> as heavy down that way and Narrandera was already well into it. My
> mobile phone rang, and although I didn't answer it (the noise in
> Dorothy's cockpit makes conversation impossible) I guessed it was the
> Noarlunga mob telling me they were down somewhere. It looked like we
> were not going to get home today, so we turned tail and bolted back to
> Temora, arriving just ahead of the first few showers. During the run
> back the Noarlunga mob sent a text stating they were on the ground at
> Griffiths, and staying there.
>
> As soon as we got back we topped up Dorothy's tanks and pegged her
> down in the rain. Back at the club, we met all the others who had made
> the attempt and returned- no matter which way they were going. A
> significant number of AAAA members who had flown to Cootamundra for
> breakfast were trapped there, and our friends at Griffiths said they
> had only just made it before the rain blotted out the scenery. We
> heard that there was some very nasty weather forecast, with severe
> winds. By this time it was raining steadily, and the day's airshow
> flying was effectively washed out. I went out to the tie-down area and
> banged the pegs in further, while all the Tiger owners dragged their
> aircraft over to the hangar. The Navigator and I went over to help.
> With the doors open, a space big enough to hold about three or perhaps
> four aircraft was revealed, and a Stearman was being pushed into one
> corner.
>
> Have you ever seen those "executive puzzles" where a set of 3-D pieces
> have to fit into a small box, and there's only one way of getting them
> in? Well, by the time we had finished at the hangar, we had squeezed
> into that space a Stearman, three Tigers, a Piper Colt, an Auster
> (Dorothy) with an ultralight under Dorothy's wing (like a mother hen
> shielding a chick). I take my hat off to the older Temora Aero Club
> member who was in charge of aircraft stacking- he did a great job, and
> we all slept a lot easier that evening knowing our "ragwings" were dry
> and safe.
>
> We were staying at the "Patchwork" B&B in Temora- an old hotel no
> longer licensed which has our AAAA seal of approval. For $35 per
> person you get a basic room with hand basin, all the breakfast you
> could ever want, and a proprietor with a pleasant demeanor for whom
> nothing is too much trouble. We returned there with a group of AAAA
> refugees- among them the Piper pilot. Having spent the next few hours
> drying off our clothing, changing into our cleanest dirty jocks, and
> explaining to bosses why we wouldn't be at work tomorrow, we all
> sauntered down to the Terminus pub where we bumped into yet more AAAA
> weather avoiders congregating for dinner. A great night was had by
> all- but in line with CASA's new alco-testing policy we avoided booze
> and no-one told any lies…..
>
> Next day the headwinds were stronger but the air was dryer. The
> forecast mentioned cloud at 1500'-with Temora at 900' AMSL this didn't
> leave a lot of room for aviating. We knew the ground got lower out on
> track, so provided the cloudbase was distinct, and the rain stayed
> away, we figured it would be flyable, but with 20 knots on the nose it
> would be a long trip.
>
> And so it proved. The cloud at 1500' was broken, and we blatted along
> beneath it about 700' AGL. We followed some valleys through the
> Naranderra Range to avoid dragging our wheels in the foliage, and
> abeam Leeton the cloud began breaking up, and the ground fell away. We
> climbed over the scattered puffs of cumulus to 2,500' and soon it
> disappeared entirely. Dorothy's engine sang smoothly in the crisp air,
> the Navigator's finger slowly traced our progress across the map, and
> Dorothy bobbed around in the light turbulence that the patchy sun
> generated. At Hay we encountered a group of budding aviators receiving
> ground instruction who offered us coffee while we awaited the
> refueller. Their first attempts at radio communication gave us some
> amusement as we climbed away on track for Mildura.
>
> The clouds were lining up in streets along the wind and almost along
> our track, and by deviating left and right we gained some additional
> speed for short periods. We arrived at Mildura just ahead of the
> local RPT's (Qantaslink and Rex) to discover the bowser surrounded by
> a quartet of Robin helicopters. They were flying from Melbourne to
> Ayers Rock where they would apparently join 30 more of the little
> devils. (What do you call 30 Robin helicopters? A swarm? A Hover?).

> The presence of the heavies meant the terminal café was open, so we
> treated ourselves to coffee and toasted sandwiches before refueling
> and heading for home. Having flown over six hours that day, our arms
> were getting pretty tired approaching Callington. We briefly chatted
> to the Noarlunga mob as they climbed out of Murray Bridge, before
> sliding down to our home strip. And that's where our luck ran out.
> After six hours of flying we were both pretty tired, and in a moment
> of inattention combined with some slightly over-enthusiastic pushing,
> we drove Dorothy's elevator straight back into the next aircraft's
> prop, poking a ragged gash through both the top and bottom fabric.
> Neither of us could believe that, after packing seven aircraft into a
> sardine-tin space at Temora with nary a scratch, we'd managed to hole
> our aircraft in a hangar where we had all the space in the world…..
> but that's life I guess. Just as well I did that fabric repair course
> a few months ago…..

>
> Coop