> I walked outside on Saturday while the toast was cooking and glanced
> upward at the most oppressive sight in days.
> eight eights blue sky is a common term but doesnt convey the
> oppressive nature of all that blue. ...truely it was an impressive
> eleven elevenths blue sky that day.
> "Hmmm, got to make use of this" I thought as the muffled kerplung of
> the toaster resonated behind me.
>
> a quick flog on to the airservices web site showed that the day was
> doable. just the mere trifling of a 20 knot headwind to keep life
> interesting.
> the BOM site showed pretty coloured satellite photos that looked
> pretty if not interesting. winding the weather radar out to 256km
> showed not a cloud to darken the day.
>
> "myrtle wheeeers me road map. I've got some flying to do!"
> ...you idiots would love it if I actually said such things wouldnt you
> :-)
> no. down with the toast and coffee. out with the wac chart and lordy
> me it doesnt even need the creases glued back together this time.
> pencil and whizz wheel flew into action.
> up to northam 33 nautical, hmmm douglass protractor where have I left
> you???? ahhh there it is. bearing in the middle of (you'd just love to
> know that wouldnt you?)
> Northam to Goomalling with the egg digesters, 22 nautical and,
> tweaking for mag variation 20 degrees close enough.
> Goomalling to Dallwallinu 65 nautical and 353 degrees.
> Dallwallinu to Perenjori, 50 nautical and 340 degrees.
> hmmm 205 nautical miles or thereabouts.
>
> wind is 25 knots from 20 degrees. hmmm 96 knots to Northam, 95 knots
> to Goomalling, 98 knots to Dallwallinu, and 100knots for the final
> leg. slow as snails all the way but what a blue sky to do it in.
> hmmm about an hour 45 or so to do the trip.
>
> whats it on the way back? hmm turn the whizz wheel around backwards.
> 138 knots out of Perenjori, 142knots to Goomalling, 144knots to
> Northam and 142 knots back home.
>
> will we give phil a ring first? hmmm no this will just be a navex to
> check fuel consumption. besides he might have CASA see me as a trophy.
> nup we'll just check out the consumptions after the carby refurb.
>
> stuffing around when the weather is as good as this saw me takeoff
> fully fuelled at just after midday.
> the flight out to Northam saw lively traffic on the radio as all and
> sundry were told to nick off out of encroached airspace. the stealth
> pilot was flying on blue maps though 'cause he left the brown ones
> home by accident after studying them and realising that nothing had
> changed. the old blue maps knew better than to poke me into c.
> I just flew on with the circus occurring all around me.
> 'hey stupid wots yer altitude'
> '3700 feet'
> 'thats wot we thought, nick off outa our airspace 'n do it real quick
> or you'll end up as a hood ornament for that A300 that's making a bee
> line through where you are'
>
> lordy me you think that the aeroclub types would learn to read maps 'n
> stuff :-)
>
> over the top of Northam we started climb to 4,500ft and pointed toward
> Goomalling though for some reason the eggs werent visible in the
> distance. At about Karrabein Hill we trimmed out for the cruise at
> viewing height and realised that if we didnt keep looking at Dowerin
> then Goomalling would look suspiciously like the group of eggs off to
> the left. a little course correction and over the top of the eggs we
> went, turning left at the intersection in true procedural IFR style.
>
> (btw I've always wondered what the eggs actually are)
>
> Over the top of Konnongorring we corrected a little ( 'we' as in me
> and the aeroplane, which has probably almost forgotten that it's name
> was Penelope when I bought it :-) ) and poked out just to the right
> of Wongan Hills.
> about this time I noticed that the circus on the radio had gone quiet
> so I dragged out the brown erc low. a couple of minutes perusal and I
> was thinking to my self what a useless bodge job they'd done on the
> map. one of the frequecies I needed was overprinted with a brown strip
> and even in strong light with the glasses on it was indecipherable.
> you'd think they'd check what they put out.
> anyway the frequency wasnt critical because I wasnt transmitting so I
> picked the one for the destination end of the trip and amazingly got
> reception.
>
> While I was doing the pilotage stuff I noticed that the layout of the
> lakes wasnt matching the map. a bit of a peer in the sunlight revealed
> that Lake Ninan had vanished completely into the furry glued up edge
> of a fold in the map. hmmm time for a new wac chart I thought.
>
> Just past Dallwallinu with nungadong on the nose I saw something that
> would make an agronomists eyes water. there was a huge plowed and
> seeded paddock. very clearly through the paddock was the lines of an
> old water course, all the way along the side of the water course were
> plowed in small billabongs. how did I know this? they were all green!
> the rest of the paddock was brown and it was all as flat as a rice
> paddy. I wonder if the farmer has ever realised that the soil in the
> old water course is different from the rest of the paddock. my bet was
> that the soil had a trace of clay through it and this was retaining
> the water in the soil. the effect on the growth of the crop was
> astounding. I took a photo.
>
> Out over Wubin I could still make out the accomodation units beside
> the pub that we'd spent a month working out of in the early 70's when
> we were preparing for the topographic mapping through there.
> The bloody place hasnt changed in 30 years it seems.
>
> Buntine, Maya, Latham and Bunjil all slid slowly under the nose as the
> first popcorn whisps of cloud from the frontal activity up north
> passed just over my nose. It wasnt a trick of the light I'm sure but a
> sign of recent rains the area was greening up as the crops emerged.
> In fact over toward Perenjori off to the north the area looked
> positively verdant.
> From Caron I lowered the nose and managed to have the old girl over
> the ton for the first part of the flight.
>
> Off in the distance lay Phil's airstrip. a huge gravel Y shaped thing
> to the north of the town.
>
> Now as slack as he may seem the Stealth Pilot never lands at a remote
> stip without a good precautionary search or two. it's a bloody long
> way to walk home if you break the aeroplane.
> Down to 50ft for a fang along the side of the runway. hmmmmm I must
> say that this strip looks pretty damn good. Up and around for a
> circuit and one more look before committing. Luckily the town is all
> on the airfield side of the main road so I made a pass along the side
> of the town to determin where the shops were and whether any were
> open. An ice cold Coca Cola would go down really well.
>
> I realised by the end of the town that 2:30 on a saturday afternoon
> really did amount to what it had always done in these areas. the
> bloody town was shut! not a single sign of life existed, even the pub
> was sitting marooned on the side of the road with not a parked car in
> sight. nothing for it but to make my last precautionary search and
> land on what looked like the far side of the moon.
> the second precautionary reinforced the sense of quality that first
> run gave me so around for a last circuit and in.
>
> The second flight past the town showed that it was shut alright. dead
> as a drive in theatre at midday.
> The actual landing reinforced just how flat the strip was. Whoever
> built it did a beautiful job. the gravel was just large enough that it
> didnt flick up into the prop or the tailplane and just small enough
> that it didnt feel like ball bearings under the wheels.
> I pulled around into the flying doctor park.
>
> Not a single soul stirred.
> A barnstormer would die of poverty out here :-) I wonder if they're
> the guys buried just off the end of the runway :-)
>
> I hopped out and dipped the tank. after all this was a fuel usage
> test. My heart skipped a beat. the flight into the twenty something
> knot headwind had taken exactly half the tank.
> now you probably dont see the reason for the heart irregularity. half
> the tank up, half the tank back, what's the problem?
> well the last 50 miles of the return trip is over absolutely
> unlandable tiger country. running out of fuel there would be curtains.
> ah well tackle that later.
>
> I walked almost all the way into town and not a soul stirred which
> didnt really matter because I knew it was shut. I took photos to prove
> to Phil that I'd actually been there. Circulation restored I walked
> back to the aircraft pondering the future. It was 2:30 on a saturday
> afternoon. absolutely everything between me and perth was shut!!!
>
> you mere mortals who have never flown will not realise that we pilots
> are confident in our technology. the 25 knot tailwind, if it still
> existed, would sort the matter out. better get out of the town and be
> on the way before it abated.
>
> I took off and circled back past the town and still nothing had
> stirred. nothing at all! No wonder that Phil asked me to ring ahead,
> he probably has to fly in a "population" whenever anyone visits :-)
>
> Up around 4,500ft again the winds were pushing me along at the best
> speed of the flight. higher and lower altitudes were less so it was
> 200ft under the clouds and bugger the pilotage, gps plot me a course
> direct to Northam. At one stage a very reassuring 142 knots was on the
> GPS. The chosen height was also so that I would skim the underside of
> the class C into Northam. At Northam with 138 knots on the GPS it was
> 'goto Mt Dale'. Three quarters of an hour spent over tiger country
> soon passed and I was over the top of the emerald city and in for a
> circuit and an uneventful touchdown.
>
> The tank dipped a reassuring 26 litres beside the clubhouse and it was
> in for a goffer.
> 3 hours 28 minutes went into the log book that day for a flight to
> Perenjori and back averaging 20.2 litres per hour at 122 knots
> indicated.
>
> not a bad afternoon's trundle If I do say so myself.
> 98 litres of high octane avgas was all it took.
>
> Gee phil. you must have the best dirt runway in all australia up
> there. pity all the world for 50 miles around was shut when I visited
> :-)
>
> your pal
> Stealth Pilot
>
> ( Barwon Field ???? that's a bit pretentious isnt it? )
>
>