The 2024 Australian Air Rally - The FBO

[TomPenDragon]

The Daily Update

(Cue “She Sells Sanctuary”)

 

EP: “Hello and welcome to the Daily Update for the 20th of January, 2024. I’m Elias Pacheco for Radio Chachapoya, and we’re watching the weather today. MAD1 reported that a tropical low, 05U, has formed in the waters between Queensland and the Solomon Islands. This will affect the Eastern route between now and the end of the month, possibly beyond. I’ll keep you posted.

 

“Let’s look at the Leaderboard today, shall we:

 

 

“The Bosss is still in the lead with 4 legs completed and a CV of 1. Hopefully, that storm won’t affect his plans. You might want to take it a little slow, Bosss. Enjoy the whales.

 

“ScottishMike also has a CV of 1, and is second, still in beautiful downtown Norseman. He is apparently spending a couple of days in the big city.

 

“defaid leads the CV2’s, still at Forrest. I hear he’s looking for a house.

 

“The mystery of ViperPilot2 deepens. The woman who lives in the house closest to the Norseman strip reported hearing the sound of a wolf’s howl and looking out to see a black helicopter touch down. She says she was terrified as the pilot exited the 222A and walked up to her door. She heard a single thump. The helicopter flew off. When she finally found the courage to open her door, there was a blue Post-It on it, on which was written, ‘YNSM -2.’ We believe this was his timing, which would put him in fourth with a CV 2.

 

“And we have another pilot on the course. Captain Dirk Doovalacky of the Australian Army flew the PhrogPhlyers’ Bell 206 to Caiguna, finishing his run with a CV of -3. He reported that the prawns at the nearest roadhouse had a distinct plastic taste and gives the eatery one star. I would surmise that there isn’t much of a Barbie queue for them. You know, for me the most disturbing aspect of his photo of the kitchen wasn’t the diminutive grillman or the lack of clothes of the shrimp pan, it’s the whole Christmas bondage aspect of the red and green twist ties holding the pan in place.

 

“A busy and concerned MAD1 briefly reported that he has completed his first run to Katanning, yet has not reported his times. The old Boy Scout motto applies: ‘Be Prepared.’ We’re all with you, my friend.

 

“This just in: Melo and his Chipmunk have departed Darwin and have reached Kununurra, on their way to Perth. And Bossspecops is closing in on Ceduna, debating whether to make a time or a water landing.

 

“And this brings us to the end of another Daily Update. This is Elias Pacheco for Radio Chachapoya, signing off with a warning: You might want to stay away from Barbie; she’s a little moody. Just ask Ken. Bye, bye."

[jgf]

Well, after a couple of false starts - forgetting to keep notes, neglecting to reset the timer - I decided the plane needed more R&R after her trip halfway around the Pacific (certainly I can't be getting older);  so while she underwent a minor overhaul ...

 

 

 

I availed myself of the beaches at Perth (I never learned to swim but found other items of interest).

 

 

Back at Jandacot;  she's happy there's no more parsimonious fuel monitoring;  let her run, 38mp, 2000rpm, 8000ft, 41gph, and 185kt-190kt GS.  (200kt cruise is easy ...if you don't mind fuel usage like there's a hole in the tank.)

 

Off to YKNG

 

Katanning in sight

 

 

on final

 

160 miles in 50.23 minutes

 

Reset timer and note mileage before heading off to YNSM...

 

the airport that couldn't afford runways

 

think I'll stay in the cockpit, no telling what I'd step in in this pasture

 

262 miles in 1hr 20 min

 

Off to YCAG

 

Hmmm, that's a highway not a runway

 

look around, there it is

 

a quick bat turn

 

easy landing ...once you find the place

 

 

225 miles in 1hr 10 min

 

Reset timer and head for Forrest

 

 

and there is YFRT, nice big paved runways...

 

with no facilities;  207 miles in 58.40min,  11 gallons of fuel left...

 

so guess I wait for the fuel truck

 

and go in search of a farm house, with perhaps a farmer's daughter

 

Roughly 840 miles, YPJT to YFRT.  Next stop, Ceduna

[PhrogPhlyer]

1 hour ago, Melo965 said:

One of the better over-the-wing camera angles, no distortion. Nice!

[PhrogPhlyer]

31 minutes ago, jgf said:

nd go in search of a farm house, with perhaps a farmer's daughter

Hate when this happens... of course, depends on the farmer's daughter.

[MAD1]

https://flyingtheoutback.com.au/destination/forrest/

Good pics https://flyingtheoutback.com.au/gallery/forrest/

[Rupert]

1 hour ago, jgf said:

Well, after a couple of false starts - forgetting to keep notes, neglecting to reset the timer - I decided the plane needed more R&R after her trip halfway around the Pacific (certainly I can't be getting older);  so while she underwent a minor overhaul ...

 

 

 

I availed myself of the beaches at Perth (I never learned to swim but found other items of interest).

 

 

Back at Jandacot;  she's happy there's no more parsimonious fuel monitoring;  let her run, 38mp, 2000rpm, 8000ft, 41gph, and 185kt-190kt GS.  (200kt cruise is easy ...if you don't mind fuel usage like there's a hole in the tank.)

 

Off to YKNG

 

Katanning in sight

 

 

on final

 

160 miles in 50.23 minutes

 

Reset timer and note mileage before heading off to YNSM...

 

the airport that couldn't afford runways

 

think I'll stay in the cockpit, no telling what I'd step in in this pasture

 

262 miles in 1hr 20 min

 

Off to YCAG

 

Hmmm, that's a highway not a runway

 

look around, there it is

 

a quick bat turn

 

easy landing ...once you find the place

 

 

225 miles in 1hr 10 min

 

Reset timer and head for Forrest

 

 

and there is YFRT, nice big paved runways...

 

with no facilities;  207 miles in 58.40min,  11 gallons of fuel left...

 

so guess I wait for the fuel truck

 

and go in search of a farm house, with perhaps a farmer's daughter

 

Roughly 840 miles, YPJT to YFRT.  Next stop, Ceduna

Hey that's the way with a lot of people as well.  If you'll spend the cash, they'll keep you happy.

 

BTW:  Wonderful picture of the radial recip!! Farmers' daughters are born every day but nice radials are getting sadly scarce!

[Bossspecops]

13 hours ago, jgf said:

 

I availed myself of the beaches at Perth (I never learned to swim but found other items of interest).

 

 

 

Veeeeery interesting too. 

 

I seem to be a bit distracted, was there something about a trans-Australian Flight Rally going on somewhere?

[Melo965]

Took off from Kununurra (YPKU) and curved around to almost a reciprocal heading to get on course for Curtin (YCIN).

 

Overflying an interesting river canyon below.

 

After 2 hours of flight time, finally left all the clouds behind.  I am also using RW for these flights (Active Sky 2016).

 

Runway in sight ahead.

 

Landed at Curtin.

 

This Chippie uses so little runway.  I can almost compete with PP.

 

Stopped on the taxiway getting my bearings.  Unusual airport configuration.  Tower is isolated with no parking or pavement nearby.

 

This Chippie flies well.  Only issues are that it seems to always need a nudge of right rudder to stay on course.  The bigger issue is that the fuel tank selector in the cockpit is unreliable.  The engine only uses fuel from the left wing tank.  My arms are getting tired from manually working the fuel transfer pump.  Maybe I can get them to fix the fuel tank lever when I stop by at RAAF Base Pearce on the way south.

 

Next stop Telfer (YTEF).

[PhrogPhlyer]

55 minutes ago, Melo965 said:

This Chippie uses so little runway.  I can almost compete with PP.

Challenge accepted!  

[Bossspecops]

I'm posting this flight report while 'Austral Rose' is en route to Port Augusta, and on autopilot as there's a hefty storm over that spike of land pointing south, gusty winds, lots of rain and thunder too! I'm glad I'm posting IFR flight plans as standard these days.

 

Y'day I flew into Ceduna from Forrest, the longest leg so far as it was 300 nms, and an estimated flight time of 1 hr 46 mins. but it was almost a straight line, and mostly over land too.

 

 

No-one had messed with the Sealand when I got there in the morning, and the JCB hadn't dug a trench around her either, so I was good to go by around 1130 or so.

 

 

Heading out east I was on an 'IFR' flight plan for sure, 'I Follow Roads' in this case as that looooong straight road was in sight much of the time.

 

 

Just after the half way point there was a short excursion over the ocean, which made a nice change after all that desert I'd passed over before.

 

 

It's sobering to think that the next point of land south of me in this view would have been ANTARCTICA! 

 

 

On the other hand, looking north showed me one of the best looking beaches I'd seen in a long time!

 

 

A short hop over the next promontory bought me almost within sight of Ceduna, and after it was into the descent.

 

 

It should have been a straight-in approach to the 11 runway at Ceduna, but I had a slight dog leg in the plan to pass an intersection, but I cancelled that and flew her straight in, as well as I could. The airfield should be just about where the arrow's pointing.

 

 

And there it is! Not too badly lined up but a tad high, and I touched down quite way down the asphalt.  It was a long taxi to the ramp, which was way over to the north, but a very welcoming looking place. No JCBs parked there at all.

 

 

I thought I took a pic of the Caduna ramp, but it seems not. Off to Port Augusta ASAP. 

 

 

[defaid]

19 hours ago, TomPenDragon said:

“defaid leads the CV2’s, still at Forrest. I hear he’s looking for a house.

 

 

The next stage's planned times:

 

[PhrogPhlyer]

Planning on a long run today; Caiguna to Forrest (160.4nm) to Ceduna (297.2nm) to Port Augusta (105,0nm) to Parafield (144.4nm) to Renmark (107.3nm). That will be 915 nm and just over 7 hours @130kt in the air. After checking my weight and balance I was able to install an additional 25- and 33-gallon Turtle Pac. Now I have 182 gallons of fuel (171 needed). That gives me a range of 970nm with just over 20 minutes of reserve fuel.

 

Preflight, start-up, air-taxi to runway, wave to those on the ramp, pull power and..

Caution Light. Closer look and it’s the Tail Rotor Chip light.

 

Remembering the Emergency Procedures, this is a Land as Soon as Possible condition. Quick air-taxi back to the line and shut down.

 

Stepping out to shouts of “That was a quick flight!” I explain what happened and do a little “unauthorized field maintenance.” I get a spanner/wrench from my tool box and take out the chip detector (a magnet with electrical connection to the Caution Panel) to find, a lot of metal on the magnet.

 

 Checking the maintenance manuals (I always keep a copy with me when I'm going to be far from my home field) I learn…

 

I’m going to need a new tail rotor gearbox.

 

I call back to Pearce to see how soon they can get a maintenance crew together and get to Caiguna. I was told that between some of the crew still suffering the effects of New Years, and others are making an early start celebrating Australia Day (Jan. 26). So “maybe” in a couple weeks.

 

This just will not do. So I called some friends in the NZAF, knowing that the Kiwi’s will do anything to help a friend (or so I hope). They called me back in a few minutes and said, hold tight, the NZAF is on its way to save the day, and the honour of the AU Army. But it will take a few hours to get things together and then a 7 ½ flight from RNAF Base Woodbourne to Caiguna.

 

Looks like another night here, wonder what’s on the menu at the RoadKill. I’ll eat anything BUT NOT the shrimp.

 

The next morning, we were all startled by the unbelievable noise of a Boeing 727 doing a low pass (50’) of the runway. After a dusty landing they taxied and parked next to my helicopter.

 

A dozen maintenance techs and two of my best friends stepped out of the 727.  “I knew they never should have trusted you, Dirk, without adult supervision.” And so set the stage for the next couple hours. I could not have been more impressed. Gearbox removed, reinstalled, and a flight test, all in less than 3 hours. A bit too late to attempt the flight today, so another night awaits at the RoadKill. I asked the Kiwi’s to join me, they just laughed. “Oh, by the way Dirk, we were never here. We didn’t let anyone know we were doing this, so I guess this is a stolen 727 and kidnapped airmen.” I told them, these are the days that make the best stories at happy hour!  And as quickly as they came, they climbed back aboard the 727 and taxied for take-off.  Over the radio, referring to the wrecked transport, they asked if this was what happened when the RAAF came to help. What a day.

 

And with as much dust and noise as they could muster, they roared into the sky and headed home.

 

One thing to never forget, pilots are the same the world over, and will always come to the aid of another. Just be ready to never live down that you needed help.

[Bossspecops]

AWESOME help from the RNZAF! 

 

I went aboard one of their 727s at an RAFA Fairford Show some years ago, and it was so clean you could have eaten your dinner off the floor! 

[ScottishMike]

Sparks flew into the night sky, toy meteors heading up from the fire dying against the black night.

Old Binda and me. He talked slowly, silences between sentences. Not reticent more weary. I was just one more white man wanting to know what I would never understand.

 

The prof and sour breath had set off in a hired ute almost as soon as we landed.

“Checking out some formations we saw from the air.” the prof said and they disappeared in a cloud of dust.

“Be at the aircraft for 10:00 tomorrow.” I shouted at the plume of dirt as it dissipated back down mostly on me and the Mooney.

 

It was the landlady of the B&B that mentioned old Binda and how to track him down.

“If it's old aboriginal stories you want he is your man. Old Binda. God knows how old he is. Doesn't know himself I'll wager.”

 

She had cooked me a good lunch. By then it was late afternoon. I set out to find Binda.

Tried the pub first, “Was here earlier. Left about an hour ago.” the barman barely glanced up from the pumps. “What you want old Binda for anyway?” he looked up.

“He might know something I'm interested in.” As soon as I said it I realised it was probably the wrong thing to say. “Probably drunk by now, bought a bottle of peach brandy and left.”

I followed the landladie's directions. It was getting dark. His shack, or cottage, maybe palace depending on your view, was in a clearing surrounded by Eucalyptus trees. The house was in darkness, I wandered round back. An old man's white hair topped a figure bent over a fire enclosed in a circle of stones.

“Binda” I called hopefully. He turned towards me, said nothing, a solid looking branch in his hand.

“Drink?” I showed my bottle bought from the pub, it reflected the firelight like a magic elixir.

“Sit!” he pointed at a flattened stone by the fire circle. His brandy bottle still almost full next to his stone seat. I did as bidden. Binda sat, throwing the branch on the fire, “What you want?” dark eyes stared at me, firelight dancing through curly hair.

I took a swig from my bottle and offered it to him. He took it, drank and handed it back.

“What you want then?” he repeated.

“Stories. Stories of places. Can you recognise places from old stories?”

He stared at me, took two swigs from his brandy bottle.

“Not stories. Words of our ancestors. Same words from father to son. Spirits and words mix.” He stared at the fire, sparks reflected in his eyes.

“True stories, histories then?” I added, wondering if the distinction would mean anything to him.

“You have maps, we have poetry. Remember the words and the spirits will guide you to the sacred places.”

I wondered what places or place Willie and Platypus were looking for, and what poetry they had to guide them. Why? What were they searching for?

The sky was dark. The southern constellations as clear as in a planetarium. I pointed at Hydra, drew it's main stars in the sand: “Hydra”, Binda smiled repeating his name for it, he pointed at Virgo giving me it's ancient name and drawing it's shape in the sand.

I left my bottle with him “Thank you Binda, you have been of great help.”.

He stood, his black eyes following me as I stepped away from the fire.

“Words without ancestors will take you to dust.” he started to laugh, a deep laugh that sounded like someone drumming on an ancient dead tree. “White man, know everything, understand nothing.”.

[TomPenDragon]

The Daily Update

(Cue “She Sells Sanctuary”)

 

EP: “Hello and welcome to the Daily Update for the 21st of January, 2024. I’m Elias Pacheco for Radio Chachapoya. Let’s get right to the Leaderboard:

 

 

“If the Post-It on the door of the shack that some of the Rally participants built at Caiguna is to be believed, ViperPilot2 has taken the lead, his 2-minute early arrival giving him a perfect CV of 0 after 3 legs completed.

 

“This drops ScottishMike down into second, still at Norseman with a CV of 1.

 

“defaid in now in third, still in Forrest and still with a CV of -2. He has, however, presented a flight plan to Adelaide, so I believe that we’ll be seeing him and dj further along the course in short order.

 

“Bossspecops is now the furthest along the course, having made it to Ceduna, however his +2 for the flight from Forrest has dropped him into fourth place with a +3 CV.

 

“And Double D rounds out the field of those who have reported times with a -3 CV, in Caiguna. He had been planning on a long run to Renmark, which would have put him out in front on the course, but discovered that his tail rotor gearbox had gone south – fortunately just as he was powering up to lift off; I would have hated to see what would have happened had it failed in the middle of nowhere. He was fortunate as well to have had the New Zea… uh, some friends who were never there, deliver, install, and flight test a replacement. He’s planning on spending the night there – I guess he can’t get enough of the fine cuisine of the RoadKill Roadhouse. Perhaps he’ll run into ViperPilot2.

 

“We have two other participants on the course: MAD1 is still in Katanning and jgf has arrived in Forrest; however neither of the two has informed us of their times. Gentlemen, I can’t report it if you don’t report it.

 

“And it’s Curtin for Melo – don’t worry; I said, ‘CurtIN,’ not, ‘CurtAINS’ – two and a half hours have gotten him to YCIN, on his way to Perth.

 

“I am sure that you can hear the roar of the mighty Porsche powerplant of this very special Saratoga. We are in the air again, having just rounded Katanning and heading toward Norseman on our way to Forrest. And by, ‘we,’ for once I do not mean the plane and me. Today, I’m in the right seat. Doctor Claudine Ullrich, who is head of the team that built the Saratoga is flying. I hope to persuade her to talk to us at some moment, but for now she is having too much fun.

 

“So this concludes this Daily Update. I’m Elias Pacheco for Radio Chachapoya, signing off. Fly safely, everyone!”

[jgf]

No idea what my target times should be, so just a running commentary as I follow the route and have fun.

[PhrogPhlyer]

2 hours ago, jgf said:

follow the route and have fun

A great life lesson for sure.

[Bossspecops]

Having spent a nice comfortable night at Ceduna I was ready for my onward flight to Port Augusta pretty early the next morning, and was out checking over G-AUST by around 8 am. It was a really nice day for flying and I was looking forward to seeing this new, for me, part of Australia, but little did I know......

 

 

Taxi-ing out wasn't too bad but I was glad the wind was from the south as it would have been a LONG way to taxi to the other end of either of Caduna's runway, such is the odd layout of the triangular field there.

 

 

Climbing up to my 5000 ft cruise altitude went fine, but some hefty clouds were on the horizon and I was just below them as it started to rain............ and it rained, and rained, and rained the ENTIRE length of the flight! There was thunder and lightning strikes all around me and it was trifle worrying. I did think of climbing above the clouds, but a) that would have REALLY thrown my timing out, and I may not have made it into the clear as those cu-nims were pretty hefty.

 

 

Staying below the cloudbase, and in the rain, did enable to me to keep in sight of some more of Australia's bizarre surface, and this was the first weirdness to show up below me!

 

 

I guessed that it was more of the results of the mineral workings that I'd seen around Norsman, but there was no visible clue really.

 

Further on, and STILL in the rain, it got even weirder!

 

 

This VAST 'lake' of something or another stretched to either side of my flight path, and although I knew I was aboard a flying boat landing on THAT was not something I wanted to even think about! The 'lake' stretched to the horizon on both sides of me as you can see.

 

 

Checking with my flight planner showed just how huge it was too, miles and MILES of it. Australia sure has some strange scenery.....

 

 

The rain continued, and I was eventually able to turn to the south east for the descent into Port Augusta, but even then there were signs of those strange deposits right under the approach. That's the town of Port Augusta just across to river to port of me.

 

 

In this case Flight Ops and ramp were right at the end of the runway, but it was still raining and I was glad to get inside the Tower for a coffee and buns. They told me the weather was '.....not quite seasonal around here mate.....' but reckoned it wouldn't last long. I wanted to get into town for my overnight digs, but my original plan to walk the 2-3 miles didn't look to be much fun in that rain.

 

 

After a little thought I came up with Plan B.....................

 

I checked with Flight Ops, filed a plan and headed back to 'Austral Rose', fired her up and taxied out again.

 

 

Taking off to the south I made a low pass over the ramp to give them my thanks for even such a short stay and headed off north a short distance before making another 180 to starboard and lining up with the river.

 

 

Remembering to lower the water rudder and NOT to lower the landing gear I lined up for my first water landing of the Rally. Quite what the guy in that boat thought as I zoomed over his head I don't know..... 

 

 

Putting her down on the river was a relaxing operation, no threshold or runway length to worry about, just plonk her on the water and back off the throttles. 

 

 

One handy thing about amphibians is that the landing gear is fully waterproofed for obvious reasons, so as I wanted to taxi ashore on a nice riverside beach I'd noticed earlier I lowered the gear and taxied her right up onto it!

 

 

And there I parked her for the night, after informing the local cops that I was there, who said they'd keep and eye on her, and I could catch the bus across the bridge and into town without getting TOO wet. Result! 

 

 

 

 

[taoftedal]

4 hours ago, Bossspecops said:

Taking off to the south I made a low pass over the ramp to give them my thanks for even such a short stay ...

 

Wow ... talk about Yankee ingenuity.  Way to go Bosss!  I would have just called a taxi ... 

[Rupert]

Hey Kit,

 

I bet that pleasure boater on the river was getting a little nervous seeing you on final.  I assume you missed him.

 

We had a guy that used to land on the Ohio River very near a waterside restaurant.  He always shot his final right over the outside dining area.  That always scared diners if they hadn't seen him do it before.

 

BTW:  You're giving a very good travelogue as well.

 

 

[taoftedal]

 

On 1/20/2024 at 5:33 PM, jgf said:

I never learned to swim but found other items of interest ...

 

Wait a minute ... what beach are you on?

 

 

 

 

[jgf]

As we ponder my next move, a bit of trivia about my aircraft.

 

The Beech company never used the term "Staggerwing", and in fact were quite opposed to it.  So that naturally became the unofficial name of the plane.  Officially it was always the Beech Model 17.

 

When perusing photos of these planes you will find myriad colors and color combinations, but very few white aircraft (just the opposite of aircraft today).  White aircraft paint of that time was not as durable as other colors, nor did it provide as much UV protection (little known then), so it took several more coats of white paint to provide the same protection to the airframe (which was primarily fabric covered wood).  This not only added about 30-40 lbs to the aircraft but became rather brittle when fully dried so was prone to cracking, necessitating constant maintenance to repaint over the cracks.  Beech actively tried to dissuade owners from ordering white paint jobs, and finally instituted a policy of no airframe warranty on white 17s.

 

(FWIW, most aircraft today are white for easier maintenance.  A walk around from twenty feet away will easily disclose any stains, dents, scratches, corrosion, etc., which would require much closer inspection with any other color.)

[Bossspecops]

How about other light colours? Would yellow or cream do as well?

 

Which colours did Beech like best?

[Bossspecops]

1 hour ago, Rupert said:

 

I bet that pleasure boater on the river was getting a little nervous seeing you on final.  I assume you missed him.

 

 I might have. 

 

Actually he went for his throttle and headed for the bank at some speed! 

[defaid]

Our flight the previous evening over to Eucla on the coast was fruitless but it was a lovely evening. With no Eucla in FS9 and with the sun westering, there was no point hanging around. 40 minutes later I was pleased to find that Forrest has runway lights...

 

Westering.

 

I was so happy to see those.

 

Management had swept up a lot of the sand and trimmed the shrubbery by the time we got back. (I installed VOZ's AF2 scenery)

 

I didn't have d j with me for this one so kept the plan as simple as I could.

 

There's so little going on at 6000 feet that I thought I'd try something novel: less than 100% throttle. I found that 75%, and full fine increased the range enormously. Trying the same sensible approach at 2000' and enriching the mixture slightly over stoichiometric gave me around 4.9 miles per kg. With 196 kg in the tank, that meant I could complete the flight to Parafield much closer to the ground but still maintain a (barely) reasonable speed of 115 kias.

 

A test flight showed a range in clear weather of around 900 nm and 7h 40m of endurance. Plenty. The flight planner also needed a minor tweak. For YPJT-YFRT it had given times around a minute too long for each hour flown so I adjusted it and was keen to see if it did any better over to Adelaide at the new altitude and configuration.

 

I made an early start just because in FS9 I can do it without needing three espressos. 2022z was 0422 local.

 

Rolling.

 

I crossed into South Australia with the rising sun dead ahead. Crossing and then following the coast brought me to Ceduna, which has a large radio telescope in the RW but nothing in FS9.

 

Found a pair of dark glasses in the nav's door pocket.

 

The Eyre Highway again. Smoky Bay was misnamed: it was shining this morning.

Ceduna's on the far shore.

 

If anyone stops here, you're in a good place -- Wikipedia says the name means "a place to sit down and rest". I think there may be oysters, too. Not sure what they'd do for sitting and resting though. As Nanny Ogg said of her carrot and oyster pie, "Carrots so you can see in the dark, and oysters so you've got something to look at."

 

The real coastline west of here has seventy miles of pristine white beach, low cliffs and dolphins. In FS9, nothing. VOZ really missed a trick here -- they've placed next to nothing anywhere along the Great Australian Bight. It would have been nice to have a few VRPs like Caiguna's telescope, roadhouses, telegraph station ruins, more detailed landclass where the terrain is lumpy... nope. I'd have made a detour to Woomera or Lake Hart but I'd checked them out beforehand and again, nothing.

 

Ceduna two minutes early.

 

Seventy miles past Ceduna the ground wrinkled, offering some relief (pun intended) from the monotony. A hundred or so after that, a hint of the Flinders Range crinkled the horizon ahead, with Port Augusta somewhere just in front of it. At the northern end of the range are the Ediacara Hills, which give their name to the geological period that ended when the Cambrian started around 550 million years ago. The hills are home to some of the oldest multicellular fossils. At the end of the Ediacaran there was another mass extinction, followed by a sudden explosion of diversity in the Cambrian.

 

The cause of the extinction is still being argued but -- here I come to the point of this waffle -- Lake Acraman, one of the lakes (crusty salt-pans) that @Bossspecops overflew is actually a heavily eroded meteorite impact crater. The collision has been dated to the end of the Ediacaran and ejecta from the impact can be found a couple of hundred miles away, in the rocks of the Ediacara Hills.

 

Big enough.

 

None of this shows up in FS9 but at least VOZ have Wilpena Pound airstrip in the hills.

 

 

Flinders Range stretching to the north on the horizon.

 

Port Augusta sits half and half on both sides of the Spencer Gulf. There's no bridge. There should be two...

 

Port Augusta at the south end of the Flinders Range and the north end of the Spencer Gulf.

 

Adelaide. I missed the Flinders Range, parked my Piper directly in front of a Cessna workshop, made a brief visit to the man on the ground just to hand in my times and then, as Parafield has only GA traffic, and that very light, went on over to YPAD to do some spotting. I made a minor mistake while approaching Parafield. My plan looks like this...

 

 

... and moving on to the next row I reset the chronometer at top of descent, meaning that I had to calculate the time for that final leg by inelegantly subtracting the others from the total time.

 

Full stop at Parafield after 5 hours 16 minutes.