Blog from Aus(tralia) April 2009

Ok, to help y'all, I'm going to post the latest news at the top with older stuff down below.

Some photos have full sized versions attached. If you click on the small version below, you'll get a large version, maybe even in a new window

Thursday 16th April

After much searching and 3 cancellations due to lack of numbers, I met up with 5 guys from a local dive group and got my feet wet off Freemantle. It was an interesting dive with quite a few fish types, but notably a sea snake, translucent squid, octopus, large edible crab & a sting ray. This was a night dive and a good test of my equipment and a chance to brush up my technique after not getting a chance during the last year. I also spotted and drew the group's attention to a creature which has a slang name of Seaweed Seahorse. About 10" long and looking like a piece of seaweed with a small horse head. Once we had packed up, we headed for the golden arches and a late supper with copious quantities of coffee.

Lobster

Wednesday 15th April

Today was shopping day in an enormous mall, basically very similar to a small area of London with a roof and aircon. I discovered what Aussies do with their kids whilst they get on with the shopping...

A Kiddie Bouncer

Tuesday 14th April

My Aunt took us up the coast around an hour today to the resort 'village' of Hilarys. This was quite an interesting place with lots of high quality holiday apartments, up-market shopping and some great clean white-sand beaches with blue-green water in which to swim. As you can see the day finally developed into a great picture postcard day. Once we had enjoyed a walk around the area, taking in shops & partically enclosed public beaches, I went for a snorkel & swim on an unenclosed beach, open to the ocean. The water was warm but quite busy with seaweed and due to the tidal currents, I didn't see anything and just enjoyed swimming in the 1m conditions.

Sunday 12th April

Today was Freemantle and some kind of Easter festival. The roads in the town centre of this busy & thriving port and home to at least one round of the Americas Cup, were closed off and high quality street entertainers, like circus acts, balanced and threw knives, swung from high swings & played music of every kind in 45min slots at various points throughout the town. There was a huge variety of 'street food' available and it was very tasty although as expected a little over priced. So a few photos of the town & entertainment.

View of one entry to the port area

Friday / Saturday 10/11th April

A long road trip to Cunderdin around 160km away with huge thanks to James Cooper, a fellow SZD55 owner and holder of many state records for speed & distance as well as 13th in the world ratings a few short years ago. I arrived in the dark of night and found my way around the extremely basic accomodation, found a bed to sleep on and settled down for the night.

Saturday was 33 degrees once again and another difficult day unsuited to XC. The forecast was dry thermals to 4 or 5k' (airfield at 720') and if they broke through a weak inversion and the temp was sufficiently high, we may see them rise to 10k' but will a high wind factor, 20-25kts @ 45 degrees to the tarmac runway rising to 35kts & above over 3000'. The airfield is an ex Michell bomber base and retains many of the original buildings along with a responsibility to upkeep the appearance, so little had changed and in fact lots of orig stuff is to be found just lying around, like the blackboard used to plan the Coral Sea attack!!! I also found memorials to crews that had perished on take-off or landing due to failures of various kinds.

Club house 2 and memorials

Memorial

I had a quick familiarisation ride with Andy, a senior instructor in a PW6u, which turned out to be surprisingly good to fly, comfortable, well harmonised and it's only vice became apparent on ground rolls, as a 2 wheeler (nose wheel down hard), it went where it was pointed, so if you screwed up the landing & ended up pointing off the runway, you could brake, apply full opposite rudder, sing and dance but you were going off the runway :-) No such worries for me, lined it up nicely and rolled to a halt outside the log hut.

The log hut with a couple of sheilas

Then James appeared with his 55 for a test flight after some work. Here's a pic of his ??medals?? from 750km flights

Yes, each little circle is for a 750!

The cross wind was a problem for some and the strength of the upper wind and the strong desire not to landout was reflected in my decision not to go XC. Around 2.30 I decided to fly and take the only a/c available at the time, the PW6. I took a tow and pulled off around 1200' in lift and climbed, and climbed and climbed and took some photos once the thermal widened...

yep, that really is 11.5kts at 10400' :-)

So I now had nearly 11k' to play with, no map, no XC instruments, just the basics. I looked around and found in the far distance, a light area which appeared to be along a long straight road, ideal for navigation. Off I set and 90kts into the stiff wind. I topped up by 2k' once and rejected a wide 6 knotter at around 7k', how amazing, thermal selection for real. I arrived at the light area, which turned out to be salt pans, around 20 mins later and after turning, thought the airfield was probably a straight glide. As it was, I topped up a little in another 10 knotter before scorching back just under VNE for around 20km. The vis was amazing as you can probably see from the photo and I still arrived back after just over an hour, at over 4k'. A few aerobatics to try out the u in the PW6 (an aerobatic variant) and down to calm down from a short but amazing flight.

James landed around half an hour later having taken a high tow & completing his testing and suggested a Gold height might just be on if I flew the Jantar once it returned. I bolted in a logger and checked all the equipment whilst getting a type briefing and taking another tow. Once again I pulled off just over 1000' in lift but now it was well after 4pm & it would be dark at 6.30. The thermal was very weak, even by UK standards at around 2kts initially but livening up to 4kts & peaking at times briefly at 6kts before tailing off at about 10 and a half thousand feet. If only the PW had had a logger! I hunted around the sky as there had been some wave influence during lunchtime and found a couple of knots but in a very small area. I could just S turn in gently and crept up to around 11k' just a few hundred short of a Gold height, damn, 2nd time I've tried but no worries sheila, I didn't come for badges just to experience the amazing conditions and I'd only had an end of season weak sample...

I let down quickly once I realised I couldn't get it and enjoyed some aeros in the Jantar, another new type, four so far this visit. What a lovely a/c, I had no idea they were so lovely to fly, this one had winglets as well so I'm not sure how much they help or improve the standard a/c.

5.30 and time to land brought it's own problems, that of landing into a huge yellow searchlight - the sun low on the horizon. Once back on the ground, it was time to pack everything away, grab a cold one and then the 2 and a half hour trip home to Perth, followed by half an hour on the train. A cool shower rounded off the late night and bed, very pleased at another very interesting day down South.

Thursday 9th April

Was exercise day and relax at home day. I borrowed my relation's bike and went for a ride around the local area dropping in at various shopping malls as I navigated the area. It was very hot work and I'm so glad I took my camelbak lookalike with me as the hot dry air at 33-34 degrees dries the back of your throat every few minutes. It was a good workout and great to see the different areas of housing, shops, open country, scrubland and plots being turned into housing estates.

Wed 8th April

Some family friends turned up today and I helped their young lady, Cassie, who was six, learn to ride her bike without stabilizers. This was very hard work in the hot conditions as it meant I had to run along the path in the park beside her hanging onto her, though gradually less & less, while I tried to keep her pedalling. After several sessions & around 2-3 hrs, she was able to ride around 100m, success as far as I was concerned. She was very pleased with herself.

Sunday 5th April

Yesterday was gliding day no. 1. My relations offered to drive me the 120km out to Beverley and whilst they explored the village and the town of York, I would do some gliding. It was a long drive due to miles of road works and having to drive carefully on what they call gravel roads. These are tarmac'd but narrow & have only dust at the sides, no firm edge and the dust slants down. So if you put a wheel off the tarmac onto the dust, the slope pulls you off the road & into a nearby Euc tree :-) Anyway, I drove up as my aunt & uncle are in their 70's. We arrived just after 9am and I quickly met the instructor of the day. Pete was very friendly and we had a good chat whilst getting a/c out of the hangar which doesn't have any doors!

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,

Following this, we had a formal but oh so chilled, Aussie briefing and a/c booking session. Most of the 8-10 guys there wanted to swap info about how we operated and the differences between out countries and clubs. I was happy to give them an overview. The most obvious differences are that we have professional people during the season whereas they are totally voluntary, no paid staff at all. They all need to help out to keep the operation going. Clearly a message here as they were all very happy people. A task was set for the few that wanted to have a go at XC altho the weather was very poor for them. Prob. weak blue thermals to 4k', might rise to 5k' QNH, airfield at 760'. 15kts NE. I was setup for a checkflight and asked for the DG1000s, a new a/c type to me and one I've been itching to have a go at to compare with Tony's Duo. Then if all was ok I would use the club single seater, a Std Cirrus.

I helped get a/c to the launchpoint then took the check ride, pulling off at 2k' in lift. The DG was excellent, a great XC machine, well coordinated, a little slow to roll due to 20m but a lovely comfortable ship to spend the day in :-) I did what was asked and then was allowed to have a play, some high speed, thermalling, chandelles and then a circuit, incl. cross wind radio'd join and power cct. The DG came down well and I landed & rolled up to the launchpoint. I had to do all the flying from rolling to stopping, incl. my first low tow from the beginning, something we don't practice in the UK.

Pete, like all Pete's, was very happy with all I had done & signed me up for any of their club a/c. They also have a 21, a Puch, the DG & a PW5 (the pig). I washed the Cirrus whilst a DP DI'd & prep'd it. We towed it out, I prepared for XC in case I was comfortable & wanted to have a go. The task was about 150km and nav was going to be tough due to the lack of scenery highlights. I took off, no worries with the all moving tailplane (another 1st for me) and again pulled off at 2k' in lift. I climbed with difficulty to around 4k' QNH before sampling some other thermals. I found the Cirrus quite difficult, particularly trying to get it to climb well. I needed 50kts for control in the gusty, turbulent thermals.

After a lot of hard work, I decided to set out, having set my safety height to 1900'. I set off for York, some 30km away and glided downwind easily, taking a few short climbs to stay high. Just before the TP, I was down to around 2500' (low for me here and feeling decidedly uncomfortable despite huge ex. quality fields, I just didn't want to landout) I found a climb and thermalled over the TP sector before setting out for leg 2.

This is where the story changes. I found it very very hard, poss as hard as my flight in the Junior last year back from CNE with around 17-20kts headwind. The Cirrus just wouldn't penetrate, losing lots of height in the 20+ kts & 6, 7 & 8kts of sink. This required upto 90kts at MC 0 + wind. I was having to stop every few mins to climb in almost anything and the thermals were very broken. I worked very hard to stay in the air, ontrack and making slow progress.

At one point, a farmer lit a stubble fire around 5-6km behind me :-( I did wonder about going back but was only getting to around 4500' from the good thermals. I struggled on, again getting low before TP2 but finding a good climb (~3-4kts). I turned, looked down track & decided to scrub and try to get back to BEV. It was a good decision. When I eventually got back, another couple of turbulent, weak thermals, I found a local experienced XC pilot had landed out on the same task & I don't think anyone else tried it. I was very pleased to hear the Borgelt beep to tell me I was home, but it took me a moment to actually see the airfield from 2k'.

I was very glad to be home and safe, having had a really good attempt and learning after my field incident last year. A good landing and much hangar packing before wishing everyone farewell and thanking them for a memorable day. My relations had turned up and I drove them home. Needless to say I slept well.

Today, Sunday 5th Apr, I went into Perth city to ring at the very special bell tower, yep, another of my interests. I received an amazingly warm welcome and made up 8 ringers initially so we started ringing. The bells were great, easy going, sounded lovely and of course they should as they are ex St Martin in the Fields, Trafalgar Sq!!! Richard the tower captain is originally from Kent and knew some of my Kent friends, the Jenners & the Bassetts got a mention.

After an hour of various ringing (I have some movies!), I was invited to join the local band to ring for a wedding at the cathedral. I accepted and once we had finished, I wandered over to St Georges Cathedral with the others, where I had an enjoyable ring before catching the transit system back to home. I had a good impression of a busy city despite it being Sunday, crowds in clean streets, shops open, 28 degrees, quality street entertainers and I think mostly quite up-market shops. The transit system is great, one ticket lasts 2 hrs, is valid on busses & trains & only costs $3.60

Tomorrow I will be exploring the city more, have been invited to ring again in front of the watching public and will visit some kind of special park area which I don't have details of, whilst I write this. Tomorrow the temp will be over 30, rising to maybe 34 on Tues. So lots of heat to enjoy. Take care friends.

David

1 April 2009

Gliding

I've called my contact, the CFI of Cunderdin, James Cooper but had to leave a voicemail. I'm waiting to hear back but I know he's away for the weekend at a Who concert!

Sunrise approaching Kuala Lumpur

The Jacata coastline from 40,000'

Flight

The flight was great, superb hospitality and service, very tasty food & too much for me personally, actually around 4 full meals plus snacks & gratis beer / wine & refills. Flight times were good, takeoff from LHR was 1 hr late due to passengers not turning up & luggage having to be unloaded. 15 mins late into KUL. We only had time for an hour wander around the airport shops just to look around. They were mostly designer outlets but included Burger king etc… J

We had over 100mph tail wind along most of the coast of W Aus, so arrived around 45 mins early, which was excellent as by the time we had been through their very thorough immigration, my aunt had arrived.

First site of the tip of NE Australia - iron ore mining area

A couple of shots from my relations' garden

I’ve been out shopping for the few things I couldn’t bring, bathroom stuff, batteries for my gliding electronics, etc. Prices vary, some more expensive, some much cheaper. My batteries worked out at 16 Duracell AAs for less than $10 so quite comparable with the UK.

Bell Ringing

Yup, I'm attempting to contact the ringers at the incredible 16 bell tower in Perth, website is http://www.swanbells.com.au/attractions.html

I've posted some small versions of my recent photos at http://www.tcs-uk.com/dpye/Australia.htm