01 April 2007 - THE big day

Yes, it's that time of year again (apparently) - the Tiwi Island Football League Grand Final !!

For a couple of weeks I've been dreading this day - the potential combination of bad weather, hundreds of planes, 'Sunday Pilots', rowdy football supporters, etc, etc - had me thinking stressful thoughts. Visions of a Northern version of the 'Avalon Airshow'.














What do you call a pack of planes?






As it transpired, we all had luck, and plenty of professionalism, on our side, and I've no dramatic tales to tell. Everything went supprisingly smoothly. The weather was fine, with not a shower on our flightpath all day, not even any low cloud. All the pilots were extremely professional and well managed, and needed to be as there was NO help in the form of air traffic control at the island, it was all pilot to pilot coordination. And the passengers were fantastic, arriving on time at both Darwin AND on the island.





























Grandstand













I'd like to add 'no swimming'

I didn't count the planes, but there were, at peak, at lest 100 of all shapes and sizes carefully squeezed onto the apron - kind of like an aviation version of Tetris. There is very little paved area on Bathurst island, and what little area is mown for parking is prone to being very soft, so all aircraft were carefull hand pushed into position. Plenty of teamwork went a long way.

Some of the planes did multiple trips, but most just did the one - Darwin, Bathurst Island, park for the duration of the game, and return before dark. I did two trips. One from Darwin, and another from a community on the far side of the island called 'Garden Point'. My passengers consisted of a mother, her sister, three ~6 year olds, and (at a guess) a two month old baby, who thankfully slept there and back. Indeed, the most difficult thing about the whole day was getting the baby pram aboard, as it didn't fit through the rear hatch, and had to be pushed up back through the length of the cabin.









The community of Bathurst Island (local name Nguiu) is a short suttle bus ride from the airport, and fortunately that's exactly what they had running. Most of the 'tourists' did a combined trip to the football, and around the local art gallery's. Most of the pilots went directly to the ground, to find shelter from the sun, and something to eat.







Before the game




































I've already heard the legends of the appetite of the locals for Kentucky Fried Chicken, many flights to the island have carried may hundreds of tones of the stuff over the years, but strangly no one had the enterprise to ship in any on the day, though 'country fried chicken' (if that's what is was...) was a close substitute. Of course, there was also the usually pies, chips and hot dogs.




The traditional banner


As the island is 'dry' - an alchol free zone, beer is a little hard to come by, but there was a bar open on the day, though very stricklty policed. I didn't have any (of course, as I was flying) so I'm a little unsure of the system used, but quantities were restricted to each person, and security stood at the gates to ensure none left the designated 'bar' zone.

Everybody gets to run through!

High security

The football was ok, but I was a little distracted by the heat to really care. Unfortunately, my adopted team, the tigers, got a beating (in one case, by one player, literally) though I hear that for the winners, the Magpies, it was their first flag, and a popular win, so that made most of the crowd happy. It was, as one visitor said, a little like any other country football final on any other day, except perhaps for the location, heat, and the dogs running free, like sacred cows might in India, onto the ground....

The flight back was, like the trip up, smooth sailing. On landing, I flew through a swarm of dragon flies, and some one later remarked that is one of the signs of the start of the dry season. Remarkably it seams to have switched on with the first of the month. I didn't mind what I saw of the wet - hot and sticky, sure - but the big bonus, for me the white man - was the cloud cover keeping the sun from turning me into the human equivalent of a potato chip.












Dinner with my family after, and home to sleep, as I am beat. And I hear I have an 8am flight tomorrow.....