22 May 2007 - To Gove, by night

A couple of days ago I had the option to choose between a couple of flights - a short run in a twin engine Baron, or a longer one, all at night, to Gove in a smaller Cessna 210. I stuck my hand up for the night run, because I don't get much night flying up here, and I don't get to Gove often.

So today I had the morning, and most of the afternoon, off, and did some housework. Washing, ironing, etc. Started installing a toad fence, so that when Max arrives he won't be harassed by frogs (or visa versa). Did some cleaning out back. Found several different types of gekos & skinks hiding out. Interestingly, there is a layer of strange white 'dust' coating the grass, and gathering on some of the palm leaves that have fallen. I presume it's some kind of seed or pollen that's came from above, and just hadn'd noticed before.

Headed into work at about 4, and got things ready for a 7pm departure. The freight is urgent ship parts, for some barge stuck in Gove. The reason it has to go tonight is that the boxes are not due out of customs until 5pm, then must go straight away. So I get things ready in the hope that the plan works out.
And for once, it does. The boxes turn up on time, and aside from some hassles getting them into the plane (the biggest is 100kg, and we take out 3 seats to get it to fit) all goes well, and I'm set for a departure on schedule at seven.

Setting off after dark, heading for Gove, I initially have the night lights of Darwin to orientate myself, but shortly after I am surrounded by black and have not way of orientating myself other than the instruments provided. It's dark, but not as dark as I've had on other flights - heading over Bass Straight at night is a good example - and tonight there is a half moon to help. Along the way, I head directly over Oenpelli, and abeam Jabiru, where there are several large fires burning in Kakadu. Interestingly, they are only in Kakadu, no fires at all in Arnham land... National Parks must get special treatment.
Past Oenpelli it get a little blacker, with very few town lights. Elco Island off to the left, a few spots I presume are cars, a faint line of the horizon. The plane drones on, and I feast on some snacks I brought along, using the excuse that I need them to keep me awake, but knowing I'll probably have them eaten before the return flight.

I also amuse myself by 'writing up' some things I've found wrong with the plane - nothing serious, but things that should be attended to, because we try to keep things all pristine. Something like a little placard missing is not going to cause me to worry, but it still needs to be there for the plane to be technically 'legal'. I've never flown this plane before, it's new to the line having just come up from Melbourne, and those that have take it out have given it rave reviews. Still, I get the list up to 10 items before I am ready to descend into Gove.

Into Gove I conduct, for practice, what is called a DME / VOR arrival. We follow a circle a certain distance (10 miles) from the airport using DME - Distance Measuring Equipment, until we are lined up with the runway using another piece of equipment called a VOR, that essentially tells us what line we are on. It's a little while since I've done one, so the practice is beneficial. Passing through about 3000ft on descent, I get the usual 'increase of heat' when the humidity kicks in - the weather station tells me it's 25d at Gove, but the change is more noticeable, and sometimes when descending I still go looking for the fire I expect to see near my legs.
I pull off a 'greaser' when landing, then roll through another kilometer or two to get to the office at the far end of the runway, where a ute is ready to collect the parcels. Two guys await from the shipping company, and two from my company - in addition to the freight, I have a battery for our guys that they need badly.

After offloading the freight, I put in a quick call home. Deb is in Bed, almost asleep, but is grateful for the call. Just a couple of days and well be having a catchup - yay!

I had planed on getting fuel before departing, but there is a problem with the fuel bowser, and it won't give me any fuel. I curse and swear before weighing up my options. I don't want to be stuck at Gove for the night, but I'm equally conscious of 'pressing on' to get home, just because I want to. I review my fuel figures, assess the wind that I encounter, run some numbers and determine I'll be right to go, and get back, if things work out. If I get airborne and determine the wind isn't helping like I need, or something else doesn't add up, I'll just have to divert to Jabiru or perhaps Maningrita on the bay back.
So I set off with this in mind, and am grateful indeed when the 20kt headwind I had coming into Gove is still there as a 20kt tailwind going out of Gove, and the plan looks like it will work. It's not a matter of having enough fuel for the trip, it's a matter of having enough fuel for the trip plus sufficient reserves to fly for an additional 45 minutes. It's this 45 minute buffer I'm most interested in as I monitor the fuel on the way home, and although the tail wind drops slightly, all works out well enough to keep that much up my sleeve. All this is a lot different to instructing, where we allways depart with much more fuel than we could ever need, just to relieve ourselves of the need to keep it from becoming an issue. What I've done on this flight is both safe and legal, but it opens up another set of issues that as a pilot I've rarely had to contend with before. A good trip for learning.

The trip back is even darker than on the way over, an I watch the half mood disappear, about where the horizon would be if I could see it, and this makes things darker still. Into Darwin I conduct another arrival procedure, called an ILS, that guides me down the center of the runway to a height of just 290 feet, before I look up and see the runway right where it should be.
It takes me a while to get things packed up - it's difficult to get the seats back in this plane, especially after 2 in the morning, in the dark, after a long flight. But the trip was worth it, and contributes 5.1 hours on night flying to my logbook, and adds some more valuable experience.