17 Mar 2007 - Sixth day straight

Got a call this morning, 9:15am, while still at home in bed (it is a Saturday...)

“Can you be in the plane at 10:30”?

hmmm… 25 minute walk to the airport… flight plan to submit… going to a place where I’ve never been…

A QANTAS jet is stuck in Gove. Parts are needed urgently. I was scheduled to fly tomorrow, Sunday, but I’ll go today instead. Regulations prohibit me working more than six days straight, so at least I know I get a break tomorrow.

Now I must take it as I have dished it out to all my students, when I made them just jump in and go, because “that’s how it’s done in the real world”. At least they got to shave first – not for me today.
I arrive at work with 35 minutes to get everything ready, which is usually ok, except for the hassle of moving the plane. First it needs to be towed to where it can be fueled – towed, not taxied, because there is a small bridge it needs to cross first. And the little tug is broken. And I don’t yet have a permit to drive the big tug. Thankfully, Ryan, who is on desk duty today, gives me a hand getting it out and ready.

In the end, I’m still left waiting for the fuel truck to arrive – one of the problems at Darwin is getting speedy fuel service. I catch my breath for a minute, and of course, take another drink. I expect to be gone all day today, so I stock up with about 5 litres of water, biscuits and other snacks.
I blast off about 10:40, and find the GPS in this plane only has American airfield data. Bugger. I plug in some local figures, and have a brief chat with air traffic control about where I’m going, and set off. Before I’m outside of radio range from our base, I give them a call to advise them of my estimate for Gove. They thank me, the say I’m not coming straight back, I’m to return the plane to Elcho Island, leave it there, and return in another plane.

For the first hour and a half, I’m in and out of clouds, trying to dodge the darker ones, work out where I’m going, keep my fluids up. It’s an interesting trip. Down south, I’d be hunting for clouds to fly in. Up here, I’m happy to stay out of them.





Somewhere over Kakadu..

I get to Gove ok, hand over the parts, and am gone again in 15 minutes. The trip to Elcho Island is perhaps over the best country I have been over. Pristine beaches (probably covered with crocodiles), pristine waters, (probably full of sharks and jellyfish) and pristine woodlands. Given a choice, if the engine stopped, I’m heading for the beach. I don’t know what’s in the woods, and aren’t a strong swimmer. Just as well the engines never stop...

En-route to Elcho Island

I get to Elcho 45 minutes later. We have a base there. Well, I guess there is an airstrip, and an office, and a collection of portables someone calls ‘living quarters’. If that constitutes a base, so be it. Management wants to start charging the pilots (their are three living there) $75 a week for the privilege. I’m sure there is law against that.




Elcho Island Airport / township

I get a snack at the local snack bar, collect the other plane, a Cessna 206, and set off again. More than happy to be heading back to Darwin. Cloud forces me down to low level, but it’s pretty over the wetlands, so that’s fine. I arrive just in time to land with the sun setting right at the end of the runway. Pretty, but bad timing. I land, depart, land, depart, and land again. The 206 is a plane that want’s to keep flying when there’s only one person in it. Pencil it in as more on the job training.


At the end of the week, I add up the hours. Twenty six flying hours. Ten to fifteen was average for the previous job, twenty hours was a great week.. Twenty six is more than I plan on doing, but it will average out in the end. The regulations say I can’t do more than 100 a month. Busy.




Elcho Pilot Accommodation!

This MAY be the last blog update for a while. I’m finding it hard to get the info from my laptop to the internet, my camera is taking photos that don’t do the place justice, and most particually, my laptop is on it’s last legs. Intermittently, the keyboard is going to… well, keyboard heaven I guess, and it’s immensely frustrating typing without access to the ‘aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa’ key (or alternatively I get just that, lots of them all at once). To type this, I’ve been had to resort to ‘pasting’ in an ‘a’ when I need one, and thankfully, word autocorrects the rest of it, but my patience is wearing thin. I’ve enjoyed doing it. More like a thought than a school or uni essay. I can use the grammar I want, punctuate how I please. And start and sentences with and. Just as it happens in my head.











Somewhere

I hope you’ll all keep in touch (bugger, now the exclamation point has died too - that side of the keyboard). Stop by again later, just in case things fix themselves..

Somewhere else...