Posted by: Jack
on 30 Nov 2010
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I took off on a quick jaunt across Australia and back the other day. I didn’t need much of an excuse, some friends meeting at Margaret River and a new (to me) ACA Scout sitting on even newer tundra tyres had me hankering for a fly somewhere, anywhere. Tasmania to Western Australia sounded pretty good! So I headed off under a heavy overcast with showers, no particular plan, just cross “The Strait” then head west with tent and camping gear.
Posted by: Jack
on 10 Jul 2010
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In a recent Aero Club Newsletter I noted the following article and I quote verbatim:
Posted by: Jack
on 26 Jun 2010
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One of the great joys in general aviation is a self endorsement on a new type. This is how I found myself, airborne out of Jandakot and heading home to Tasmania, familiarising myself with an American Champion Scout, a type I have never flown before. I got the Scout via a tender from the Western Australian Government Conservation Department. They operate 10 on fire spotting duty and sell one or two every year to make way for a new replacement. They are the largest Champion Aircraft operator in the world. This particular Scout is a 2000 model, it is the third one I have tendered for in about as many years and I didn’t really expect to get it as the other two went for heaps above what I was prepared to pay.
Posted by: Jack
on 15 Jun 2010
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Touring by aeroplane is a pretty neat thing to do. I am back from my Cape Trip and reviewing it there are either no standout points or everything stands out depending on how I look at it. I simply love long distance flight and each destination was, in itself, outstanding but here are the highlights:
Posted by: Jack
on 10 Jun 2010
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“This is not flying Jack, this is wafting about in the sky” was a comment levelled at me by my instructor sometime during my CPL training. I have never forgotten the comment, the instructor or his sarcastic demeanour, the effect of which could turn me into a nervous wreck before we even got off the taxiway.
Posted by: Jack
on 05 Jun 2010
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Once upon a time 95 million odd years ago a bunch of small vegetarian dinosaurs were quietly wandering around on a mud flat in Queensland looking for a bit of a drink when they were attacked by big meat munching predator. The predator was of course another dinosaur. I know this shit because I am at Lark Quarry in the Queensland interior, not that far by aeroplane from Longreach. I have flown here for a peek at the past, uncovered and then preserved by archaeologists. The site is within walking distance of a 1000 metre airstrip and it is the only known site in the whole world of a fossilised dinosaur stampede. It’s cool and after a guided tour of the site we have settled back amongst the Spinifex near the airstrip to camp the night.
Posted by: Jack
on 03 Jun 2010
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On the 20th of August 1860 a huge bunch of men with 21 tons of supplies and 26 camels left Melbourne. In command was one Robert O’Hara Bourke and his mission was to be the first man to cross Australia south to north and return. At stake was a 10,000 pound prize with certain fame and fortune to follow. 65 odd days later a breakaway forward group of men arrived at the banks of Cooper Creek where the now famous camp 65 was located. At this point the group split further and Robert Bourke, William Wills, John King and Charlie Grey made a dash for the gulf leaving some others behind in camp 65 to “hold fort” and await their return. The instructions were to wait at least three months.
Posted by: Jack
on 12 May 2010
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Strahan wharf 6 PM. The tourists, fisherman, wharf workers and locals have all but disappeared, but the sounds of laughter from the participating audience watching the play “The Ship that Never Was”, come drifting across from the nearby open air theatre. I am alone, enjoying the end of day feeling and quietly getting the company seaplane back on dry land because only when a seaplane is on dry land is it really safe to leave for the night.
Posted by: Jack
on 12 Nov 2009
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While working at Mataranka (see “Northern Territory in a Tassie Tiger” in my blog) I met a bloke by the name of Les Hiddins. The older TV viewers amongst us may remember Les as “The Bush Tucker Man” on an ABC series with the same name. Les was one of the characters who frequented Mataranka and was a source of much bush info and provided entertaining company. At the time, Les been engaged by the ABC to star as Lewis Lassiter in a film about Lassiter’s Lost Gold Reef, that fabled tale of a reef of pure gold that has become part of Aussie folk lore. Part of the film was to be shot at a remote Aboriginal Community about 100 miles west of Alice Springs.
Posted by: Jack
on 25 Oct 2009
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Sometimes people you hardly know can have a profound effect on your life. It is a mistake to dismiss anybody and an even bigger mistake to hold people in contempt or judge them, no matter what their actions may be or have been, but the degree of human folly and the exasperations of everyday life often make us forget this rule. The Taoists say everything is connected, no events are random and everything we do and all that happens to us is by our own choice. Personally I think they are right.
