So we (the wife & I) were supposed to leave Toowoomba on Monday the 23rd of August, however the weather gods were not forthcoming & delayed us by a day... so off we went on the 24th of August!
Originally I'd planned on us flying to a place called Arkaroola in the northern Flinders ranges. Unfortunately due to the time we ended up departing, a 30 knot headwind & there not being any runway lighting at Arkaroola, I altered plans & we stopped in at Tibooburra for the night instead. I'd already planned to refuel at Tibooburra, organising that about a month in advance, due to the remote location.
After preflight, planning & flight notification, we took off from Toowoomba, headed for St George. One of my goals on this trip was not to rely on autopilot & GPS, as I was to be building experience for my CPL, as such I hand flew & dead reckoned to St George, needing a 1 in 60 along the way due to different than forcast winds. After overflying St George I took up course for Cunnamulla, following the VOR from about 50nm out of Cunnamulla.
We refueled in Cunnamulla... that's a story in itself: in order to get fuel one must call the people to come & refuel us. That's all well & good, except that the airport is unmanned usually & there is no public phone at the airport. So what's the problem I hear you ask, use your mobile... ahh yes. If my mobile was on the Telstra network, that wouldn't have been a problem... but alas (at that stage) I was with Optus. I walked around until I found 'the' place that I got 1 bar of coverage, & got through! Fuel price in Cunnamulla wasn't too bad, not that much more than Toowoomba.
After departing & tracking out on the VOR for Tibooburra, I dead reckoned but used the GPS to make sure we were on track. This part of Australia is considered 'remote area' and as such required me to plan & carry 'survival equipment', which included: enough water for all on board for a few days, a large tarp (silver), ropes & pegs, rations, sleeping bags, and a first aid kit. The plane also was equipt with an ELB (Electronic Locating Beacon), hence I didn't want to take any chances with navigation fopars enroute.
The landing at Tibooburra was a little hairy... quite the crosswind.
Here we rested from the day's flight at the Tibooburra Hotel. The locals were very friendly & let me tell you, the meal was the best restraunt food we had for the whole trip.
I'll post day 2 in the next couple of days. This may also include a few 4X4 clips around Arkaroola!
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Great little clips, I gather your in a 172?