Bruthen to Porepunkah

[skeptic36]

Hi all,

 

Here is my first effort at a trip report:

 

I've been wanting to tackle Mount Hotham for some time, and recently Bright had their Rod-Run weekend (recommend it to anyone vaguely interested in that sort of thing) , the weather report looked O.K for me to fly my 582 powered Pegasus Quantum over on the Saturday morning returning early on Sunday. My wife drove the car to provide transport once there and I also made arrangements for hangar space in case the weather was not suitable on the Sunday.

 

After finishing all the must do's on the farm I finally got in the air by about 8:30am. I enjoyed some generally smooth air most of the way except for a bit of rough stuff landing at Hotham which I just had to do to get a pic at the highest airfield in Australia. The only downside which didn't really matter was a stiff head wind that at times saw me as slow as 28 knts ground speed, great for sight seeing. After 2hrs 20 min I arrived at Porepunkah

 

Had a great day in Bright Saturday but got out of bed Sunday to a sky with a few patches of Lenticular cloud, so I consulted with the CFI at Porepunkah and decided to give the trip home a miss. Instead my wife and I had a pleasant little local flight around the area then spent more time enjoying the Rod Run, driving back over the mountain later in the day.

 

I didn't have to wait long for an opportunity to bring the trike home so the following Friday we departed for Porepunkah at 5.15 a.m and arrived not long after 8am, fuelled up, preflight and in the air for home. I didn't have any ballast on board this time and I copped a bit of a buffeting going over the mountain. There was probably about 3/8 cloud cover but luckily it was clear at the summit so I didn't have to decide whether to go under or over the cloud.

 

After looking at the pics I took on the way over I noticed that I didn't have the trike in the Hotham airport pic so if possible I had to land for another photo op on the way back , which was achieved without incident.

 

I was intending to track the Great Alpine Road both ways but on the return journey I thought I could take a little short cut around the other side of a hill and meet up with the highway a little further on, only thing was I rejoined at Swifts creek which was a whole lot further on than I planned. It was never a problem as all the valleys lead to the Tambo river which runs along side the road most of the way but it shows how easily you can get lost when you cut corners!

 

One hour forty minutes after departing Bright I was on the ground at home

 

Regards Bill

 

 

The Hotham to Feathertop walking trail

 

 

Outside the Isobar (they wouldn't let me in)

 

 

This one seems to get around a bit

 

 

Cobungra Station

 

 

Taking off from Hotham

 

 

Hotham Resort

 

 

Cobungra Station

 

 

Thats home inside the circle

 

 

[Guest davidh10]

Sounds like an enjoyable flight and some nice pictures to boot.

 

One of my flights when doing Nav endo was to Mount Beauty and back over the top and past Porepunkah. It is lovely country.

 

I recently planned a flight to Mt Bulla, but it has had to be called off twice now due to poor weather on the scheduled day.

 

Thanks for posting, Bill.

 

 

[dazza 38]

That Red RV4 looks nice

 

 

[robinsm]

Good report, great looking country. What is the isobar? The snowys are brilliant aren't they.

 

 

[skeptic36]

Good report, great looking country. What is the isobar? The snowys are brilliant aren't they.

The Isobar is the name they give the lounge at Hotham airport, not sure if it is licensed or not. I've never been there in the snow season so the place is all closed up with not a soul in sight, but it looks like it is all set up to be quite a busy hub in snow season

Regards Bill

 

 

[robinsm]

Thredbo is the same, no sense of humour when theres no snow there.!!