Another KI Trip

[Coop]

The run from home base to Kangaroo Island is pretty routine these days- but the great thing about aviation is that no trip is ever completely routine.

 

This one proved to be no exception. The weather looked OK, but as we proceeded south the cloudbase clamped down onto the hills, as it often does over Fleurieu Peninsula. We diverted towards Goolwa, thinking that we could at least get a coffee there if we had to wait a while. But the cloud cover appeared to break up as we moved that way, and secure in the knowledge that we could always turn back to the east where the clouds were only scattered, we decided to pop up through a hole and go over the top. With full power applied and one notch of flap, Dorothy hauled us up through a hole in the thin stratus to 5000'. The temperature dropped noticeably, and the draught through the cockpit floor ensured we didn't get sleepy!

 

The return run later that afternoon produced the same conditions, so we did the same thing. This image shows the view through the cockpit window as we crossed Backstairs Passage (sorry about the bugs on the windscreen- you can tell its springtime...).

 

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The next one shows the coast near Cape Jervis- the greenery certainly won't last long once the summer arrives.

 

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The third image is out the other side of the aircraft showing the wind turbines at Starfish Hill.

 

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The last one shows the results of the Navigator's efforts to capture the circular rainbow that appears around Dorothy's shadow.

 

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Getting above the cloud level almost always produces beautifully smooth conditions, and I usually leave the descent as late as possible so as to prolong the experience.

 

Coop

 

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[sixtiesrelic]

Flyin' ... fraught with hazard.

 

Climbing up on top of clouds and dropping back down. You know you're really flying then and not just going from 'ere to there.

 

Flies on the windscreen... I was in melbourne and went for a ride in Shortstop's DC-3 and a cousin's Navaho survey flight a couple of weeks ago and couldn't get over the number of splats on the windscreen you southerners cop in a short time.

 

I expect it 'out west' ... what are the little buggers doing at two grand?

 

If there's that many per cubic metre from the ground up, there's a hell of a lot of flies in the world. They must be like ants. I know there's plenty of THEM.

 

 

[Coop]

Flies- that's nothing.

 

Landed at Swan Hill a few weeks back and ran into locusts. The nose bowl looked like someone had sprayed scrambled eggs all over it. Seems they were able to get out of the way of the aircraft most of the time, but the prop was a different story. The starboard side of the fuselage and under the wing was also liberally splattered with yellow goo. The upgoing blade on that side flings the remains upwards so that they impact under the wing and along the fuselage. The other side wasn't as bad.

 

Guess we will need to carry a couple extra cleaning rags this summer..

 

Coop

 

 

[sixtiesrelic]

Nice!

 

I suppose it took a heap of water, time and drterent to get that lot off.

 

I wonder what it did to your stall speed and cruise speed.

 

How about the cylinder gills at the intake?

 

 

[Coop]

It came off quite easily because they were still fresh- we only hit them on the landing approach.

 

What was so interesting was that there wasn't much on the leading edges or struts (except where the prop had thrown it up). Our approach speed is only 45 knots, going back to 40 knots over the fence. I reckon they were able to get out of the way in most cases, and many that did hit bounced off. Nor were there all that many in the cooling fins- a few nicely barbecued specimens- easily removed because they were dry and crispy! But they couldn't avoid the prop- probably couldn't even see it- and that's where the mess came from. The leading edge of the prop and the back face had obviously swept up a goodly number of them!

 

A much worse infestation occurred once at Ceduna. We had a thundery night and a local species of moth (small and white) decided this was a good time to breed. After their night of debauchery, they looked for somewhere to hide, and what better place than in between the cooling fins of this nice Gypsy engine! In the morning we looked under the cowls to find hundreds of these little bugs lined up almost nose to tail in between every cooling fin.

 

It was going to take forever to get them all out, but then I had a bright idea. We removed both side cowls and started the engine- a snowstorm of bugs disappeared into Dorothy's slipstream, to be gathered up with great delight by the local spoggie population...

 

Coop