Awpa Annual Trek

[Guest aviatrix27]

Oh dear, I've been asked to write a trip report. Here goes!

 

Thursday 2nd May

 

The ute is packed with all of our camping gear, our LAME is expecting us at midday. We left our house at the crack of 10am, and arrived at YYWG before midday and needed to wait until the left main tyre was re-fitted. It had been deflating, so the LAME decided we needed a tube fitted. Not long after midday we were in the air with fuel to tabs and all our gear and our little doggie, Jet. We decided I would fly the first leg to Parkes, Geoffrey volunteered to look after Jet and try to get him to wear his mutt-muffs.

 

Parkes was a fuel and pilot-swap stop. I took Jet for a walk while Geoffrey re-fuelled, only when I arrived back at SYF he told me that our swipe card didn't work. Bugger! A call to Aero Re-fuellers and they promised to send a replacement card, and gave me the number to get the man to come and fill our tanks on our account.

 

Jet isn't overly impressed with flying, this is going to take time. We arrived at Coonamble for our planned overnight stop and were surprised to see several planes and a few pilots hanging around. Darn, we might have to put the tent up! Nah, the guy who was thinking about spending the night decided he was flying "home" straight after the aero club meeting. We waited outside with Jet until their meeting was over, then left the mutt outside and went inside to prepare dinner and make our bed up. Coonamble is a good spot for an overnight stop when headed in that general direction. The aero club has a brand new double bed, new fridge, ancient microwave, tv, shower and loo. Often they are happy to have you stay overnight for a small donation - sometimes they get cash, sometimes I clean the place!

 

Friday 3rd May

 

The weather's still good, so onward to Toowoomba. The Grumman owners and pilots group, AYA, decided to have their fly-in there this weekend. We get to stay with mnewbery and his lovely family and socialise with our fellow Grumman owners. To our surprise, mn and his wife say there is no need to pitch our tent, and Jet is welcome in the house too. mn's little 18 month old daughter thought Jet was a great toy, and Jet thought she was a lot of fun too.

 

We met up with all the other Grumman pilots for dinner and took mn along with us. Lots of hangar talk and associated BS.

 

Saturday 4th May

 

We were collected from mn's house by one of our Grumman friends and went for a drive to Oakey to have a look at the aviation museum, then to The Woolshed at Jondaryan for lunch and a wander around. Eventually we went back to Toowoomba and later met up again for dinner.

 

Sunday 5th May

 

The David Hack Classic was on at the Toowoomba aerodrome, of course we went and had a look. Lots of old cars to see, and someone else has already posted photos of the aircraft from the day.

 

Monday 6th May

 

A great day to relax at mn's place. I haven't mentioned their cappuccino machine. I think I'm still having trouble getting to sleep - I got major caffeine overload while staying with the Newberys!

 

Tuesday 7th May

 

Can't put it off any longer, we have to head to Hervey Bay for the AWPA conference and AGM. Off to the airport, and had a good look at the clouds and the hills. All looked good enough, so we filled SYF's tanks and packed everything and were off. Even though it wasn't my turn, I had to fly, I couldn't possibly arrive at an AWPA event with my husband at the controls!

 

We diverted a little to find some lower ground and go around a little bit of weather. This leg was mildly turbulent, and Jet and junior Miss Newbery had been eating sultanas - poor Jet wasn't well. We now need to carry sick bags in SYF.

 

Other than Jet's little mishap, the flight was uneventful. We landed at Hervey Bay and tied down, and didn't need to call anyone to get transport, an AWPA member was there waiting for any arrivals. We managed to fit all of our camping gear and us into her tiny 3 door Echo, and she took us to the caravan park we had booked. We built our tent and furnished it, and Jet was taken for a walk to meet the neighbouring dogs. The other dog owners all called him JetStar, so he has a new nickname.

 

Wednesday 8th May

 

All that is necessary today is to register for the conference and I had to attend a National Committee Meeting to report on my role as Membership Secretary. There was also a welcome from the local council, so once again we went to the hotel for a drink and to say hello to everyone. The really pleasing part of this particular conference was that there were a record number of 'first timers', all very young aviatrixes.

 

Thursday 9th May

 

The only day that is actually like a traditional conference, where we all sit in an auditorium and listen to speakers. The first speaker was Matt Hall. He was extremely popular with the girls. After Matt was morning tea, then 3 more speakers, one from CASA, another from Air Services and one of our members who is an Air Force Globemaster pilot. All were really interesting, although I can't speak for the CASA bloke, I didn't go back in to listen to him, I've heard him before (and don't like him personally!). Pretty sure there were 2 more speakers as well, I have a memory like a sieve these days.

 

After all of the speakers were done, there was the 'education session', where members get to whinge and air their grievances. The idea is that it is an opportunity to get everything out of the way so that the AGM is quick and painless. The session was pretty painless, nobody had anything to complain about.

 

Friday 10th May

 

The Nav Trial!!!! I had to be at the conference hotel by 7am to catch the bus to the airport. We had been given the route for the nav trial, but no other information. I had a Virgin 737 Captain as my navigator, and a PPL who works for CASA as my observer. Both great girls, we decided we were going to have fun, and didn't care about trophies. Just as well we didn't care about trophies, we didn't get one! Basically, we took off at the appointed time, flew towards Maryborough, then across to Fraser Island, up the east coast of Fraser then back to the mainland and another turn and back to Hervey Bay. A gorgeous smooth flight, we reckon we were pretty well spot on with the timed part, but our observation and theory let us down (can someone please explain the 1:60 rule to me? I'm good at maths and I just don't get it). The organiser did ask me if my crew were over 50, there is a trophy for "older" crews, alas I would be surprised if my navigator was over 30.

 

One of the younger members, a Qantas 1st Officer with 5,000 hours up her sleeve, traditionally organises a pub crawl at the conference. The first pub was between the conference hotel and caravan park, so I joined them for a drink. They really are a fun crowd.

 

Saturday 11th May

 

The AGM. Thankfully, it was probably the shortest on record. I think it was only just over an hour and it was done. There was only one motion, and one group nomination for office bearers. Between that and short reports from State Presidents, the whole thing was fairly painless. After the AGM, everyone gets together for the group photo. It was my job not to let anyone go anywhere, I had to herd all of the cats to the appointed place and make sure nobody left. Honestly, it would be easier to herd cats than to control that lot! We managed to get that over and done with in near record time too, then everyone had the afternoon off to go and make themselves presentable for the presentation dinner.

 

An early start for the dinner, there was a lot to get through. All of the scholarships and awards are presented, as well as the nav trial trophies. Unusual for these events, the food was good and plentiful. 3 good sized courses and I don't remember it being horrendously expensive either.

 

We had an after dinner speaker this year - Richard de Crespigny gave a presentation on QF32. I had heard him before but he was still very interesting and entertaining.

 

Sunday 12th May

 

Everyone else has gone, but we decided we needed a day to rest before heading home, so that's what we did - NOTHING!!!

 

Monday 13th May

 

The same AWPA lady who had transported us in her Echo turned up to return us to the airport. People like her are a godsend to us, I can't imagine a taxi driver being happy about carrying a dog.

 

We loaded the plane and took off, hubby was at the controls, we were headed back to Toowoomba (avgas was $2.02/litre there compared to $2.25 at Hervey Bay). As we flew along, the weather got worse, we decided to divert to Kingaroy. That would take us the other side of Oakey and the weather looked much friendlier. We swiped our credit card and, well, the money that was supposed to be in our account wasn't there. We were stranded. I rang a friend who lives about 60 km west of Kingaroy and asked for her help. She came for a drive and picked us up and took us to her house. Every time we visit there is much more done on her house (in the back of their hangar). Jet once again had a playmate, Ellen's got herself a 7 week old chihuahua.

 

Tuesday 14th May

 

Woke early to rain on the rooftop - oh no! Ellen decided to take us for a drive anyway. We got to the airport and filled the tanks (funds had arrived in our account), then I had a good look and decided that the horizon was blurred, meaning I wasn't happy to be headed off into rain showers. At least Ellen's trip wasn't totally wasted, her car had to be collected and taken back to her property, so we drove her ute and she drove her car.

 

Wednesday 15th May

 

Up bright and early, we needed to leave Ellen's by 8.30 am. Departed Joh Bjelke Peterson Airport around 9.30 and headed to Coonamble (direct). Once again, there were several planes there when we landed to swap pilots. We didn't stay long. Geoffrey then flew the next leg to Parkes for fuel, and I took over and headed towards Yarrawonga. We were starting to cut it a bit fine with sunset times. I had until about 80 miles to run to make a final decision on either continuing to Yarrawonga or diverting to Temora. My phone won't talk to NAIPS, so I decided to send a couple of text messages to get the information I needed. One to Dex, one to gi_jack029 (who hasn't been on this forum for a long time). Both came back almost simultaneously with a time that gave me a 26 minute margin. Yahoo, that's more than 20 minutes, I get to go to Yarrawonga and our proper bed instead of an air mattress tonight. By the way, sunset seems to be the time the sun touches the horizon, rather than the time any of it starts to disappear behind the horizon. Someone obviously heard my inbound radio calls and turned on the PAL - didn't need lights, no idea who it was, but it was still nice of them!

 

Tied the plane down and loaded the car before last light, then headed towards home. Stopped in Wangaratta for dinner on the way.

 

 

[Guest David C]

Great report and very entertaining .. Thanks Kaye , I enjoyed reading about your adventures .. I do hope Jet is fully recovered , although I bet his enthusiasm is further dented ..

 

Dave C

 

 

[mnewbery]

...like 'dog' ever had a choice. TAA forum members should have seen the fight he put up against the mutt muffs. It was like putting a hair band on a black spined sea urchin.

 

Barfing sultanas you say?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grape_and_raisin_toxicity_in_dogs

 

This is something I did not know about but it seems real and worse for little dogs. Of all the things they chose to share...

 

 

[Guest aviatrix27]

and 'dog' doesn't much care what the mode of transport is it's ok if he's with us, he's just not impressed with the noise of the plane, but won't let us do anything about it. We think he might eventually work out what the muffs are for, he did regularly rest his head between our seats which would have cut the noise down. What about his restraint I hear someone say? Of course he was restrained ;)

 

Thanks for the info mn, I will attempt to see that he doesn't get more sultanas in his diet :)

 

 

[TAA Student Pilot]

Howdja go with the house sale?

 

 

[Guest aviatrix27]

not yet, only one person has looked and the only feedback I got is she thinks it's too expensive. Properties in this district have quadrupled in value since we bought 17 years ago, we are only asking triple, so I don't know what she was on about