boleropilot

hey thanks for the replies all of you aviation tragics - my wife still when I must look up to see what is flying around any of you missing out on having Flight Radar 24 on your phone? it is awesome - it locates your current position and marks it on the screen, then all you do is tap any aircraft ant it will show you track, height, speed, etc. just turned it on - an Emirates A380 bound for Auckland has just taken off from YBBN and is already at FL120 crossing North Straddie at 400 knots - holy cow !!! must be light !!! seen the size of those engines??? HUGE !!! and if you want to scare people, you can say "flying in Europe soon? take a look at what's in the air there right now" and be prepared to show them something amazing - literally HUNDREDS of aircraft - same in the good old U S of A... every non-aviation person I have shown it to have been absolutely gobsmacked by the number of aircraft in the air - and it gets bigger every day... hey don't forget to have a look at the Drifter forum here and take a peek at the videos of the approaches to the nearly completed Woolooman International Airport...don't forget to vote at the top of the forum ! cheers BP

Kiwi ! I can't believe you voted Woolooman International Airport as SCARY....m8, I've been in/out of Walkers Scary Place and as far as I can see, Woolooman is a doddle !!! anyway, finally got the videos up on YouTube, so take a look and feel free to tell me what you think - except for YOU Kiwi, ya big woosie !!!! Just kidding, m8 - but I think you might change your mind after seeing these: cheers BP

sorry Erik - when I said 100kg, I actually meant 10 crates of vino - will that fit? ah yeah - and a wine fridge.....

not at Woolooman International Airport m8 - we're all wine drinkers here...

Erik, that is fantastic news about the fact that you might be able to take along some 'excess luggage' - please put me down for 100kg... cheers m8 Dave aka BP

Beer Hawk? I'm interested !!!!! BP hic !

g'day Youse Mob, Just saw two B1-B bombers fly over our house on their way to Amberley - amazing sight !!!!! Apparently there will be a few F22s around as well as the Bones over the next couple of weeks. Man I love where I live !!!!! BP

can't believe he called me "common"......hey Kiwi, what ya doing in June '18 - wanna go on a little jaunt to Cooktown and back? Common BP

sorry, what I should have said is "I will be supplying participants with details of the proposed trip well beforehand, and also a printed copy on arrival at Boonah". cheers BP

g'day Erik, m8 you are welcome to come along but the original trip from Holbrook is a different trip to the one I am planning...we will be leaving from Boonah (S E Qld) around the end of May '18 and hoping to go (mainly) up the coast to Cooktown (there's lots of airspace and Cumulus Granitis up North - apparently!) and back inland via Undara (thanks Ray - nice glamping tents available there for $75 per night, and the airport is close by) and Longreach etc. So you would need to zip up to Boonah and meet us there. the only issue I could see is that the 60 knotters (my new word for the Inglish Langrage) are a little more STOL than your lovely old 172 - having said that, I doubt we would be overnighting anywhere without a nice long runway... watch this space m8...please keep in mind that all pilots will be responsible for their own navigation and accommodation bookings - I will supply all those who turn up at Boonah for departure with a file containing where I am going, where I hope to be overnight, and my IFR flight plans (I Follow Roads, Railways and Rivers)...due to the myriad of things that can go wrong (particularly weather) the majority of dates will be flexible with the 172 you will be able to 'straight line' a lot more than what I am planning, with my little two stroke motor I need to make sure I stay close to some form of road - so my planned tracks can be a little wonky...twood be nice to have someone along for the trip who can get ahead of the group, land at our stopover or overnighter, then give us the word on what's happening on the way there and on the ground. We'll have to get you a Pathfinder badge !!! cheers BP

OK Ray, I'll have a look to see if it fits in with our planning - BP

yeah ninjanate, but I won't be laughing after Kiwi reads this....

Thanks Jabba - I'm not sure if I've interpreted your 'avoid Cairns' info - can you tell me if the following is workable? if not, modification/s needed? Innisfail - East Palmerston - Millaa Millaa - Atherton (overnighter) - Mareeba cheers BP

I was in a conversation at the Flying Tigers clubhouse when someone brought up the subject of the difficulty in joining the Mile High Club in an ultralight Grummo mentioned that the only pilot he knew who had achieved it is Kiwi He then went on to say "but I don't know if it counts when you're flying solo" ....... BP

Still in the process of setting up a STOL 'strip at our property in Woolooman S E Qld - it's only 200m long (runs North/South) but has rising ground on all sides. Approach from the South is the 'best', straight in approach down a gentle slope, no problem for the Drifter - approach from the North is a little 'problematic' - you need to come in initially from the North West, fly down the slope with rising ground to the left, then do a little 30 degree turn to the right on short final. Sounds awful but a local lad recently did videos for me with his drone and I gotta say both approaches look a lot better than I expected - the videos show a perfect representation of what a pilot would see so it can't be wrong...can it? As far as take-offs are concerned, I would stay low (I mean one metre) and build up as much speed as possible and then zoom up with a big pullback on the stick - from that point (in either direction) I will have enough height to turn to the West, where there is quite a lot of open ground, all sloping down away from me...not something I'd like to happen (naturally) but I will practice those zoom take-offs so I've got a good idea of where to go if the crap hits the prop... It will be a fair weather strip, needing light wind on the nose, definitely no passengers, and probably half fuel as well - all of those factors will help if Murphy raises his ugly head...I'll try to get the video on BluNoob asap cheers BP

thanks again Jabba, your input is going to continue to be really helpful - I would like to go as far as Cooktown because I spend 3 months living in a tent at the airport there back in the '70s! I was an Aircraft Handler in Army Aviation then and they were tasked to support survey operations across the Cape - we had mainly Sioux choppers and they needed fuel dumps all over the Cape, I spent a lot of time in Caribou dropping off 44 gallon drums of Avgas in little caches all over the place. On one occasion after getting the last drums off at Kowanyama we went up to 7,500 feet for the trip back to Cooktown - one of the pilots wanted to have a nap and the other wanted to play cards with the boys in the back - so guess who flew the Caribou all the way back to Cooktown, up front, all by himself? I did naturally have a very good knowledge of how everything works in a cockpit after many hours of up-front flying in AAAvn aircraft (including a fair bit of hands-on stuff - the AHs used to fly the aircraft while the students studied the map on navexs)...I was quite comfortable with the Caribou until the PIC stuck his head up between the seats and said "hey Tonxy, there's Cooktown right on the nose - good navigating mate - now, ya reckon ya can land this sucker?" Shat meself I did...he laughed so hard at my reaction that he nearly peed himself - wild days for sure....all of that didn't happen of course, I just made it up... Atherton is definitely on the list, sounds exactly like what I am looking for as a stopover. I'll have a look at the airspace boundaries, maybe we'll turn North-West at Babinda and track for Mareeba? cheers BP

thanks guys, planning is going ahead slowly and in some chaos - I've taken a deep breath and have made some decisions: 1. flying will be done betwixt dawn and noon 2. limiting numbers seems to be important so it should probably be based on first in are in (having said that I won't be saying No to anyone - wanna be where we are? - go right ahead) 3. navigation and bookings will be arranged by individuals - some people may not appreciate my nav options and accom bookings are obviously a minefield 4. I will stop posting info on a detailed itinerary - basically, I will post events and dates as a rough guide and as we get close to the departure date I will post The Plan 5. the support vehicle is unlikely to work so that idea is a fond memory - sad for me because fat Drifter drivers need a little help in managing weight...both in the PIC seat and essential items that just about covers where I am at the moment - I will add that the first waypoints are now: Watts Bridge - Kingaroy - Mundubbera - Monto - Thangool - Emu Park keep the advice coming guys, it's all gold to me cheers BP

reply first to Mike - thanks for the input m8, it's all gold to me - I would love to hear your comments about a place to stay that has beds and fuel around Mackay - see below for some interesting news! to jababloke, thanks to you too m8, some good info there for sure, much appreciated - now for the news: because of Mikes comments re. Thangool, The Trip now has at least some dates - we will be arriving in Thangool early on Friday 25th May for the Fly-In, flying out on Sunday 27th May. there is little accommodation available in Thangool, I have booked a cabin for Friday and Saturday nights at MAS Country Biloela Countryman Motel, 15km to the North, they state they have "a shuttle to the airport" a long time away I know but if you book through Booking.com you do not have to pay anything up front and there is a 100% refund if you cancel within certain dates Stage 1 of the plan is now starting to look like: Boonah - Gympie - Mundubbera - Monto - Thangool - then over to Gladstone or thereabouts to finally get to the coast...we shall see ! with those dates set I reckon we would be leaving Boonah on Wednesday 23rd May - I haven't done any navexs for those flights yet but I will post again here when I have (soon) please be patient with the way this is being put together, I'm a newbie in this area and am (so far) making decisions that may or may not be the right ones - PLEASE tell me if you see a problem ! cheers BP

Wheelers Wings - Home Oratex dealer

like to do it right now but I get a message that your number is disconnected

hey just found 12 pages of your DooMaw build - going to have a read right now...

magic stuff headsy, all taken on board - now get back into the living room (that's where you're building it, right?) and get that DooMaw finished btw, when do you think you will finish it ? you got any pix posted here or elsewhere on the build? what motor?

not sure what happened there m8 - message says "not connected' - happy to call you my phone is on unlimited calls zero $$$

you should see the video with a guy banging away at some Oratex with a ball pein hammer !!!!!! makes you cringe - then he gets out the heat gun and = crikey ! as long as it doesn't make a hole, heat just takes out the indentations - Wow product.

hey Desky, they don't recommend painting because it adds weight - and it comes in quite a lot of colours... apparently they also sell stick on graphics in various colours so you can flash it up if ya want...would love to get that stuff on my Drifter ! BP