Arkaroola in the Wet

Just back from another trip to Arkaroola- stayed 4 days. Flew up on Sunday and saw a number of large thunderheads leaking buckets to the west of our track, but no rain on us until much later that night when it fairly poured.

 

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Wywhyana Creek was flowing rapidly by Monday morning, and while we didn't actually need to go anywhere- it was just as well, because we couldn't have even if we'd wanted to.

 

[ATTACH]676.vB[/ATTACH] This photo shows the crossing- it doesn't look like much but that water is at least 4' deep and moving fast, and the brown line in the middle foreground is where the level was overnight.

 

The first vehicle into or out of Arkaroola made it late on Monday- and it was a large bus with high clearance- and even then the bottom 6" of his passenger's luggage got wet!.

 

[ATTACH]677.vB[/ATTACH] This shot shows the track you would normally take to get to the astronomical observatory.

 

As before we refuelled at Yunta- but this time we remembered to take our luggage trolley for carting the jerries of fuel, and an apple for the friendly horse!

 

The country is as green as can be- even more than last trip. Some of the walking tracks we traversed were waist- high with new growth, at times making the track itself difficult to pick out. There was heaps of bird life- especially some large flocks of budgerigars- and many other parrots, and you wouldn't believe the number of Orb spiders- or their size!.

 

[ATTACH]679.vB[/ATTACH] Here's some of the budgies we saw near the village.

 

[ATTACH]678.vB[/ATTACH]Also saw a Simpson's Python (captured by one of the locals so got to see it up close and hold it) and it was very obviously well fed- it was as fat as can be.

 

Lake Frome is about 50% covered with water, and the area between the ranges and the lake looks like a golf course.

 

Normally you could access Arkaroola by ordinary vehicle, but you'd probably need a 4WD for a while now until they get the roads repaired. The best bet is to fly, of course, and let the folks collect you from the airstrip.

 

Our Auster developed a little more vibration than usual on the way home- not enough to alarm us, but we put in a SARTIME just as a precaution. Happened to mention the vibration and they rolled out the system like we'd declared an emergency. I guess they have procedures and perhaps it was a quiet day as well. They tracked us all the way to Yunta, insisting we relay a call when on the ground before they let go of us. At Yunta we checked the obvious stuff- prop hub nuts, prop tracking, looked for any signs of prop unbalance, or slop in the structure but found nothing. I used a mirror to get a good look at the engine support rubbers and noted the front ones looking a bit on the thin side. They have probably compressed over the years and will have to be replaced. The rest of the flight was uneventful and I'll get our LAME to check it out tomorrow. Big wooden props sometimes get a bit out of balance, especially if you smack a few locusts and break some of the varnish off out near the tip.

 

A great trip- and we got to see the creeks around Arkaroola in flood- a real privilege and not something we'd have got to see if we hadn't been able to fly there.

 

Coop

 

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Sounds like a very memorable trip Coop, that's a beautiful part of the world up there, would have been good to see it so wet & green. What type of Auster is it?

 

Cheers,

 

willedoo.

 

 

Sounds like a very memorable trip Coop, that's a beautiful part of the world up there, would have been good to see it so wet & green. What type of Auster is it?Cheers,

willedoo.

THanks for the comment.

It's a J1 with a Gypsy Major, which makes it a J1N- except it doesn't have the enlarged tail feathers of the "true" J1N's.

 

So- take your pick. Auster model designations are a nightmare....

 

Coop

 

 

Cheers, Coop.

 

It sounds like a nice old classic.

 

 

Cheers, Coop.It sounds like a nice old classic.

Thanks, it is. It gets us around, and into and out of some places that other aircraft are frightened to go to. And it carries a good load, and didn't cost us any more than your average LSA- in fact, less than many.... You can pick up a good one for around $30k.

Coop