Off we go for the acceptance flight.

Part of the acceptance of the aircraft involves us flying it, checking that it all works as advertised, and has no outstanding bugs or deficiencies that need to be addressed prior to our ferry flight. The photo shows Marc, our test pilot, lodging a flight plan via his iPad and iPhone, while standing outside with the aeroplane! These Swiss are definitiely up there with technology (this we knew of course)!

When we got to it, FVE (still registered in Switzerland as HB-FQQ) had just under 4.0 hours total flight time on it. By the time we get home, it will have over 40.0!

Here she is!

Ok, after all these months of anticipation, we finally got to see, and fly, our aeroplane today. This isn't the first aeroplane I've flown that is new, but it certainly is the most exciting journey and most satisfying trip I've done - so far.

You'll note that the final assembly hall at Pilatus is HUGE, made of envionmentally friendly materials, neatly arranged, and spotless. I would feel comfortable eating my lunch from the floor! No, I don't want to, but I would if I had to.

The building is heated by a circulating hot water system mounted in the rafters, but there is no air conditioning in the entire building, including the offices as that would not be "green". Instead, they have built the offices on the northern side of the building (overlooking the factory proper), to keep them somewhat isolated from the sun, and huge fans circulate the air in the building. We found it entirely comfortable, although the humidity level is a little higher than we're used to.

Wild cats loose in the mountains

Did somebody say that there were wildcats loose in the mountains? This must be one of them, so I had better give him a wide berth.

Highest altitude feline I've seen.

Bell-ringers extrodinair

Julie Andrews sang "The hills are alive, with the sound of music", but she should really have said "BELLS". All the cows (lots of them) have bells around their necks, and as a result of almost any movement of their heads, the bell will ring and of course tell the farmer where his charges are. With so many cows around, and such still air, we were constantly hearing bells - even as we went up or down in the cable cars. Really cool!

Are we expecting company?

Looking at the stacks of stakes, we're expecting an invasion of vampires.....

... of course they're really just fence posts.

Mountain views

We did the tourist thing yesterday and climbed "Musenalp" - which I think translates to "mouse mountain" or "little mountain". Of course, to say we climbed it, really is a little misleading as we took four cable cars in total and really climbed very little. It was mostly mildly sloping trails, but the views were spectacular and really couldn't be shown properly in photos....

Ways to go...

Ok, here are a couple of comparison shots of two of the aircraft I was in for the trip. First one is a Metroliner of Sharp Airlines from Port Augusta to Adelaide. As you can see, it's pretty tiny in there and not too comfortable. It's also noisy and normal landings are harsh at the best of times because of the undercarriage design.

The second photo is of the Airbus A380, enroute Singapore to Zurich. My camera lens was pretty dirty at the time so I apologise for the poor quality. Nevertheless, you can see just a small part of the cabin. This is the biggest aeroplane I've been in, or likely to be I reckon, but it was so quite that you could have a conversation with both you seat-mates in normal voice! Try that in a Metro... Also, the landing was smooth as silk - almost as good as a PC12!

Today is a lay-day as the factory is not open over the weekends, so Chris and I will do some tourist stuff - perhaps climb a mountain or two! ..... ok, make that "ride to the top of a mountain or two on a cable car".

More tomorrow.

Trying again for the photos. I think they were too big the first time.....

Here we are.... in Switzerland!! Who would have thought...

Ok, after a marathon trip, involving 6 hours in an Airbus A330 from Adelaide to Singapore, and then (after a six hour layover), 13 hours in an Airbus A380, followed by an hour and a half by train.... you get the idea, we have finally arrived in Stanstaad and checked into the hotel. I've even had lunch and a shower, and now I'm heading to bed for a few hours to recharge my batteries....

Here are a couple of photos I took on the trip. First is one of the terminal at Changi Airport in Singapore. It is HUGE.

The second is a photo I took while Chris and I were havin lunch. As you can see, we're slumming it.....

For the aeroplane buffs, in the space of half an hour, we had two amphibious Beavers fly over us, along with an HS125 (twice), a DA42 Twinstar, and an old Junkers JU52. I think I'm really going to have a good time here.

New PC12's for Central Section

Hi all,

Long time, no hear. Sorry, but I've been very slack with this blog. However, stand by for a bunch of updates starting later this week, as I'm heading off to Switzerland to pick up a brand spanking new Pilatus from the factory in Stans.

We will be spending a few days at the factory to check the new machine out and make certain it is all in good order, then setting off sometime later in the week, probably Thursday. There will be about six overnight stops along the way, so I'll update nightly if I can get online.

Check it all out then.

Cheers,
Greg

.... and boats too!

Just to prove that we have enough water here in Port Augusta to cater for bigger boats at times..... here's a photo of the sail-training ship "One-And-All" when she was in port about two months ago for a few days.

It's finished... and now flying!

A bit bright don't you think? However, it certainly can't be mistaken for anybody else's aircraft, and as and when the decision is made, we'll have 11 of them all the same...

And here's our new colourscheme. My design - one of fifteen I submitted to the CEO, and the most conservative too. It is being applied to one of our aircraft in next month or two, so we can see that it works ok. Once that is done, all the fleet will be painted up the same and the five new aircraft coming from Switzerland will be done the same of course. We're trying to convince the other sections to repaint their aircraft the same so ALL RFDS aircraft will have a common scheme, but so far Queensland is holding out. I'm not sure what will happen there - the bananabenders have always done things differently!

This photo shows one of our crews unloading a couple of patients in Whyalla. Note that each patient gets his/her own ambulance as the vehicles are only configured for one stretcher patient. They can take a "sitter" if necessary though. We get more and more "repat" patients lately, especially in the warm weather as a long ambulance ride would not be too pleasant for them, and would also tie up the vehicle for a much longer time.

This photo show some of the Pt Augusta crew and was taken back early last year just before the new base was fully operational. I'm in there too, if you look carefully.

Roulette visit

These photos were taken in early November, when the Roulettes came through for fuel on the way to Perth for the Red Bull Air Race. The weather that day wasn't too good, and they couldn't make it into Ceduna, so they turned around and came back to Port Augusta for the night. I helped them move the aircraft around as our tug was set up for the standard Pilautus nosewheel, and these were after all the little brothers to our aircraft.

The PC9 is a wonderful little aeroplane to fly, and I've been lucky enough to have flown one back in 1994. It was lovely and aerobatic. Essentially, they have the same engine as we do, but they only weigh about half of our aircraft, so they of course go VERY nicely thank you very much....

This is just a nice photo of one our aeroplanes departing Marree in the far north of South Australia, with my aircraft in the foreground. I was up there for a clinic, and the other aircraft had brought up the Allied Health crew - Physiotherapist, Dentist, Dietitian etc.

Real RFDS work!

I recently went to a motor vehicle accident in the far north of South Australia. It occurred a few miles north of a small town, and we flew one of our doctors up for this retrieval. We were on the ground for an hour and a half, and with the temperature hovering around 48 degrees C, it was close to my personal limit. Also, it was pretty close to the engine start limit (50 degrees) and we almost had to wait until the temperature reduced to we could start up and take off.

Anyway, in this case, there were three people involved, but only two were seriously injured and they had been strapped in the seats in front. The passenger in the rear was unsecured and came out "shaken but not stirred". We had to get the driver out of the vehicle as she had a broken ankle, and had been left there for over two hours while we were advised and activated. I should point out however, that we were there within an hour of being told to -GO!

Overall, as you can see, they were extremely lucky to be alive. The vehicle left the road at high speed, swapped sides (no traffic to hit - fortunately) and then re-crossed the road to then hit a drainage culvert and rolled three times. Not too much fun.

Alice Springs duststorm

Recently, I was in Alice Springs, relieving for a pilot away on leave. This is a photo of the second duststorm to roll through in two hours. As you can see, it pretty much stops flying for a while. That roll cloud also had some pretty good winds associated with it, and the band of weather streached from north of Alice Springs to the bottom of Tasmania..... interesting day.

William Creek Clinic

I flew up to William Creek and Oodnadatta the other day and came across a bunch of Brits (and one mad Irish woman!) on a tour of the outback. They wanted to know all about the RFDS and the aeroplane, so of course I obliged with a tour. Unfortunately, they had to get on the road before the patients were all finished so they never got to see the inside of the PC12. As a result, I promised them that I'd send the URL for this blog along with a photo I took of them all.

Here it is.....

Also, there's a picture of the wall and ceiling of the saloon bar. You'll notice a bunch of business cards, driver's licences, bras and other interesting items have been stapled up as momentos of the patrons as they wander through this remote