.... 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

More Weather!

This photo was taken on a recent flight from Adelaide to Pt Augusta. As you can see, it gets pretty cold at 20,000 feet, and on this occasion it was also very moist. The ice was forming all over the aeroplane, but built up particularly on the wing leading edges and the radome. You can see that the ice on the rubber leading edge has been cracked off by the de-ice boot, but it doesn't all come off. The propeller also picks up ice like this, and can get out of balance very quickly and send vibrations throughout the airframe. All in all, icing can be quite dangerous and we try to avoid it where possible. It's just nice to know that the aeroplane is capable of flying in these conditions....

Bush Clinic

Here are a couple of photos from the Balcanoona clinic last week. We dropped in to visit a mum and her three kids as you can see here. It was just a routine visit for vaccinations and checkups, and is typical of the work we do in the outback. You can also see the kind of terrain we have in the Flinders Ranges, and the airstrip is used regularly by tourists and charter operators so it is in good condition and raises no problems for us at all.

Nice looking neighbour

This little hawk is a resident of our hangar. He and his mate have a nest in the rafters and will soon have chicks to feed and care for. About the time the chicks are leaving the nest, the hangar will be torn down as we have three new hangars over the other side of the apron that we will be moving into next week. I guess the hawks will have to find a new home for next year....

Good looking oldie

Ok, here's something you don't see every day. This Sweringen Merlin 3A was in Pt Augusta for three hours with visiting government ministers for some kind of meeting. The Merlin was designed and built in the late 70's and this one is in excellent condition. They look like they're going a million miles per hour just sitting there. Actually, this one cruises at around 275 knots, just a little faster than the PC12. I couldn't resist a photo or two.

More scenery

I went to Coober Pedy yesterday, via the long way around Woomera restricted airspace because there were air force F111s messing around in the airspace and it isn't really too safe at times. The weather was hot an bumpy, with very strong winds on the ground and also at altitude. We were cruising at 24,000 feet when I snapped this shot of the salt lakes north of Tarcoola in (lower) central South Australia. We had rain very early this morning - though not very much - associated with some noisy electrical storms. It had all blown over by 0600 and the day just got warm and windy from there. On the way back, we got hit by a couple of really good bumps that would have put us all on the roof if we hadn't been strapped down. Gave us all a bit of a fright, especially the patient! It feels worse when you're lying down.

Marree clinic

Not specifically related to my aviation activities, but here's an interesting truck I see when I go Marree for the clinics. Marree is NNW of Port Augusta on the "Oodnadatta Track" - an old, disused narrow-gauge railway track. The trains haven't run through Marree for many years so it is a bit of a ghost town now, but there is still a human presence. I think the population is less than 100 now, and the RFDS has a clinic there with a full-time nurse living there to take care of immediate problems and help organise the regular clinics. There are a few interesting sights there, including three old narrow-gauge diesel locomotives that were obviously considered surplus to requirements and abandoned in the town. By now they've been well and truly vandalized of course, but they serve as a reminder of the once busy railway and thriving community. This is as close to a ghost town that I've seen in Australia.

Also note, the truck is "parked" right next to the fuel pump - I wonder which one of these machines "died" first?

Oldtimer visiting Pt Augusta

A little while back, we got an overnight visit from a Douglas DC3 on an outback tour. There were about 20 passengers (I didn't count them, but they had a LOT of luggage), on a "round-Australia" trip that took about a month to complete. Not all the passengers did the full trip as it cost around $25,000 EACH (including all accommodation and expenses). They all seemed to be enjoying themselves and the old Gooney bird was in great condition. It also sounded marvelous!! However, I couldn't convince the crew to let me have a circuit - maybe next time....

Marree Clinic

Well, it's been a while since I posted anything to this blog, so I thought I'd let you all see a couple of shots of the Marree airfield and clinic building. We go here every month for the day and nowdays we take at least one doctor, one nurse and one psych nurse for the regular clinic. In addition, we often meet up with another of our crews with their Allied Health passengers (Dietitian, Dentist, Physiotherapist etc.). It can get a little crowded in the small building, but we all get along pretty well and people come from all around to see the various medical folks. Meanwhile the pilots settle down on the couch and read, sleep or watch movies while we wait to take them all home. Pretty tough part of the job.....

While we're talking about "interesting" situations.... this is my propeller de-ice boot after a night flight in bad weather. At some time previously, the boot had been struck by a rock or something like that, and the two layers of metal had been compressed together to cause a short. It happened that the first person to use the deice boots was me, and of course it happened in cloud at night. We had a real shower of sparks going, and the prop looked like a pinwheel. The doctor in the back noticed the sparks going down the fuselage past his window! Fortunately nothing more serious than a couple of hours fixing it the next day, but it could have been much more memorable if the boot had delaminated and caused an imbalance with the prop. That could easily have neccessitated an emergency landing (at night, in bad weather!). It pays not to dwell too much on some of these possibilities though....

Cracked windscreen

A little while ago, one of our pilots was taxying at Yalata Mission after a clinic, doing his checks and preparing for takeoff, when suddenly the windscreen shattered. As you see here, it is laminated and was therefore completely safe, but it nevertheless caused some worry at the time. I guess it was just the heat of the day and perhaps the movement of the aircraft that caused it. It is not the first to do this, but thankfully it is quite rare all the same.

The aircraft was flown back without passengers, at low level and unpressurized just in case the outer layer shattered too - this would cause the entire window to cave in of course. Fortunately, nothing more serious than a warm and bumpy trip - and a good story to tell.