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9A To Northern Australia

Finley Atherton

Well Known Member
Last year my wife and I flew our 9A across Australia from east to west and back to attend a fly-in at Perth. This year we flew to the remote Kimberley region in NW Australia.

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Total distance was about 5,000 nm over about 2 weeks. We usually flew between 6,500 ft and 9,500 ft and had head winds more often than not. Typically at around 8,500 ft amsl we had a TAS of 150 kts burning about 24.5 to 25.5 litres/hr depending on how much the carb 0-320 was willing to be leaned before running rough on the day.
With full fuel and 50 kg (110 lb) of baggage we were about 2 lb below Vans max weight. Vans max baggage compartment weight is 100 lb but I had about 10 lb below the seat back fwd of the flap actuator tube so I figured this as extra pilot/copilot weight rather than baggage.

All this including tools, a tent, sleeping bags, air mattresses, 10 litres of water and an empty 10 litre fuel container fitted in the baggage compartment below the level of the seat belt attach cables.
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This first photos are from home to the Barkley Wayside Inn in the Northern Territory.

Charleville is a typical larger Queensland outback town. During WW2 there was a US Airforce Base at the airport with about 3,500 personnel. There were a number of aircraft including the Flying Fortress and the base was very high security as they did the testing of the Norden bombsight.

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Dodging showers between Charleville and Longreach. Northern Australia is dry at this time of the year and these were just about the last clouds we saw for the next two weeks.

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Between Longreach and Mount Isa in Queensland
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The Barkley Wayside Inn in the Northern Territory - very pilot friendly and the owner/operator has a very nice Bonanza.

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Fin
9A
 
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Barkley Wayside Inn to Halls Creek

This marginal country is regularly burnt in the winter to promote green growth in the spring/summer. There were more fires the further north we went and this is why many of the photos will be a bit hazy due to smoke.
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The Tanami Desert.
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More interesting country once past the Tanami Desert.
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Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater.
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Hi Fin,

Your day one legs looks like a long one. Did you stop / fuel up again at Longreach ? looking forward to the next lot of photos. Thanks for posting.
 
Hi Fin,

Your day one legs looks like a long one. Did you stop / fuel up again at Longreach ? looking forward to the next lot of photos. Thanks for posting.

Hi Jamie,

I am posting the photos in convenient blocks rather than day legs.
First day was home to Inverell for fuel then to Longreach with a stop at Charleville.
Second day was Longreach to Barkley with stops at a friends place outside Longreach and Mount Isa.
Third day was Barkley to Cape Leveque with a stop at Halls Creek.

Fin
 
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At Halls creek we entered the Kimberley region.
The Kimberley is a wild, remote, ancient, mostly uninhabited landscape that has a unique rugged beauty. It consists mainly of a plateau that has been carved and scoured by the intense summer monsoon leaving mostly exposed rock with many spectacular gorges, sheer cliffs, water holes and waterfalls.
Despite the remoteness the Kimberely attracts thousands of visitors (mostly grey nomads) in the dry season however you can see from the map that there are few roads so you rarely see signs of human influence from the air.

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Halls creek to Cape Leveque (last leg third day)
These are photos of the King Leopold Ranges - very remote. I was almost starting to feel a bit too alone up there in our little homebuilt plane!

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NW Coast Line.
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Horizontal Waterfall. So called because a torrent of tidal water rushes between the narrow openings creating a waterfall effect. This region has huge tides (up to 11m). Unfortunately our timing was out and we missed the "waterfall".
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Sunday Straight towards Cape Leveque
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Cape Leveque. A welcome sight after 3 days of flying. We spent the next three nights there.
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Fin
 
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Cape Leveque
We stayed at Kooljaman at Cape Leveque for three nights. We arrived a day earlier than originally planned and had to spend the first night "roughing it" in our tiny tent surrounded by "serious campers". We were booked the next two nights in a very comfortable Safari Tent. The winter is the peak tourist season and accommodation can be tight and expensive. Our safari tent was $270 pn. ($282 USD)

From this
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To this
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The 9A having a well earned rest
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Spent a lot of time walking along the pristine beaches.
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Incredible red soil/sand. The beach at sunset. This photo has not been enhanced. It really looked like this.
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Fin
 
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Awesome pics Finley.

I could show you a different view of Wolfe Creek Crater and the Horizontal Waterfalls....... But I won't ;)

So will we see you at AUSFLY in September?
 
Fantastic photos, Finlay. Thank you so much for sharing with us. It's very inspiring and motivational!
 
Beautiful - and desolate countryside!

Finley - Thanks so much for sharing! Those are some pristine beaches, beautiful water, nice flat lands - and some desolate ranges of mountains... About the time you mentioned feeling "too alone" up there I was thinking, "wow, I bet the engine noise is all the focus over that stretch of the King Leopold ranges!" :eek: Pure inspiration!
Jim
 
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To all RV Oweners and future builders A new and light design towbar is in pro
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After a good rest at Cape Leveque we were keen to get going and fly the 540 nm Kimberley coast route to Kununurra.

This was a flight that required some thought and preparation. Much of the area is very remote and there is no radar and little VHF coverage at our lower sightseeing height. There are virtually no areas suitable for a successful forced landing. Your choices are trees, rock or mudflats infested with large man eating salt water crocodiles. A water landing is not a desirable option as you would then have to contend with sharks and crocodiles.:eek:

There is an extensive HF network used mainly by IFR full reporting aircraft but many aircraft based in eastern Australia including mine do not carry an HF radio.
The best option would be to fly this route with another aircraft so in the event of a forced landing the other aircraft could give your position. I had the next best thing with Spidertracks satellite tracking set for 2 minute reporting intervals and auto SOS alerting. In retrospect I should have changed the setting to one minute intervals for this leg. I would have felt somewhat uneasy flying this route on my own without Spidertracks.

From Cape Leveque we flew down the western side of King Sound to Derby for fuel then more or less followed the coast to Kununurra with a comfort/lunch stop at Faraway Bay airstrip.

Tidal mangrove/mudflats between Cape Leveque and Derby
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Mudflats just after Derby
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Crocodile country
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An ancient landscape between Derby and Faraway Bay
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Lunch stop at Faraway Bay airstrip
Faraway Bay is an upmarket isolated resort. We would liked to have spent a couple of nights but at $7,400 ($7,740 USD) for a couple for two nights all inclusive it was a bit beyond our budget! We had previously arranged permission to use their airstrip.
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King George Falls near Faraway Bay You can just see a tourist boat on the water.
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Coast between Faraway bay and Kununurra
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Fin
 
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Spent the night and fuelled up at Kununurra then flew to Katherine/Tindal the next day.

Katherine/Tindal is a shared commercial/airforce base surrounded by a Military CTR and Restricted areas which were active for my flight. This meant a rather excruciating 120 nm low level flight in the VFR corridor closely following the Victoria Highway - very twisty, hot and rough.

Spent two nights in Katherine with the highlight being a cruise in the Katherine Gorge.
Katherine is a popular grey nomad stop over. I am told that the Woolworths Supermarket has the biggest sales in Australia due to all the grey nomads stocking-up.

Blazing smokey red sunset
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The serene Katherine Gorge
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Viewing the locals in Katherine Gorge (harmless freshwater crocodile)
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We had a great holiday so far but the best was to come next when we backtracked into the remote heart of the Kimberely and stayed on a friends property for three nights.

Fin
 
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Awesome pics Fin

just awesome!

We did a similar trip last year and it is the best time to go during July.

Katherine Gorge.....I can show you another view there too.....:eek:
 
Got up early for the leg back to Kununurra so we would be past the Restricted Zones before they became active.
From Kununurra we would fly to Kachana, a friends property/station/ranch for three nights. I suspected the airstrips could be rough for an RV so I only added enough fuel ( about 110 litres total) to cover the flying for the three days. Obviously less weight on the undercarriage is good but more fuel also moves the c of g forward putting more weight on the nose wheel.

Kachana is in the Durack Range about 1/2 hr flying time SW of Kununurra and was once part of El Questro station.
The WAC chart shows roads to Kachana but they don't exist. Flying is the only practical way there.

Flew a dogleg to see Lake Argyle on the way to Kachana

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Kachana has 5 airstrips. Chris, the owner, suggested we fly to his best strip where he would meet us in his Cessna 206 and take us to his home strip 5 nm away for a ground inspection to see if it was suitable for the RV. The "best" strip had plenty of length but the landing was downhill and the rough/undulating surface had the relatively stiff RV undercarriage working hard. However the undercarriage on the 206 also had to work hard on this strip.

Approaching Kachana. You may just see the buildings in the centre of the photo.

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The home strip is at 900 ft amsl, one way, with a favourable slope and about 420 m long. The strip was better suited for the high wing Cessna as there were a couple of steel star posts a bit too close to the runway so this limited the effective length to about 300 m for the low wing RV. There was also a low earth/grass bank on one side which could be an issue for a low wing aircraft.
I decided the strip was OK for the RV as the dimensions were similar to my own airstrip and I was well practised in precise short field landings.

Airstrip from about the halfway point Take off is away from the camera, landing toward the camera. The end of the strip is a bit this side of where the grass turns greener.

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We had a wonderful time at Kachana - the isolation, the magnificent landscape, interesting walks, swimming in beautiful waterholes, eating freshly caught barramundi - this is a landscape you could fall in love with.

We slept in a "bush camp" under the stars with the RV parked about 30m away.

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On the second day we took off at dawn and flew to the stunning Bungle Bungles in the World Heritage Purnululu National Park about 1/2 hr away and landed back at Kachana at 7.30 for breakfast.
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Fin
 
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Awesome pics Fin

just awesome!

We did a similar trip last year and it is the best time to go during July.

Katherine Gorge.....I can show you another view there too.....:eek:

We had a great trip and it was good to escape the cold down south.

I have one up on you - I bet you can't show us another view of Kachana :cool:


Fin
 
After Kachana it was time to head home. We went to Borroloola then Burketown near the Gulf of Carpentaria for the first night then Cloncurry to Longreach to Kyneton (S 23 49.18' E 145 24.28') a property near Barcaldine for the second night then home the next day.

Coast between Borroloola and Burketown

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Smoke from a large fire blocked our path along the coast so we diverted inland.

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Stayed at the Savannah Lodge Burketown. Owned by the local Air Charter Operator. Very pilot friendly - picked up from the airport and given a vehicle for our use. Burketown is a step-off point for fishing in the Gulf.

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Last photo - Winton Queensland

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No doubt you are all pleased that you will no longer have to put up with my holiday snaps. Have not planned an RV trip for next year yet. We may not have time as we plan to see if the USA can match Australia. So far we have planned to cross America by train then driving the New England in the fall (2013). I would be grateful for suggestions for aviation related places such as museums etc we could visit along the way.

Fin

Gil. If you are reading this - don't know if we will get to Tucson but I haven't forgotten that beer you owe me!
 
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Come on up! Hopefully, the buck and 'roo will remain at parity for you.

If you take the train from our west coast to Washington, D.C, you can visit the two major National Air and Space Museums - at the Mall and Dulles Airport. It's still a short (by Oz & western US standards) drive up to New England.

If you can make it to Idaho, I'll take you into the back country.

John Siebold
 
Fin keep em coming, these are awesome, and not boring.

As for Kachana.... no you win there. Tell me more though.
 
Train travel in USA

Finley,
If you are going on a train trip, we are between Denver and Grand Junction on the Amtrak train lines. The station is Glenwood Springs. Lots to do and see around here - not as much aviation, but Aspen is close. We have lots of room and an extra SUV for visitors! If it needs to be aviation related, you can check my build!
http://www.visitglenwood.com/
 
Finley: If you make it to the southwest-most spot in the USA, (San Diego), there is a world-class Aircraft Carrier museum, the USS Midway. http://www.midway.org/ Come on down, and I'd be happy to host you for a few days. [Spare bedroom, keys to the Ute, etc.]

Other museums in the US: in Pensacola, Florida there is the Naval Aviation Museum, fabulous. http://www.navalaviationmuseum.org/

In Dayton, Ohio, there is the US Air Force Museum, also fabulous. Many others all around the country. http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/
 
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USAF museum in Dayton is a credit to the American people, outstanding.

Smithsonian at Dulles is also.

Evergreen in McMinville not far from Vans Factory, and the list goes on forever!
 
Thank you for the PMs and posts offering suggestions for my visit to the USA next year.
Please don't take offence but I would not presume to prevail upon your hospitality to the extent that you board and lodge us and have to put up with us for a few days. As for the offer of vehicles, remember us Australians are not used to driving on the wrong side of the road!
However, come closer to the time, if we will be in your area you may get an email/PM from me and it would be great meet other RVers and to find out more about your local area.

Fin
9A
 
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