Central Australia Trip

[rjtjrt]

Originally Posted by Vlad

Rob you just reignited me. Couple questions for you. Other then visiting with the family do you keep the tab for those four weeks of travel? Would be interesting to know how much you spent on gas, accommodations and meals.

You've covered half of the country. Were there any places on your route suitable for camping? Are there any predators other then crocodiles and wild bulls? Do you carry a firearm?

Dealing with controlled airspace, is there any difference comparing to US? More questions to come...

No offence meant, but sad that the view of Australia has been so distorted.
Vlad, Steve Irwin has distorted the situation in Australia for entertainment purposes to a ridiculous extent.
Australia is exactly like US with regard to dangerous creatures. No more, no less. There are crocs in some parts of Australia, just as Alligators in some parts of US.
Just think of Aus as US, but without the guns. ( And before anyone gets any ideas, I am not anti gun at all).
Hope you do come here, Vlad. We are just normal like US.
John

[Vlad]

Originally Posted by rjtjrt

...

Hope you do come here, Vlad. We are just normal like US.
John

I surely will John. It's ju$t the matter of time. Close tolerance bolts for the wings are ordered.

[rgmwa]

Originally Posted by Vlad

Rob you just reignited me. Couple questions for you. Other then visiting with the family do you keep the tab for those four weeks of travel? Would be interesting to know how much you spent on gas, accommodations and meals.

You've covered half of the country. Were there any places on your route suitable for camping? Are there any predators other then crocodiles and wild bulls? Do you carry a firearm?

Dealing with controlled airspace, is there any difference comparing to US? More questions to come...

Hi Vlad,

The roadhouses will typically have basic accommodation - what we call dongas -prefab rooms that you usually find on minesites, for around $60 per night. These are bare rooms, usually with TV, but no extra facilities. You have to use the campsite toilets/showers. No big deal. For $120 per night, you can get a more up-market motel style self-contained room with shower/toilet (except in Halls Creek where they charged $260 per night - because they can. It's a small place with limited facilities). These prices are in Australian dollars, so you US visitors will do well on the current exchange rate which is about 75 cents to the greenback (but not so good for us poor Aussies who want to build an RV).

Meals are typically about $20-$30. All the roadhouses have restaurants and bars attached. Mogas in the outback is roughly $2.00 per litre (say 7.50 AUD /gal). Avgas is around $3.00 per litre, but these are rough figures and will vary from one location to another.

All the roadhouses have camp grounds with powered and unpowered sites. Costs are pretty cheap. Louis typically camped on the airfield next to his plane and I don't think he paid anything. It paid off one night at Kulgera when we got strong overnight winds and he was half a mile away on the strip tying jerrycans to his plane to hold it down. I figured he would probably do the right thing and check on my plane as well, so I left him to it. I was comfortable in my motel room and all was well in the morning. Good result.

Crocodiles are not really a problem provided you don't force land near rivers or in a swamp in the far north. Animals on the airstrip can usually be chased off with a low pass. Station owners will have fireams on the property to deal with feral animals (buffalo, pigs, donkeys, camels, dingos etc), but travellers don't need them. In fact, were you to carry one, the police would likely ask you some awkward questions, and people would think you were a strange kind of person, and probably not to be trusted.

I think our controlled airspace procedures are very similar to yours, and I don't think you would have any problems, except maybe with the Australian accents. I thanked the controllers at Tindal after they got me down in one piece and got a typical Aussie response "No worries!". You won't find that in the official ATC lexicon of standard phrases.

[rjtjrt]

Originally Posted by rgmwa

John, I flight plan on 19 lph and 112 kts. I think that's pretty realistic at those power settings. Flat out my plane will do 128 kts straight and level at about 1000', but obviously prop pitch affects this. My tank will hold 98 litres, but I usually fill to 95/96 litres on these trips. For local flying, i don't bother with more than the standard 75 litres.

At altitude and 5200-5300 rpm I will often see 118-120 kts TAS. The lowest level of fuel remaining was 24 litres after 3.5 hours take-off to touch down, so I see my endurance as 4 hours plus 45-60 min reserve. That's OK for these trips. The standard tank capacity of 75 litres is also manageable with the 912 ULS provided you carry spare fuel with you most of the time. The problem is you have to land somewhere to top up. The 912iS engine should perform better in terms of economy, even with the 20 gal tank.

Rob
That is a speedy 12. Nice touring aircraft.
John

[snopercod]

Thanks for posting these photos and your narrative. Beautiful country!

[AJ85WA]

Great stuff mate!

I remember those desert stretches... they sure work on your nerves

Cool write up, see you in the skies over Perth
AJ

[Jimbot]

Great story and photos! Thanks for taking the time to post this for everyone to check out.

About 20 years ago, my dad took an extended vacation (here in the U.S., typical annual time away from work for vacation is two weeks, tops, per year) and spent a whole month traveling around your lovely country. He loved it! He spent two to three days at a time in a city/town before traveling to the next spot, saw the local sights during the day and visited a different pub every night - he even took in an Australian Rules Football game!

Someday I hope to take a whole monthlong vacation down there myself!

Thanks again for sharing this great adventure.

[Dave12]

Originally Posted by Vlad

Rob you just reignited me. Couple questions for you. Other then visiting with the family do you keep the tab for those four weeks of travel? Would be interesting to know how much you spent on gas, accommodations and meals.

You've covered half of the country. Were there any places on your route suitable for camping? Are there any predators other then crocodiles and wild bulls? Do you carry a firearm?

Dealing with controlled airspace, is there any difference comparing to US? More questions to come...

Rob, I think you are going to get a visit! The wheels are turning. Two weeks ago at Kosh, my buddies Skunk, Tonto and I shared a picnic table in front of one of the food venues with two Aussie brothers and their sons. This turned out to be one of the many high points of the week. These guys were a hoot! I haven?t laughed so much in quite a while. Australia deserves a visit from the ?Great One? and I think it?s coming!

[Gash]

Thanks for the great write up and photography!

[Maverick 4003]

Yes, great w/ the specifics of the photo gallery. In U.S., better than "Nat'l Geographic" mag. Some slang names interesting, " the Gray Nomads" (camping). Future nickname for me, current for others.