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