Busselton Western Australia 2012

[Jamie Aust]

Hello All.

Busselton in about 45min - 1hr south of Perth by RV.
The Busselton aero club will have a fly in on March 4th 2012.

YBLN
http://wikimapia.org/8037799/Busselt...-BQB-ICAO-YBLN

Im looking at leave YCAB 29 Feb.
Hope to see some other VAF / SAAA members make the trip.
Im getting some cameras setup to video the trip, and will post here when its done.

[Jamie Aust]

Here is the plan for the trip over. We are not going the same way back, still open to Ideas on that one.

Each leg will be no longer than 2.5hrs

YCAB via Emerald for fuel, then onto Longreach stop
Longreach to Birdsville for lunch then onto Coober pedy stop
Coober pedy to Nullarbour hotel stop
Nullarbour hotel via Caiguna for fuel to Esperance stop
Esperance to Busselton flyin March 4th.



More to follow soon.

[airtractor8]

Looks like a fun trip Jamie. I have done 2 similar trips to N.S.W from W.A in my -6 .
Looks like I may be doing a fire bombing demo at Busselton again this year so may see you there.

Cheers
Graham

[Jamie Aust]

Hi Graham,

Keep a look out for my plane.

[IMG] [/url][/IMG]

Hope to see you in Busselton.

[airtractor8]

Great looking 7A. Love the paint job. Below is a list of fuel prices that may interest you for your trip planning. These were given to me by a friend that just returned yesterday from a trip in a R44 to the Tamworth Country Music Festival

Kalgoolie $2.00 ltr
Esperance $2.08
Caiguna $2.86
Forrest $2.75
Nullabor $2.95
Border Village $3.10
Coober Pedy $2.07
William Creek $2.80
Broken Hill $1.97
Cobar $2.15

Cheers
Graham

PS I will be doing the Fire Bombing demo but probably won't be landing at Busselton for a look unfortunately.

[Jamie Aust]

We are now safely at Birdsville, middle of nowhere!!* After a forced turn-around earlier today..* quite a day.* We should be in Cooper Pedy tonight..* but just no way we were going to risk it..

For those not here in Oz right now..* There is massive flooding going-on right across the country, and yep!* ... we got caught up right in the middle of it all.
Flying below the cloud to maintain ground visibility, we hit the rain hard and fast, at about half hour out of Birdsville to CooperPedy (Longreach leg was ok).
The cloud got lower and lower and lower, and we were travelling in full rain at a little above 500 feet!!!* We were suddely then faced with rising terrain (small mountains), and that was it!!* We turned around fast, while still with full rain (and wind now at this stage),* a very delicate manouver.* Let me tell you.. we were both very happy to be safe on the ground again.

However, looking at the weather maps right now, tomorrow we should be ok.* We have missed the worst of it now (hopefully).

Apart from today, it has been a very nice trip.* The plane is flying beautifully, using the auto-pilot for most of it (so easy).* However, fuel is very exxy here at around $3 per litre, and we need around 158 litres to fill the wing tanks, it gets VERY expensinve to fly!*

Anyway, i hope you like some of the photos and will hopefully have internet again tomorrow night... wherever we land at.

PS:.. in one of the photos...* It is SOO hot here on the tarmac at Birdsville, that the tar has melted into the landing gear wheels....* unbelievable!

[IMG][/IMG]

[Jamie Aust]

finally we have arrived safely at the Nullarbor Motel, right on the very beautiful coast of SA/WA border.

We seemed to have timed it just right (departing Birdsville) and hammered through that nasty rain and crappy weather that was moving across Oz. This time we got to below 400 feet (even lower than yesterdays attempt), but we could see the sky was improving up ahead, so we just carried on.* It paid off and here we are now , ok.
We made a very cool fly over the massive Lake Ayre (with lots of water with all the rain!) , then landed at Cooper Pedy to refuel , then onwards to Nullarbor without any problems.** Average ground speed of 300km/hour - ...nice!!

Tomorrow we head off to Esperance to stay there the night, then to arrive at our destination (as planned), Busselton on Sunday.

The plane is going beautifully and a little bumpy (to be expected in a small plane), but is great fun and a very adventurous trip!

Here's some more photo highlights of the trip.
Take care and check in again soon...
[IMG][/IMG]
[IMG][/IMG]

[Jamie Aust]

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[Chris Goodworth]

Hi Jamie. Thanks for talking over some of the finer details of your build with me at the Busselton Aeroclub's 'Aerofest' today. Fiona and I look forward to the day we fly our own -7A. Wing skins soon to be riveted. Enjoy your flight east when you get to it and I will look you up if in need of some advice. Your southern coastline photos give me motivation.

Cheers.
Chris.

[Jamie Aust]

Hi Chris, it was great to have a chat with you about rv stuff
I think over the day I counted over ten rv's on the field. I would have liked to talked to more, but had limited time.
Later that day around 5.30 pm I gave one of the busselton aero club members a ride up to Bunbury, I think he now wants an rv also
I have lots of photos and video I will sort out and up load over the next week.
The only problem I have found so far is that I think I have a loose wire on one of the tank senders, the level now jump up and down a bit, will have to sort that one out soon. For now I will just keep on doing my 30 min fuel log.
I leave busselton at 8am on the 8th for my return trip back to Qld, It also happens to be my Birthday, should be great !