For those who have yet to join in on one of the APS annual fly aways, the Bill E Goat award is passed to a person by the holder, based on an incident, occurrence or event in which the person is deemed to have made the worst mistake, most outrageous comment or stupid . The handover usually occurs at dinner that evening.
Over the years, individuals have developed an awareness of the potential to win the award and now take more care about what they do or what they say, especially over the airwaves. As a result, the award is becoming more difficult to pass on. I expect that my effort on the trip home from WA may have at least earned me an honourable mention.
I was flying about 35 miles ahead of Diane and Paul Whetham in their Arrow IV (DFA). Shortly after passing Renmark and coming up to Waikerie the increased noise of my engine burst through my headset. The noise was frightening in volume and sounded as if I had a broken part, vibrating badly.
I immediately checked the obvious engine gauges and all were nicely in the green. I looked at the three lights for the undercarriage wheel and all were off. I then thought of the heater. My heater develops a slight vibration for about a 10mm of travel as I open up the baffle to allow the heated air into the cabin. I cycled this and it appeared OK. HKZ was flying perfectly.
Something was seriously wrong but I couldn't identify the cause of the problem. Waikerie airfield was 5500' below me. Best to land while the aircraft was performing normally or at least try to get down before it broke up in flight.
As I reduced the power and started down, I asked Megan to keep an eye on the location of the airfield. This was Cockpit Resource Management at its best.
With my voice at least one octave higher and speaking a little quicker than normal, I called Paul on 123.45 and told him of the noise. He asked whether I had checked the gauges. I again checked and they were ok. Told him the noise was coming from in front of me but the aircraft was performing normally. I looked at Megan and she seemed quite calm but a little puzzled with what was going on.
Before the trip we had bought new ANR headsets but now communicating had become much more difficult with the increased external engine noise. The communications between us were not as distinct as they had been throughout the previous 45 hours of the trip. However that was to be expected with the increased engine noise.
When we got to 5000' it seemed as if we had been on the way down for a considerable period of time and I thought that we would have been getting down towards 3000'. VSI was showing 500 fpm so we had only been on the way down for about 1 minute. Obviously had a fair bit of time left to check the problem again. Very loud noise from the engine.
The noise is very high low frequency. Low frequency noise is normally eliminated when I turn on the new ANR headsets. Better check the headset.
OOPs! Flat batteries. Noise cancelling operation not functioning. Ops normal. Face red!
Talk to Megan. She told me that she was puzzled about the noise as she couldn't hear any change in the engine. Didn't know what I was talking about. Initially when I said we were going to Waikerie she thought I had a bladder problem. When she realised I was concerned with engine noise, try as she might, she still couldn't hear it.
Megan and Tom's pre-trip trip in VH-HKZ - Bairnsdale to Broome.
When 17 aircraft from all along the east coast converge on the NW corner of Australia there were bound to be some interesting stories. Here's ours.
We planned to meet up with Bill O'Brien and Kiwi Dave in TNI for adventures in the far north before meeting up with the group in Broome. We flew via Mildura, Cadney Roadhouse (bulk fuel), Alice and Tilmouth Well where Tom left a cryptic message for Faye in the guest book. They were due in a few days later. We met up with Bill and Dave on the Argyle strip for a private tour of the mine. The 'free' samples were microscopic but the project was massive. How can such beautiful things come from such a desolate and ugly hole on the ground. We overnighted at the popular hub, Kununurra with our Thai curry accompanied by music and song from our local brudders on the roadside.
The absolute highlight of our few days was at Kalumburu, a Benedictine Mission station and aboriginal settlement in the far north. The day we arrived there was a funeral for a 45 year old fellow who had had a rough life with alcohol and diabetes, and we hitched a ride from the strip with a couple of young ladies from social services.
After a night in a very basic donger on iron beds for $140 a night we were in for a couple of fascinating hours with Father Anscar. His stories of his time with the aboriginal community were astounding. He told of a totally self sufficient community running a station, growing crops, running cattle successfully until the government departments started interfering and ultimately stuffing it all up. It has all gone now and now nobody does anything very much. Father Anscar is passionately interested in anthropology, geology and antiquities and art and everything in between. He is currently building a stone museum to stand alongside the Spanish styled mission homestead, and this will house his huge collection of museum quality bits and pieces including priceless artefacts. His collection is meant to tie the community to the rest of the world, past and present. His term at Kalumburu will end in a few years so if you have half a chance then go soon and experience a totally unique interaction with a remarkable man and a fascinating place.
We chatted with aboriginal Kevin the local radio broadcaster, local kids, Clayton the dog man (he cleans up the community dogs all over the top end)the travelling dentist couple and a couple of volunteer husband and wife teams from Victoria on a 6 month stint. Amazing. Then the boys had a swim while I painted with a watchful eye out for crocs. Didn't see any but not sure that none saw us.
The airstrip was really busy. There are only 300 people and a $5 million police/courthouse. Your taxes at work. Drum fuel cost $3.30/litre, but worth it for the pleasure of visiting.
Our next planned overnight stop was the Ungolan Safari Camp near the Mitchell Falls but opening was delayed due to earlier rain, and our money was refunded. After negotiating our way through and around smoke from burning off, we had to be content with a fly over of the Falls on our way to Drysdale River Station and a welcome drink and swim in the river.
Cape Leveque was stunning and just getting there was magic. We followed the coast. Below us we were faced with the choice of crocs or rocks as Bill put it. Bill had an interesting look at the Truscott strip with a low pass that had a 4WD make a very hurried exit from the tarmac. There were lots of tourist boats, especially around the horizontal waterfall where people were whizzing round in zodiacs. Did an orbit at Faraway Bay and decided for the price they charge, that was as close as we needed to get.
Cape Leveque, in an eco tent, was bliss. Swimming in luke warm turquoise water was the best. Small croc had been seen swimming along the beach a few days before, but they assured us that it wasn't normal and no one had ever been taken by a croc off the beach, so what the heck! We farewelled Bill and Dave as they headed back to El Questro and we enjoyed another night there before heading to Broome with some more stunning flying. In Broome, we met up with Irene and Ian, toasted Tom's birthday over dinner, and had a bit of fun in the pearl shops before meeting up with everyone for the best ever trip.
Thanks to Ray and Carole. It was a ripper.
Megan Jackson
The saying is 'all good things must come to an end'. Unfortunately, as we took off from Albany, we realised that this is true. Megan and I, Russell and Kaye, Paul and Diane and Graham and Tina all headed for Kalgoorlie in below average flying conditions. Paul and Graham headed for Wave Rock but Russell and I got sick of flying around the clouds and diverted straight for Kalgoorlie. I landed and waited for a Cessna 210 to enter the runway and start backtracking only to hear the chilling words over the CTAF frequency ?Come back mate, they've found the wreckage?. Sadly, they were referring to the Arrow IV which crashed the previous night at Esperance.
First time to Kalgoorlie so we did the museum, went down the mine, viewed the enormous Superpit and blow me down, we did the brothel tour.
Brothel tours are very interesting. Everyone (except me) was circumspect about doing the tour. I think the ladies were not sure what to expect and the men didn't want to seem too keen. I've been in brothels a few times but had never been on a formal conducted tour.
I wonder where the customers come from. I have yet to meet anyone who has been a paying customer. We were told that the working girls most in demand are the over 50's. Eat your heart out Paris.
Just thought, Paris has to give it away but these girls get paid for it.
The concept of the Superpit belongs to Alan Bond, who realised that the shafts and tunnels missed a lot of gold and decided that if he purchased all of the individual mining leases he could start a massive open cut mine.
Graham and Tina had departed after one night and the rest of us stayed the extra day due to weather. Left the next day along the coast to Ceduna via Forrest. We had to spend some time clearing the ice from the wings and elevators before departure. Seven Piper aircraft had been through Forrest the previous night. Apparently all had a good time before heading off.
Arriving at Ceduna we noted VH-MMU tied down. Motel was expensive and ran out of hot water in the morning. Poor effort for the self proclaimed best motel in town. Wouldn't like to have gone to the worst.
About 145 kts ground speed to Mildura, followed by up to 160 kts from Mildura to Coldstream and then max. of 184 kts from Coldstream to Bairnsdale.
Arriving home, we unpacked and tidied up by 7:00 pm. I looked at Megan and she pouted ?I feel let down. What are we going to do?? I said ?I feel the same. All I can think of is that we get a book and go to bed?; which is what we did.
Where to next year? Bring it on.
Ps: I air conditioned a few brothels in Melbourne.
No. I didn't do a deal over the account.
No. I'm not saying any more.
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