Fly Me Friendly

It’s just before 6am and everyone’s staggering into the briefing room for the first welcome & weather briefing. Morning briefing on Day 1 always starts a bit earlier & runs a bit longer so we can get the overview & welcome. Roll call is taken to ensure that we’re here and (hopefully) ready to absorb the information being handed out.

I’ve been up for a bit over an hour, getting used to the brisk conditions and grabbing a couple of bits of fruit for breakfast. My initial checks of the weather information has me thinking we may not get this flight as winds are likely to be at the top of our acceptable range. Still, you never know! (it helps to be an optimist in ballooning :)

The welcomes & overviews completed, the weather briefing confirms that we’re in with a chance to sneak a flight in as we’ve had clear skies overnight which helps create an inversion, preventing stronger winds from mixing down to the surface. There’s also the phenomena where a slight pressure change occurs just as the sun rises over the horizon, dropping winds briefly & giving us a small window of better conditions for launch.

Sounds good, right? :)

Well, it all worked out OK and we were up & flying not long after sunrise despite being the last ones off the field (yeah, I’m rusty, OK? :) The flight took us from Werrimull Oval up towards Mildura and included some low level flying as well as fast flight at 2,000′ (about 50-60kph). I got to practice using the winds to try & catch up with another balloon (hare & hound). I’ll post a full report on the flight when I write it up in my Flight Notes but suffice to say it was fantastic to be back in the air once again.

Following the flight it was back to the camp for a cooked breakfast then we loaded the empty/used LPG tanks from Maaike’s balloon into our basket & I went into Mildura to refuel. It’s roughly a half hour drive to get there, about half an hour to refuel and then another half hour back to camp. Fortunately I’ve got lots of podcasts to listen to :)

The afternoon routine generally includes having a shower while it’s warm as I find there are few things worse than finishing a hot shower & having to dry off in cold air in the early morning or late at night :) After that it’s grab one or two sandwiches that have been prepared for our lunch then get online & work through some emails, reports & planning.

Afternoon briefing was at 3:30pm and it was confirmed that the winds were too high for us to bother trying to fly, so we continued on with our various tasks. For some this was studying & preparing for their theory exams, a few folks reviewed emergency procedures while for me I was still catching up on some items my “day job” and writing these blogs.

The social event organised for after dinner was a trivia competition with people arranged into teams based on the tables they were sitting at for dinner. A fun event but I had to bail out towards the end to record the latest Australia Desk episode for the Airplane Geeks. Standing outside in the cold chatting on a cellphone made for an “interesting” time. Fortunately it didn’t run too long :)

They say that every journey starts with a single step & my first step to get to Mildura was getting to the Picture This Ballooning shed before 6am to pick up the Toyota Troopy 4WD & balloon I was taking up to The Lake. Fortunately our Operations Manager “Hendo” had already packed the gear in the Troopy, prepared the balloon & tanks on the trailer and hooked everything up. All I had to do was throw in my stuff & drive off. Fantastic! Thanks Hendo :)

So at about 06:15am I left the shed & started the long 606km (377 mile) drive up to Lake Cullulleraine, near Mildura. Aside from a few of the longer/larger hills, the Troopy managed to keep up with the 100kph & 110kph speed limits on the highways all the way out despite towing a trailer. I made a few stops for bio breaks & one to put some more diesel in the tank but otherwise it was point the noise towards Mildura and keep driving. While not the quietest or smoothest vehicle to drive over long distances, I had a good collection of aviation & science podcasts to listen to and was able to stay focused & alert for the whole journey.

Watching the terrain change to flat, wide, open areas and the green slowly disappear was quite fascinating as the route moved from coastal city up into the hills to Bendigo (1,000′ elevation) then back down onto the inland plains on the way to Mildura (170′ elevation). Once you get out to Mildura, you’re in “The Mallee” area and the ground becomes brown/red dirt over limestone with dunes of sand/dirt over generally flat terrain.

Eventually I arrived in Mildura & topped off the tanks before heading 1/2 hour down the road towards Adelaide to Lake Cullulleraine and the camp ground where I will be staying for the next 8 nights. I arrived about 2:30pm after over 8 hours of driving, claimed a bunk and caught up with the rest of the group who are here to fly balloons. While some I already knew, many are new faces so it will be a chance to meet many new balloonatics :)

The weather looks a bit windy to begin with but should settle into some great weather for flying as the week progresses. Watch this space :)

The Australian Ballooning Federation are working with the Mildura International Balloon Fiesta to host “The Lake” event at Lake Cullulleraine near Mildura in the “Mallee” region of north-west Victoria. If you’re wondering just where that might be, check out the Google Maps reference plus there’s a collection of photos of the Lake area and general shots of the Mallee landscape to give you an idea of where it’s held.

This week long event brings balloonatics together from all over Australia to have some fun flying over the great, open countryside around the area. While the primary focus has been on developing student pilots with plenty of instructional flights, there’s also a number of novice pilots building their experience and some old hands giving the benefit of their many hours.

It starts on Friday 29th but most people will arrive on Saturday 30th with the first official briefing occurring early on the Sunday morning. The general routine is two flights a day (morning & late afternoon/evening) plus a few seminar sessions and time for students to study & sit their exams during the middle of the day. Most evenings are a time to relax & unwind, chatting with others about flying (or, for many, passing out & getting as much sleep as possible for the next early morning start :)

This will be the seventh Lake event to be held and my second (I was at the previous one in 2010). Last time I took a tent & made use of a powered site to run a heater in the early morning. The heater was essential to warm up a bit & face the morning as overnight temperatures were dropping to -2 degrees. Brrrr. Always ‘fun’ getting out of a tent that’s covered in frost :)

This time I’m going to brave the bunk house which is warmer but a little less private (which is saying something as tents aren’t always *that* private :)

Currently the plan is for me to drive a 4WD up from Melbourne bringing one of the balloons we’ll be flying then bring it all back at the end on Sunday the 8th of July. I’m looking forward to getting current again and seeing if I can nail a few good flights. It’s been over a year since I last flew and I’m eager to back into it :)

Of course, the weather is already shaping up to be rather windy on the first Saturday & Sunday but should be calming down a bit after that. Guess we’ll see.

Watch this space :)

I caught this shirt on Threadless and it was a no-brainer. After all, if you’re going to exit a burning aircraft, you may as well have some fun in the process :)

I’ve not yet worn it on a commercial airline flight yet but it’s definitely one I’ll be considering for the near future!

Update: The shirt is called “Happy Thoughts” and can be found on the Threadless site. It’s out of print at present but if enough of you request it, they’ll bring it back.

Today I attended the 787 DreamTour event at Melbourne airport thanks to an invitation from Qantas & Jetstar. What a fantastic time I had, especially as I was able to bring a few of the Plane Crazy Down Under team with me.

We started at the Qantas Maintenance Base car park where we signed in with Qantas, got on a bus & were taken over to the BAe Systems hangar where the 787 was parked. Having walked around ZA001 at Oshkosh 2011 I was ready for the paint scheme, the size & the ‘feel’ of the aircraft. The new angle with today’s event was that I actually had time to get on board AND had the opportunity to record an interview one of the pilots then have some casual chats with a few of the Flight Test Engineers accompanying the aircraft on the tour.

After chatting with one of the engineers, I approached a Boeing rep to request an interview with a pilot. They were fine with this and after a short wait, we got to record about 15 minutes of very informative content with Captain Todd Abraham covering systems, training & his flying career. Suffice to say, we’ll be getting it out on the next Plane Crazy Down Under episode :)

After that we went on board & headed straight to the cockpit (my favourite part of the tour – funny that :) then checked out the demonstration interior, looking at the various classes of seats and chatting some more with the engineers. While we could have stayed there all day chatting with the engineers & learning more fascinating information, eventually we went back outside to walk around underneath the aircraft once again.

Finally it was time to drag ourselves away & catch the last bus back to the car park where Steve & I wound up recording another Australia Desk segment for the Airplane Geeks. Not the first time we’ve recorded at Melbourne Airport (YMML) but it was definitely hard to focus on reporting the news after experiencing the 787.

I’ve already loaded the few photos I had time to take on my Flickr stream and we’ve also started to load the photos Steve Visscher & Steven Pam took on the PCDU Flickr stream. Please do check them out as there are some great shots that the guys managed to get.

What a fantastic day it turned out to be. We learned so much about the aircraft’s systems, test gear & methods as well as getting to go onboard & experience the cockpit. Thanks once again to Qantas & Jetstar for inviting me and making a bit of extra space for the team. Thanks also to Boeing for allowing us to record the interview with Todd.

Our Yarra Valley operation has started making use of some space in a hangar at Lilydale (YLIL) to store our equipment and a few of us dropped by yesterday to check it out before the separating walls go up. This was the view I had when I came in:

In addition to the Archer & L5 (named “Grumpy”) in the foreground and the two Tigermoths behind them, you can just make out the Mooney behind the Tigers and then there’s a CT4 (the bit of orange). Further on there’s a Baron, what looked like an Extra, a Bonanza and a couple of other aircraft. Out of respect for the owners/renters of the other spaces, I didn’t go walking through for a better perve at all the luscious, sexy aircraft :)

It was great to see “Grumpy” once again as last time I’d seen that aircraft was back in 2009 when I stopped to get a photos of it doing circuits. I was on the side of the road at the southern end of the airfield & took a few photos that morning, including this classic shot of “Grumpy” on very short finals going a little low over the road :)

You can find out a bit more about what I was doing there that morning in my post about fog, balloons and the airport.

I’ve just been invited by Qantas & Jetstar to come and view the 787 Dreamliner when it’s in Melbourne on Sunday. Neat!

This won’t be my first encounter with Boeing’s latest airliner as I got up close & personal with ZA001 when it was parked on the ramp at Oshkosh 2011. Due to my super-busy schedule at #OHS11, I didn’t have time to join the others who were waiting to walk through ZA001′s test-rig packed engineering interior but I did get to touch it and walk around/under it.

The event at Melbourne includes a close-up viewing & a walk-through of ZA003 (N787BX, using the call sign BOE 787) with its passenger interior which is, I’m told, pretty impressive. While I’m interested in seeing how the cabin is laid out, I’m really hoping for some time on the cockpit and to chat with the pilots.

Naturally, I’ll be taking my voice recorder :)

Watch this space!

A number of my t-shirts have flying related themes. Funny that.

This one is my favourite and was a gift from Kitt that she picked up from the Chicken Wings collection. If you’re into flying and you’re not following this comic, you should be, it’s hilarious! :)

A Japanese friend has confirmed the translation says “We Love Chicken Wings” – nice touch :)

I’ll post more photos of my other flying shirts over the course of time. Watch this space :)

I really enjoy reading aviation books (funny that) and especially (auto)biographies that give me an insight into the experiences of the times, from growing up to learning to fly and then on to surviving various aviation adventures. With that in mind, it was a pretty even bet that I’d probably enjoy reading The San Joaquin Siren, An American Ace in WWII’s CBI by William M Behrns & Kenneth Moore.

Not only did I enjoy the book, I loved it. It starts with a fascinating look into Bill’s life and his experiences learning to fly in the US Army Air Corps with speaking tubes & “follow my lead on the controls” methods. From there Bill progresses to more advanced training in faster, more complex machines before eventually attaining his goal of flying the P38 Lightning. Along the way he describes a number of adventures in the air and ground at various military institutions.

After some time flying patrols in the Pacific North, Bill is transferred out to the China/Burma/India theatre with a group of other pilots from around the USA who stand up a new squadron. The descriptions of the journey to the front line, conditions in India and the environment they find themselves in give a fantastic view of attempting to conduct a war in very challenging conditions.

The rest of the book covers Bill’s combat missions in the theatre, his rec-leave in India and his final return to the USA. We’re again treated to some amazing experiences and lessons that can be learned even by pilots in peace time personal flying.

A well written book that engages the reader & keeps things moving at just the right pace. A couple of minor typos were found in the eBook version I read but not enough to distract me from enjoying the story. The inclusion of a few photos helped round out the descriptions of aircraft, people & circumstances.

I definitely recommend reading this book.

I’m over here at Oshkosh, Wisconsin for the EAA Airventure 2011 event (aka Oshkosh aka “Aviation Mecca” :) and am trying to soak it all in, which I acknowledge is an impossible thing. Given the amount of experiences I’d already had within less than 24 hours of arriving, I figured I’d start this list to cover what I want to experience & what I already have experienced. This is just a fast core-dump in the morning and certainly doesn’t represent all I want to do yet so feel free to add comments with recommendations of items you think should be on the list :)

Experience Oshkosh Checklist:

• ✔ Trying to arrange your schedule (before I arrived :))
• ✔ Meeting amazing new people with a common love of flying (At Rockford before I arrived :))
• ✔ Flying into Oshkosh (0 hours)
• ✔ Mass arrival to Oshkosh (0 hours)
• ✔ Heat beyond belief (<4 hours)
• ✔ Life sucking humidity (<4 hours)
• ✔ Salivating over an aircraft (<4 hours)
• ✔ Seeing an aircraft you’d dreamed of seeing (<4 hours)
• ✔ Doing a shopping run to Target ‘cos you forgot yet another thing (6 hours)
• ✔ Eaten alive by insects despite insect repellent (8 hours)
• ✔ Camping on the North 40 (8 hours)
• ✔ Late night thunderstorm with heavy rain & lashing winds (14 hours)
• ✔ Early morning warbird wake up call (18 hours)
• ✔ The hunt for good wifi (19 hours)
• ✔ Angsting over two important events that happen at the same time (21 hours)
• ✔ Chatting with complete strangers yet having a blast & feeling connected (22 hours)
• Wishing you had a TARDIS (or a cloning machine)
• Meeting in person all your online podcasting & social media friends (thanks to Rob Cigliano :)
• Camping in Camp Scholler
• 3G coverage dropouts
• Realising you just can’t do it all! :(
• Making new firm friends from people you never knew existed before Oshkosh
• Seeing more aircraft than you knew existed
• Touching an aircraft you’d only dreamed of seeing
• Seeing an aircraft you’d never known existed
• Overloading on aircraft such that you only react to really unique ones
• Flying out of Oshkosh
• Flying the FISK arrival