Mustering Advice

[birdy]

They convinced you yet Darren that its a no glory ledgend life.? You probably should also know that theres 2 very different types of "airial mustering".1; often called spottn, coz thats your main object, to find the critters and steer them in the general direction so"s your ground crew dont have to cover so much country.Bout any machine that can fly slow n low will do, but gyros are best coz they can do it on the sniff of a grease rag n can handle any wether and you have good, unhindered visability.Your crew will usualy keep you stocked up with fuel n tucker and you can hava break now n then when they spell the mob.But no matter wot happens, its your fault.2; your on your own.

[Brian]

and ,we havent yet got to the part where your swag becomes your semi permanent bed and the stars your roof...all good when the weather is good which it is most of the time AND then there"s the getting up bit...in the dark......for months on end ...... breakfast of steak & billy tea, make the best of it cause it might be the only tucker you get until tea time when its more steak. .....not always, sometimes you have camp cooks and that can be interesting to say the least, most of my experiences have been good one"s but thats not the norm. BTW, your bed is that stuff you"re standing on so dont roll the swag out in the bogan flees cause its going to be a annoying exercise in the morning cause donr leave your swag unrolled in case a crawly wriggles in during the day / a wirly comes through the camp and deposits the contents of said swag all over the flat / camp shifts during the day and that night your swag is back at the last camping spot cause the cook wont roll your swag for you

[birdy]

Or you could be on your own, unsupported. [ thats coz the country is too ruf for any sorta crew.]

[asra]

Good radio helps working with ground crew. Specially when they have radios too. Most managers won"t use you without one.Gotta be careful working alone cause the manager can expect you to be the same as a chopper. Like do a massive paddock in one day and land in tiny clearings to shut gates, fix fences etc.

[Brian]

Or you could be on your own, unsupported. [ thats coz the country is too ruf for any sorta crew.]True but to work without a ground crew means the pilot needs to be very experienced, no young

[Brian]

Good radio helps working with ground crew. Specially when they have radios too. Most managers won"t use you without one.Gotta be careful working alone cause the manager can expect you to be the same as a chopper. Like do a massive paddock in one day and land in tiny clearings to shut gates, fix fences etc.Yep, good radios are essential...both in the gyro and on the ground. Without radios you need a ground crew that knows what they are about and they are the sort you are probably arent going to have too often !Working alone is okay but once again, its not going to work with an inexperienced pilot.Talking of choppers and here I dont know much about them but the little I have worked with them, they arent any faster mustering an area than a gyro.....well, not much anyway cause cows can only get along at the same pace no matter whats mustering them

[birdy]

Ya spoton Chop, it dont matter wot your flyn, moos are still moos.Most people think that coz a chopper can fly faster, it can cover more country. Well, yeh, but if you want him to actuly find sumthn, you gota restrict the job to 100 squkm in sum cases, specialy ina chopper coz thjey dont have the field of vision we do, and if you have thick timber with spoiled moos, he wont get jacsh1t, even ina gyro.And bout the "on your own " stuff, its more bout moo brains than flyn experiance.

[birdy]

And the best part of go"n it alone is you dont have to wurry bout any IRAs [ idiots roaming aimlessly] getn in the way.

[Brian]

WE havent talked about the flies & dust yet. Anyone who hasnt been out in the desert country has never seen flies. From the very earlier light in the morning until dark at night, its relentless, just million upon millions of the little critters, in your eyes and on whatever skin thats exposed. Even the people that live up there just never get used to them. Lunch is interesting when the flies are really thick...oh yes, in a good season with lots of grass..are they proper thick !! When making your sandwich it isnt a great idea to use butter as the little mongrels get bogged in it so its better to throw some meat on a bit of bread, give the meat a very quick dash of tomato sauce, then throw on a another bit of bread even quicker than you put on the sauce...then pretend all the flies that got caught on the sauce taste real good

[Brian]

Cooks are an interesting lot, one bloke, an older retired gent who had spent a lot of his young days on a cattle station used to go back to that station every year to do the cooking for the twice yearly muster. He was a pretty handy cook, plenty of variety etc but as he got older & coupled with a passion for reading, he come up with the idea of making a big pot of curry so that he would have tucker for the evening meal & breakfast therefore allowing him more time to read. This was fine first off then the currys grew much hotter and he was using choice cuts of steak as well and the barby steaks stopped happening.The pilot had / has a what you might call a "sensative" stomache and while a mild curry was fine, the hotter variety caused much anguish, so much so that a it was

[GraemeMonro]

So your gyro lived to tell the strory Brian?Graeme.

[aussie_paul]

Autobiography Brian???Aussie Paul.

[Brian]

Autobiography Brian???Aussie Paul. Well, I"m not sure how to put it Paul but I"ll leave the reader to guess

[Brian]

So your gyro lived to tell the strory Brian?Graeme.It might not have been my gyro Graeme but yes,, it did survive and the muster proceeded as planned ......well, except for an extrodinry number of unplanned pit stops ....compulsory.It could be said that mud is not a good material to throw up into the prop and that evening the pilot spent a bit of time bogging up the prop. Speaking of "bogging" a good bogging agent gor a pilots gut is very liberal doses of rasberry cordial, in fact rasberry cordial should be part of the spare parts box that any competent mustering pilot would have.The bouncing across the wet bit at least took the pilots thoughts off the storm that was raging in his guts

[asra]

Most people think that coz a chopper can fly faster, it can cover more country. Yeah I"m still learning and plenty more to go. So far I"m flat out keeping an eye on a 10km front of mobs threading through scrub.