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SLAC Safari 2012

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  • #16
    A couple more photos of the well equipped White Gum facility.Chooky

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    • #17
      What did someone use Malcoms apron for a grease rag????

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      • #18
        Day 3Narrogin - overfly Wagin, Katanning, Cranbrook, George Reids Farm at KendinupWe arose and had breakfast, still raining and 8/8 cloud to 500ft. Part of me wanted to complain to the weather gods but after many dry years the easter rain is very welcome. Chook and Malcolm checked out the Prado and it looked like a simple fix - just replace the headlight globes. Off they went back into Narrogin to buy a replacement set whilst we packed up and preflighted in anticipation of a break in the weather.The Narrogin aeroclub had given us full run of the club house, toilets, showers, kitchen and briefing rooms as well as a well stocked fridge. You sure cant beat fellow aviators hospitality. Chook and Malcolm returned, installed the globes and everything was good. We had a briefing and reviewed the crap forcast - rain and low cloud. A decision was taken to take off and have a quick look at the situation from the air as well as Murray flying over the burnt house for a quick photo session. Well we were only airborne for a few minutes as the vis was down to 500m!After waiting another hour or so things looked a little better with the low cloud improving to a 700" base and vis out to "special VFR " conditions. We took off and tracked for Wagin. Wagin is another wheatbelt strip that is technically closed for resurfacing. Our state Govt is very aviation friendly and has been spending a lot of our mining royalty"s for regions upgrading strips and building RFDS facilities that are also avail to aviators in WA. You can probably understand why we are not keen on the Mining tax as this removes our states capability to support aviators in WA. The trip to Wagin was about dodging rain and low cloud.

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        • #19
          Day 4Georges Farm, Albany, Denmark, Georges FarmWe all awoke after a wet and windy night at Georges. after a good breakfast we checked the weather forcast. Showers and strong winds according to the internet. After discussing the forcast and having a look outside it was decided that we would drive to Denmark instead of flying. The reality was most of our flying so far had been hard going and a rest would be good. We checked to see if the tuckerbox was adequately stocked and all piled into the cars etc for the trip to Denmark. Denmark is a coastal town with a dedicated group of aviators trying to get an an airpark happening, this was a great chance to catch up and see what they had achieved. Adrian confirmed with Rob Slater that we would be there around 1130 and Rob confirmed that the locals would have coffee and cakes in anticipation of our arrival. After a short 1hr or so we arrived and checked out the facility"s, talked alot and checked out their aircraft. We think they were a little disappointed that we didn"t flyin as most of them hadn"t seen a gyro in the flesh. What was interesting was that all aviators share the same passion and similar problems in establishing strips, dealing with neighbors who bought property"s cheaply because they were near an airstrip but then complained if there was more than one aircraft movement a day.

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          • #20
            Piccie time. Note even the dog gets spoiled at Georges!How rough can it be - Adrian, Lou & Murray- check out the horizontal 25Kt windsock next to the shed.

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            • #21
              Excellent Trip Report.So whats the story with VH-KGA wings? Didn"t quite fit between some tree"s??? Nevermind.... Found it. http://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/...198500127.aspx

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              • #22
                Hi Trent, that must have been a previous prang!From memory the club had rented this one out late last year and it was doing a low level turn when it ran out of air. The insurance company paid out and because of the remoteness (north east western Australia) they allowed the club to recover the wreck and sell the bits.Why can"t people understand that you can only fly gyros and helis low level?

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                • #23
                  Day 5Overnight there was more rain and wind. We checked the forcast and it said rain & wind all the way to Lake Grace! After a good breakfast we decided that we would treat the forcast like we had on previous days and fly with a "suck and see" attitude.I forgot to mention earlier in the report about Day 4 that Wolfy paid us a visit at Georges on his way back up to station country for the mustering season. He had done a few mods on his Rosco and was clearly looking forward to going back to work. Our esteemed PM Julia and her anti live export Govt have clearly pissed of the Indonesions last year as they have confirmed their intentions to cut imports from OZ this year by 50%. Georges, Cranbrook, Gnowangerup, Nyabing, Lake Grace, Hyden the Keith Early.Today we are heading to Keith Early"s. Keith is a gyro guy who also runs Westide Aviation a cropdusting business on the Eastern edge of the wheatbelt.After waiting for a break in the weather and thanking George for his hospitality over the past 2 days we took of and tracked for Gnowangeruo via the edge of Cranbrook keeping the Stirling Ranges to our starboard side. The winds were more of the same - strong and a cross wind but at least the cloud was lifting and by Gnowangerup we had 4/8 at 4000. Gnowangerup is another Weatbelt town that the govt had just spent good money to upgrade the airstrip - bitumen, Terminal building nice toilets etc etc You have to love a good state govt with a royalty for regions program. Murray used to farm in this district and his brother still has the fuel distributorship so Murray had organised for us to refuel the ground vehicles with diesel and our fuel truck Jerry"s with premium at a nice price. We were also met by a freelance Journo/photographer (Murray"s sister inlaw!) for photos and and impromptu interview. You guessed it we appeared in the local rag under the heading of " looking for the easter bunny"After taking on some fuel we departed for Lake Grace. 4/8 at 3000 but still strong cross winds! Abeam Lake Grace Adrian experienced a broken throttle return spring on his 912S so the final 10min was with unbalanced carbs and a little rough running. Overhead the strip the gyro was landed dead stick after shutting down both cdi"s because you couldn"t get the engine to go to idle. On landing minor repairs were done by bending a new arm on the end of the spring ready for the next leg.

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                  • #24
                    More piccies...8134 -I know that they are small but these are our "mountains" in our South West - The Stirling ranges.8137 -Cockpit instruments in Murrays ELA during this leg.8146 -Adrian (in foreground) and Lou.8148 - Welcome to Gnowangerup. Thanks to Royalties for regions and the local governments.8160 -Hyden primary school presentation. The big kid out the front is Mr Stoffels. (Goood moooorning Mr Stoffels).

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                    • #25
                      Day 6Sorry about the delay guys but Ive been tied up doing gyro stuff!Hyden PS talk and handling display, Keith"s, Corrigin, Cunderdin, Richards FarmWell the crew woke up to low cloud and a forcast of showers in Hyden but as we get closer to home the weather is going to improve according to the forcast- nothing new for this trip.After great hospitality from Betty and Keith we started our usual ritual of packing up camp, only this time Bob was also loading his latest acquisition a Gemini ultralight airframe on to the gyro recovery trailer. Adrian spoke with the teacher organising our visit to the Hyden PS and confirmed that we would have the sportcopter on the school play area by 0900hrs, start a 15min talk/ Q/A for the kids and then at 0930hrs Murray would commence a gyro handling display in his ELA ( weather permitting). Adrian had a short taxi down the road to the school.As usual when have such a great crew with you every thing went like clock work. Plenty of good questions from the kids , teachers and parents. You have got to spread the gyro message across all age groups if we want to grow the sport. At the end most of the kids, teachers and parents in attendance wanted one! Guys when ever we go on one of our trips we always take the opportunity to organise some interaction with the community - country and outback towns just love it.We taxied the Sportcopter back to Keith"s and had the briefing for the next leg with the decision that as soon as we had a break in the showers we would depart. This meant we were now heading NW back towards home. The weather break came and we all took off towards Corrigin via Kondinin. Corrigin is another wheatbelt strip that has been upgraded with the Royalties for regions money. This leg was hard going with the strongest headwinds so far - 30 to 40kts GS was the best we could get. We all arrived at Corrigin after a turbulent flight of over 1.5hrs. Thanks to the weather gods for keeping the rains and low cloud behind us.

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                      • #26
                        great stuff guys, absoultely brillant, i see there was a kid in the school group prepared for a fly, he had an icecream container on his head as a helmet. my grandson does the same thing. made me laugh. if there was a "make you jealous award" adrian , you would win gold. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

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                        • #27
                          great stuff guys, absoultely brillant, i see there was a kid in the school group prepared for a fly, he had an icecream container on his head as a helmet. my grandson does the same thing. made me laugh. if there was a "make you jealous award" adrian , you would win gold. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

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                          • #28
                            to be perfectly honest i thought all the photos

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                            • #29
                              Tony,Thanks for your kind words. Now I am back at work I will try and put some time into answering your PM sent before we departed on the Safari.Thanks,Adrian

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                              • #30
                                here are the continuation of the trip photos

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