OZ TOUR 2006

[ardypilot]

Flight Day: 18
Route: YHOO, YKG, YARG



I'm sorry this is a late report for only another short flight today as I didn't get the chance to spend much time on the computer and flight sim as I would have liked.

I started off from Hooker Creek (YHOO) taking off from runway 10 and heading at 006 for 55 miles north until I reach Kalkgurung (YKKG) for a touch-and-go. The ground below me was becoming less and less orange like we'd seen around the Ayres Rock and Alice Springs area, and more "multi-textured"Â￾ like the colours around Kalgoolie. (See screenshot 1: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point1.jpg ) There were also lots of purple and blue spots (See screenshot 2: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point2.jpg ) which looked odd and made me wonder if they were meant to be included or not in this great VOZ package?

I arrived after a short 20 minutes, flying low at about 3000 feet before landing on runway 3 and climbing off again towards Argyle (YARG), a smaller town on the south western edge of the huge Lake Argyle. This trip was a little longer, lasting 58 minutes as I crossed approximately 145 miles of terrain (See screenshot 3: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point3.jpg and http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point4.jpg ) that was noticeably more rougher than the flat central deserts. As I crossed the border from the Northern Territory into Western Australia, a strange combination of tones started beeping on my speakers that sounded like Morse Code or something! I tried cycling through different views but it wouldn't stop, repeating itself every two of three minutes until I switched off the airport after landing. I was heading at 285, and soon came across the southern top of the lake, (See screenshot 5: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point5.jpg ) which was a pleasant surprise as water was something I hadn't seen since departing from Perth! Just as I had said before, the blue sky contrasted brilliantly with the orange plains below, and the same principal also applied now as the fresh blue water lapped up on the dry orange shores (See screenshot 6: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point6.jpg )

I landed on runway 1, which was situated near the waters edge, yet with lots of mountainous terrain around. (See screenshot 7: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point7.jpg ) I taxied over to the pump to park and noticed the broken taxi-way textures (See screenshot 8: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point8.jpg ) like I have seen at so many other airports around the country and forgot to mention. I am wondering weather is anything to do with the VOZ addon, and if anyone else is having the same problems, or it is just my AEU7 (Airport Environment Upgrade 7) package I have installed?

Next time (not sure if it will be this weekend) I look forward to flying up the western shore of the lake as I continue on my way to Darwin and experience the surrounding rugged terrain.

Some feedback would be nice"¦:wink:
Thanks for reading yet again!

[ardypilot]

Flight Day: 19
Route: YARG, YPKU, YWYN, YPKT, YDLV, YPDN



Well after an embarrassingly foolish mistake of tuning into the VOR frequency that confused me and grounded the tour for a day, I was glad to get back in the sky and continue the tour all the way up to Darwin today, ending the rest of Leg 4 that I had started all the way back in Kalgoorlie.

I took off from runway 36 today, which was the opposite end that I had landed here at Argyle (YARG) and the opposite direction that I wanted to be heading. The reason I was going South instead of North was to pass over the famous "Argyle Diamond Mines"Â￾ (See screenshot 1: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point1.jpg ) After banking around to face a heading of 013, I climbed up to 3000 feet ready for the 58nm trip to Kununurra, (YPKU) at the other end of the lake. Instead of flying in a straight line, I felt a little adventurous and followed the mountain fringed shoreline (See screenshot 2: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point2.jpg ) over a few cliffs and inlets (see screenshot 3: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point3.jpg ) before turning back over a few more foothills (See screenshot 4: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point4.jpg ) as I made my descend into runway 30 after a 35 minute flight. I wish I had more time to fly around here, with so much natural beauty around the lake as well as the wonderful "Bungle Bungle"Â￾ mountain range nearby; I will defiantly be returning here once the tour is finished for some trips in a single-engined prop I think :wink:

After a nice clean touch and go, I climbed back up for the 16 minute hop over to Wyndham (YWYN) which was only 16 minutes away at a heading of 293. I flew over some more interesting hills and valleys before making another touch and go on another runway 30, (See screenshot 5: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point5.jpg ) on a runway supposedly next to a township, although I couldn't see one anywhere.

I climbed back up to my cruising altitude ready for the next trip across the sea, which was something I hadn't seen in a long, long time to the town of Port Keats, a distance of 110 miles in the direction of 043 degrees. As I banked right to chance my heading, I noticed a large river inlet to my side (See screenshot 6: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point6.jpg ) coming from the nearby ocean, but I had to turn away from in and fly in the opposite direction which felt un-natural as I went back deeper inland before the real coastline appeared in front of me (See screenshot 7: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point7.jpg ) It wasn't until 37 minutes later I descended into land, touching and going on runway 34 which was just a small dirt strip by the sea side.

The next stop was Delissaville (YDLV) which I presumed was a suburb of Darwin, the next big city only a few miles north of my next airport. I was wrong, it happened to be another tiny dirt strip in the middle of no where, and as I made me way there, another 43 minutes passed and the sun began to set behind me (See screenshot 8: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point8.jpg ) which really annoyed me. It always seems to get dark as I arrive at the largest cities and most interesting places on the tour and I don't get a good view of the area until I switch it to daylight, which feels like cheating. So I followed the coast heading at 030 for the next 122 miles, passing over the mouth of the Daly River, (See screenshot 9: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point9.jpg ) which I will be visiting again later, before banking right for a landing on runway 12, which was near impossible to see in the twilight conditions (See screenshot 10: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... oint10.jpg )

Now I only had a 5 minute hop across a harbour to in most northern stop on the entire tour, Darwin International Airport (YPDN) I was cleared to land on runway 29 as I flew over the central city (See screenshot 11: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... oint11.jpg ) and was surprised at how small it was, even Alice Springs had looked bigger!!! I flew the pattern and made another great landing, before beginning the long taxi to the GA parking ramp, where I switched off the engines at 5:42 sim-time. I couldn't believe it had become dark so early, especially in the middle of summer, but I was glad to finish off the leg.

Tomorrow, I will be making my way across Arnhem Land, heading in a south easterly direction as I make my way along the coast back to Cairns, where I had started from.

Thanks for reading,
Feel free to leave comments anytime.

Cheers.

[ardypilot]

Flight Day: 20
Route: YPDN, YCOO, YPTN, YBMY, YNGU



Today I started Leg 5 of the tour, flying in land across "Arnhem Land,"Â￾ a large peninsular at the very top of the country, framing the left hand side of the Gulf of Carpentaria and sticking out into the Timor Sea below Indonesia.

As I started up the flight in Darwin (YPDN) and changed the simulator time from night to day, and was surprised to see the weather had changed from bright, clear sunny skies to a drizzly grey overcast complexion. (See screenshot 1: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point1.jpg ) I taxied over to runway 9 as directed, and took off for Cooinda (YCOO) which was a 33 minutes eastwards heading at 104 for the next 102 miles, but forgot to turn on any lights as I was not used to the conditions. It was weird seeing the normally bright and glowing outback textures in the new dim grey light (See screenshot) but wasn't disappointed, but actually exited to ever changing faces of the great Australian continent. (See screenshot 2: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point2.jpg ) After cruising on autopilot through the cloudy sky, with a slight tailwind, the airport came into sight sooner than I expected, and as I descended down for a touch-and-go on runway 9, the weather got worse and worse (See screenshot 3: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point3.jpg ) making the whole experience a little tricky!

The next stop was a Military base called Tindal, sitting on the banks of the Daly River (An extension of the river mouth I flew past yesterday in the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf) about 97 miles south at a heading of 181. The trip would take me approximately 40 minutes, at a slower speed, with out the headwind that I had helping me on the previous hop. The weather began to clear up slightly (See screenshot 4: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point4.jpg ) and with the rain stopped, my visibility had increased to display lots of rugged terrain below me (See screenshot 5: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point5.jpg ) I then tuned into the airbase tower once I was 30nm and was told to land on runway 9, which meant I had to circle the airport before making a perfect full stop landing on the long wide tarmac runway used by the airforce jets. I taxied over to the pump that was right in front of a picturesque ATC tower (See screenshot 6: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point6.jpg ) and filled my tanks up to the max as it would be the last airport for miles with any fuel supply.

Afterwards, I was then directed to take off from runway 32, which the opposite end that I had landed on, ready for a very short journey to the edge of the Tindal airspace to a desert strip known as Bamyili. (YBMY) The distance of 30 miles took me only nine minutes to cover, flying low (See screenshot 7: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point7.jpg ) with out autopilot at a heading of 086 degrees across the ground before touching and going on runway 11.

Now I faced 35 minute hop to back to the coast, heading at 095 for 108 miles to another grass strip called Ngukurr (YNGU) which I imagine is pronounced as Nuke-er, lol The ground below me was more flat and dry now, with lots more brown textures replacing the orange ones, as I made me way to the opposite side of the peninsular that I had started from. When I was close enough, I tuned into the Unicom and allowed myself a full stop landing on runway 11, the same as at Bamyili, and taxied over to the empty GA ramp before switching off the engines to end today's flight (See screenshot 8: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point8.jpg ) This airport didn't have a fuel pump as I had guessed, so I refuelled the plane via the Aircraft menu before saving my progress at 14:40 sim-time.

Tomorrow I will make my way down the coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria, then offshore to Wellesley Island, the last time I will venture away from the mainland this tour. Further on, I will be returning to Queensland and VOZ-ing in the Northern section again which will be a pleasant change as I return to Cairns.

Once again,
Thank you all for reading.

[ardypilot]

Flight Day: 21
Route: YNGU, YBRL, YMHU, YMTI



Today I continued the tour west

Starting off from Ngukurr, I took off from runway 11 and climbed up to 3000 feet for 121 mile trip the heading at 128 degrees south-eastwards along the coast to Borroloola (YBRL) I wasn't actually too close to the sea, about 20 miles inland, but following its path for the next 41 minutes across a few inlets (See screenshot 1: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point1.jpg ) until I could pick up the Unicom and cleared myself to land on the gravel runway 20, a typical outback style strip (See screenshot 2: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point2.jpg ) in the middle of no where. I filled up with fuel, because there wouldn't be any more pumps for the rest of today's journey, then taxied back to runway 20 for take off.

The next destination was Macarthur River Mine (YMHU) which 25 miles away in the direction of 205 degrees. I took off and flew low at about 1000 feet, hugging the terrain (See screenshot 3: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point3.jpg ) and following the visual path of a dry old river bed (See screenshot 4: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point4.jpg ) from where the mines get their name sake. I arrived after only 8 minutes and made a smooth touch and go on the runway 24, which I was surprised to see was sealed with tarmac rather than gravel. There where no actual "Mines"Â￾ visible either in the terrain or on the simulator map like there was at Lake Argyle, so I didn't waste any time in climbing back up to a cruising altitude of 5000 feet ready for the next stop, Mornington Island (YMTI)

Yesterday I had mentioned travelling down to "Wellesley Island"Â￾ which was actually incorrect. Mornington Island is in fact one of 22 other Island that make up the chain called the Wellesley Island's, so please excuse my mistake. They sit about a few kilometres offshore North Western Queensland, and where 178nm away from my Macarthur River position. Once I was high enough, I set autopilot on and levelled off setting my heading to 040 degrees. All of a sudden, the fine blue skies changed to heavy grey rain and began pounding at my plane just like yesterday in Darwin. Then, just as I was switching on my aircraft lights, and just as quickly as it had started, it disappeared and never returned for the rest of the journey, although, as I crossed the Queensland border, more and more low lying clouds appeared (See screenshot 5: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point5.jpg ) especially as I descended down into land (See screenshot 6: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point6.jpg ) at the airport on runway 9 at YMTI.

I pulled off the gravel to switch my engines off with still 61% fuel left in my tanks. I was going to wait until I reached Karumba (YKMB) tomorrow until VOZ-ing in the North Section again but have decided to do it now, 2 airports in advance as I want to see what a difference it makes to the island on departure, and also, it will be a nice treat returning to the mainland to see the lush green tropics again. From here on, I only have 5 more stops until I complete the tour, which I am estimating will take me 2 days.

Thanks for following the tour so far,
And please remember to e-mail me at cheekytrolly at hotmail dot com if your interested in joining me for group a fly-in to Cairns on Thursday.

[ardypilot]

Flight Day: 22
Route: YMTI, YBKT, YKMB, YNTN, YGTN



This is the second to last day of the tour, and I VOZ-ed back in the "North' section then flew from Mornington Island, back onto the mainland, and along the coast of northern Queensland via Karumba, which marked the end of Leg 5, onto Georgetown, now only a few 100 km away from the finishing line, Cairns.

As I took off from runway 9 at YMTI, I noticed how much a difference there was from yesterday when I had landed on the barren orange outpost. Today, everything was much greener (See screenshot 1: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point1.jpg ) and looked like a tropical island, which was completely un-true as I had seen a satelittle image on wikipedia earlier which showed the Wellesley Islands as a dark brown colour, not green nor orange- so it was my own error as I had choose to change the texture set a little earlier than planned. I climbed up to 3000 feet and made my way back onto the mainland, heading at 157 degrees towards Burketown (YBKT), which was 68nm miles away. It was 24 minutes before I made a simple touch and go on runway 21, before setting autopilot to 071 degrees for the next trip.

From here it was another 76 miles, across the lush green forests and countryside below (See screenshot 2: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point2.jpg ) to the next airport, Karumba (YKMB). The next 25 minutes of scenery below me was utterly fantastic with many large river inlets coming in from the sea (See screenshot 3: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point3.jpg ) and bought back memories from the beginning of the tour as I had ventured down the eastern coastline of the country in very simular surroundings. Before stopping for a full stop landing a Karumba, I had to fly out over the sea as the shape of the bay curved inwards, with lots of odd purple textures below me (See screenshot 4: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point4.jpg ) before descending over another river inlet and touching down on runway 3, which was made from gravel.

I filled up my 73% full tanks, then rolled off from the same runway I had landed and banked to the right for a short 6 minute flight south at a heading of 129 to Normanton (YNTN) which was just 19 miles away. Flying by hand, I sticked at 800 feet along the coast of the river (See screenshot 5: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point5.jpg ) that I had flown over on finals at Kurumba and enjoyed the fresh picturesque scenery, and the colour green that I had not seen for a long, long time! There was no controlled tower at this small town (See screenshot 6: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point6.jpg ) airport, so I picked runway 14 for a touch-and-go on, which I pulled off nicely ready for the longest hop today, east to Georgetown (YGTN)

I climbed up to a cruising altitude of 3000 feet once again, and banked left to head at 099 degrees. This journey would take me approximately 50 minutes, travelling inland for the next 156 miles. I was still getting used to the tropical forest textures below me (See screenshot 7: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d189/ ... point7.jpg ) when the runway came into sight quicker than I expected, and I had to make a very steep descent for runway 6, where I made a full stop landing and parked up in the empty GA bay.

Tomorrow, I will be ending the tour at Cairns, stopping at Chillagoe on the way, making two separate hops lasting 30 and 25 minutes. If you would like to join me, log onto FS2004 Multiplayer with this IP address: 67.18.56.106 and join me in the default blue and white Cessna Grand Caravan at YGTN, at 1:00pm (after lunch) New Zealand time. To find out what time that corresponds to in your area, go to www.worldtimeclock.com

Look forward to seeing you there.

[ardypilot]

"The Conclusion"Â￾
Flight Day: 23
Route: YGTN, YCGO, YBCS, YMBA



Well, well, well, after 23 days of flying 13, 694 km around the great southern continent, I finally managed to return to my home base of Cairns, after burning over 3000 kilograms of fuel over a time of more than 50 hours!

I connected to Multiplayer as I had promised, and met up with "Aloha_Joe"Â￾ "Flyboy"Â￾ and "Slider"Â￾ to continue from Georgetown (YGTN) over to Chillagoe (YCGO) It was a late start, after some technical difficulties with the server, but as soon as it was fixed, we all took off from Runway 6, and turned to a heading of 032 degrees, then climbed up to a cruising altitude of 3000 feet, and flew close together in a tight formation (See screenshot 1: http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b235/ ... point1.jpg ) over the lush Queensland rainforests. After 91 miles and 30 minutes, I had the runway in sight, and descended into land on runway 35, with no AI traffic or ATC around since we where flying online. Just as I was turning on to finals, the runway disappeared behind a large hill at the end of the runway (Check it out for yourself if you have Andy Weirs mesh installed) and I had to make a very steep approach followed by a quick dive before hitting the tarmac a little too hard, as well as off centre (See screenshot 2: http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b235/ ... point2.jpg ) for a touch and go landing.

As I accelerated along the runway, followed by the others, I banked to the left changing my heading to 071 degrees, the same number of miles I was away from my next destination, Cairns International (YBCS), the same airport I had started this tour on the 1st of January. I set autopilot on when I reached 3000 feet so I could chat with my escorts, but had to pull up to 4500 feet once I noticed the northern end of the Great Dividing Ranges at a higher altitude than me, in front of my nose. The scenery was very beautiful below me, with my addon mesh doing wonders (See screenshot 3: http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b235/ ... point3.jpg ) Another enjoyable 23 minutes passed before the coastline became visible on the horizon, and I lowered my height, and descended over Port Douglas for finals on Runway 15 (See screenshot 4: http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b235/ ... point4.jpg ), the place where it all had started



We all taxied over to the OZ Tour Headquarters hanger for a few celebration beers (See screenshot 5: http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b235/ ... point5.jpg ) (Notice they all changed to Cessna Caravans, as before they were flying Mooneys and Hornets) before I bid my farewell and disconnected from the server, ready to fly the very last leg of my flight by myself. Haha, you weren't expecting that were you? Yes, there was still one more airport to go, Mareeba (YMBA) You see, when I was creating my flight plan, I had to make my finish destination different from my starting destination, and in order to do that, I just made a flight between Cairns Int. and the closest airport which happened to be Mareeba, then dragged the guide line between the two above other airports, creating a whole route around the country in order to fly my tour. Perhaps it should have been called "Cairns to Mareeba- the long way around"Â￾ instead of the "OZ Tour 2006' LOL

Anyway, now I wasn't on multiplayer anymore, ATC and other AI traffic had returned, and I tuned into the tower to request take off clearance, and was sent to Runway 15 again. I took off and turned back on myself, heading in land along the river at the end of Runway 15, (See screenshot 6: http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b235/ ... point6.jpg ) then banked to a heading of 232 following a route through the mountains (See screenshot 7: http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b235/ ... point7.jpg ) that bordered the western suburbs of the city (See screenshot 8: http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b235/ ... point8.jpg and 9: http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b235/ ... point9.jpg )The mesh took my breath away, it was so superbly built, and beats the default terrain of the Himalayas by far, which before today, I used think couldn't get any better. I really, really recommend you all to download Andy Weirs mesh off avsim and take a flight around the Cairns countryside- nothing else compares to it, I promise you!

After 9 minutes and 22 short miles, I preformed a touch and go landing on runway 28 (See screenshot 10: http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b235/ ... oint10.jpg ) completing the tour, and making me feel very proud, to know I had actually achieved what I had set out to do at the beginning of last month. I still had 67% fuel left, so I took another quick flight along the Great Dividing Ranges and returned to Cairns International once again to park up at the HQ, (See screenshot 11: http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b235/ ... oint11.jpg ) switch off the engines, and save the game at 3:30pm-, sim-time.

Thank you all ever so much to the 1000+ people who bothered to read this everyday, and for letting me share my experience with you. When Vista Austrails 1.1 is realised, I'll be back, with a whole brand new tour, with a different route, plane and name.

Until next time my friends,
Good bye! :wink: