Fascinating Forrest

On one of my previous flying trips in May 2009, I called into Forrest in the middle of the Nullarbor Plain for fuel.  It was a brief "gas and go" stop but the place has always fascinated me and been somewhere I wanted to go back to and spend some time there.  It was a "must do" when planning the REALLY Big Trip around Australia.

The largest section of straight railway track in the world is 478km long and Forrest sits almost in the middle of it.  There's nothing (and I mean nothing) for hundreds of kilometres around except the railway line and the road across the Nullarbor Plain about 100km to the south.  Originally Forrest was established as a railway town in 1917.  "Town" might be stretching the definition a little.

In 1929 the airport was established as a half-way stop for the transcontinental aircraft flying from Adelaide to Perth.  de Havilland DH66 Hercules were initially used on the route but couldn't make it without refueling so the airport and a hostel was established to accommodate the 14 passengers.  The airfield offers two large sealed runway vectors at 1349m and 1519m which, as the only features on the vast Nullarbor Plain can be seen from miles away.  It's regularly used by pilots today for fuel and a leg stretch.

We left Esperance and began our journey to Forrest, skimming along the coast past the scatter of little islands that make up the Archipelago of the Recherche.  As we headed east, coastal beaches started off blindingly white, then gradually gave way to cliffs 200–300 feet high.  Out here it looks like someone attacked Australia with a geological cookie‑cutter — sheer cliffs at the edge, and absolutely nothing happening on the land behind them.

As we turned toward Forrest from the coast we passed over the Eyre Highway that runs from Adelaide to Perth and which requires an investment of days of your life to drive.  There was quite a bit of traffic on it.

We landed in Forrest about 11am which gave us the rest of the day to explore.  We were met by manager Andy who refueled our aircraft and helped us push them into the massive historical hangar for the night,  Then he drove us to our cottage.  The cottage is only one of six available for transiting pilots or road travelers who care to drive into Forrest.  It was old but comfortable.

Armed with a booklet provided in the cottage, in the afternoon we did the historical walk which took us around a dozen or so interesting places around the airfield and abandoned meteorological office setup to support the airfield.  That walk finished at the railway where we were lucky to catch an enormous freight train heading east.

There's lots of quirky things around Forrest one of which is the pilot's toilet.  There's a pen provided for you to record your visit on the wall and it's cool to stand at the urinal and see who's been there before you.  The "Trans-Tasman Adventurers" are now permanently recorded as having visited that loo.

Included in our stay was a nice home cooked evening meal provided by Manager Andy and wife Donna in the sun room of their cottage.  There were several other guests there including a couple of electricians who specialise in outback work and who fly into locations with all their gear in the back of a Piper Twin Commanche.  It was a fun evening with good down-to-earth Australian cobbers.

I'm glad I made it to Forrest and thoroughly enjoyed my time there.  It’s one of those wonderfully odd Australian places that refuses to disappear — a tiny dot of civilisation with a colourful history on the vast Nullarbor Plain.

Cookie-cutter Nullarbor Plain coastline (*)

 

Nullarbor Plain - nothing on the chart and nothing out the window 

Forrest Airport (YFRT)

 

 

Many generations of aircraft have been protected by this historic hangar

Like many other before us, we left our mark on the pilot's toilet wall

Longest piece of straight railway in the world - 478km 

 

Huge freight train (1 min) 

Fun evening meal at Andy & Donna's place

 

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(*) Photo supplied by Andrew Schofield.  Check out Andrew's blog: too: https://nzcirruspilot.com/trans-tasman

Cutting the SW Corner

We ended up staying an extra night in Fremantle as Andrew's ZK-LDY required a part to be flown in overnight from the east coast to complete its 50hr check and make sure she was ready for the long trip home across the bottom of Australia and the Tasman.

We'd done a lot of flying which included some long legs in the preceding two weeks and, to be honest, I was starting to feel a bit of accumulative fatigue.  The three nights we spent in Fremantle was a welcome relief and enabled us all to recharge.

So far on this trip we've had fantastic flying weather.  Clear, blue skies and even tailwinds on most legs.  However, we were watching a front with associated rain and poor visibility approaching the SW corner of the continent.  That was due to reach the coast about the time we were planning to fly south from Perth and around the SW coast with stops at Margaret River and Albany.  As we'd had an unplanned extra day off and, with approaching weather, we decided it would be wise to "cut the corner" and fly direct to Esperance leaving early to get in front of the forecast weather.  It was disappointing to have to drop the SW corner from our route but you always have to leave something for the next trip!

We arrived at Jandakot at 7am and had the aircraft packed and ready for departure quickly.  We're getting good at that now.

Even though it was early, the airfield was busy and we spent about 20 mins on the ground taxiing and waiting for departure from one of Jandakot's two parallel runways that were in use.

My aircraft registration is "ZK-VRV" and in New Zealand just the last three letters are used when communicating on the radio.  It's not necessary to include the "ZK" prefix that identifies the state of registration.  However, when flying in a foreign country you must use the full aircraft registration when making calls on the radio.  Using the phonetic alphabet my registration then becomes a tongue twister of "Zulu Kilo Victor Romeo Victor". Usually Andrew and John are close by and making similar radio calls using their full "Zulu Kilo Lima Delta Yankee" registration.  It ties the controllers in knots and, departing from Jandakot on this morning, the ground controller got most of his calls to us spectacularly wrong as he gave us instructions to taxi to the runway holding point.  You could hear him laughing at himself in the background.

After what seemed to be an interminable delay waiting for a spot on the runway we were cleared for takeoff and away.  The cold front we were keeping an eye on was clearly visible with darkening skies to the west but presented no problem as we were well ahead of it.  In fact the winds associated with the front were in our favour and we enjoyed a 43kt (80 km/hr) tailwind.

After a 2:15hr flight that passed quickly we landed at Esperance in gusty conditions and caught a taxi into town.

We take turns booking motels, and whoever booked Esperance clearly had an off day.  We ended up wedged into a tiny 1970s brick bunker painted in battle‑ship grey — the sort of room that gently erodes your will to live. Still, it was only one night, so we sucked it up and looked forward to our departure the next morning.

Enroute from Perth to Esperance with the cold front we were racing clearly visible

A nice 43kt (80km/hr) tailwind on this leg

We're flying over a lot more green pasture than we have been in the last few weeks

Esperance

Keeping out the way of the military

As we wandered into Geraldton on 13 July 2026 in search of breakfast, the sudden reminder that we’d crossed into Australia’s southern half hit with a crisp enthusiasm. The wind had teeth, and the temperature had fallen well below the balmy warmth we’d been spoiled with for the last few weeks.  Bugger!

We were heading to Perth from Geraldton and had to find our way past Perth airport to Jandakot.  To the north of Perth is the large Pearce air force base.  As we planned our route south down the coast to Perth and briefed the procedure for getting into Jandakot all of a sudden a lot of the airspace north of Perth that we planned to fly through went red!

We do all our flight planning using the AvPlan Electronic Flight Bag (EFB).  Aside from helping us plan a route, it gives us up-to-date weather forecasts (incl rain radar) and NOTAMs.  Notices to Airmen (NOTAM) are issued to advise pilots of anything that could be a hazard to a flight.  AvPlan monitors these and, while we were having breakfast, the Pearce air force base had activated the airspace reserved for military flying.  That started a whole new cycle of planning as we had to be mindful of maximum heights we could fly and the boundaries of the active military airspace we had to avoid.

In amongst that planning, we did decide to veer off the coast of Perth and visit Rottnest Island which wasn't in our original plan.

Apart from the dramatic red colour of the military airspace we were flying around on our way south, the flight down the coast and out to Rottnest Island was pretty routine - apart from the last few miles over water from the coast to Rottnest Island ...

In my aircraft I have two LCD displays - a Primary Flight Display (PFD) which displays my artificial horizon, heading, airspeed and altitude and a Multifunction Flight Display (MFD) which I have configured with a moving map.  There was parachute op's overhead Rottnest Island and several other aircraft sequencing their arrival including Andrew and John in their Cirrus somewhere in front of me.

In the middle of all that busy-ness, my PFD went dark and then rebooted.  I also got all sorts of warning messages from the MFD telling me the transponder had gone offline, autopilot servos had disconnected and other less than desirable warnings.  Shit - this has never happened before.  My primary flight instruments have gone but the engine continued to hum away.

I've flown my aircraft long enough to be able to land by "feel and sound" if I have to but loosing your airspeed and not knowing your height when trying to stay clear of the controlled airspace just above me is not good.  Fortunately, I can change the mode of the MFD and, without much fuss and bother, quickly had the primary flight instruments displayed on the MFD together with the map.  Thank goodness for modern aircraft avionics with multiple failover modes.

The PFD rebooted itself twice and then came back on-line as if to say - "what's the problem - I just took a nap but I'm back now".  By this stage I was starting to position myself for landing at Rottnest Island and landed without any further incident.  Touch wood, the instruments have all been fine since then.  However, I have downloaded the diagnostic logs and sent them off to Dynon, my avionics manufacturer, and asked for an explanation about what may have gone wrong. 

After landing at Rottnest Island we walked the kilometre or so to the shops and restaurants for a pleasant lunch and a stroll around the waterfront.  As we only decided to visit the island at the last minute we hadn't done much research.  Several people have asked if I saw any quokka - the islands smiling marsupials.  Despite there being a reported 10,000 of these cute creatures on the island we never saw one and I didn't even know about them before leaving the island.

It was a short 17 minute flight from Rottnest Island to Jandakot Airport following the recommended inbound route.  Jandakot is one of the busiest General Aviation airports in Australia, if not the busiest.  We were efficiently cleared to land on one of the two parallel runways which were both in use by a controller who was disarmingly brief with his instructions.

A few days off in Perth

Since leaving Paraparaumu my aircraft has flown for 45 hours and, at 50 hours, is due for a routine change of oil and oil filter and a check by a Licensed Aircraft Engineer (LAME).  Andrew's Cirrus has also flown similar hours and is due for a check.  We'd arranged these checks at Jandakot before leaving home.

After landing at Jandakot we taxied to Applied Aviation Maintenance's hangar past dozens and dozens of aircraft.  I've never seen so many light aircraft at the same airport.  Everything from corporate jets to helicopters, fire bombers and a healthy sprinkling of Cessnas and Pipers.  After introducing ourselves to Rob at Applied Aviation Maintenance he showed us where the aircraft wash bay was and we taxied both aircraft there for a well deserved wash.  They were both covered in red dust and looking quite scruffy and it was good to spruce them up.

I like to assist with the maintenance on my aircraft so worked with Rob the next day as he inspected Thunderbird 6 thoroughly.  Andrew and John chose to visit the Maritime Museum and Fremantle Prison and I joined them at the Aviation Heritage Museum where we walked under and around their massive Avro Lancaster in awe.

We had lucked out and got cracker accommodation overlooking the Fremantle Marina, close to shops and restaurants and thoroughly enjoyed our stay there.

 

A sea of red active military airspace and our route around it

Perth 

Rottnest Island

Never saw one of these - a Quokka - on Rottnest Island

Red dust be gone!

Huge Avro Lancaster at Aviation Heritage Museum

Bustling Fremantle at night

As far from home as we're going to get

We said goodbye to Ross, Elsa and their friends during breakfast and then readied ourselves and our aircraft for departure from Cheela Plains.

Behind the area where we parked our aircraft there was a collection of huge mine dump trucks that towered over you as you walked up to them.  We were told these sad and dejected relics were left there many years ago because they couldn't negotiate a creek on the way to some mine.  There's many abandoned mines in the Pilbara and a lot of equipment left behind especially if recovery costs exceed scrap value.  The Cheela Plains trucks are clearly the ghosts of a past time. Big yellow bones left where the mining frontier once pushed through Cheela Plains - or tried to.

Cheela Plains to Carnavon & meeting the Slinging Down Under guy

We left Cheela Plains at 8:45am in calm and cool conditions.  It was a lovely morning and only about 12 deg at 6500'.  This is often the best time to fly in the outback as the exposed rocky land hasn't had time to heat up and generate convective turbulence that can make flying in the mid to late afternoon unpleasant.

The 1.5hr flight to Carnavon passed quickly as we flew in smooth conditions over a barren land.  On this leg we flew over a some desert areas and got our first sight of the uniform sand hills that dominate Australian desert areas.

Us pilots spend hours reading about or watching YouTube videos made by other pilots who are touring or ferrying aircraft around the world.  One of the guys we've been following is Kade who has created the Slinging Down Under YouTube channel (Kade's aircraft is a Sling TSi).  Kade's videos include the building of his aircraft, his first flights and now a tour of Australia with his wife Carly and young daughter Evie.

They left their home in Albury about a month ago and, from his videos and planned route, we knew they were traveling west across the bottom of Australia and then north up the coast of Western Australia.  We wondered if we might bump into them somewhere.  

As we pulled up to the fuel pumps at Carnavon, guess what?  Over in the corner of the apron was Kade, Carly and Evie packing up their Sling, VH-KCB.  We walked over to them and they were stoked when we said "hey - you're the famous Slinging Down Under guy".  We had a great time chatting to them for about 30 mins swapping flying adventure stories, places to visit and experiences.  A lovely family creating memories while showing their 7 year-old daughter the best of Australia.  Maintaining a YouTube channel of the quality of Kade's Slinging Down Under channel is hard work, and I think Kade was genuinely chuffed to know we were regular followers who took the time to speak to him.

As we were chatting, Carly grabbed their camera and Kade interviewed Andrew, John and I for inclusion in his next YouTube episode.  I hope it comes out OK!

After meeting Kade, Carly and Evie we walked into Carnavon for a coffee.  Along the way we realised that Carnavon was the westerly most point we would be visiting in Australia and as far away from home as we were going to get.  It was a bit sobering to realise that when we took off we would be heading for home.

Carnavon to Geraldton over Shark Bay 

Denham in Shark Bay was high on my list for an overnight stop, but school‑holiday bookings had snapped up every room in town so we had to be content with overflying Shark Bay and carrying on south to Geraldton.  However, the flight over and around Shark Bay didn't disappoint.  Shark Bay is another piece of gorgeous Australian coastline.  Crystal clear waters and miles and miles of white sandy beaches.

Shark Bay is large bay and includes the Peron Peninsular and is bounded by Dirk Hartog Island.  I tracked from the mainland coast across the bay to the peninsular, passed overhead the Shark Bay airfield and onto the south end of Dirk Hartog Island.  As I left the island and tracked south I could see large salt evaporation ponds at Useless Loop, (yes - "Useless Loop" is a real place name).  This vast solar‑evaporation salt farm is one of the most remote, pristine, and impressive industrial sites in Australia. It produces exceptionally pure salt, thanks to the region’s dry climate, high evaporation rates, and ultra‑clean marine environment.  The varying colours of the evaporation ponds beside the different shades of blue of Shark Bay was stunning.

When we met Kade and Carly they told us to watch for whales on the coast as we tracked south from Shark Bay to Geraldton.  It didn't take me long to find about 4 or 5 whales in the shallows just 100m or so offshore.  The water was so clear you could see them beneath the surface and it was great watching them surface and "blow".  I did several orbits around the first pod and saw several others as I tracked south at 1000 - 1500' along the impressive sand cliffs.

With a firm bump we arrived at Geraldton to conclude another great day of flying and meeting like-minded aviators.

Huge abandoned mine trucks at Cheela Plains

Pilbara desert landscape

You wouldn't think so, but I'm in my happy place.  Truly.

Meeting Kade of Slinging Down Under fame.
(L to R) John, Andrew, Peter, Kade

Carnavon, the westerly most point of our trip.
Time to head for home.

Monkey Mia (foreground), Shark Bay

Salt evaporation ponds, Useless Loop, Shark Bay

Whale playground, on coast south of Shark Bay

Battle of the blogs

Andrew brought a full backpack of camera gear on this trip — two big DSLRs, a lens that needs its own postcode, an Insta360, a couple of GoPros, assorted accessories, and a drone. Every motel arrival triggers a race to grab a power point before he plugs in his entire photography ecosystem and the lights dim.

My own “kit” is an iPhone 15 Pro and an Insta360 I borrowed off Andrew. I’ve been dutifully pressing the record button on the Insta360, but have absolutely no idea how to watch whatever I’ve captured.

John and I give Andrew grief for hauling around half of JB Hi‑Fi, but the truth is he knows exactly what he’s doing (this stays between us), and I’m grateful he lets me use his shots on my blog.

We both keep blogs, and this is where the competition heats up. Andrew is a disciple of “a picture tells a thousand words,” while I’m over here writing a thousand words and then adding a picture for moral support. People seem to enjoy reading them, but for me the blog is really a way to add colour to the legally‑required pilot logbook entries for a trip like this.

After a long flying day, writing a blog post can feel like homework — so Andrew and I egg each other on to stay up‑to‑date. Neither of us is competitive, of course. Not at all. Absolutely not.

Thanks, Andrew, for letting me use your awesome photos and videos. You can check out Andrew's blog here https://nzcirruspilot.com/trans-tasman/ -  if you must 😜

Meeting Ross Edmondson at Cheela Plains

For a long time, I have followed Ross Edmondson as he's flown around and across the world on many epic trips in his Cessna 182.  The aircraft has extra long range tanks and a ferry fueling system that allows him to fly for 12+hours.  His journeys are an inspiration and, if you haven't found Ross' blog you should check it out.  WARNING: you'll get hooked and loose several hours of your time!  Ross Edmondson, Wandering the World By Air.

Ross and I first met in Paraparaumu when he was passing through, and I also met up with him in Adelaide when I was visiting my son Andrew and his family and Ross called into Aldinga airfield.

Ross is a project manager and is currently living in Perth.  As we're friends on Facebook he was alerted to our trip through Australia and got in touch.  Coincidentally, he was flying north through Western Australia when we would be heading south so getting together shouldn't be hard.

Cheela Plains was recommended as a meeting place by Ross as he, his wife Elsa and friends Ben & Nila had planned to stay there on their trip north to Mitchell Falls.  As I hadn't been to Cheela Plains, it's remote and has a good airstrip, it ticked all the boxes for me.  With Andrew and John's agreement we booked a room and agreed to meet Ross there.  I love the freedom of being able to change plans like this on a whim.

At 505nm (935km) from Broome, it would be a big day of flying to meet Ross at Cheela Plains so we planned refueling and leg stretch stops at Port Headland and Karratha.  We left Broome at 9:45am and tracked around Roebuck Bay and south down the coast.  It was pleasant flying at 6500'.

Port Hedland’s airfield belongs to a mining company, so we had to get permission to land there. They approved us without difficulty.  However, after pulling up to the pumps and shutting down a fellow zoomed up in a LandCruiser who had clearly been waiting for us to collect the $30 landing fee from each of us.  It made me feel like we were personally propping up Australian mining.

Overflying Port Hedland on arrival and departure made it very clear was a mining service town and port.  It looked very industrial with rows of similar homes probably supplied by the mining company.  Everything was covered in rusty red dust.  Not a place I'd be excited about living in.

Although it was only a short 106nm (200km) flight to Karratha, that didn't use much fuel, topping off the tanks was essential.  There is no Avgas at Cheela Plains and I had to be certain I could get there and back out to our next refueling stop at Carnavon with safe fuel reserves. Nothing focuses a pilot's mind like fuel gauges that are dropping below the quarter-full mark!

As we flew the 135nm (250km) inland to Cheela Plains it was hot and bumpy with a headwind at 5500'.  I avoided climbing higher out of the turbulence as that would use more fuel.  Andrew and John went to 7500' but said the ride wasn't much better there.

We're in the Pilbara region of Australia now and the land is rich in iron ore.  There's mines everywhere and lots of danger areas above the mines to be aware of.  The Pilbara is often described as an "ancient sun burnt land".  It's easy to see why.

The Cheela Plains airstrip information we'd been given by the hosts indicated the airstrip had an elevation of 900m.  However it was more like 900ft.  I found the place without difficulty but had arrived way too high.  Several descending orbits fixed that but I was pretty tired of the heat and bumps by the time I landed.  Even Thunderbid 6 was hot and bothered with high oil and cylinder head temperatures.

As we made the necessary radio calls approaching Cheela Plains, Ross heard us and called up.  He was only 20 - 30 mins behind us.  After he landed there were introductions to him and his wife Elsa and the other couple they were traveling with.

Through a misunderstanding we'd neglected to book dinner at Cheela Plains and were told when checking in, the small dining room was full.  That was a problem as we only had a few tired muesli bars between us and the nearest takeaway would require a drive of epic proportions - if we had a car.  The owner was very nice and took pity on us.  She provided a Andrew, John and I with a lovely home cooked lasagna and salad and we scrounged three beers and a bottle of red wine from her.  Sitting on the balcony outside our room in the warm twilight we all thoroughly enjoyed that meal.

After dinner we caught up with Ross and swapped flying stories which was great fun.  Having flown extensively around the south Western Australia area, he also gave us some welcome tips of places to visit.

ZK-LDY landing Cheela Plains

Sunset over Cheela Plains Station

Catching up with Ross
(L to R) Ross, John, Peter & Andrew

Cheela Plains General Aviation parking apron!

Huge abandoned mining trucks abandoned at Cheela Plains

 

 

 

Saying goodbye to the Kimberley

Our stay in Cygnet Bay was great, we enjoyed a nice dinner and, although it was hot, we slept comfortably in our eco-tent.

A fine red dust dominates the Cygnet Bay airstrip.  Despite our best efforts, it was hard to avoid our aircraft getting covered in red dust both inside (off bags and shoes) and outside during taxiing and take-off. 

ZK-LDY taking off from Cygnet Bay (*)

Our flight south from Cygnet Bay to Broome took about an hour and was along the west coast of the Dampier Peninsular along beautiful white sandy beaches.  Broome is a staging place for people going to the various resorts and towns on the Peninsular and so we had to be more mindful of other air traffic outside controlled airspace than we've needed to be so far on this trip.  Interestingly, VFR aircraft in Australia generally do not require ADSB-Out so I can't rely on my aircraft instruments to give me an early warning of aircraft in my vicinity.

In planning this trip one thing we had overlooked was the Australian school calendar.  In the first half of July, most schools are closed for the holidays.  As the weather is warm and settled in the north, many families have packed the car and driven distances that defy basic mathematics.  The result? Trying to find a room for the night has become a competitive sport.  We wanted to have a break and stay two nights in Broome and check out the pearling industry history and have a swim on Cable Beach.  But, after much ringing around and many internet searches, we could only find accommodation for one night.  The place we found was nice and had a great pool so we didn't stray far from there.

Andrew, John and I are now getting pretty slick at planning our departures and route (normally over breakfast) and when arriving at the aircraft, getting them untied and uncovered, packed and completing our pre-flight checks.  Many airports we've visited have mobile Avgas tankers that come to you when you call them by phone or on the radio.  That also makes getting away quick as you don't have to taxi somewhere for fuel, shutdown, fuel and start up again for departure.

As we left Broome on 11 July it was with a heavy heart. I really love the Kimberley area (as you can probably tell by now) and I wonder whether I'll ever get to come back.  I hope so before I have to hang up my headset.

Obligatory pre-departure photo, Cygnet Bay

Clouds of red dust on start-up at Cygnet Bay

Oaks Cable Beach Resort, Broome - this will do

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(*) Video prepared by Andrew Schofield.  Checkout Andrew's blog too:  https://nzcirruspilot.com/trans-tasman