There's a lot of water out there - Norfolk Island to Lord Howe Island and onto Port Macquarie

We had waited two days in Norfolk Island for a front to pass through the Tasman Sea and for a high pressure area to establish itself over our route. Arrangements had been made with the Norfolk Island airport to open up at 7:00am so we could make an early departure as there was a long day of flying ahead.  The aircraft had all been fuelled and packed up the day before so on arrival at the airport all we had to do was check the weather, perform our pre-flight and then get underway.

As we had the Norfolk Island airfield to ourselves at 7:40am we did a steaming take-off - each aircraft immediately taking off behind the one in front.  This worked well because it meant for the first hour of the flight to Lord Howe Island we were flying in sight of each other until our relative speeds slowly seperated us.

On departure from Norfolk Island the forecast was for patchy rain as we passed through the the tail of the front which had just passed through and then clear skies until we reached the coast of Australia when more rain and drizzle was expected. Unfortunately headwinds were also forecast and they were present the whole way. Most of the day we were flying into 20kt headwinds which was frustrating. However that was to be expected when flying against the prevailing winds and we consoled ourselves that when we come to fly home we should have a much quicker ride.

For the first 80nm we passed through or dodged rain showers and then the skies opened up and contained lovely scattered puffy cumulus clouds between 2000 - 4500ft.  We all jockeyed around trying to find reducing headwinds without much success but it was fun manoeuvring amongst the cloud to the sound of David Gilmour's latest album playing in my headset. It was all quite idyllic even though we were surrounded thousands of square kilometres of water.

Roughly halfway between Norfolk and Lord Howe Islamd is the TEKEP reporting point and this marks the boundary of the Australian and New Zealand Flight Information Regions (FIR). As we passed TEKEP I called Brisbane Centre and passed on our position and an ETA for Lord Howe Island.

For a long time I have worried about the approach and landing at Norfolk Island. The island is notorious for strong winds and turbulence and the landing plate contains the following sobering warning:

Because of the topography of Lord Howe certain wind COND may generate SEV TURB in the APCH to the RWY & preclude a safe LDG. The only safe course of action in such cases is to divert to a mainland AD.

Lord Howe Island is a volcanic remnant and rises steeply out of the sea to a height of 2,871ft.  As you approach most islands from the air you see them slowly forming on the horizon. Not so with Lord Howe. It announces itself by looming menancingly in front of you.  About 11nm to the south is Ball's Pyramid, an equally impressive rock that rises steeply from the sea to a height of 1,800ft. Apparently this is the world's tallest volcanic stack.

Despite my fears the approach and landing at Lord Howe Island was uneventful.

Prior to leaving Norfolk Island we'd contacted the Lord Howe Island airport manager and asked him to arrange a quick turnaround for us.  That worked well and we were met by Australian Customs and the fuel truck.  After fuelling and the customs formalities were taken care of we had a few minutes to swallow a museli bar and some water, check the weather and file our onward flight plans. We were underway in about 1.5hrs.

The leg from Lord Howe Island presented the most challenging winds.  25-30kts right on the nose. Fortunately this leg at 319nm is the shortest over-water leg so it presented no problems but watching my groundspeed fall to 115kts at times was a bit depressing.  To add to our frustration a large military flying area off the coast of Port Macquarie was closed and we had to go around it or fear being shot down.

Although a bit lumpy the 50nm run south down the coast and approach to Port Macquarie was uneventful. On the ground we were met by friends and family of Dave and Don and a number of local aviators that were expecting our arrival and were keen to meet us.

The flight time from Norfolk to Lord Howe Island was 3:51 and from Lord Howe to Port Macquarie was 2:53.  Without checking my log the total of 6:44 for the day is probably the most I've flown in a day.  I crashed into bed knackered but very satisfied with the day's flying and to be in Australia.