On leaving Longreach just before 10am we immediately encountered the low cloud that was supposed to have moved on and struggled to stay much above 1,000ft AGL. The normally distinct outback horizon came and went as the visibility lowered form time to time. There was also a SPECI issued (special weather forecast) issue while we were in flight that indicated the cloud base was just as low at Charleville. I chickened out and declared to the others that I was going to divert to Blackall which was only 20nm to the east of our track. Prior to making this call we were maintaining legal Visual Flight Rules (VFR) but the conditions were clearly not going to get any better to Charleville and, as we had all day, there was no point unnecessarily pushing on in less than desirable weather. Especially when it was forecast to improve anyway.
There's nothing much at Blackall but the local airport Reporting Officer saw us come in and came down to say "hello". He opened up his hut for us, and made a coffee and we spent a pleasant hour chatting with him.
The onward flight to Charleville was no problem as the cloud had lifted by the time we left Blackall and it was pleasant flying.
Gary had arranged for us to have a look through the Royal Flying Doctor Service base at Charleville and we spend time there crawling over one of their lovely Pilatus PC12 aircraft. The chief pilot and chief engineer told us all about this very capable aircraft and their operations out of Charleville. They fly 35-40hrs most weeks which is a long way when you're travelling at 250kts.
My son Andrew flies for General Aviation Maintenance (GAM) in Melbourne. On arriving at Charleville I noticed a GAM Aerocommander on the apron. Andrew coordinated a meeting between the pilot and I which has resulted in us scoring GAM's pilot car for the evening. Another example of the flying community working together to help each other yet again 😌
No comments:
Post a Comment