Diary of an aviation nut: 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 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.