Early this year I found CoolGunS GA Highway Project - a route from Australia to Europe in GA friendly hops for which he is creating custom airports. I thought I'd give it a go in the JustFlight Turbo Arrow IV.
My first challenge was getting to the start line. My plan was to fly from Adelaide Parafield (YPPF) to Alice Springs (YBAS) and on to Derby (YDBY).
The first leg was a chance to evaluate the turbo Piper's endurance, which turned out to be pretty good. AT 9,000ft I could get ~13 gallons per hour cruising at 32 Hg and a respectable 160 kts. That confirmed I had more than enough go juice to cross the Western Desert.
Which turned out to be harder than expected because I timed this perfectly with Tropical Cyclone Hayley making landfall at, you guessed it, Derby. Discretion being the better part of valour where cyclones are concerned, I spent a couple of days in Alice.
It also gave me an excuse to visit Impulse Simulations YBAS which I have had for a year and never flown! Very atmospheric and full of little details. Highly recommended.
During this I discovered all my pics of the first leg were bad because the screen capture method I used doesn't play nice with HDR. Bugger. So this is the second part of the prologue, YBAS to YDBY across the Western Desert.
On the plus side, the low pressure system that remained gave me a handy 15 kt tailwind.
I started the day opposite the RFDS apron. Sadly, this was before I fixed the operator codes for RFDS traffic so I had default Kingairs instead of proper liveries.
Tracking north east from Alice the landscape is dominated by a series of parallel ridges. The high point of this one is Mt Lloyd
An hour and a half and 95nm in I passed Lake Lewis. Don't kid yourself that's fresh water, its salt.
Lake Dennis at right, Lake White at centre and Lake Wills in the distance. More salt lakes, this is Lassiter's Reef country.
Passing the only town for 1,000kms, Yuendumu. For any Midnight Oil fans, the Western Desert may very well live and breathe at 45° but its a chilly 10° up here at 9,500ft and Kintore is indeed about 300km WSW of here.
Its hard to comprehend how big, old and empty the Western Desert is.
Mt Pierre station is on the edge of the St George Ranges. The first sign of civilisation since Yuendumu ninety minutes and 300nm behind me.
The Fitzroy River means I am done with the Western Desert after 3 hours and 600nm.
As I started my descent I ran into the remains of Cyclone Hayley which had kept me in Alice longer than planned. I will follow the road at centre right down to the coast and Derby (YDBY)
Downwind leg to land at Derby (YDBY)
Parked up for the night at Derby (YDBY) after more than 4 hours in the air. This is the start line for CoolGunS GA Highway to Europe Project. Tomorrow is a long haul over the Timor Sea to Indonesia.The next installment: GA Highway to Europe Project Leg 1
