June 14, 2000 Howard's Great Adventure

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by	Howard Fried

About the Author ... Howard Fried started flying with the Army Air Corps in WWII, where he served both as a multi-engine instructor pilot and in combat piloting B-17s. After a stint teaching sociology and on-the-air and management jobs in the radio business after the war, he turned to teaching flying again full-time. Over 40,000 general aviation hours later, he is still instructing and running his own flight school. Along the way he administered over 4,000 flight tests as a Designated Examiner until victimized by rogue FAA officials. He has authored two popular flying books aimed at student pilots and instructors, Flight Test Tips and Tales and Beyond The Checkride, and a series of audio tapes, Checkride Tips from Flying's Eye Of The Examiner.

A couple of years ago one of my clients flew throughout Australia on something called the GOANA air safari and has been raving about it ever since. So in April of the year 2000 when I got the opportunity to go on the same trip, I jumped at the chance. When I mentioned that I was going to do this, one of my former students, Tim Dziuba, also signed on for the tour. Eight Cessna 172s with two people in each plus a tour director flying a Cherokee fly approximately 350 nm a day and cover as much of Australia as one could see in perhaps three months or so by car or bus. The organization of the itinerary is superb.

GOANA

The tour is run by an organization called GOANA, which stands for the Great Outback Australian Navigation Adventure. The name is a take on a native lizard, the goanna, an Australian iguana. GOANA is run by a delightful couple from Brisbane named Mal and Marjorie Shipton. The pair have set up several air safaris, lasting from five days to a full month. The trip Tim and I took is their most popular — dubbed the Frontier Explorer — and lasts 15 days. I had met Mal a total of three times: first at Oshkosh in 1998, then at Sun 'n Fun in 1999, and finally at Oshkosh again in 1999 when he had Marjorie with him to run the GOANA booth. I then corresponded with them by email.

By happenstance this year has been the wettest in Australia's history. In the several years that the GOANA air safaris have been in existence, the weather has never caused more than a half-day delay and never so much as a single diversion from the scheduled itinerary. However, this year the tour preceding ours and the one on which we flew had to be changed almost daily due to the weather. Obviously, all our flying must be day VFR (in fact our Australian Pilot Licenses limit us to this kind of flying). Even so, our wonderful tour director Keith Fearnside managed to make the arrangements for our accommodations, ground transport, meals, etc., changing each almost daily. The monumental task of handling all this while shepherding a group of 15 Americans from diverse backgrounds and widely differing ages was handled smoothly and efficiently. As well as being an excellent pilot, the bloke is also an engineer (Australian aircraft mechanic), so with his toolbox and spare parts he was ready for almost any minor emergency. We did in fact have one alternator failure in one of the airplanes, and Keith simply replaced the faulty alternator with a new one out of his spare parts supply (carried in the Cherokee which he flew).

Paperwork

First Day

The first day — or was it the first two days? — saw Tim and I leaving Detroit Metropolitan Airport on Saturday, April 8, for the first leg of our trip. After a brief layover while we changed planes in St. Louis, we arrived in Los Angles, where, after another brief layover, we boarded an Air New Zealand Boeing 747-400 bound for Sydney. Once safely on the ground in Sydney, we again changed planes (after yet another short layover) and proceeded to our destination — Brisbane. Including the time spent in airports, our total travel time was over 38 hours. Having crossed the International Date Line, we arrived in Brisbane mid-afternoon on Monday, but it was still mid-afternoon on Sunday back in Michigan. Although exhausting, the trip was not altogether unpleasant. Possibly in part because on all but the STL to LAX leg, the passenger loads were light, and the cabin attendants couldn't have been nicer or more helpful. Even the airline food on Air New Zealand was good!

The Next Two Days

Brisbane's Riverwalk

The next day was Tuesday and, after sleeping for over 12 hours and after a full breakfast at the Park Royal Hotel, we walked through the botanical gardens and along the river walk. These beautiful and well maintained gardens are just across the street from the hotel.

We had planned to go on the CityCat, a cruise boat that plies the Brisbane River and is a popular tourist attraction, but it rained off and on all afternoon, so we stayed in the hotel and watched a movie on the tube. At breakfast we met four of the people who would be flying the safari with us. Most of the others on this adventure were from the Washington state, although one was from Pennsylvania and another was from New Jersey, plus a couple from Alaska and another couple from Indiana.

Indeed, our party consisted of quite a diverse group. We ranged in age from the early 30s to the mid-70s. Seven of the 15 of us were non-pilots. One was a professional pilot — me — one had flown for the government in Alaska, one owns a TBM and regularly flies it from his home in Pennsylvania to Florida, and the rest are relatively low-time private pilots. One is a doctor (a cardiologist), one a landscaper, one a rancher, a couple of retirees, and an automobile dealer. Tim was the youngest and least experienced and I was the oldest and most experienced of the pilots.

City Cat water taxi in Brisbane

The following day, Wednesday, we walked from the hotel past a roundabout (also known as a traffic circle) and down the river walk to Riverside Centre, where we boarded one of the many catamarans and paid Aus $7.00 for a ticket which would be good all day on any public transportation in Brisbane — bus, ferry, City Cat, etc. We rode the City Cat, a large catamaran "bus" that goes downriver to the university, making frequent stops along the way. It then goes upriver through the downtown area, criss-crossing the river to stop on both sides to load and off-load passengers. On the downriver leg, while standing in the bow of the boat, the wind blew my cap off into the river, exposing my bald pate to the hot sun. I sure hated to lose that cap.

After leaving the City Cat, we walked back (upside-down on the bottom side of the world — across the equator and the International Date Line from the good ole U.S. of A.) to the Park Royal to rest, stopping along the way for lunch at one of the numerous outdoor cafes. It was then break-time, so after a dip in the pool and a session in the spa, we napped. (This travel journalism sure is tough! — Ed.) The next day the big adventure really got underway.

The Adventure Begins

The following morning at 0800 we were all picked up, along with our baggage, and taken to Redcliffe Aerodrome, some 40 or so kilometers away. We were given a thorough briefing on flying in Australia, regulations, survival in the outback, etc., and we were issued a kit containing charts, radio procedures, data on the itinerary, etc. Some of our stops would be at airports within MBZs (pronounced M Bee Zed), or Mandatory Broadcast Zones. These exist at remote airports where commuter traffic comes and goes, and when within 15 miles of such an airport, one is required to monitor the frequency and broadcast his intentions in the blind. At other airports one is not required to have a radio in the airplane, but if there is one it must be used! One of the more interesting points brought out during the briefing was the fact that almost all the aircraft movement on the ground must be accomplished with a towbar and manpower because most ramps in the Australian outback are gravel surfaced, made up of extremely fine stone and sand, and they are death on propellers. The paved runways are coated with bitumen, but many of the runways are unimproved, which means they are surfaced with fine gravel. In fact, dressing the props with a file would soon wear them down to thin strips of metal, so the replacement of propellers is accomplished fairly often.

Preparing To Depart

After a nice lunch in the GOANA hangar we met our airplanes and each of the pilots was checked out in the airplane he or she would be flying. It really wasn't a check flight, but rather an indoctrination flight to give the pilot an opportunity to learn where all the knobs and dials are located in his or her particular machine. All the airplanes are equipped with GPS and each is programmed with the waypoints for the daily route, en route and destination. We were then taken to a nice motel in Redcliffe, where we rested until suppertime, at which time we were again picked up and taken to a restaurant for a very nice dinner.

It REALLY Begins!

At 6:45 the next morning, Friday, we were again picked up with all our baggage and taken back to the GOANA Hangar at Redcliffe Aerodrome, where we had breakfast prior to starting out. After breakfast we finally got started. Our charts had been cut into 17 x 11-inch segments, laminated, folded into 8-1/2 x 11-inch sheets and inserted into cellophane pockets in a spiral binder. They were marked with the straight-line routes between waypoints with the heading and mileage noted for each route segment. It would be hard to get lost!

The first three segments took us clear of Brisbane's Class C airspace. They were 256 degrees/34 nm, 225/33, and 222/19 respectively. The next segment (224/84) brought us to Goondiwindi, an unattended paved strip where we all topped off our tanks. It is extremely important to top off the fuel tanks at every opportunity, because the availability of fuel is somewhat limited, in terms of distances between places where fuel can be obtained. And it would be a disaster to experience an off-airport landing in the outback because of fuel exhaustion.

From Goondiwindi, a straight line flight of 256 nm brought us to Haddon Rig station (ranch to us). Haddon Rig is a large sheep station. It has a two-strip, unimproved airport at which we all landed. And when I say large, I mean large! It encompasses 58,000 acres — that's right 58,000 acres of land! — and that's a small station! In addition to raising and breeding championship breeding rams, Haddon Rig maintains a guest lodge, where we spent the night.

Fuel Critical

When we left Haddon Rig the next morning, there was a low, broken cloud deck, and we flew along under this deck for a few miles, expecting it to break up, but instead it just hung there, becoming thicker and dropping lower than the 600-or-so-feet where it was when we started. When occasional clouds would reach the ground, we decided it was time to climb up on top, so we did just that, breaking out at about 1,700 feet agl into blue skies and sunshine. However, the friendly broken deck below us soon closed up and became solid. It was at this time that we really came to appreciate what we had been told about fuel at our briefing back at Redcliffe.

The distances between aerodromes where fuel is available in Australia are so great that everyone tops off their fuel tanks at every opportunity. We had a scheduled fuel stop at Burke, 132 nm from Haddon Rig (remember we had traveled 210 nm from Goondiwindi where we had last fueled up before arriving at Haddon Rig), so there was no question of reaching our destination of Charleville even with the long-range fuel tanks with which all the airplanes are equipped. We would have to be able to get down at Burke, or return to Haddon Rig, and there's no fuel available at Haddon Rig. As it turned out, some 40 nm prior to reaching Burke, the undercast began to break up so we could get down and we all made it in for our scheduled fuel stop at Burke.

The next waypoint, Cunnamulla, was a distance of 122 nm, at which point we made the final turn for the 103 nm run to Charleville. Since it was a bit late in the day it was decided to let the fueling wait until the next morning, and head for town and lunch. After a local tour and a presentation on local history, we visited a research center run by the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service where they have a breeding program underway to save the Bilby, a small marsupial which is in grave danger of extinction, primarily at the hands on feral cats and foxes. We got the full lecture on "save the Bilby" and then we saw some of those cute little buggers in their large breeding pen.

Longreach

The shortest day of flying occurred the next day. After fueling up at Charleville, we made the turn at Blackall, our only waypoint on the way to Longreach, a total of only 210 nm from Carleville. On the airport at Longreach we visited the Qantas Museum. The acronym QANTAS stands for Queensland and Northern Territories Air Service, and the airline now known as Qantas Airways grew up at Longreach.

The original QANTAS Hangar

The museum traced the history of Qantas Airways from its inception right up to the present day. After visiting this interesting facility, we boarded a bus for the Stockman's Hall of Fame, where we had lunch. The Stockman's Hall of Fame at Longreach is another interesting museum.

After lunch at the Stockman's Hall of Fame, where we gained a lot of background on the outback, we checked into another nice motel where we were to spend the night. First, however, after checking in, we proceeded by bus some 30 or so kilometers to the Wellshot Hotel at Ilfracombe where we had an excellent dinner. After we ate we had an incredible demonstration of working sheep dogs — short-haired Border Collies. These remarkable dogs worked ducks and sheep, both individually and in teams of up to four dogs. The Australian cowboy who gave this demonstration then demonstrated with his working horse, which had American quarterhorse ancestry. The bus then returned us to the motel at Longreach.

On To Mt. Isa

After returning to the motel we again rested until suppertime when we walked across the street to the Carpenteria Buffalo Club for dinner. We all signed in and became members of this fine private club — three-month members, but members nonetheless. By the time we finished with our dinner it was time to walk back to the motel and retire.

Our next scheduled stop was to be Alice Springs, but the weather forecast was not good, and we had to spend another day at Mt. Isa. Even the Air Carriers are not getting in or out of Alice Springs. The following morning the weather at Alice Springs was still iffy, so instead of visiting the Flying Doctor office in Alice Springs as originally planned, we saw the one at Mt. Isa, delaying the decision to depart for Alice Springs until after lunch.

A deHavilland Dove on a pedestal at the Royal Flying Doctor Service base at Mt. Isa

At the flying doctor base we saw a film and heard a fascinating lecture on the history and activity of the RFDS (Royal Flying Doctor Service). The operation is supported by the government (80 percent) and donations (20 percent). Teams of doctors and nurses flying Beech King Airs serve the remote areas of Australia and it is said that a person can be seen by a physician more quickly than waiting in a doctor's office or a hospital in the city. As the image to the left shows, the RFDS didn't always have it so good to be flying King Airs — earlier equipment included the deHavilland Dove piston twin.

After the visit to the RFDS base we returned to the Buffalo Club for lunch at which time we learned that we would not be proceeding to Alice Springs that day after all. Even so, there was still much to see and do in Mt. Isa. After a rest and a dip in the pool at the motel we walked over to the Aboriginal Culture Centre, where we acquired a smattering of knowledge of Aboriginal life. Some of our group also took a tour of a mine (Mt. Isa is very big mining country.)

Boulia, Outback In Queensland

Having spent an unplanned extra day in Mt. Isa, we moved on. However, our next scheduled destination, Alice Springs, was still socked in, so we changed direction and went south to Boulia, the shortest distance we had flown in a single day — only 139 nm. The disappointment of not making Alice Springs was soon dissipated when we had checked in to the motel at Boulia. We had lunch at the Min Min Encounter, and thereafter attended the show at the Min Min Encounter Theatre.

This program is extremely impressive. It tells all about the mysterious Min Min Light, which I believe inspired the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind! This unusual light is rarely seen and has never been satisfactorily explained. Some say it is natural (perhaps some sort of radiation glow), while others believe it to be supernatural. Some say it follows you, while others believe that it leads you on to your doom. Whatever it is, it can't be searched out and found. It shows up when and where it pleases and allows only those it chooses to observe it. The Min Min Light probably originated as an Aboriginal myth. Boulia is also the site of the big camel race held in July each year.

Longest Day Flying

From Boulia to Coober Pedy (hey, I didn't make up these names, honest...) was the longest day of flying on the entire trip. We were in the air for over five hours altogether. Lunch had been packed back at Boulia, and when we stopped for fuel at Birdsville, we walked across the street from the airport to the pub where we relaxed for a bit and had our lunch. Then off to complete the day's journey to Coober Pedy, a distance of well over 300 nm more. Along the way camels, cattle, donkeys, kangaroos, and wild horses were spotted.

Also, we had the rare opportunity to fly over lake Eyre, the largest salt water lake in the world. What made our experience so rare is the fact that this lake only has water in it about twice per century, the rest of the time it is a huge dry salt bed. This year Lake Eyre is indeed a huge body of saltwater. Because everything has been so wet this year the desert looked more like a swamp than a traditional desert. The water comes from the rivers which all flow inland and evaporate or seep into the ground when they reach the desert, but the area qualifies as a desert because of the very limited annual rainfall. However, by this time we were all joking about how the term "limited annual rainfall" is a myth!

The hotel in which we stayed here is by far the most luxurious of any we have experienced on the trip so far. It is unique in that it is cut right in the side of a rock hill, and the rooms are underground with rock walls. They are not really underground — in effect they are a series of caves cut into the side of the rock hill. This means, of course, that there are no windows in the rooms. We also had the best dinner of the trip here at Coober Pedy, at a Greek restaurant, of all things.

Coober Pedy is the center of the world's opal mining industry. Over 90 percent of the opals mined in the entire world come from this area and most of the local population are engaged in either mining or cutting of the stones, turning the product of the mines into fine jewelry. Our original itinerary puts us in Coober Pedy tomorrow for an overnight stay, but because of the diversions we have made, we'll be here for two nights, after which we will be back on schedule. When we arrived at the community of Coober Pedy the population and merchants were busily preparing for the Opal Festival, an annual event that atracts thousands of visitors from all over the world.

An opal mine pit

The next morning after breakfast we visited an opal shop where we had the opportunity to observe a cutter at work and the beautiful handiwork he turned out. We then boarded a bus for a tour of the area. This tour included several stops, from the local cemetery, to an underground church, an underground residence, and a tour of an underground mine, as well as surface mining operations. These underground facilities are very practical in that they are relatively maintenance free and they require neither heat not cooling. The Coober Pedy golf course is the strangest in the world. No part of it is made of green grass! The golfers are permitted to carry a bit of sod or a piece of carpet on which they place the ball for their shots.

Another Long Leg

Leaving Coober Pedy we had a bit over four hours of flying to Birdsville where we overnighted at the Birdsville Hotel after visiting a working museum which contains collections of all kinds of historic artifacts. This long day of flying saw us cross over portions of three of Australia's huge states — South Australia, Northern Territories, and Queensland. Please don't take the expression "huge states" lightly. Just think, with a land mass approximately the size of the contiguous 48 United States, mainland Australia has only five states — Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, Northern Territories, and South Australia. Birdsville is quite a small town, but it attracts a large number of people for the races that are held there. Virtually all the activity in this quiet little town centers around the pub which is part of the hotel, and at night the place really comes alive. While a guitar player strummed and sang, several others played pool. The public bar was quite crowded and very noisy. The hotel rooms were the most primitive we've seen on the trip. The accommodations at the station guest house at Haddon Rig were much finer. However the breakfast at the Birdsville Hotel the next morning was very good.

Birdsville To Blackall

Our next scheduled stop was to be Avington (after a fuel stop at Windorah), but since the rain had soaked the sod runway at Avington, we amended our destination to Blackall where we landed for an overnight stay, after making the fuel stop at Windorah. On these two legs, a total distance of 280 nm, we saw more wildlife than we had seen so far, including camels, kangeroos, emus, dingoes, wild hogs, and, of course, lots of cattle and sheep. We got in to Blackall under a very low ceiling (300 feet) and visibility of perhaps one-half mile. In other words, we made it by scud running over flat country with zero obstacles. For most of this day's flying we were 500 or fewer feet above the ground.

The next morning the weather still required that we stand down so the decision was made to spend another night in Blackall. Although a very nice little town, there is very little to see or do in Blackall so we just rested and took it easy. A stroll through the town included a visit to a shearing shed where we had the opportunity to observe an old style shearing machine in operation, and it was all over as far as activity is concerned. The motel, however, is really first class, and if you have to be stuck someplace, this is as good as any. Our schedule called for us to spend two days at Avington (the previous night, this night and the next day), and the next two days at Great Keppel Island, then back to Redcliffe, our starting point and the end of the great adventure. Of course, anyone who flies is completely at the mercy of the weather. This is simply a fact of life.

Great Keppel Island

The next morning was flyable, so we departed Blackall for Emerald, a gemstone center, where we topped off the tanks. As soon as we finished fueling the airplanes, we took off again for Great Keppel Island. The Keppel Islands were named by Captain Cook during his famous voyage in 1770. Cook named the area after Admiral Augustus Keppel (1725-1786) who had joined the Royal Navy at the age of 10 (that's right — he was 10 years old when he joined up) and had risen to become First Lord of the British Admiralty. Altogether we traveled just under 300 nm, again under a low overcast all the way.

Landing at Great Keppel, we were met right out at the airstrip by a small bus and a tractor pulling a trailer for our luggage. We then checked in to the Great Kepple Island Resort hotel, and quite a resort it is — very similar to those at Miami or Honolulu. We assembled on the restaurant balcony at 5:00 pm for a welcoming complimentary champagne cocktail reception. Then, at 6:30 we met for supper at the Admiral Keppel Restaurant. The schedule called for an excursion on a large catamaran the next morning at 10:30, a schedule which gave us all an opportunity to sleep in for a change. Again, it rained intermittently all night, sometimes quite hard. The weather in Australia certainly had not been anything like what most, if not all, of us had expected, but the Australians never expected that kind of weather either.

Bats in a tree

Another washout — not only did it rain all night on Grand Keppel Island, but the following morning it was still raining, so our boat ride in the big catamaran was cancelled as well. We could walk around the island, rest, partake in one or another of the many activities available there, or simply do nothing until dinnertime. Grand Keppel Island is indeed a tropical paradise with small and medium sized marsupials scampering about and gorgeous tropical birds flitting from tree to tree and uttering various raucous noises. The birds fought us for the food on our plates, and the possums begged at the table (Australian possums differ from those I'm used to in that they have furry tails rather than the rat tails of the North American opossums). Huge bats called flying foxes abound on the island. They spend the day hanging upside down in the trees and at night fly out for food.

This was really our final day of the tour's flying portion. The following day we were scheduled to fly to Redcliffe and then back to Brisbane by bus. In spite of the fact that we had missed several of the things we were scheduled to see, the trip was a success, for we experienced many equally interesting things that weren't on the schedule. In other words whatever was missed was replaced with something of equal or greater interest. This, of course, was a result of the work of our wonderful tour director. Keith is not only and accomplished pilot and engineer, but is an extremely knowledgeable historian and naturalist. Throughout the entire trip we had all been in communication with one another on the GOANA chat frequency, and Keith explained facts about the flora and fauna of Australia as we flew by the habitat of each.

Another Day Of Scud Running

Although scheduled to start at 8:00 a.m., we delayed the start of our final day of flying until 9:00 because of the weather. Then when we departed Great Keppel Island we stayed low under a 400-foot overcast. We followed the shoreline to Gladstone, a distance of approximately 60 nm, where we topped off our tanks. Again the weather held us on the ground for over two hours, and when we took off for Redcliffe we were again forced to fly low through light, moderate, and heavy rainshowers as we followed the coastline down. Flying low over the coastline (just out over the water where we were sure of ground clearance at our low altitude), we passed by some very interesting countryside — volcanic hills and superb farmland. The rich volcanic soil provides excellent growing land for several tropical products. We also flew over the world's largest sand island.

No travelogue of Australia would be complete without kangaroos

On arriving at Redcliffe, we were met and greeted by Mal and Marjorie Shiffer, who had been manning the GOANA booth at Sun 'n Fun when we departed two weeks previously. They had a nice light lunch laid outand souvenirs (pins and polo shirts) for each of us. After much group picture taking and joking around, we loaded up in the GOANA vans and were taken back to the Park Royal Hotel in Brisbane. Thus the odyssey ended. We had flown over 42 hours and covered well over 3,000 nm. Such a trip would have taken over three months if done by car or bus.

Tim and I had another full day and a night in Brisbane to do a bit of sightseeing and wandering around the city.

Final Day Downunder

Although our experience flying 'round the land down under was over, GOANA provided us with another night's stay at the Park Royal Hotel in Brisbane, so the next day we availed ourselves of the opportunity to visit the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, which turned out to be one of the highlights of the entire expedition. This wonderful place — which is dedicated to saving the koala — is home to over 130 of the furry, cuddly creatures. It also houses kangaroos, wallabies, emus, crocodiles, bats (flying foxes), dingoes, and several other forms of Australian wildlife, as well as numerous varieties of birds.

The author holding a koala

Although many of the creatures are housed in large pens, the kangaroos, emus, wallabies, and wild turkeys are free to wander about the grounds, and the visitors are free to feed them. Since koalas are very particular regarding which specific kind of eucalyptus leaves they will eat, the sanctuary has planted 40,000 gum trees and plans to put in another 30,000 to provide food for the koalas, who manage to consume about 230 tons of leaves annually. Koala is an Aboriginal word meaning "doesn't drink water." Since eucalyptus leaves are about 50% water, koalas rarely, if ever, drink water.

This ended our adventure in Australia. Tim and I had a wonderful time seeing the sights and traveling throughout Australia. I'm already planning to go back next year for another one of the GOANA trips. Maybe I'll see you then?