Arnhem Land ferry

Recently the call came through from Arnhem Land to say they needed an aircraft ferrying up from Mareeba, so with the students being scheduled for lessons in basic instrument flying (which I can't teach yet), it was the perfect excuse to fly a plane myself for a day. A very long day, in fact - 7.5 hrs in the air...

Although I've flown the route a couple of times before, there were some different wet season sights. The salt flats between Normanton and Burketown, in particular, looked very different as this time they were covered with water. I opted to fly at 6500 ft most of the way as it was above most of the cloud and provided cooler temperatures for me and the engine (not to mention a slight tailwind at times). As the day progressed there was more and more cloud build-up, which meant I had to divert around it, which was good practise for decision-making and in-flight calculations. Interestingly, these deviations only affected my ETA by a couple of minutes (on a 2.5+ hr leg)!

Early morning pre-flight inspection, Mareeba

White fluffies on the way to Normanton

Cloud reflections in the water on the salt flats

Big leaky clouds on my direct track. I opted to deviate to the right

Towering cumulus

The obligatory selfie!
Cargo this time included 60 kg of metal signs (strapped down)

A double rainbow on descent to Borroloola

Limmen Bight River

Afternoon tea...

One final towering cumulus to fly around before landing at Gove

Field trip

On Wednesday our PPL class took two aeroplanes to Atherton for a lesson on short- and soft-field take-offs and landings. For some of them it was their first time taking off or landing on a grass airstrip, and for all it was a great learning experience.

While they were waiting for their turn to fly, they calculated the theoretical take-off and landing performance of the aeroplanes, and marked out the distances along the side of the airstrip with cones. The actual numbers were surprisingly close!

Calculating take-off and landing distances for the actual conditions

Watching a classmate take-off

Lunch break!

Short field take-off

View from the cockpit

Aircraft on final and its shadow

Part of the happy crew - Joe, Shan and Jacob

A weekend in Port Douglas

Last weekend I decided to have a 'mini break' and go somewhere different - Port Douglas. It's a little over an hour's drive from Mareeba, depending which road you take.

I spent most of Saturday at Wildlife Habitat. Here are some pics:

Friendly rainbow lorikeets

Python

Spinifex hopping mouse (in the nocturnal house)

Crocodiles - male (left) and female (right). The female is just under 2 m long...

Crocodile feeding
(don't try this at home)

Kangaroo feeding

Joey having a drink

Same joey having a nap
(I'm so glad I'm not a kangaroo!!!)

Black-necked stork (formerly called jabiru) and pied herons keeping a safe distance

Cass, a female cassowary

Koala in its natural state (they sleep for 20 hours a day!)

Lumholtz tree kangaroo

Later that afternoon I wandered around the main street and up to the Flagstaff Hill lookout before checking in at the motel and then finding a local pub to have dinner.

In the morning I went down to the craft market and then started the drive back to Mareeba via the coast and Kuranda range.

Rex's lookout

I had a bit of time (due to forgetting to take my hiking boots, so I wasn't able to do the bush walk I had planned) so stopped in to visit the Butterfly Sanctuary in Kuranda instead.

Red lacewing butterfly

Common eggfly butterfly

Cairns birdwing (wingspan up to 18 cm!)