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Alice Springs to Cairns, YBAS
- YBCS
Rachel, the waitress, is wrong
on her prediction about when the sun would first shine. It
dawns crystal clear, but the weather fax we receive from Universal
does not call for any bad storms even if we depart at 10:00,
so we stay on our amended schedule. Pam and I run into Ashley
in the hotel's restaurant having breakfast, then the two of
us take a taxi to the airport, clear security at the terminal,
and get the airplane ready for Pat and Ashley's arrival a
little later.
I suspect that our compass failure
will render our autopilot's lateral modes - Heading Hold,
Navigation Coupling - inoperative, so I may be required to
fly by hand much if not all of the way. We taxi out at 09:51
a.m. local. Alice Springs is one of the odd places that is
30 minutes off from most other spots. It is 0021Z and 10:21
a.m. local at our destination, Cairns, in the state of Queensland.
We are the only traffic around and we are airborne just a
couple of minutes later. No, our compass problem and the dead
Avidyne did not have a miraculous cure overnight; they remain
dead. My suspicion is confirmed when I engage the autopilot
in flight. Although it will hold pitch attitude and any selected
altitude, it can only fly wings level and it drifts off of
heading in an unpredictable fashion. For a while I try urging
it to hold the desired heading by making flat, skidding, turns
through rudder trim usage. It doesn't work well at all and
Pat asks what's going on, so I fly 99% of the time without
the autopilot. So this is how the DC-3 pilots used to do it,
eh? Heck, this is more like work than I like!
We level at - Yes, you guessed
it! - Flight Level 270, once again, but are only there for
a brief time before I can tell we won't top many of the clouds
unless we go higher. We are immediately cleared up to 290
upon request and that altitude permits us to remain cloud-free.
Again, no radar coverage exists
and we make standard position reports first to Melbourne and
then to Brisbane Centers on VHF frequencies. In about three
hours we begin our descent into Cairns. They pronounce it
"Cans," not "Carns," but they also pronounce it "Cah," not
"Car." "Buggah!" "No Worries!" "G'die, Mite!" "You're snookered!"
We are leaning a lot about speaking "Strine." We like the
sound if it.
The ATIS is calling for the ILS
Runway 15 Approach, with the wind 050 degrees at 15 knots
(Pretty good crosswind!), visibility more than ten kilometers,
few clouds at 2,000 feet, scattered clouds at 2,500 feet,
temperature 31 degrees C, QNH 1011. There were a few nasty
cumulonimbus buildups to our south as we flew along today,
but the clouds on the descent are layered and benign.
The only compass information
on my side of the cockpit is coming from the RMI indicator,
so it is a fun challenge doing some partial panel IFR work
while being vectored onto the localizer for the ILS. I do
have localizer and glideslope info on the EHSI but with no
background heading info at all. If the weather had really
been low, I would have asked Pam to fly the approach from
the right side since her instruments were fine, but knowing
that we would be in the clear soon, I enjoy the little bit
of IFR work I get to do.
We are in the tropics again,
it's hot, and the air conditioning that we had serviced in
Perth doesn't seem to be doing well at all. Will have to look
into that. The runway comes into view from about six miles
out and we have a lovely view of the rainforest, fields, rivers,
and ocean shore as we slide down final. Touchdown comes at
2:48 p.m. local on this Sunday afternoon. We are directed
into a General Aviation parking area and park in a tie-down
row between a Mooney to our right and another Super King Air
200 (BB-415) to our left. This feels more like what we have
at home. Keep those Qantas jumbo jets airliners over on the
other side of the field! The Qantas handlers are Johnny-on-the-spot
and the Mobil fuel truck is standing by, but we decide not
to fuel now, not knowing if we may be in a hangar for maintenance
work tomorrow.
All four of us can fit into the
minivan with our luggage, and we leave the golf clubs in the
wing lockers, since our delay means that we have missed our
golf slot that was for today. The driver takes us north on
the main highway, two lanes most of the time, four lanes occasionally,
and in about 22 km we arrive at the Angsana Resort and Spa
in Palm Cove. Pam and my room is on the second floor - They
number floors here like in America, not like in Europe - and
it has a great view of the Coral Sea through swaying palm
trees. Noisy white cockatoos swoop and dive among the leaves.
The room is like a small apartment:
Porch, living room with dining area (that has become the computer
area for me), kitchen, bedroom, two bathrooms, and - Ta Da!
- a laundry room also. Pam immediately starts a load of laundry
as I log on for e-mail.
A day late, but we are here safe
and sound. Looks like we're going to like Cairns!
Now if we can just get a handle
on 982GA's wounds tomorrow. At Alice Springs, Helen, of Qantas,
had arranged for the engineer (mechanic) that works for the
Royal Flying Doctor Service on its Super King Air B200 based
there to give me a call at the hotel. Andy Andrews rang me
up and we had a nice chat. I was gladdened to hear that he
had their major avionics work done by a shop in Cairns. Since
that is where we now are, hope is rising!
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