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Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
I will let the pictures to most
of the talking on this one. Sydney is a truly beautiful city
and the people who live here seem to prefer it to anywhere
else. They must be doing something right…The Park Hyatt Hotel
sits in an absolutely stunning setting, hard by the Sydney
Harbor Bridge, or Harbour, as they spell it here. Our room
is very, very, pleasant but it does have one surprising lack:
Only one waste basket in the whole ruddy place! We have to
stroll into the main room of the suite, to the desk, to get
rid of our dental floss. Weird!…Doyles is an old seafood restaurant
family that started from nothing and now have many restaurants
in the Sydney area. We ate twice at the one on Circular Quay,
just a short stroll from the Hyatt and right across from the
Opera House. Both lunch, outside, and dinner, inside, were
excellent and the value was quite good…Dang! It is hard to
find a taxi driver who knows the way to Bankstown Airport!
Sydney has quite a traffic overload and there are not many
freeways, so driving rapidly across this spread-out city is
difficult even with the best of drivers. But if they don't
have a clue as to where this little airport is, then for goodness
sake look at the map before you start off! Pam and I got very
tired of being the navigators, map spread out in the back
of the taxi, as we directed these yoyos to the destination…And
we spent a lot of time at Bankstown as Hawker Pacific worked
to solve our maintenance problems. I am forever in the debt
of this organization, especially its superb avionics manager,
Rod Wilson. Not only did Rod (and Barry) work well past the
Friday quitting time trying to get a handle on why we continued
to blow the 115V AC fuse that powers the Number 1 directional
gyro even after a new gyro was installed, but Rob also took
an extra hour or more out of his late evening to help Pam
and me get a taxi back to the hotel. (At this time of night,
Bankstown wasn't exactly overrun with patrolling taxis!) They
quickly found and repaired a loose wire connection to our
left side fuel flow gauge and it started working again. They
installed the loaner Multifunction Display that Avidyne expeditiously
sent to us and that solved our radar and CD problems. Finally,
they traced the short to the Number 1 Compass's compensator
unit, ordered a replacement unit, arranged to have it shipped
to us at our Auckland stop, and disconnected the offending
unit which allowed us to go ahead and utilize the reversionary
information from Number 2 compass in the EHSI. This, in turn,
restored all autopilot functions. Yea, Hawker Pacific! Thank
you so very, very, much for your wonderful service! They even
installed our old gyro - which was never the source of our
problem, as it turned out - and arranged for credit to be
given for the replacement that we didn't need after all…Since
our problems were not yet solved, Pam and I flew Pat and Ashley
on to Melbourne on Saturday, the First of December, and then
returned back to Bankstown. Doing this, it kept them on schedule
and allowed us Monday and Tuesday at Hawker Pacific to come
up with the cure. I flew down and Pam flew back and it was
a most enjoyable couple of flights. This section of Australia
was very verdant and the weather was quite nice, with puffy
low clouds that provided a smooth flight aloft and good views
of the earth below. Universal, our handlers, had suggested
using Essendon Airport in Melbourne, not the International
Airport, because it was less busy and had better handling.
Amen! Executive Airlines at Essendon was our handling agent
and they did a great job. They were waiting when we landed
with the limo standing by so that P & A could be on their
way very quickly. We needed no fuel, but spent some enjoyable
time there before we returned to Sydney talking to an Australian-based
Falcon 900 pilot who did lots of international flying as well
as with Laura, the Executive Airlines representative. Pam
flew the leg back to Sydney, Bankstown, and we connected with
a cab driver who did indeed know the route from there to our
hotel…The restaurant at the Park Hyatt was delightful. Once
we ate in the main part and the night we got back from Melbourne,
Saturday, since we had made no reservation, we were forced
to eat in the bar area, but that too was a fine experience…What
with the time spent fretting about poor old 982GA, we had
little time to enjoy the total Sydney experience. What a heartbreaker!
So enjoy the pictures. We especially regretted not having
time to ride the ferries or to take a harbor cruise on the
many sightseeing boats that ply these busy waters. Nice city;
nice people!
Bridge Walk |
Ferry Slips; Park Hyatt Roof |
Getting Close! |
New & Old |
Park Hyatt, Under the Bridge |
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