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Sydney - Melbourne - Hobart
- Queenstown, YSBK - YMEN - YMHB - NZQN
The bedside alarm at the Park
Hyatt Sydney goes off after we are already stirring under
the covers. This fabulous room has motorized curtains. A push
of the remote control by the bed and - Presto! - the drapes
part to let in the outside world and let us see that it is
cloudy but without rain.
We have decided to arrange for
the car and driver through Hawker Pacific, who acted as Universal's
agent when we arrived, to be more certain of having a driver
who knows the way to the remote airport. After a room service
breakfast and checking out of the hotel, we find the same
Mercedes and same driver waiting for us as had driven us in
six days ago. Good! He definitely knows his way around the
city.
The weather and flight plan fax
we receive when we arise shows satisfactory weather for all
of our three legs today, but with horrible headwinds on the
first leg to Melbourne. A flight that would normally require
about 1.7 hours is planned to take 2.1 today due to a forecast
63 knot headwind component. At Bankstown, Pam calls Pat &
Ashley at their Melbourne hotel to amend our pick-up time
for about a half hour later.
Rod Wilson welcomes us at Hawker
Pacific and soon we load up, preflight the airplane, review
the maintenance log book entry, say our goodbyes and thanks,
and are taxiing out for departure.
Today, Runway 11C(enter) is closed
for some reason and I overshoot the holding point for Runway
11L(eft) and must do a quick 180 degree turn back to it. This
runway is less than 4,000 feet long, we are full of fuel,
so we use Approach flaps for takeoff. We are given a left
downwind turn, contact Sydney Departure control, and are permitted
to climb unrestricted to FL270. A few vectors off of course
allow faster traffic to pass us. At 9,000 feet we break out
of the broken clouds and into clear blue skies above.
The winds are even stronger than
forecast: 75 knots on the nose. To make us even slower, we
are asked to climb another 2,000 feet higher to let a Qantas
airline jet and a Falcon 900 scoot by underneath. Still, we
are soon in the descent and make a visual, left-base entry
to Runway 17. It is lush green underneath the clouds, and
their bases are at about 3,000 feet. Temperature at Essendon
Aiport is 18 degrees Celsius, or 64 degrees Fahrenheit, with
wind from 130 degrees at 15 knots.
Pat and Ashley are waiting at
the Executive Airlines hangar. We load their bags, put some
ice in the chest, and are soon on our way again, this time
with Pam in the left seat. We taxi out at exactly 0000Z, or
11:00 a.m. local time. The clearance is exactly as filed by
Universal, basically a straight shot to the north coast of
Tasmania and then a little dogleg turn to Hobart.
Leaving 12,000 feet we switch
from Melbourne Departure to Melbourne Center. Radar contact
is maintained all the way across the water, known as the Bass
Strait. We are told later that this section of the ocean is
quite shallow and prone to developing huge waves. It is where
they lost so many sailboats and crewmen during the race across
it a few years ago.
Now we have mostly crosswinds.
Tasmania is one of the Australian states. As its shore comes
into view and as we descend over it, we are really impressed.
The land is very green and there are lots and lots of lakes
and reservoirs. However, the water level looks to be low and
there are patches of large areas that appear to be fire damaged.
There is no radar coverage down
low here and from 50 miles out we are in contact with the
tower, no radar approach controller, who asks us for frequent
position updates so that other IFR traffic can be coordinated.
We make a straight-in visual approach to Runway 12. On final,
we get nice views of the city off to our right and we also
notice a smaller airport that sits almost adjacent to the
main one. We are directed to stand Number 5, right next to
a Qantas Boeing 717. Yes, that is what it is and what the
tower calls it, but it still looks like a small Douglas DC-9
to me! (Douglas is now a part of Boeing.)
Fueling is handled expeditiously
but we receive the frustrating news that Qantas, our handling
agent here, had not been given sufficient notice of our arrival
and hence had not notified the Customs officials in time for
them to come from the city's seaport out to the airport…they
wouldn't be there for an hour. Pam checks with Universal and
we are convinced that indeed Qantas was contacted in a proper
fashion. However, the lady they spoke with went off of duty
without notifying Customs and did not leave proper notice
for her replacement.
At least Theo Van Loon, Qantas'
Hobart manager, was very nice to us, allowing us access to
their VIP lounge with its snack buffet, TV, conference room,
etc. But the hour delay stretched into and hour and a half,
then two. When Customs finally arrive, it seems the main thing
they accomplish is to collect a $20 departure tax from our
passengers! In fact, many countries require no contact with
Customs when leaving, only when entering, but Australia wants
it both ways.
While waiting, we learn from
Theo that this had been the wettest winter in many years for
Tasmania, as evidenced by the low levels in the reservoirs.
In fact, the drought forced farmers and ranchers to sell off
much of their herds. Now, with the good rains, the country
is brimming with feed but without many cows to eat it! Too
bad. I would guess that someone seeking an off-the-beaten
path outdoors experience would do well to consider Tasmania.
The beautiful countryside we saw as we landed reminded Pam
and me of the area around Santa Ynez and Lompoc in California.
Finally, we are reloaded and
taxiing out two hours and twenty minutes after we taxied in.
Not a quick refueling stop.
This flight crosses the Tasman
Sea, 924 nautical miles to Queenstown, New Zealand. I am back
in the left seat and soon, as expected, we are given both
a primary and secondary HF frequency to use to contact Brisbane
Center. The HF system is true to form: Difficult. Today, I
can hear Brisbane and other airplanes on the frequency quite
clearly, but Brisbane reads me too weakly for good understanding.
I make a relay through "Qantas 134" but the next position
report is received OK via the HF.
The wind is now out of the northwest
and provides as a little help. Groundspeed tends to run about
270 knots. With the headwind to Melbourne and then the lengthy
delay in Hobart, we have been worrying about getting into
Queenstown before dark. The airport there sits in very mountainous
terrain with approaches that terminate in high minimums and
we would not feel comfortable attempting the landing at night
unless the weather is clear with a big moon lighting the landscape.
Neither of these is going to happen, so we need to have daylight
to even give this a shot. Happily, sunset comes late at this
time of year in the southern hemisphere and it looks like
we should land about forty minutes before.
Then, a big, bad, surprise occurs:
We have no IFR approach plates for Queenstown!
We had, of course, ordered the
multitude of charts we would need for World Flight 2001 from
Jeppessen, the only game in town. I have always had the utmost
respect for this company, and still do. They have great products
and wonderful customer service. As promised, they had sent
us the books and books of charts on time. I had gone through
them before we left Scottsdale and moved the ones covering
our scheduled stops into one binder that we keep handy in
the cockpit. The other charts are available in back, to be
utilized if some unforeseen event would force us to land at
an unplanned location.
As Pam opens the trip binder,
sure enough, there are the charts for Queenstown. Upon further
inspection, however, the set is incomplete. It has all of
the pages covering the unusual VFR arrival and departure procedures
for this tricky airport, but nothing about IFR. "They must
have IFR approach procedures!" we think. We verify that they
do by checking the database in the GNS 530. Yes, quite a few
approach options are there.
Thinking that I probably missed
pulling some charts, Pam goes to our stash in the cabin and
gets the entire New Zealand book out. Nope, nothing. Next,
we make a nearly page-by-page inspection of our trip book,
thinking the charts got misplaced behind the wrong letter
tab. Again, nothing. About this time, as we are reading in
detail all of the notes that we have on Queenstown - some
from our handling sheet and others from the VFR Jeppessen
pages we do have - we see a notice that the tower closes at
5:30 p.m. and, after that, airplanes of our category must
not execute IFR approaches. Okay, I guess that seals the deal:
Either the weather will allow a visual letdown to the airport
or we will be proceeding to our alternate, which is Christchurch.
Approaching the west coast of
the south island of New Zealand, we are in VHF contact with
Auckland Center and the clouds below are still looking rather
thick. Pam listens to the Queenstown ATIS which is saying
to expect the VOR-DME C approach, circling to Runway 23, winds
240 degrees at 10 knots, temperature 12 degrees Celsius, few
clouds at 2,000 feet, scattered clouds at 5,000 feet, and
broken clouds at 9,000 feet. "Well, at least we don't have
a solid overcast at the airport. Maybe we will be able to
find a safe hole and get down visually."
Now - Surprise! - Auckland tells
us to contact the Tower. They are still open! The controller
tells us to intercept the 15 DME arc to execute the approach.
OK. Confessional time. "Tower, 982GA apparently got short-changed
on our Queenstown approach plates and we have discovered that
we have only the VFR charts, not the IFR charts for your airport.
However, we do have the approach in the GPS database, but
without altitudes provided. Could you please be kind enough
to provided us the altitudes for the various stepdowns?"
What would he say? Is this legal
in NZ? We waited on the edge of our seats.
"No worries!" With that, our
angel proceeds to read off the procedure in detail and Pam
frantically copies down the info. Meanwhile, I activate the
approach in the GNS 530 and swing onto the 15 mile arc, turning
right to make a counterclockwise circle of the VORDME. On
the arc, we descend to 10,000 feet. Turning inbound on the
212 degree radial, we go down to 8,200 feet. As we reach the
various DME distances, we keep verifying the next step down
altitude.
Ah, there it is! Ground contact!
I keep watching the instruments and continuing with the approach,
but it is obvious now that we will be able to complete the
approach successfully and not have to execute a missed approach
climb and diversion to Christchurch. Finally, we are beneath
all of the clouds. I see the runway to my right. We are still
about 4,000 feet above it; field elevation is 1,170 feet.
I had extended Approach flaps and landing gear when intercepting
the arc, so now I merely reduce power and continue the descent
as I turn left and go around a small mountain before making
the right turn back to final for Runway 23.
The surroundings are gorgeous!
We can hardly contain our excitement at having made it in
to this stunning location on schedule. As we are rolling on
the runway, Pat intones in the intercom system the Jimmy Buffet
lines: "Why do we ride the carousel? For the stories we can
tell." Thanks, Lord, for giving us this experience.
We are met by the normal gaggle
of handler/immigration/customs/driver personnel, all of whom
are friendly and helpful. There is quite a lengthy process
of having the airplane fumigated for bugs and all of our belongings
inspected to make sure that we don't have anything that will
negatively impact NZ agriculture. Then Pam, Pat, Ashley and
most of the rest proceed into the terminal to continue the
check-in process while Brett Glass, our handler from Capital
Jet Services, and I reposition the airplane to a parking area
away from the terminal.
Our driver is a retired farmer
from the area and provides a running commentary during the
nine mile drive to Millbrook Resort. We enter through a long
lane of large shade trees. The resort's lovely golf course
surrounds the buildings. I think we'll like it here!
Because it is now close to 10:00
p.m. local time, the time the kitchen closes - we have lost
two hours today - we all order pizza for room service delivery
as we check in at the front desk. We are assigned room 230,
Pat and Ashley room 236, and the bellman drives us and the
luggage in a golf cart with trailer the short distance to
our rooms. These are actually second floor, time-share condos,
with living room, kitchen, bedroom, and small porch. A washer
and dryer are installed in the entryway just outside the door.
All views are of the golf course and surrounding mountains.
Beautiful! It's very good to be here.
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