I just love the wet season!!

[Ace on Base]

Just thought I would share this with all those unfortunates down South Dunnunda that don’t have the privilege of experiencing what flying in the wet tropics of NQ is really like………….
Let’s see, lets start with:
1) Looking at the color Wx radar and the first thing that pops into your head is “HOLY S$%T – how am I gonna get over / under / around that CR@P??
2) Arriving at a CTAF after a long day and being “stacked” up over 5000ft in various approaches with high performance business jets, Turboprop aircraft above 5700kg, yourself and then other piston bug smasher twins, and wondering whether that visibility will hold up for your shot at the title!!
3) Knowing that after landing the A/C, you will have to get out and get wet!!
4) Getting to your destination in relatively clear skies only to find that the 3nm wide stationary down pour that has a visibility of 500m at best is over your destination and it AINT moving!
5) Waking up in the morning, sitting at the computer and staring at Champaign Flight Planner through tired eyes at the ARFOR only then realizing that the 5 landings planned for that day will entail holding and approaches at every single stop – ARGHE – leave the hard work idea till I have at least had a coffee and got a grasp on the world please??
6) Trying to kid yourself that at least the wet is almost over, and next year will not only be not as bad, but perhaps I will be working and the boss will give me a pay rise, send me off on a 4 month paid holiday, and I won’t have to deal with the BL@@DY wet!
No, on an honest note – I actually love the wet, I am up to my 5th now in the wet NQ tropics, and seeing the daily changes flooding in the rivers, the greenery etc change on a daily basis – ROCKS MY BL@@DY WORLD!!
How does everyone else feel when they log on to www.bom.gov.au, or NAIPS and see the Wx loop and it is just a shamozzle?
Let us know your funny stories of the wet?

I just noticed that this was my 100th post - YAHOOOOO!!

[ForkTailedDrKiller]

"Let us know your funny stories of the wet?"


KARUMBA (YKMB)
C37/07
AD NOT AVBL DUE SOFT WET SFC
(INCLUDING TEMPO PARALLEL SHELL GRIT RWY)
FROM 03 220451 TO 03 230000 EST

Dr:cool:

[Captain Nomad]

Seems like there is a 'wet' going on somewhere EVERY day of EVERY year where I am... :uhoh: :{

[compressor stall]

Re Karumba TAF...

Is there an ICAO abbreviation for Shell Grit? :E

[podbreak]

Loved the wet, especially discovering new wx radar colours, and every possible bad met symbol...

[Tempo]

I did 3 wet seasons in Darwin and only had to hold a couple of times.....only once did I not get into a destination. This is my first Cairns wet season and so far it has been very much like the late Darwin monsoonal wet. The dry season flying is boring......I enjoy the wet season...at least it is always interesting.

[Capt Claret]

After 13years flying in and out of DRW I've only had to hold for Wx once. Once after a Pakistan airforce 707 blew an engine, and once for the obligatory traffic cluster-F. :}

[OpsNormal]

The one that sticks in my mind was one late wet season afternoon in 2005 when for about twenty minutes there was a goodly sized thundery over DN airport and another about 8-10nm east of the Howard Springs NDB, with clear air in between the two cells. If I recall correctly the holding patterns started at 3K at HWS, with mostly two aircraft in each holding pattern (one inbound, one outbound at the same time) a 1000' apart, all the way up to 9K (I started at 8K) before the storm over the AD moved enough away to allow approaches to commence. Luckily enough most of the aircraft were CAT B aircraft.

As each aircraft was able to approach and land, we were all consecutively given descent in the hold and then approach clearances in turn. 'Twas a thing of beauty to hear the Eastern Approach Controller co-ordinating this with VFR aircraft also having to hold out near Elizabeth River Bridge, latest divert times etc. How he kept the struggling kittens in the bag was just pure genius to listen to! Big thumbs up!!! :ok: :ok: :D :D

Had an interesting one here at Isa a couple of weeks ago too with a cell arriving just before about 6 aircraft did.

[Flintstone]

Ahhhh, the NT Wet.

Flying into Katherine at 1am, wondering why I couldn't see the town lights. Because they were all under water, THAT's why!

Having MAF close the strip at Maningrida because it was too soft/wet. After their own flight had been in and out of course:rolleyes:

Paddling barefoot across the tarmac at DN at midnight and loading the NT News into a leaky 210.

Those were the days:cool:

[OpsNormal]

Paddling barefoot across the tarmac at DN at midnight and loading the NT News into a leaky 210.

One of life's little pleasures, morno could tell us all about "the newspapers".:} :}

[bushy]

There were some very brave young pilots flying night freight out of Darwin in 210's for quite a few years.

[morno]

Ops, I swear to god, if you had've told me where they were, properly, it mightn't have happened, ;).

And that day you described earlier with the holding patterns, I was number 2 in the hold, at 4,000ft, :}. If I remember correctly, about 1 week later, it happened again. Both times I spent 30mins in the holding pattern at least.

Coming back from an airfield around the Isa a couple of weeks ago, spent a thrilling 40mins holding south of The Isa. Was a bloody good storm though! :ok:

morno

[RENURPP]

...... and the bravest of the brave flew the gutless Cutless, VH-SKY!

No, the bravest of the brave flew the fixed gear 172!!

VH-UDB :bored: :rolleyes: :sad:

[ForkTailedDrKiller]

Quote:
...... and the bravest of the brave flew the gutless Cutless, VH-SKY!
No, the bravest of the brave flew the fixed gear 172!!

VH-UDB :bored: :rolleyes: :sad:

I'll bet that UDB did NOT have the hours on the clock that SKY did!

Dr:cool:

[Flintstone]

...... and the bravest of the brave flew the gutless Cutless, VH-SKY!
No, the bravest of the brave flew the fixed gear 172!!

VH-UDB

The 210's were bad enough but the stories from our predecessors on these two aircraft used to make my toes curl. Almost makes we want to come back.


Almost;)

[OpsNormal]

TFI wasn't called Tim's Flying Inferno for nothing..... :ooh:

[Flintstone]

WMP.
"What? More Papers?"


I got ramped in TFI at Gove once. The CASA guy's opening line was "Is this piece of **** still flying?".

[Tagneah]

The CASA guy's opening line was "Is this piece of **** still flying?".

I think he started every ramp check in the territory like that......

[apanxx5]

Back in 98 - 2001. We used to call it Want's More Paint.
It is still flying today??

[morno]

I remember flying around in WMP one day doing the TNT run, and upon taxi at Gove, I got a call from a QF jet on the same frequency asking me to contact them when I got airborne. I did so, and was shocked when the pilot was saying how he used to fly WMP many years before, doing the same freight run, :uhoh:.

Used to fly like a dog that plane too. Not surprising considering it had about 22,000hrs on it a few years ago. :sad:

morno

[High-Bypass]

I remember doing the famous TNT run one not so pilot friendly afternoon. GTE - DN in one of MO's 210's, penetrating cell after cell. Landed to find the rear window had not only been shattered, but was completely missing.

The freight in the baggage area was a little wet (sitting in a few inches of water), as usual, the TNT blokes werent too concerned.

Dry season had its fun times, 30/40 kt tailwinds back from GTE. Occasional G/S of up to 180/190 kts in a 210....giddyup !!

[wrongwayaround]

When I did G.A up north moons ago, I was always surprised at how far lightning could strike away from thunderstorm cells...

One day I diverted around a cell, probably about 15 miles from it. In an instant, a lightning bolt went straight through the nose of the aeroplane - words can not describe how bright it was and how much of a fright I got!

[OpsNormal]

apanxx5 I believe WMP is still flying. It finally got it's paint job and interior done in around 2003(?) if I remember correctly.

The ill-fated TFI got it's paint and interior around 2004 and was painted in the same scheme as WMP.

http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u109/OpsNormal/NorthWestMail059.jpg

Looked pretty smart for an old girl (From memory Below5K took this photo, so credit where it is due).

[morno]

Ops, is that Vaughan Springs?

[tinpis]

The TNT run usda be done in a Lear 35
Never had a weather problem :hmm:

[OpsNormal]

Looks muchly like Elkedra to be, but I might be wrong. As I said, I didn't take the photo.:}

[morno]

I guessed Vaughan Springs because the photo is titled "NorthWestMail", and you can see some hills in the background.

[Flintstone]

Thanks for the photo.

It never looked anywhere near that good when I flew it. More green panels than anything else and paint so flat you could see the water being soaked up when you washed it.

[Capt Fathom]

You guys have radar?

You lucky bastards ... I think!

[Harry Cooper]

TFI - The (or Timmy's) Flying Inferno. As you pointed out Ops, for a great story about flying in the wet talk to the guy that deadsticked that aircraft into DN around 1 am one morning, while on fire, in the middle of a thunderstorm - instant promotion and rightly so.

[OpsNormal]

When he told me the story sitting the breezeway at Alice one lunch time I thought he was having a lend. I mean I just couldn't believe it, no vac (precessing DG etc etc), in wet and bumpy IMC and on fire..... Fark me!:eek: :eek: :eek:

Fathom, that would have been nice.... :uhoh: :uhoh:

[Jamair]

<5K gets around, don't he.......:}

[maxgrad]

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b246/Maxgrad/SAVE0389.jpg
Something along this line Flintstone?

[Harry Cooper]

Poor old WMP. Its a shame. When TL first got that machine back in the mid 90's it was in pretty good nick. Used to fly it for an operator out of Katherine Gorge - and it was one of the better 210's that they had.

Unfortunately WMP and the others were seen as just freighters and were never looked after.

From memory we flew the centre run for about 2 or 3 years before autopilots were fitted - that run was luxury after that:rolleyes:

A lot of scary stories came from that operation - especially in the pre-autopilot days. Amazing how long people can sleep for in an aircraft thats relying on Mr Newton for guidance.:eek:

[Flintstone]

Exactly like that! Thanks Maxgrad.

HC. The 210's got autopilots? Pfffft! In my day etc etc........

The worst I ever did was set off out of Tindal for Tennant Creek one night tracking the wrong radial. Don't ask me why I did, only been doing the job about nine months at that stage so knew them all off by heart. Realised my mistake after an hour!! The BIGGEST 1:60 correction evAr:ugh: Sweat my ringpiece off for about 45 minutes before the Tennant VOR/DME came up:E

One of the guys confessed to falling asleep one night while southbound. He told me (over a beer at the 'tute) that he woke up facing the right direction but was "....f*cked if he knew how many times he'd flown in a circle":eek:

So we had another beer:}

Then there was the night I was flying on top of broken cloud between Tindal and Tennant Creek again. Looked down and saw the moon reflecting off water. WTF!!!!! Time for the sweaty ringpiece again! Compass and DG tallied but I was out of VOR/DME range ahead and behind and was too poor to have my own GPS. I couldn't have headed north by mistake could I?

Turned out the desert was flooded. Now how often does THAT happen?


Ahhhh, the good old days:cool:

[maxgrad]

I've always counted the hours on that night run asdamn good hours but thank god it's over.

Then theres the story of one driver who fell asleep and ended up just north on AYE before waking up and parking it in/on the salt pan there.

Departing out of DN each night and reading the front page to departures.

[Flintstone]

...................faxing the crossword to Adelaide FS.

[the wizard of auz]

I was tooling along the other Dark night watching all the pretty lights in the sky, but not being to concerned as the radar was showing clear sky for me......... after I was nearly blinded by one particular flash very close by I double checked the radar and after adjusting the azmuth setting........ saw a bunch of new colours on the screen that weren't showing earlier. :eek: :uhoh:
I raced a cell to the circuit and landed just before it got there......... and poured on my ugly ass.

[nohumbug]

ahh yes ....some wet season 3am freight runs i will never forget. In an Ov###ls "IFR":eek: C210. Somwhere between VRD and Hooker creek at 9000 praying for the wings to hold on to the fuselage ...trying to ignore that unmistakeable creaking coming from the windscreen while desparately trying to fly away from the worst of the lightning flashes....with only a sleepy flightwatch controller occasionally crackling in your ears...

[thekite]

I tried to get him to tell me the story, to write up for one of the magazines, (all secrecy, witness protection assured etc) . Nope; would not do it. Damn shame.
I thought it was quite an inspiring story for the younger generation.

[Flintstone]

Which story Kite? C'mon, spill the beans!!

Much more of this and I may dust off and finish my poem 'Bundy Of The Undergrowth':p

[Ex FSO GRIFFO]

G'day nohumbug,

Wouldn't have been KWW by any chance???

"Famous" entry in acft 'snag' book .......
"Windscreen creaks on descent - frightens passengers - fe@kin terrifies pilot!!"
And in all the years.....it never was fixed so that it didn't.

Cheers:ok:

[Ultergra]

Does it get any better than this?? Personally, loving it!!!! :ok:

[tinpis]

Does it get any better than this?? Personally, loving it!!!!

Yes mate, today I reckon is the beginning of the dry by the looks of it

Beautiful days and nights blue harbour , scantilly clad Skandihooligan tourist sheilas.....:E

[OpsNormal]

Flintstone, if I remember correctly it was up to....

He gripped the yoke real tightly
The altitude unwound
It seemed he could do nothing
But hurtle to the ground

To be continued……………………………….

It would be a classic to see it completed....

Regards,

OpsN.;)

[nohumbug]

Fso Griffo,

It wasnt KWW , but probably just as lemonlike- I found a few of the 210's to have windscreen creakage... especialy the maroon and white ones. Sounds like you had plenty of "fun" in them. Always found it funny how we used to get crucified for not putting the full ensemble of sunshades up on them ..when they leaked like sieves and you would be greeted by a crop of mushrooms on opening the door after a few days on tarmac .with the inerior steadile rotting in the damp darkness:sad::ugh: :ugh:

[Flintstone]

OpsNormal.

That was it:O Still here on my hard drive. I'll print it off, stuff it in my nav bag and work on it while I'm flying next.

Which funnily enough is how is got started. Scribbled on the back of my met and notams on the southbound night run:uhoh:

[thekite]

Fact is, all of those Cessna windscreens creak. Stands to reason when you consider how many stress paths intersect at that area.
Guess that's why Cessna crossbrace the area when the put the birds on floats.

[DUXNUTZ]

Remember the 14 legs mail runs anyone? Heard a few interesting ones about flaps failing on leg 3 or 4 and then flying flapless into some pretty interesting strips for the rest of the afternoon.

Also the flaps jamming at full and having to do the 'reach around' to push the wiring together to get the flaps up (sticky switch). Good times.

I personally flew into a place in the MaCarthur area and after landing had to drive the strip with a station hand and dig out sapplings from the strip cos it hadn't had mail fllown-in, in close to 2 years. Thought that extra couple of hundred metres might be nice, given that there was a rock at the end!.

[tinpis]

I personally flew into a place in the MaCarthur area and after landing had to drive the strip with a station hand and dig out sapplings from the strip cos it hadn't had mail fllown-in, in close to 2 years. Thought that extra couple of hundred metres might be nice, given that there was a rock at the end!.

PFFFFFffffft..... nothing mate..

In PNG I once had to circle for three days while the natives cut a strip 100 metres long out of the dense jungle......

[Capt Claret]

Oi Tin, ya musta had a BP tanker traiin' ya. Was it a road train? Lucky!

[morno]

14 run mail runs...!! Pffffffffft, that's nothing. The good old North East mail run out of Alice, 18 stops there when I was doing it a couple of years ago.

Used to take bets as to which stop it'd be that any new pilot would just wanna curl up and die on their first run, :}.

Found a couple on my computer here, will try and russle up some more.

http://www.picturehost.com/d/15151-1/IDZ_cockpit.jpeg
Anyone recognise the cockpit? ;)

http://www.picturehost.com/v/User-Albums/morno/simpson_desert.JPGhttp://www.picturehost.com/d/15154-1/simpson_desert.JPG
Pretty sure I took this one doing the South-East Mail out of Alice

morno

[tinpis]

Oi Tin, ya musta had a BP tanker traiin' ya. Was it a road train? Lucky!

Nah mate...we used the special PNG high altitude jungle mixture leanin' trick that I'm sure me mate Chimbu Chuck will explain to yer. :hmm:

[OpsNormal]

Morno.... IDZ?

Looks like one of your pics didn't link properly.

[morno]

IDZ it is. Now guess the leg it's flying, :E....

Both pics are showing, so think the links working.

morno

[OpsNormal]

DN-TN. TNT? Must have been a pretty light-on freight day for the ASI to be telling that tale.... :oh:

I'd put the other one between Numery Stn and Old Andado.

[Richo]

Agree OPSN, IDZ DN-TN and (he/she) is on track.

Must be after mid 1999 as its got one of those autopilot things in it. Prob not on the freighter though, as it appears to be daylight outside.

I last flew it on 26 Nov 99, for 3.8 but don't have the route in the elctronic log book.

I seem to remember a large sand ridge area like that on the 2nd last leg of the SE mail, not far south of the ranges.

richo

[Flintstone]

I remember being diverted from the northbound freight run to take an engineer from AS to a strip up near the Gulf where one of the 45-legs-a-day mail run aircraft had got stuck with a failed nose oleo.

The mail pilot (Fulch) and I had to sit on the tail while the seal was changed. The engineer had brought a bicycle pump with him to pressurise the oleo:hmm: What are they charged to, 90psi?

After 30 minutes of listening to ineffective pffft, pffft noises from the front we got off, made the engineer sit on the tail while we wound a tie down rope round the oleo as a temporary 'spring' after which Fulch flew it back to AS with the gear down.*







*If anyone from CASA is reading this may or may not be true:E

[morno]

Correct guesses all round, :ok:. Except that second photo pretty sure was between Numery and Andado Richo.

DN-TN, on the TNT run. The ASI is only indicating 135kts OpsN, so it's not doing thaaaat great, :}.

The photo was taken in 2005 Richo. Just because the autopilot was installed, doesn't mean it operated correctly all the time though!! :ugh:

morno

[Flintstone]

Would this be like the autopilots that were required on the 402's for the RPT runs to be legal but the 'On/Off' knobs were marked with engineer snot so Roger could tell if you had used them and were therefore wearing them out?

[bushy]

I heard that navaids etc were colour coded to tell oilots what they were permitted to use. IE no navaid use permitted on VFR flights so you do not wear them out.

Life is stranger than fiction.

[OpsNormal]

Richo, mid/towards the end of around 2004 the SE mail run got re-shuffled a bit and from memory was run in a clockwise direction from the way it had for many years. Ringwood became the first stop and Maryvale the last.

Judging by morno's sandy pic, he's flying the new(er) direction of 993.

Flintstone.... Raahjer wouldn't do that..... :hmm:

Bushy, that is just plain out there.:rolleyes:

[Richo]

Thanks for that OPSN, during my time we did a lot of things backward?.

The TNT run was obviously a day time flight.

Richo

[Swanie]

not exactly up-north, but it's still been wet down south

both taken on a dodgy camera phone, just over the darling scarp perth, about a month ago:}
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/swan-dogg/19-03-07_0935.jpg
something's hiding narrogin:p

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/swan-dogg/19-03-07_0953.jpg

[ItsOkMagsOff]

http://kununurra.bigblog.com.au/data/4/21077/image/c310tomas575020070403000758_m.jpg


20nm North of TOMAS not too long ago. Nothing better than smashing around inside embedded cells. Good thing we don't have radar - I'm sure we wouldn't fly if we could see inside these :mad:.