Carnavon Gorge

[Sroodplus]

Enquiring about the practicalities of flying to Carnavon Gorge. Are the owners of Ingelara airstrip amenable to private aircraft? Do the accommodation operators offer ground transport? Is it worth doing by air or is the car the best option?
Look forward to views of the experienced.:confused:

[gassed budgie]

Hi Sroodplus. We were up at Carnarvon gorge back in May of last year. We stayed at the Carnarvon Gorge Wilderness Lodge. Pleasant accomoation in permanent safari style cabins/tents. A good quality restaurant also. We really roughed it.

For reasons that I can't remember, we used the strip at Rewan (S24 57.9, E148 22.7). It's about 3.5nm's to the north east of Ingelara. You'll spot it on Google earth. A nice grass surface with room to tie down four or five aircraft off the side of the strip. The people from the wilderness lodge picked us up in their mini-bus.

For those that havn't been to the gorge it's a spectacular place for hiking and walking. Do yourself a favour.

[Mister Warning]

Note well : I had a Baron "eaten" there by the cattle. Destroyed a flap and an aileron. I think they like licking/nibbling because of salt on the aircraft.
Suggest taking a portable electric fence with you, unless the owners of the strip have improved the parking area since 1992! :)

[juliusg]

Me too! Bonanza in 1997, cattle loved the taste!

[27/09]

Suggest taking a portable electric fence with you,

Just the electric fence unit on its' own should do the trick. Hook it up to the aircraft by clipping the output onto an exhaust pipe should do the trick for an all metal aircraft. No need to carry any standards or wire.

[Aussie Bob]

Just the electric fence unit on its' own should do the trick. Hook it up to the aircraft by clipping the output onto an exhaust pipe should do the trick for an all metal aircraft. No need to carry any standards or wire.

This theory sounds logical and doable, but can any radio tech give us an opinion on possible avionics damage?

[27/09]

No problems with the avionics.

You're effectively only connecting to the Earth of the aircraft circuit plus the avionics will be powered off as the battery master will be off as well as either the radio OFF/ON switches or the avionics master will be off.

[thorn bird]

Ah,
but do you have a manual that covers the use of this electric devise approved by CAsA?

Have you undertaken a course of training and been approved by a person approved by CAsA?

Have you completed an environmental impact study for this device and the affect it may have on the short snouted Potaroo?

Has the devise been cleared by relevant animal welfare groups for use against animals?

Does the device have Hal Al certification?

Better to have your aircraft eaten by cattle than run afoul of a CAsA delegate.

[Aussie Bob]

Perhaps introduce the CASA person to the electric fence first ...

29/07, I will send you the bill if I bust my radio :) I had never thought of this logic and I have a heap of experience with electric fences. Thanks for the tip :ok:

[Ixixly]

This idea with electrifying the aircraft actually seems pretty darned brilliant, I am honestly surprised no one has mentioned this before!!

[rutan around]

The idea sounds great but has anyone actually done it and proved it works? If it does it could prove to be very handy at air shows.:E

[peterc005]

Just make sure the fuel tank is full with no air in it. You don't want to be the highlight of an air show for the wrong reason.

[tail wheel]

I'm not qualified to comment but I would suggest competent, professional advice before connecting an electric fence energiser to an aircraft. The thought of 10,000 volt pulses floating around radios, instruments and avgas is a bit disconcerting to say the least. Poorly designed or badly maintained electric fences can create sufficient electromagnetic interference to cause problems for nearby telephone, radio, and television reception.

[27/09]

The idea sounds great but has anyone actually done it and proved it works? It does work, I know someone who regularly does this with their Ute. I cannot recall any instances of aircraft but would be very surprised if it's never been used judging by then number of farm paddocks that get used by aircraft.

Just make sure the fuel tank is full with no air in it. Why? If there's any spark it will be at the point of contact not in the fuel tank. Unless the aircraft is leaking fuel there won't be sufficient vapours to cause ignition.

Poorly designed or badly maintained electric fences can create sufficient electromagnetic interference to cause problems for nearby telephone, radio, and television reception. Correct, this happens where part of the fence is shorting to earth, i.e. the fence wire is in contact with the metal standard or the fence wire is touching the ground or green organic matter that will conduct electricity, causing a spark to occur.

Unless the aircraft is parked over long grass, no part of the aircraft structure is going to contact the ground, except for the tyres which are insulators anyway.

The electromagnetic interference does not affect the receiver directly, it interferes with the signal being received by the receiver.

[Wunwing]

Judging by the poor standard of bonding that I've seen on light aircraft I would certainly be concerned about high voltage and fuel.The ute mentioned probably has a welded body, your typical "lighty" has a riveted fuselage. Your average ute has a welded metal tank, an aircraft has fuel sloshing around inside a riveted wing or even inside a rubber bladder. Those facts alone are enough for me to disregard this suggestion.

Maybe better to take your dog??

[DeRated]

Yeah, connecting said fence to exhaust of Bluey will certainly keep Buttercup at bay............

[Stanwell]

Yeah, I agree with Taily.
The thought, though, has some appeal to me - particularly at airshows where some 'enthusiasts',
in spite of multiple placard signage asking "Please Don't Touch", want to try out your control surfaces.

Grrrr !

[rutan around]

The fuel tank shouldn't pose a problem. After all aren't metal aircraft regularly hit by lightning with little or no damage and I reckon lightning's voltage would be somewhat more than that energiser knocked off from Farmer Brown.

[Draggertail]

The only spark should be between the aircraft and the cow's tongue. All the cow is doing is earthing the aircraft.

[kaz3g]

As I recall from my year 5 physics from 55 years ago, the charge accumulates on the outside of a closed metal container.

That sId, I like the idea of a fence better...besides, the Auster is fabric covered.

Kaz

[Wunwing]

As far as the electric charge is concerned you are all assuming a perfect bonding of the components around the fuel tank. As I said earlier, in a riveted construction, unlike a welded construction, perfect electrical bonding is far from a given. As an example, while working on a Cessna wing rebuild I carried out a number of bonding checks before the dismantling of a wing and after the rebuild.Bonding was in both cases far from even between components.

There haver been more than enough fuel tank explosions on airliners over the years where bonding is rigourously checked, to certainly call into question the structure of a 40 year old GA aircraft and there is no way that I would expose the airframe to any remote possibility of differential high voltage.

Wunwing

[extralite]

Resurrecting this thread. Looking to fly to Carnavon Gorge with family in a Cirrus SR 22.

Noticed that the :daughter of owner" posted this about the airstrip there back in 2012.

"hey people it the owner's daughter just leaving a kinda note thingo.... anyway i just thought i'd let you that our airstrip is only a k and a half long or so and my grandad made it with guess and explode technique of dinamite sooo its a wee bit rough in patches and if you could contact us if ur planing on using it that would be g8 as cattle are often on it.... thxs cya's ;)""

Has anyone been there recently? That with the cows eating a/c doesnt sound too promising :) Roma or Emerald 3.5 hrs away seem like the nearest other option?

[mullokintyre]

As I recall from my year 5 physics from 55 years ago, the charge accumulates on the outside of a closed metal container.

Geez, Kaz, I didn even know ya had bin to skool, much less git to year 5!

Mick