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Best time of year for flight Aus / Tas / N.Z.

 
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Old 22nd Jan 2002, 07:14
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Post Best time of year for flight Aus / Tas / N.Z.

Hi down under:

I am in the process of flight planning for a round the world flight to commence near the end of this year.

We will be visiting approx 75 different places and the trip has a one year timeframe to complete.

I would appreciate any local knowledge of weather for this area. We will be restricted to altitudes below 12 thousand feet.

I would especially like info on the Tasmania to Christchurch segment, as to best time of year. We also have a very low cruise speed of 115 Knots.

Would appreciate for any info and advice..

..................

The hardest thing about flying is knowing when to say no.
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Old 22nd Jan 2002, 07:24
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Winter tends to be the best time for flying in most of Oz - except for the S.E. corner ie Tassie!

Winter is characterised by a large high over the continent with typical anticyclonic weather. Don't forget the reversed flow direction in the S. hemisphere.

Also winter sees frontal systems moving across the southern part of the continent, moving from W to E.

Summer sees the ITCZ move down to lie across the north of the country so tropical TS are the order of the day across the top end.

The general southerly movement of the pressure systems tends to push the fronts further south lessening their influence.

Spring & Autumn are somewhat transitional. There seems to be a tendency to strong westerlies around Aug/Sep.

Oz bureau of met has a website that might help. I think it's <a href="http://www.bom.gov.au" target="_blank">www.bom.gov.au</a>

Hope this helps.

[ 22 January 2002: Message edited by: Tinstaafl ]</p>
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Old 22nd Jan 2002, 07:34
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If you are travelling by what I think you are, try here

<a href="http://www.classicfighters.voyager.org.nz/aircraft/catalina.html" target="_blank">http://www.classicfighters.voyager.org.nz/aircraft/catalina.html</a>

There is an email address and I'm sure they would do all they can to help you at the NZ part of the trip
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Old 22nd Jan 2002, 09:06
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Thanks Tinstaafl & Henry:

Yeh we will be flying a Cat, the one in N.Z. used to be CF-JCV I first flew it for an airline in 1968 last time in 1986. It spent some time in Africa then went to N.Z. I know the guys that operate it and will of course contact them when we are in their area.

The machine I will be flying is French owned and I have been flying it for them for the past six years all over Europe, Africa, South and North America.

The routing of course was sent to me in french and I have some difficulty figuring out some of the names in it.

some of the palces in Aus will be Derby, Kununurra, Alice Springs, Ayers Rock, Lake Eyre, Woomera, Adelaide, Melbourne then Ferneaux, Hobart, Christchurch and on and on and on.

When we fly in Countries we are not familiar with we always use local pilots to advise us and it has on many occasions really been of imense help.

The ITCZ is always a problem for us as we do not have radar, although we have a strike finder. . .The PBY has a very long range( we can carry 10,500 pounds of fuel and 900 pounds of oil, gives us approx. 20 hours range. )and just beats the hell out of the crew if we fly very long legs. Sometimes we are so beat when we land we don't even go to a whore house.

Anyhow I have plenty time to get everything together and will contact most of you by e-mail.

Funny but Australia and N.Z are two places I have never flown and look foward to it.

One thing going for us is the machine is supberbly equipped we have an IFR approved GPS plus we run two portables all the time and we even have two sat phones and hardly ever use our HF radio, anyone that wishes to fly our PBY can get it in flight simulator 2002. It is called the princess of the stars.

Anyhow thanks for the quick reply and I am sure we will be bantering back and forth many times arguing about the most inane subjects, but that is fun.

..................... . The hardest thing about flying is knowing when to say no.
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Old 22nd Jan 2002, 11:32
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Hi, Try <a href="http://www.earthrounders.com" target="_blank">www.earthrounders.com</a> , The webmaster is an aussie that is very knowledgable. Have a great journey.
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Old 22nd Jan 2002, 13:57
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Cat Tower

I'm up to be your personal on board adviser in OZ , sounds like great fun.

We used to have one floating aroound of Geo Survey that used to be parked around the corner from my office. I think the endurance was more a function of oil consumption rather than fuel and with all the aeromag cable gear it didn't so much as go anywhere as allow the earth to rotate underneath it. <img src="tongue.gif" border="0">

Eastbound Hobart to Christchurch should be a doddle with the prevailing westerlies picking the right window, although in the winter the FZL can be down around your ankles.

Keep in touch and we'll keep the info up for you.

Any idea of the rough timing as that will be important for the transit, as Tinstaafl says our winter is the best time for the bulk of Oz and if you have the time to wait for a break can be pretty good HOB to Christchurch although I suspect you would need to talk to the Kiwis about Queenstown as a bolt hole before popping over the little hill to Christchurch <img src="tongue.gif" border="0">

In fact now that I think about it why dont we make your progress a PPRuNe D & G Project. I reckon apart from keeping you "under the weather" on your stops we could keep you "out of the weather" enroute. <img src="cool.gif" border="0">
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