Sydney - Brisbane - Cairns - Darwin - Alice Springs Road trip for a...

[ryan_sharara]

Hi!

Ok. So here is the thing.

I am planning on a road trip from Sydney to Alice Springs via Brisbane-Cairns-Darwin for a job hunt. 250 hours pilot.

I chose a route which is about 7300 kilometers ( about 90 hours of round driving )

I would really like for you if you can help me pinpoint some airports that might have some companies looking for some low hour pilots; + giving me tips on the road trip and the expenses...

here are the images from the route I initially chose on Google Maps



















Any help would be much appreciated !

Hope you have a good day.

[compressor stall]

Http://bit.ly/Zf8yAM

And repeat for each town.

This might not have a keyboard, but you can still use them too at a post office where they have statewide coverage. They have a website too I think. Use the aforementioned process.

[ryan_sharara]

@Compressor Stall

Sorry had to let you google that for me

Thank you for the tip. Appreciated.

Any tips for a very long road trip ?

Never drove for more than 600km by myself.

Cheers

[500N]

"Any tips for a very long road trip ?

Never drove for more than 600km by myself."

Are you driving by yourself or with someone ?


Coffee, window open will only get you so far.

Better off planning to pull over, even if it's just a run around, and I mean run around for 2 minutes, it will do wonders for you and your body and brain. Suggest at least 5 minutes though.

Are you planing on driving at dusk, night, early morning.
Some of those roads are deadly for roos, pigs, horses,
cattle etc. Just be careful.

Drink plenty of water, apart from keeping you hydrated
it will make you want to stop !

The above works for me, have a good trip.

[ryan_sharara]

Thanks Alot 500N.

I am going all alone.

what kind of road trips did you do?

Will be careful about the roads.

Cheers

[seneca208]

Having done a similar trip myself, and considering these trips cost a LOT of money. Don't waste your time going to Cairns/Toowoomba/Brisbane/whole east coast.

Unless you want a skydive job (which I assume you don't) go straight from Sydney through Broken Hill and Port Augutter to Alice, then up to Darwin through Katherine and Jabiru.

[500N]

Well when I first came to Aus in the 80's, we (as a family) did
Melb to Cairns and Melb to Darwin in 3 - 4 week stints (even though
I was teenager that was in the years when you just drove in the
outback license or not !!!)

Done Broome - Port headland a couple of times as part of expeditions.

Drive a fair bit over the last 20 - 30 years going on hunting trips
- Melb - NSW, at one stage every 4 - 6 weeks, 5 - 6 hour trip to get there.
- Melb - SA - every few months - always a minimum 6 hour drive if not 7.
- Darwin to wherever in the NT so lots of different style roads ever year
for the last 12 years.

NSW Roads tend to be bloody awful, full of holes and ragged
edges that rip your tyres apart if you run off and try to come back
on at the wrong point. Better to keep running along the dirt and
come back up when the road smooths out.


Edit to add

As Ben above said. If you are in Darwin, worth the trip out to Jabiru
if you can afford a day or two. It's a 3.5hr drive to Jabiru and you can
then take the Pine Creek Road to the highway to Katherine so you aren't
having to go back to Darwin to get to Katherine.

So flying job wise I don't think you are missing out on
anything by going to Jabiru. Jabiru has an airport.

[ryan_sharara]

Wow, that is some quite nice hunting trips.

I hope i will be hunting for jobs

Your information is much appreciated. Thank you.

[morno]

First of all, unless you've got a heap of money to spare and are looking for a holiday, then throw that trip away and do something like this:



I think with 250hrs, you're wasting your time going to places like Port Macquarie, Brisbane, etc. Your first jobs lie in places more like maybe Mount Isa (Cairns at a push!), Katherine, Jabiru.

Secondly, what sort of car are you driving? Unless it's a 4WD with a bullbar and driving lights, it's suicide driving at night in those parts of Aus. This will restrict how far you can go in a day.

Also take into account, that once you get out west away from all the traffic, away from the towns every 20km's, then the speed zones are 100-110 and towns 100-150km's apart, so it only takes you 1hr to do 100-110km's. Meaning, you can achieve 1,000km's in a day quite easily.

Best things to take with you on a long trip:

• Car fridge
• GPS (at least you know how far to go, and how fast you really are going! Nothing worse than finding you're really only doing 90km/hr when the speedo says 100 and you've got 900km's in front of you)
• Plenty of snacks
• Water
• An iPod with maaaaany hours of music

I'd do a search on pprune. There are numerous threads covering tips for first job hunters, and even if it's 5-6 years old, nothing has changed. In fact, I don't think anything has changed in finding that first job since GA started.

Good luck.

morno

[ryan_sharara]

@Morno

First of all I would really like to thank you for the well informed post

I think your route sure does have more sense as I am aiming to more remote areas than brisbane and the east coast as whole.

What I am thinking of isn't there alot of skydiving companies along the route as i saw ( ballina etc...)

Don't you recommend going nearby Alice Springs.

I am currently in Dubai. Unfortunately I have the perfect 4WD over here but don't have a car over there and was thinking of buying a cheap car rather than renting a car for a month or two...

Again thank you for all the information!

Cheers

[KRviator]

Do not drive country roads at night unless you're in a Patrol/Landcruiser/Kenworth with a bullbar & spotties - and even then, drop your speed to ~20k's less than the limit. You're covering a lot of distance and it only takes one roo or bull to cause a prang.

Use extreme caution driving at dusk. See above.

Take at least 20L of water, in 5L containers. One 20L one can burst in an accident, and 5L bottles are easier to pack in & around your other possessions.

Take a good first aid kit and know how to use it. One of those window hammer/seatbelt cutter things is a handy investment too. Worst case, it could be a long time before help arrives, and if you only ever use it once in your life, it is a cheap investment.

Invest in a decent UHF CB radio. If you do come a cropper, especially way out west, you won't have mobile coverage. And on that topic, get a Telstra mobile, even if it is only prepaid. Much better coverage than Optus or Vodafone.

If you feel tired, stop! Go for a walk, call your folks to let 'em know where you are and everything's alright. Get a bottle of water out of the esky. But don't push on. You'll get away with it every time, right up until you don't. And I'd just as soon not have you coming towards me when you doze off.

Make sure someone knows your intentions and a rough ETA location. If no one knows you're missing, no one will come looking.

Give road trains the respect they deserve. The rear trailer, particularly if it is a quad can often get a bit of a sway going. They're also a damn sight longer than you're probably used to, so you'll need a long time on the wrong side of the road to get past them. If you're on a narrow road and ones coming towards you, pull off to the side. Less chance of a broken windscreen that way too. If you're following one, a single flip of the right blinker means "it's safe to overtake me", but remember, you still have to satisfy yourself it is safe & legal. Once you're past him, a left-right-left flip of your blinkers is "ta mate". This works both ways too, if you're taking it easy and a truck wants to go around, but remember, they're bigger than you and need a lot more room to do so - so don't trap him on the wrong side of the road or he will have nowhere to go except into the side of you!

[500N]

KR

Very good advice.

[owen meaney]

Two words, calm down.
People drive across this country every day.
I recently drove Cairns to Esperance in an old Ford Ute.
Even in the middle of bum fck nowhere there is traffic these days.

Of course you need tools,water, food,tea,coffee, sugar and whiskey for the cold nights. and a little stove.
Buy or make a swag, good for when you are living in box at airfield in your first job.

[ryan_sharara]

KRviator: Your post duly noted! thanks for notifying me on the UHF radio.. trucks should be respected for sure ayy

The thing is that i might be buying a cheap hutch back car which i will drive through the days and rest in the nights.

Is it possible of bringing my 2003 Toyota Prado (2003, 2 doors) Left steering wheel to australia or not by any chance?

Do you guys know how much the backpackers cost per night through the area and if the drive is through about 5000km how much would it cost on fuel?

-----------

@owen: noted the swag... and for sure some Hennessy

__________

Thanks to all!

More posts would be great at which airports are a must drive through for... Knock Knock.. its me; I want a job

Cheeeers!

[500N]

I wouldn't bring your car, too many compliance issues.

Fuel
Where I live, major city - work on $1.40 - 1.50 in towns.
Anywhere outside of major towns, $1.60 - 2.00 in the real
outback. Aust Dollars.

Backpackers - google it, look on line.


Hatch Back ?
Suggest a Station wagon if you are going to sleep in it
but we may be talking about the same thing anyway.

BTW, It can get damn cold if you sleep in your car in the bush.


Oh, and watch out for the Drop Bears when you go for a pee before bed,
you'll get a nasty surprise if you come across one

[ryan_sharara]

For example what are the issues if you can tell me (don't waste your time if you aren't free)

Let me take the max. scenario 2.0 AUD at 15L/100km (5000km/100km = 50 ) 50*15= 750 * 2AUD = 1500 AUD is it right ?? (roughly?)

I will not sleep in the car. . better just go off with backpackers...

I'll make sure nothing is jumping on me

[500N]

I think you might find backpackers few and far between
in outback Aus. Plenty of motels but $$$ can be high.

Be prepared to sleep in car - I do it all the time.
I didn't want t put you off but some people think
it is hot all over and it's not, especially at night.

Calcs look roughly right.

What car are you looking at ?

[Hasselhof]

I'm going to disagree with the mention earlier about the UHF and suggest getting a SPOT messenger instead. You will mostly be driving main roads and highways which are pretty well travelled and you'll rarely have to wait more than half an hour before another vehicle comes past (I'll admit, my record was 18 hours waiting on a highway but that serves me right for driving a 2wd hatchback on a remote highway during the wet) which can be waved down for help.

The SPOT is great, because in addition to having a button that is dedicated to summoning the emergency services, you can also program one of the buttons to send a friend / family member a pre-defined message such as

"I have broken down. My car rego is xxx-123. It is a white 1996 Toyota Camry. My NRMA membership number is xxxxxxx. Can you please try and send someone out to help" and it includes your GPS position in the e-mail / sms which the appropriate person can use when sending you help.

The is a pre-programed button to "Check-In" that you are ok so you can press it at the end of a days driving and have it e-mail / sms specific friends or family to let them know you've made it safely to your destination and that you've stopped driving for the day.

Finally, it has a tracking function (costs extra but worth the coin for a trip like this) that will take your position every 10 or so minutes and plot it on a google maps overview which you can share with family / friends to show your progress, and that you can then keep yourself to do whatever you want with at a later date.

It's basically like a spidertracks system but portable.

Also

As mentioned before, forget the east coast, just head to Darwin. There are very few operators on the East coast that will take on a 250 hour pilot.

Places to try: Savannah in Burketown, Katherine Aviation, MYA in Elcho, Air Frontier, Chartair (head office is in Darwin but biggest base is in Alice), AAA, Kakadu Air, Gunbalunya Air Charter in Oenpelli. There are probably others, it's been a while since I was in the NT.

[NIK320]

If your planning on overnighting in Katherine be warned that the backpackers was booked up for several months when I was hunting in November.
I ended up forking out at a motel for a bed. Highly recommend the Beagle inn if you do luck out at the backpackers. Hearty dinner and breakfast included in your rooms cost.

The backpackers I visited averaged $20-30 a night.

Don't assume there are no cops and speed cameras out here, they are few and far between compared to the east coast but its still not worth speeding on the highways.

[Jack Ranga]

Will you be pissed off if you get a job in Newcastle