Peats Bite restaurant gone
Thread Starter
Peats Bite restaurant gone
A first-class restaurant on the Hawkesbury River has burnt down. It was only accessible by boat, floatplane, or helicopter, and we often flew guests up there.
The choppers would land on a pontoon in the river, and a boat would collect the guests and take them to the restaurant on the bank. The chopper then had to be flown away to leave the pontoon clear - usually we would land on the big rock on the hilltop half a mile away and wait...and wait...then reverse the process. No mobile phone service out there, of course, this was the early 90s.
If we were lucky, the boat coming out to collect the guests would give the pilot a lovely salad roll and a drink to while away the hours, but other times we had to bring our own vegemite sandwich. When we had a junior pilot on the trip, it would be interesting to train him up on the pontoon after the guests had gone to the restaurant, but the number of landings was restricted, so I couldn't spend too much time getting him up to speed. They were always startled by the movement of the pontoon after landing - we are so used to being immobile when the collective goes down, it is weird to still have movement. Navy pilots are used to this. Even air force pilots who have landed on navy boats.
The choppers would land on a pontoon in the river, and a boat would collect the guests and take them to the restaurant on the bank. The chopper then had to be flown away to leave the pontoon clear - usually we would land on the big rock on the hilltop half a mile away and wait...and wait...then reverse the process. No mobile phone service out there, of course, this was the early 90s.
If we were lucky, the boat coming out to collect the guests would give the pilot a lovely salad roll and a drink to while away the hours, but other times we had to bring our own vegemite sandwich. When we had a junior pilot on the trip, it would be interesting to train him up on the pontoon after the guests had gone to the restaurant, but the number of landings was restricted, so I couldn't spend too much time getting him up to speed. They were always startled by the movement of the pontoon after landing - we are so used to being immobile when the collective goes down, it is weird to still have movement. Navy pilots are used to this. Even air force pilots who have landed on navy boats.
