The Simpsons Desert!
 

Hey!, im new to this forum, but it looks awesome. I am doing a diploma of aviation, and my class is about to set off of a "Round Australia trip- Multi Crew exercise". One of my legs involves captaining a flight over the Simpson Desert. From Oodnadatta to Birdsville and beyonds! Does anyone have any hints?:)

kind regards

matt

Yep, turn off the GPS and treat this as an exercise in dead reckoning, you will be surprised at how you perform.

On my first experience with the desert I was quite concerned at the lack of features, turned out there were a lot more features than I first realised. Navigating in the desert is both challenging and rewarding.

Hope you have a ball. HH.:ok:

Simpson Crossing.
 

Papaschild,
Remember "Time Intervals & Headings" will get you out of the sh!t most times, when you look at the WAC look at "all of it" even mountains 100 miles away, not just within the glide distance, you will love it I'm sure , have a ball.
Kickatinalong.:ok:

I second Howard's comments and also wish you luck. Some classic stories from the early years of aviation out in that part of the world. Ever heard of Keith Anderson and the Kookaburra, a tragic part of the Coffee Royal affair with Smithy? Enjoy your trip, you made me smile with "captaining", blue skies and safe flying.

This pic is half way between Birdsville and Alice.
 

http://images.kodakgallery.com/photo...6107_0_ALB.jpg
20 yrs ago, but I doubt it has changed much, no high rise etc.
http://images.kodakgallery.com/photo...6107_0_ALB.jpg
http://images.kodakgallery.com/photo...6107_0_ALB.jpg
http://images.kodakgallery.com/photo...6107_0_ALB.jpg



Navigation is easy. Easier than ost infact.
Looks like nothing there, thats what makes it easy. That lake is one of the only ones for miles.
If there were heaps of lakes you might mis identify them. Being the only one for miles, no problems.

Heading and time and enjoy.

Yeh i agree, turn off the GPS and look out the window and at your map. I've only flown in the desert once, and it was in a hired aircraft with no GPS and the TAS i was told seemed to be wrong, so it was quite difficult navigating. All the same, it was probably the most rewarding flight i have done, and every flight i have done in Victoria since then has felt ridiculously easy. Your navigational skills will probably increase dramatically on the trip if you have a lot of map and window time rather than GPS time. Most of all have fun, you'll love the experience and always be thinking afterwards of your next trip to the outback.

As far as tips for the flight, i'm not sure what it is like for the rest of central australia, but most roads will probably be dirt and only some of these dirt roads will be on your map, so it is difficult to work out which road you are looking at at times. so use a bit of common sense, use your watch and heading a lot to work out where you should be, and if you make a decision (like about where you may be but it is difficult to really tell) then back yourself, but be looking out for any features that can confirm what you think or tell you you've made a mistake as you progress. Of course make sure you regularly align DG to compass and follow your heading as closely as possible, it sounds obvious but it will make life much easier than if you are lazy and get a lost.

Have fun!:ok:

EDIT: Sorry, in the time i was slowly typing away and doing other things i didn't get to see what some other posts said and have repeated a bit i think

Never been done before !
Sir I salute you !
Have a safe flight you will overflying some of the worlds most terrifying unforgiving difficult terrain ever known to man :hmm:
Be sure you dont get caught out by the 99.9% of the time cavok weather will you? :uhoh:
Take lots of drinks in case you have to put down on the two lane sealed highway running between Port Augusta and Darwin :rolleyes:

:zzz:

bollox

A month ago myself and a mate set out flying around QLD and NT to build command time for our CPL. I was lucky enough to fly the Birdsville - Alice Springs leg across the Simpson desert in a C172RG with no GPS and only the BDV NDB for 50 nm then nothing for the next 3 hours!!! It is true what you hear, nothing beats the old heading and time because I am living proof that it works!!! It is amazing though how many position lines etc you can get with features such as the salt pans etc. The WAC depiction of these pans were perfect and by just comparing the shapes on the WAC with the actual shape of the pan you could determine whereabouts you were approximately. By the end of the 3 hours without any navigational assistance I was within 5 degrees of my track to the AS VOR!!! Was very happy. think the forecast winds might have been on my side that day :)

Tinpis, you crack me up:ok: :D

Yes! Make sure that you do the trip in an aircraft of Tiger Moth vintage, and tear a page out of an old atlas for your map. Anything else won't make you a "real" pilot.

Come on guys, this is 2006!!!

The greatest advance in general aviation in the last 30 years (I speak with some authority cause I have been flying that long) is GPS - use it.

Sure - keep a dead-reckoning/map reading back up, but why would you fly in the most isolated part of Australia without using the latest technology at your disposal?

I did Longreach-Birdsville-Alice Springs-Ayers Rock a couple of weeks ago - great trip.

What is the point of clever people inventing this stuff if we don't use it???

R:cool:

tin mate..Ive been howling since yesterday......:D :}

Claret well remebers traversing such country as a CPL student and later as a very green Grade 3 instructor.

On the CPL nav legs there were 3 or 4 aircraft and about a dozen of us. After a very pissy stop in Perth, ex Cesspit, one of our party left the bundle of WACs we'd pooled our meagre resources to purchase in the pub at YLTN (Laverton). We didn't notice until after departure and we went to grab the next WAC and it wasn't there! :eek:

So it was LTN to WBR, AYQ, and AS all on VEC (Visual Enroute Chart - do they still use VEC?)

Character building stuff. :\

Ratty, While I love GPS, I can attest to the pucker factor when it suddenly stops working....or goes nuts...as in a satellite failure.

I carry 3 GPS's.

Garmin 430 - I have never had this one drop out.
Garmin 296 - Had it drop out twice in 4 years
Garmin III Pilot (usually in my flight bag) - drops out fairly regularly

I just can't see any "pucker factor" when flying between aerodromes with navaids. The GPS lets you set up heading/drift - and you just hold that if the GPS drops out until you come into navaid coverage - no big deal.

When trying to fly to a point in the middle of nowhere (ie cattle station) is a bit difference, but with GPS you should know where you are at all times - if it drops out - revert to good old map reading/dead reckoning.

I agree that if you leave the brain in neutral and rely solely on the GPS then you may be heading for an adrenaline rush.

Cheers

R:cool:

The Oodnadatta-Birdsville leg is no drama.
All dry lakes are as they appear on the WAC.
plenty of other features like Lake Eyre to keep an eye on. Keep crossing the dunes at the same angle, and you should end up in the right place.

It will be very hot :eek:

Yeh, Alice is around the mid to high 30's already, so fly in the mornings. Pain in the rrr's after about 11.

Apart from all of the above, excepting tinpis whose just a naughty boy most of the time, make sure your HF is working and you know how to work it. :ok:

When the next settlement/building is about an hour away you'll develop a hypersensitivity to any changes in the engine gauges.
Don't forget about the changes in magnetic variation.
If you've got a GPS, use it for a spot check every now and then. I've found that the forecast winds tend to be like horoscopes with numbers.

Yer...and fecking bumpy below 10000' in the summer take multi barf bags.http://www.augk18.dsl.pipex.com/Smileys/Vomi.gif

Cover the windsreen when parked outside (XXXX cartons are perfect)
The wheel and throttle knobs can get so hot they will burn.
You wont need a GPS if you cant see Lake Frome and Eyre and a few other landmarks that elude me (oh the bloody fence is that still there?) you are hoplessly lost and possibly in Queensland
http://www.augk18.dsl.pipex.com/Smileys/laughpound.gif