The mission description from Angel Flight was:
SUBSEQUENT TRIP REQUEST : (3rd & 4th Angel flights)Seeing that with merely a baby and his mother, I was well below maximum take off weight, I asked Peter Riachi, General Manager of Angel Flight, and Terry McGowan, Operations Co-ordinator, whether another staff member would like to come along and see what it is like at the 'coal face'. They promptly nominated Karen Spillane, who had been in the job of Mission Co-ordinator for only one week.A 5 month old baby from Coffs Harbour NSW, requires repeated surgery for a congenital eye problem (blind & requiring cornea transplants) and medication is necessary every 1-2 hours. The parents are experiencing severe financial hardship from the costs associated with transport and hospital treatment.
As I failed to raise Angela on her phone, I called Larry Jenkinson, who had co-ordinated the mission at Angel Flight, and asked him to keep trying to advise her of our later arrival. I also got him to contact the Earth Angel at Bankstown.
Karen arrived in due course, just as I was completing my daily inspection. With her never having flown in a light aircraft before, I gave her the full treatment with respect to the safety briefing, helped her buckle up, and off we were.
The weather was picture perfect, with only some alto cirrus way above us, and the in-flight conditions were absolutely smooth. It was thus that after some one hour and ten minutes we touched down in Coffs Harbour and taxied up to the passenger terminal. We were relieved to hear that Larry had managed to get in touch with Angela and that she was not too distressed about the situation.
I was quietly swearing away as I tried to install the baby seat in the plane; The seat belt in the plane is just the right length to ensure that the buckle winds
up in the most inaccessible spot of the inside of the baby seat. Despite this display of (non)dexterity Angela entrusted herself and Griffin to me.
We got airborne about 20 minutes past 12, climbing to our cruising altitude of 10,000'. Griffin slept the entire way and everyone else was enjoying themselves, looking at the flooded and green country side below.
Suddenly there was a shout of "Eeerhgh, juck!!" from the back seat. Turning around, I saw Angela had ripped off her head-set and her right ear and hair were covered in an oily substance. She passed the head-set up front, and I immediately regretted even touching it, for it seemed to be covered in oil, leaving my hands greasy and sticky. Closer inspection revealed that the 'gel filled' comfort ear cup had developed a leak that, as the cabin pressure decreased, suddenly spilled its gel all over Angela. I offered some rather inadequate tissues to mop up the mess, but need not have bothered. Being a mother of four, Angela had a well prepared bag with Nappy wipes and the likes at the ready.
Karen generously surrendered her head-set to Angela. My quip to Angela that she had pretty dry hair that needed a touch of oil were taken in very good humour and grace.
The weather continued to be benign, albeit with a 30 knot headwind. This meant that we spent some two hours getting to Sydney. Only on descent over Richmond did
we pick up some minor bumps.
The Earth Angel was already waiting for us and soon took Angela and Griffin to their lodgings and, no doubt, Angela's top to dry-cleaner.
Karen and I had intended to have a gourmet lunch at the airport cafe/burger joint, only to discover
that they were mopping the floor and just about to shut the door. Getting a hamburger built to order was out of the question. My request for a chicken schnitzel
sandwich (I had spied some left over chicken schnitzels) was met by a gruff "Only with multi grain bread!". What could I do, but accept it? Karen proved to be
a diplomat beyond par, for she started her order with "I'd like a multi grain sandwich with ..."
We repaired to the one remaining table outside to eat our meal, made use of the local facilities and clambered back on board the refuelled aircraft.
Departing out of Bankstown into Sydney's control zone is a little more involved than it is from Archerfield into Brisbane's airspace. This meant that, after calling ready we were put in a queue and had to wait 10 minutes before being given our departure clearance.
But, once on the way, things again were nice and smooth. The only hitch was having to climb from our initial 9,000' to 10,000' to clear some military airspace.
We landed just on 5:00pm, having lost 10 years and 1 hour as we crossed from Tweed Heads into Queensland.