The mission descriptions from Angel Flight were:
Mission 1038 - SUBSEQUENT FLIGHT REQUEST : (109th Angel flight)I had previously carried Kayla on Mission 614 in December 2004, Mission 668 in November 2005, and Missions 975 and 1013 in May 2006. I had bid for and been assigned this mission quite some time before.Fifteen year old Kayla from Chinchilla who had a failed kidney transplant and is now back on home dialysis.
However she still needs to receive medical treatment at the PA Hospital?s Dialysis Unit (Brisbane) three times per week.
Mission 1055 - INITIAL TRIP REQUEST:Fifty-nine year old Berenece from Wondai requires several radiation therapy and chemotherapy treatments for cancer.
She is required to travel to both Brisbane and Toowoomba for this. Her husband is also unwell and is unable to drive. This trip is for several radiation therapy treatments in Brisbane.
Wondai did indeed appear on the map, but, alas was only an air strip without any lights or navigation aid. So I opted to go to Kingaroy, 30km down the road, which has both lights and and navigation aid. Therefore a plan watch hatched to have Berenece picked up by the same Earth Angel as Kayla and her gran Pam, and delivered to me. Because end of daylight could pose a problem, I'd first fly to Chinchilla, which does not have a radio aid and where visual contact with the ground is much more important, offload Kayla and Pam, and then continue onto Kingaroy.
The Earth Angel, Doug Ballard was briefed so that he would pick up the right packages, as was Berenece's husband Owen, so that he would wait in the right spot.
That is would stretch as far as communism had never occurred to me. But one lives to learn something new each day. As I was standing next to VH-FWL in the drizzle,
with rain running down my face Kevin Zahner rang me to let me know that "Our beloved leader" (aka
Peter Riachi) was on his way to Archerfield to meet up with Kayla for one reason or other and to make sure that
I would not take off before Peter got there. As I have previously only ever heard this appellation in reference to Mao T'se-tung of China and Kim Il-sung of North Korea,
I can but only conclude that Angel Flight has become some sort of communist front.
As luck would have it, Kayla's treatment took a little longer than anticipated. So our Beloved Leader of the Angel Republic of Flyers (BLOTAROF), Peter, arrived in plenty of time.
I bumped into him sheltering from the steady rain under a canopy outside an hangar. It turns out that seeing Kayla was only a pretence, he was really here to see yours truly. With him were some certificates of appreciation for the completion of 20 and 30 Angel Flight missions as well as a new polo shirt and a little (communist?) silver star that I can attach to the lapel of my one and only suit should I find an occasion to wear it.
Doug did turn up in due course with his three charges and did the honours with the camera, recording Peter handing over the certificate to me. Pam, ever the wit,
suggested to Peter that he get a box to stand on, lest he look too small next to me.
I countered this with getting Doug to take a picture of her next to me. Please note that I was not standing on a box - quite to the contrary - I was bending my knees to get into the picture.
We repaired to the aircraft without further ado. I ignored Kayla and Pam, who by now should know the front end of an aeroplane from its tail, and instead took care with second time flyer Berenece, seating her in the front next to me.
We started up about half an hour late and taxied for the runway. Archerfield tower was officially only doing instrument departures. This involves contacting the Brisbane approach radar at 900' and, invariably taking them by surprise, being subjected to radar vectors on long detours as they try to keep me as far away as possible from all the jets heading into Brisbane. When runway 28 (to the west) is in use, this is generally not a problem as on that heading I am essentially already heading away from their carefully choreographed airborne ballet. On runway 10 (to the east), which was in use today, I would blunder right in.
Archerfield tower looked out of their elevated windows and saw that a visual departure might be possible and offered it to me. Needless to say I snapped it up ; While still having to take off to the east, we could turn west immediately and then pickup our clearances without having to take the twenty minute 3 island tour again (see Mission 901).
The weather, while rainy and drizzly, was not nearly as bad as predicted and after passing through only a few isolated puffs, I was established between two layers of cloud at 6,000'. Instead of continuing onto the flight planned 8,000' I elected to stay in the clear and we were rewarded with quite a smooth flight.
I cracked open the jar of jelly beans to remarkable effect. Kayla, who, being weary after her dialysis, and almost falling asleep leaning against Pam, came to live immediately, Pam, too, became animated, and I got a huge smile from Berenece as well. Thus munching away we were travelling in good spirits which further lifted when the blanket of cloud below us dissipated some 40 miles out of Chinchilla, ahead was the patchwork countryside and a visual approach was ensured.
We bumped onto the tarmac at 4:50pm and I disgorged Kayla and Pam, but not without a little gymnastics. Berenece, who was in the front seat next to the door found it a little challenging to climb out. To spare her this and having to climb back in, I used my long legs to good effect to climb out over Berenece (and abided Pam's back seat witticisms about fidelity etc), allowing her to shuffle onto my seat, thus permitting Kayla and Pam to climb out. Needing to do a fuel drain of my own I left Berenece sitting in the pilot's seat with strict instructions not to get too impatient and try to start up and fly to Kingaroy on her own.
By the time we had climbed to our cruising altitude of 5,000' it was completely dark and I congratulated myself (well no-one else would do it, so I had to) on the decision to fly to Kingaroy instead of Wondai.
The approach into Kingaroy was uneventful, with me becoming visual well before we arrived. VH-FWL left the customary careering skid marks on runway 16 at about 5:45pm.
Owen was patiently waiting in the biting cold wind (he'd been there an hour) and was glad to have Berenece back after a week's absence.
As I approached Brisbane, again between two layers of cloud, I could clearly see the whole metropolis (maybe that's stretching it a bit - the whole provincial centre), but was told that Archerfield required an instrument approach, routing me to the south via Amberly and the NDB-B approach. By doing this I was assured of entering the only bit of cloud that lay between me and the airfield.
I touched down at 6:40pm, tied down the plane in the incessant rain and headed home to my next of kin who, by this time, had reverted to loving wife and sons.