Mission 1269 - Archerfield to Roma

Background

On Friday the 15th of September 2006 I flew Mission 1269, making it my 45th Angel Flight.

The mission description from Angel Flight was:

SUBSEQUENT TRIP REQUEST: (5th and 6th Angel flights):

A 5 year old resident of Roma requires treatment for ?Hurler Scheie Syndrome?(Inherited enzyme deficiency) at the Royal Children?s Hospital.

Due to the distances involved and the frequency of treatment, air transport would greatly reduce the travelling time and amount of discomfort experienced by the patient and also help alleviate the financial burden on the family.

I had carried Chloe on her maiden voyage, Mission 1178 about a month before. This time, though, I would be taking her back home.

Archerfield to Roma

Having had the appointment with the specialists on the previous day, Chloe and Jo were keen to get going home. So keen, in fact, that I was still en-route to the aerodrome, when I received a phone call from Earth Angel Sue Stubbs, that they were already at the terminal building waiting for me.

I arrived about five minutes later, said a quick hello, and got on with my task of waking the aeroplane. This having been accomplished about 15 minutes later, we all climbed onboard and got going, right on time at 9:30.

We quickly climbed to altitude at 8,000'. Chloe and Jo promptly fell asleep. The only time Jo became alert was when, in order to remain clear of clouds, I climbed further to 10,000'.

Since there was no-one else in the traffic pattern at Roma, we first had to overfly the airfield for a peek a the windsock. This would allow me to decide which runway to use. Jo, being a relative novice in the aviation caper and on seeing me circle above the airfield and then, seemingly, fly away from it (as I had to, in order to line us up with the runway), became a little concerned that we could not land. I was able to re-assure her that everything was in order and we landed just after 11:00.

Roma to Archerfield - Two milestones

I was airborne again only a few minutes later and headed home, arriving at Archerfield a little after 1:00pm.

On filling out my logbook a few days later I realised that I had achieved two milestones on the way home.

Thousand hour pilot

I now have to record my flying hours in four digits, having clocked up 1001.1 hours on the flight back home.

Circumnavigation of the globe for Angel Flight

With the completion of this flight I have flown in excess of 40,000km on 45 missions for Angel Flight. This is more than flying once around the world!

Summary

We were back on the ground in Archerfield after having