Mission 1430 - Toowoomba to Tambo

Background

On Tuesday the 14th of November 2006 I flew Mission 1430, making it my 48th Angel Flight.

The mission descriptions from Angel Flight was:

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

A 46 year old lady from Tambo needs to attend Toowoomba Hospital for Chemotherapy every 3 weeks and because of a long and arduous journey an Angel Flight will alleviate some of the stress experienced.

I had previously carried Wendy on her maiden flight, Mission 1314 in September. This time I would do the trip in reverse. First stop Toowoomba to pick up Wendy and Sandy, thence Tambo to drop them off. After that, down south to Charleville for a re-fuel, then home to Archerfield.

A friend, Barry, who used to fly in Zimbabwe, but has not done so for some 12 years, was keen to "Breathe some AvGas again" and keep me company on the long trip.

Leg 1: Archerfield to Toowoomba

Barry and I met up at 7:30 at Archerfield. With Barry's help the waking up of FWL was accomplished in no time at all.

I taxied to the run up bay before the Archerfield tower was even open for business, however, just as I was about to taxi onto the runway the tower reported for duty and got me to taxi to the other end of the runway.

Getting airborne at 8:02 we headed west toward Toowoomba at 6,000', landing on runway 12 about half hour later.

Our passengers were nowhere to be seen at first, but turned up some 15 minutes later, having been picked up by Earth Angel Rae Percival.

Leg 2: Toowoomba to Tambo

Right on time, at 9:00 we climbed away to our cruising altitude of 10,000', travelling via Oakey and Roma to Tambo. Conditions were benign with just a little turbulence as the result of thermals that were starting to develop.

Landing at Tambo just after 11:30, we waited for Sandy and Wendy's lift to arrive to take them home.

Leg 3: Tambo to Charleville

Having off-loaded and farewelled our passengers, Barry and I started up again and did the 40 minute hop to Charelville. Here we recharged our bodies with a meat pie and sandwiches and the aeroplane with 140 litres of AvGas.

South West Air Service has a nice verandah where we could sit in the shade while enjoying our meal and shooing away the pesky birds intent on having their share of our lunch.

Leg 4: Charleville to Archerfield

The last leg home saw us climb to 9,000' where we experienced a little turbulence as the result of the thermals that, by this time, had built up significantly.

After a little over two hours in the air, we touched down again at Archerfield at 3:30. With Barry's help again I had the plane tied down and put to bed in no time at all.

Summary

We were back on the ground in Archerfield after having