The mission description from Angel Flight was:
INITIAL TRIP REQUEST:This mission came up late on Wednesday night and was still not filled by lunch time on Thursday. Heather and I had planned a weekend trip to Stanthorpe, on the Granite Belt of the Darling Downs, where her brother lives. She was going to have a slow trip in the car with our three boys while I was working and I was going to follow them after work in the my jalopy.Gemma Steele is a twelve year old girl recovering in the Mater Children?s Hospital after fracturing her pelvis in a horse accident.
She is from Berellam Station near Eromanga in Western QLD. The flight request is to return her and mum home.
With this mission coming up, a change of plan was put into effect. Instead of working on this day, I would fly out west and on the way home drop into Stanthorpe. This way I would only spend some nine hours in the aircraft instead of having to endure 3 hours in the car.
With this mission taking me from one extremity of the state to other and back again, and no fuel available at Eromanga, I would have to stop once on the way out west and once on the way back to pump some fuel onboard. Kevin Zahner, the co-ordinator for this mission further informs me that Eromanga has the distinction of being the most inland town in Australia.
I had them take a seat in the Lounge while I pre-flighted the aircraft, only to discover that some 47 litres of AvGas had been siphoned off (again!) from the left tank. This being a fuel critical flight, I had to get the fuel truck out to top off the tank.
However, we soon got under way, taking off a few minutes past the projected departure time of 10:00. As the weather was lousy, with rain showers passing through the area, we were offered an Instrument Departure, but not wanting to have a scenic 'round Brisbane again, I declined. We headed off into the showers, but soon got clear of them, passed through Amberley and Oakey airspace on our climb to 10,000'. There was a solid layer of cloud with the tops at about 8,000', so we got a great sensation of speed.
Later on the layer crept up, causing us a little turbulence, so I descended to 8,000', where it was smooth again. During the descent into Charleville with the sun having heated the ground, we got into some thermal activity, and got a few bumps. But the passengers were quiet and gave me reassuring smiles every time I queried their welfare.
So I was congratulating myself on short final at Charleville on having taken good care of my precious cargo. But you should never praise the day before it is out, or the flight before the wheels have touched the ground, for at 200', with about 30 seconds of flying remaining I got an urgent call for a sick bag. Because I had to look at the runway I could not locate the sick bags by feel with just my right hand (the left hand was on the yoke) and wound up passing the lid of my esky to the back. Nola managed to fill it and stop it from spilling as I touched down.
Gemma and Nola sat on the verandah at South West Air Service, as I had 131 litres of AvGas pumped onboard, added 2 litres of oil to the engine and washed out
the esky.
We were soon on our way again, for the relatively short one hour flight to Eromanga. As we passed over the windsock it indicated a stiff southerly breeze. I was manoeuvering to line up with runway 18 when I glanced at the windsock again, to find the wind blowing from the north, favouring runway 36. Thus doing some 'S' turns, I lined up for runway 36. On short final it was blowing at about 15 knots from the east. It was then than Nola informed me that Eromanga is the aboriginal term for 'windy plains'.
Gemma's older sister Megan and her boyfriend Greg were already waiting for us. Because of frequency congestion on HF I had them wait another 5 minutes before I managed to get a word in edgewise to cancel our SAR watch.
Nola and Gemma now faced a forty five minute drive to their homestead over dirt roads, while I had a few hours to travel back east again.
Having off-loaded my passengers, I started up again and, this time at 9,000', headed back east, toward Cunnamulla, to get some more fuel.
I had called ahead, asking the refuellers to meet me at 4:00pm. With the winds kinder than expected, I arrived about twenty minutes early after about
one hours' flight.
While waiting for the service to arrive, I had time to survey the surroundings and noticed the sign about the snakes. I was in the country indeed!
Making use of the generous twelve cent discount that Parroo Shire Council extends to Angel Flight I had another 130 litres of AvGas added to the tank.
With the tanks full, I now headed via St George and Goondiwindi toward Stanthorpe, where I arrived at twenty to seven. My brother-in-law Steven was already
waiting for me.
He helped me tidy up the aircraft and tie it down and then took me to our weekend accommodation where Heather had a nice roast turkey dinner waiting for us.
And so, as I climbed aboard FWL again, I bade fare well to my harmonious family. They would be spending one more night in Stanthorpe, and the whole of the next day, with a stop-off at the Ipswich Workshop Rail Museum, travelling back home, while I would be slaving away at work.
After a take-off into the pitch blackness of the mountains I climbed to 9,000' where I sat for the short 40 minute flight home. I arrived at Archerfield just before 9:00pm.