The mission descriptions from Angel Flight was:
SUBSEQUENT TRIP REQUEST: (14th Angel Flight)I had previously carried Wendy on her maiden flight, Mission 1314 in September and again on Mission 1430 in November of last year and Mission 1610 in February in February this year.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.
This time I would be taking them home again, with the first stop Toowoomba to for the pick up, thence Tambo to drop them off. After that, down south to Charleville for a re-fuel, then home to Archerfield.
But, as Robert Burns stated, "The best laid schemes o? mice an? men / Gang aft a-gley." The pilot who was going to be bringing Wendy and Sandy to town had planned to do so on the way back from Longreach. However, due to bad weather on the days before, he could not get away from Brisbane to Longreach. So on Saturday I received a call from Geoff Marsh at Angel Flight, asking me to do the inbound mission instead of the return.
I got away 15 minutes ahead of my self-imposed schedule and headed across the Amberley and Oakey control zones (both closed because of Betty's Birthday) at 10,000' on the way to Roma.
I alighted at Roma a little over an hour and a half later, pumped 104 litres of AvGas onboard and continued my journey to Tambo. I arrived there without too much fuss and ado at 12:30 for a 1:00pm departure.
As I was walking toward the 'International Air Terminal' at Tambo Airfield I heard the engine of the local ambulance, driven by local nurse Rosemary, who was bringing Wendy and Sandy to the airport.
Almost leaving their bags behind, Sandy and Wendy were soon installed in the seats, Wendy in the rear, while Sandy opted to sit up front to supervise things.
The climb to 9,000' was without problems and we were soon crusing toward Roma, and Toowoomba. As we were flying along we could hear lots of other Angel Flight pilots on their way home from the Alice Springs Fly-in that had taken place on that weekend. It seemed that by going up to 9,000' instead of 7,000' was a smart decision. We were closing in on one of these aircraft at a rate of 30 knots when the speed difference of the aircraft should have been only 15 knots.
With Wendy sleeping most of the way (what is it about my personality???), we were on the ground a little early at 3:00pm.
Having called Jennifer, the Earth Angel to establish that she would be en-route to pick up my charges, I left Wendy and Sandy sitting on the bench, enjoying the warming sunshine.
The last leg home saw me climb to 5,000', and after some 23 minutes flight, I touched down at Archerfield.