Mission 2103 - St george to Redcliffe

Background

On Friday the 27th of July 2007 I flew Mission 2103, making it my 68th Angel Flight.

The mission description from Angel Flight was:

SUBSEQUENT REQUEST: (3rd and 4th Angel Flights)

A six month old child from St George has been diagnosed with Talipes (Club Feet) and has had casts on both legs to correct this condition. The family requires regular travel to Brisbane for checkups.

They do not have a reliable vehicle and travel by bus requires a 3 day round trip.

Archerfield to St George

Having got away early from home I was airborne a little earlier than expected, heading into the beautiful clear skies at 10,000'. With absolutely no clouds about, I had exceptional visibility. My initial track for Oakey was amended by Amberley Clearance for a direct to St George. This saved me a an additional 6 minutes of flying

Watching the pall of a fire in the vicinity of St George I established that the weathermen had been accurate in forecasting nil wind. So I could line myself up early for a straight-in approach to runway 29.

Young Jordan and his parents Sally and Michael were a little perplexed when, after alighting from the aircraft and waving hello to them, I trotted straight past them. But I had to attend to matters in the terminal buildings facilities that are not possible in the cockpit of a Bonanza

St George to Redcliffe

Being much relieved I installed Jordan's seat in the rear of the aircraft and tied down the stroller and bags.

After a quick safety briefing we were on our way. Jordan seemed to be enjoying the time, although he did eventually mimic most of my passengers by succumbing to sleep in the presence my riveting personality.

His parents, however, were happy to chat as we initially cruised at 9,000 feet. But about a third of the way into the flight some clouds appeared in the 12 o'clock position, at, you guessed it, 9,000 feet. So I opted to climb to 10,000 feet, giving us a little bit of 'cloud surfing' experience as the clouds almost touched us from below.

We touched down a full half hour before schedule and I had to rustle up Earth Angel Barry Bolton from his home, which luckily is only five minutes drive away from Redcliffe aerodrome.

Redcliffe to Archerfield

Being sure of his imminent arrival I climbed back into the Bonanza for the long and arduous flight back home: A whopping 10 minutes in the air at the nose bleeding maximum altitude of 1,500 feet. However, it was also the most challenging as some controlled back burning on the ranges just west of Brisbane just about completely obscured my view of

Summary

During this flight, we