Mission 2471 - Archerfield to Roma

Background

On Friday the 7th of December 2007 I flew Mission 2471, making it my 79th Angel Flight.

The mission description from Angel Flight was:

SUBSEQUENT TRIP REQUEST: (5th & 6th Angel Flights):

A 32 year old lady has been diagnosed with cancer. She is required to travel to Brisbane for treatment not available in her local area.

Due to this condition travel by road is extremely difficult

Archerfield to Roma

Having completed by pre-flight I went to the terminal building to discover Sharron and her husband Chris already waiting for me inside. So, in short order I put them on the back seat, stowed their bags and we got underway.

Clearance through Amberly was a little slow coming today, with me being sent from one frequency to the next and then back again. But, once cleared, we proceeded in the normal manner. The sky had a smattering of cumulus which we soon outclimbed at 10,000'. Chris and Sharron preferred to not wear their headsets and Sharron dozed a little.

Chris decided to don headsets afterall so that we could have a little chat. Before too long we were on approach into Roma and touched down on runway 36. Taxying in we saw that we were totally outclassed by the Prime Minister's jet.

This did not dampen Chris and Sharron's five year old daughter's enthusiasm at seeing mum and dad back home after 3 days.

Roma to Archerfield

The flight back was uneventful. There was a little more cloud now, and I had to climb tp 10,000' from my initial cruising altitude of 9,000', and even then I had to do a vew minor diversions around some build up, but as usual, even in controlled airspace, the clearances for this were forthcoming.

About 40 minutes after take off I heard Envoy 12, the Prime Minister's plane, take off from Roma, heading for Brisbane. He was told to slow down so that, twenty minutes later he would be at a waypoint some 35 miles ahead of (and about 28,000' above) me... Oh the joys of two jet engines!

Summary

I was back on the ground in Archerfield after having