The mission description from Angel Flight was:
SUBSEQUENT TRIP REQUEST: (15th and 16th Angel Flights):Bill Bristow, founder and chairman of Angel Flight, had flown Rod and his wife Janet out from Yowah to Archerfield two days before.This 67 year old gentleman from Yowah has cancer of the face.
He is required to attend post surgery and post radiation therapy appointments.
Flying a modest PC-12, with enough room for 12 odd seats (but only 6 plush seats installed), turbine power, full air conditioning, a drinks cabinet and even a potty, Janet and Rod had been spoilt, flying out in a little over one and a half hours.
With me they could really savour the experience as it would take us almost three hours to do the same trip (and that's with a tail wind).
With what is becoming a routine, my passengers were dropped off early again, allowing us to launch into the beautiful skies some twenty minutes before
scheduled departure.
Neither Rod nor his wife Janet wanted to wear any headsets, so other than me shouting the occasional "That's St George" or "That's Cunnamulla down there" we did not do much communicating over the next 2 hours and 40 odd minutes.
As expected I lost radio contact on VHF about half way through the trips and had to resort to HF (short wave) radio. Mercifully, today the radio worked very well and I did not have to use words twice as is often the case. So I was able to shut down straight after landing at Yowah, where a friend of Rod and Janet's was already waiting for them.
I jokingly told them that by getting in the car for the five minute drive into town the dangerous part of the journey would now begin. Instead of the expected protestations from their friend I got a confirmatory "Yes, I was almost wiped out by an emu on the way out!"
So leaving Rod, Janet and friend to do businesses with a flightless bird, I climbed aboard a very much flying bird and headed back to Cunnamulla. Because of the relative
short distance (only 53 nautical miles), I cruised at 5,000', but it really was 'bruised'. For with the days' heat in full action and the inversion layer at 9,000'
there was plenty of turbulence bouncing me around.
The refueling agent only materialised after a reminder phone call. So while I waited for him, I busied myself cleaning the windshield. We he did turn up, he pumped some 183 litres of AvGas into the aircraft.
My flight plan back home had me cruising at 9,000', but, as previously mentioned, this is exactly where the inversion layer was - so I was still bouncing around.
I thus requested and received clearance to go up the extra 1,000' and again had a nice and smooth flight.
With the winds coming from the east for a change, it took me all up about 40 minutes longer to return from Yowah to Archerfield than it had taken me on the outward flight.
I nonetheless landed at Archerfield just after 5 o'clock, ready to head home for a rest and a well earned beer.
Writing up this story and looking at the statistics, in doing my Angel Flights, I have now clocked up more than 80,000km (43,200 nm), which is equivalent to flying twice around the globe!
