Mission 3330 - Yowah to Archerfield

Background

On Monday the 1^st of September 2008 I flew Mission 3330, making it my 100^th Angel Flight.

The mission description from Angel Flight was:

SUBSEQUENT TRIP REQUEST: (19^th and 20^th Angel Flights):
This 67 year old gentleman from Yowah has cancer of the face.
He is required to attend post surgery and post radiation therapy appointments.

I had previously flown Rod and his wife Janet on Mission 2578

Leg 1 - Archerfield to Cunnamulla

The weather forecast predicted strong westerly winds and generally bad weather.

But once airborne at 7:30 it quickly cleared up and before too long I was cruising at 10,000' in clear sunshine, albeit a little slower than usual.

The refueler at Cunnamulla arrived as requested and promptly pumped some 164 litres of AvGas aboard. I called Rod and Janet just prior to starting the engine to advise them of my arrival time.

Leg 2 - Cunnamulla to Yowah

I climbed back up to 6,000' and continued the journey for another 30 minutes to Yowah, where Rod and Janet were already waiting for me at the bustling international air terminal at Yowah aerodrome.

Leg 3 - Yowah to Archerfield - and yet another milestone

Being regular flier with me the briefing was just that - brief - and Janet took the back seat while Rod had to rub shoulders with me. My flight plan back home us cruising at 9,000', but after about an hour or so a stratum of cloud built up below us and caused a few bumps. I thus requested and received clearance to go up the extra 1,000' and again we had a nice and smooth flight.

With the tailwind behind us it took us less time to travel to Archerfield than it had taken me to just go to Cunnamulla on the way out. I managed to send an SMS to Earth Angel Clare Gardner to let her know that we'd be about half an hour early at least.

So I was pleased to see her next to the terminal building as we taxied to my parking spot just across the taxiway from the terminal.

But I was somewhat surprised to note that we were also graced by the presence of Angel Flight Chairman and Founder Bill Bristow himself.

It turns out that Bill was here on semi-official business; He came bearing a large golden cardboard box that contained a genuine imitation WWII US Air Force pilots jacket, made out of quality leather and with a rather rare patch stating "100 Missions - Angel Flight". It is rare insofar as I am only the third Angel Flight pilot to have received one of these jackets to date.

With the conclusion of this flight, my efforts for Angel Flight can be summarised thus: I have

flown 100 Missions over 240 flights,
carried 184 passengers,
spent 384½ hours in the air (with the propeller and engine doing close to 1 million revolutions),
covered some 50,000nm (57,500sm or 93,000km),
flown to some 35 different aerodromes,
probably used about 22,000 litres of AvGas (that's about a semi-trailer tanker's worth).

Needless to say (so I am going to say it anyway), I am pretty pleased with this effort.

Summary

We were back on the ground in Archerfield after having

spent 6 hours and 30 minutes in the air,
consumed 344 litres of AvGas,
completed 3 take-offs
somehow pulled off another 3 landings