Originally I had been scheduled to fly two concurrent missions, the mission description from Angel Flight were:
Mission 5541 - INITIAL TRIP REQUEST:While this was double maiden mission, two out of three passengers were already well known to me.This gentleman had a severely crushed hand following an agricultural accident. Unfortunately surgery in Brisbane could not save his hand and amputation followed.
He returns to Brisbane for his initial follow up consultation.
Mission 5542 - INITIAL TRIP REQUEST:This elderly lady has been experiencing heart problems and has been referred to Brisbane for a full cardiac examination.
Her age and condition rule out travel by road. If she still drove a car the trip would be over 7 and a half hours, whilst coach and train add several more hours to the journey. Angel flights are the only realistic means of getting this lady to her appointments.
Juanita Goodland is the local Angel Flight agent provocateur, looking after just about all the passengers that I have picked up or dropped off over the years at Theodore. This time she was to accompany her husband to Brisbane.
Gladys had suffered at my hands on Mission 3994 in April 2009 when she accompanied her late husband.
Unfortunately Juanita's husband he was laid low with a nasty infection a few days before the flight and was confined to hospital causing mission 5541 to be scrubbed. Juanita would therefore come along as chaperone for Gladys instead.
Since the doctors were quite adamant that the only time to see their charges was at about 9:30 in the morning, we had to get them to Archerfield at about 8:00. So, I had to get up at 3:15 and was already airborne at 4:00, well before any sparrows had even contemplated using methane powered jet propulsion.
It was foggy as I approached Archerfield aerodrome in the dark. Closer inspection revealed that only the northern part of the aerodrome was covered, while the runways were clear.
Being one of about four aviators silly enough to be airborne at this time of day I got almost instantaneous clearances and soon settled in to cruise at 10,000' with just the odd light below and the quarter moon providing some illumination from above.
Theodore has runway lights approved for emergency use only. Ordinary mortals like myself are not allowed to use these - people like the Royal Flying Doctor Service have special approval.
So that I would not have to use these lights, I had timed my departure to arrive at first light. Due to the kinder than forecast winds, I arrived a little early, but there was already sufficient light to discern the tarmac and runway environs even without these lights. This left me in a quandary: While I did not need the lights they were so bright as to be hard to ignore. The only emergency that I could think of, relieving the pressure of my bladder, was not acute enough to constitute legitimate use of the lights. I solved the dilemma by closing my eyes tightly when lined up on final and not opening them again until I felt the aircraft hit the tarmac. This way no one could accuse me of having used the lights and who said that flying by the seat of your pants was a lost art?
Having arrived early, my passengers were nowhere to be seen, so I enjoyed the solitude, the gradual brightening of the sky and watched the first rays of sunlight tickle the fuselage of my steed.
Before too long my passengers did turn up and Juanita provided me with a much needed caffeine boost from her thermos.
Juanita installed herself next to yours truly while Gladys was happy to sit in the back and declined the use of a head set, lest we interrupt her snoozing with our chatter.
Climbing to 9,000' we headed up-sun until we did the 30° turn toward the south at Gayndah. Once we had a rough idea of our arrival time I called Earth Angel Barry Collis with an update. With the airwaves considerably busier we continued toward Archerfield where we did a visual arrival, landing on runway 28R with the customary thud at 7:45. Barry was already waiting to start the dangerous part of the trip - driving Gladys and Juanita to the hospital.
I was left to tidy up the plane, have some avgas pumped into the tanks and head home rather elated; After all at a time when most people were just having their breakfast I had already been up north and back, watched the moon fade as the sun rose and provided a little help for two lovely ladies with their busy day ahead.