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A Falco to
Australia
The route of flight:
VECC - VTBU Calcutta (Kolkata) - Rayong 956NM
VTBU - WMSA Rayong - Subang 624NM
WMSA - WRRR Subang - Den Pasar 1093NM
WRRR - YPDN Den Pasar - Darwin 959NM
YPDN - YBAS Darwin - Alice Springs 706NM
YBAS - YMML Alice Springs - Melbourne 1016NM
The next
destination was Bangkok.
Thailand
is a great place, it is reasonable priced and people are very friendly in
combination with no hassle ground procedures. Same is true for Malaysia.
The luxury hotel in Rayong
was enjoyable.
From there
routing was south overflying Singapore and in a straight line to Bali, the
tourist place. At certain times of the day the airport has heavy traffic
from all the charter flights, no way to refuel at that moment.
The AIS
for flight plan filing and the MET office are door to door and service is
fast. The only choice leaving from Bali is Darwin and after a couple of
hours you are in Australia.
Reception
was very friendly there and the second thing you might get after being
disinfected is a cold beer.
From
Darwin it is just one more continent to cross flying down to Melbourne with stop
at Alice Springs.
Here you
must try the outback plattern consisting of four different kind of grilled
meat; Kangaroo, Crocodile, Emu and Camel. Probably no local is eating
this, it’s only for tourists.
The Falco
was still running great and a strong tail wind shortened the last leg.
During final descent the Melbourne controller asked for the type of
Aircraft. The flight plan information F8L meant nothing to him. The
answer: this is a Falco, didn’t help either. And the next question: are
you a turboprop was amusing, but with a ground speed of 230 KTS he could
have been right.
One leg
per day is the recommended procedure, especially with an aircraft limited
by weather and when alone. It took
twelve days
to deliver it
from Europe to its
new homebase.
Down Under
(how Alfred from Seqair thinks it looks
like at the southern hemisphere).
back
pilot@utility-aircraft.com