“Safari by 2”, from the East to the the West of Australia and back!

A long time ago,… 1991, my daughter Inge [ then 18 ],  was asked by Michael Giles to crew for him together with Sandy and Kirsten, yes an all female crew , during a safari from the South West of Australia to the North ;the Otto Lilienthal Safari.
Starting at Adelaide on October 28 and finishing in Darwin around November 10 and visiting everything in between , where the gliders had to/could  land,  as Port Augusta, Coober Pedy, Ayers Rock, Alice Springs, Tennant Creek and Katherine Gorge.

Safari Alice Springs

Alice Springs the red heart of the continent.

Arney Hartley , [Beryll’s husband , both from Narromine and both part of the safari] ]  was one of the tuggies. An unforgettable trip for all [ about 20 people] ,  including pilots as Paul Mander, David Jansen [who flew in Uvalde last year] and Dutch Jan Ratelband.
My daughter had the time of her life, she turned 19 during ther trip, had a dual parachute jump, a ride on a camel and great early morning flights with the tuggies to do the temp trace.On top of that no long trip back home by car, as she flew back with Arney in the tug.
Is this the ultimate way of soaring?
Euroglide, had to stop it’s participants  last year, as the list overflew the available places!
If you have never thought of it, enjoy the next story!

A SAFARI; it still happens as you can read in the next story written by my friends Pam and Gerrit Kurstjens. They did a safari together. Only the 2 of them !
No help …. self launchers and no luggage . Between February 5 and 11 2013.
Both fly [ from Jondaryan] and live in the East of Australia [Toowoomba] .Here is the full story!Enjoy!!!! I added the pictures!

Tocumwal 010  Pam 2 002

Gerrit busy with his QUINTUS and Pam with her ASH 31 in January this year.

—“We are on Safari with our 2 self-launching gliders, the ASH31mi and Quintus. We bought them with this type of flying in mind, so it is nice to make a start. In 2 days we have flown to Mildura. We have no car or crew, just the luggage we can squeeze into the gliders.

Yesterday we flew from Toowoomba Airfield to Narromine, a very nice flight with a point to point distance of 630Km. We flew over the lush wet green swampy pastures in Queensland routing close to Inglewood, and planning to stay over the high ground en route to Narrabri, but the cumulus and thermals improved and we were able to fly to Wee Waa. We were a bit slow crossing the wide Namoi valley, another lush green area at the moment, but we felt OK as we climbed to 7,000 ft under the first small cu over the Pilliga and crossed the forest from there, where some open paddocks make the crossing less daunting.

South of the forest, about 150 km from Narromine, there was a line of convergence with the best climb of the day, a large smooth thermal to 9,000 ft. This was followed by blue sky with very difficult rough thermals for the next 100 km, almost certainly sea air coming in on the south easterly wind.

Pam picked up another good line of cu and flew 30km past Narromine before returning to land. We had been aiming for West Wyalong, but Narromine is familiar territory and it was enough for the first day, 6 hours 45 in the air.

Narromine from above

Narromine from above!AND,…the place for the JWGC in 2015.

Today, we planned to fly from Narromine to Waikerie, a straight distance of 793 Km. Because the direct route goes over some remote country, we went a little south of track, passing near Hillston and Hay. This day started out with crawling along in blue thermals that just were not getting going!!! It was slow and low for an hour, then finally some cu popped at 6,000 ft, with could base eventually rising to 12,000 ft north west of Hay, where the last cu formed a line not going our way! We flew out into the blue but could still get thermals to 9,000 ft plus, although they were harder to find and to use, so our progress was slow, and Pam was getting very tired so we called it a day at Mildura. The next suitable landing place would have been Renmark, so we pulled the brakes out at 7,000 ft and landed at the Sunraysia Gliding Club field in Mildura, after 7 hours 20, and an OLC distance of 669 Km (612 direct).

Tomorrow, Wednesday we plan to go to the Flinders Ranges, and it all depends on the weather…..

WEDNESDAY:
Wow! What a day. We self-launched at Sunraysia Gliding Club, Mildura, with help from one of the members, planning to fly to Stonefield, a club west of the Murray River.

Australie2010 004

The Mighty Murray River goes all the way via Tocumwal, Mildura etc to Adelaide.
It’s the longrest river in Australia,  starts in the Australian Alps
and is about 2500 km. long[1600 miles]

There was a brisk hot north westerly wind on the ground, and it was blue. We had a very slow run for the first hour covering little more than 40km in difficult broken thermals against the headwind. First Pam got lowish and Gerrit had to wait, then Gerrit flew in lots of sink and Pam had to wait, but the cu began to appear to the north and east (i.e. behind us) and things soon improved. It wasn’t long before we had some really good climbs under small wisps, and after a couple of hours it was really cooking. We passed by Renmark at 11,000 ft, with good cu over the forest to the north and north west; these were giving some really strong climbs although the good cores were small. It just got better and better and we decided to head for Wilpena Pound. We crossed the highway to Broken Hill west of Yunta, and it was a nice opportunity to check out what some of these strips look like. It is unlandable and remote out there but hey, with cloud base rising to 14,000 ft, who cares?

We had to dog-leg around the Edinborough Military Airspace out at Old Koomaloo, where a strip is marked, but in the wrong place, and a much better strip some 30 km to the north isn’t on any map at all.

The Flinders Ranges are quite spectacular. At Wilpena, there is a strip called Rawnsley Park, and in theory we could land and get accommodation, but we were not too sure what to do. Decisions decisions… We decided to head another 150km to the north to Arkaroola, another strip where accommodation is available, but then after 50 km, we decided to turn south and head for Port Augusta and civilisation. We could see that a front was coming in from the south and it was likely that we would have some difficult weather over the next couple of days. We could only reach Arkaroola because of the excellent conditions, but it would not be much fun to try to get away from there in the less good weather that follows a front.

Safari Flinders Ranges

The Flinders Ranges

Tomorrow may be a rest day, but that’s fine as we have done 22 hours in 3 days.

THURSDAY:
We made a short flight today, less than 3 hours from Port Augusta [300 km. from Adelaide and the Gateway to the Outback , Ritz] to Waikerie. The front passed through Port Augusta, but RASP said there would be high cumulus in the hills, and it looked as if the front was going to move through the whole area and away from us. We decided to take off about 2pm and launch high enough to glide to the distant line of cu, which turned out to be 60 km away. There we climbed to 11,000 ft, with thick bands of high cloud cutting off most of the sun. There was just a narrow band of lift, where we climbed to 13,000 ft at one point, with rain (virga) behind us and rain ahead, but the system was moving east and we were soon in glide range of Waikerie. It was a long glide under a dead sky, with some waviness, and some areas of turbulence and sink.

SATURDAY;
Day 5 was a rest day at Waikerie.

Day 6 today we flew Waikerie to Balranald, 335 km.

The first 150 km in very difficult low blue conditions under patchy shadow from middle level clouds. Pam was down to 1200 ft a couple of times, and getting to 3,500 ft felt really high. There was a very helpful tail wind. We were flying over good farm country most of the time so no worries there.

We expected to land at Mildura, but suddenly got a better climb to over 4500 ft! There was one climb to 5,000ft. We decided if we could get another good climb 40km past Mildura we would keep going. It was slowing down again but we could climb to 4,000 ft a couple more times, and were taking 1 knot towards the end. Pam started the engine at 2,000ft, 30km from Balranald as there was thick shadow on the ground ahead, but Gerrit managed to keep going in thermals. We are following behind the front and could see heavy cloud and virga ahead.

We flew 4.5 hours and it was hard work but very interesting…

safari Mildura house boats

Mildura on the Murray river well known for it’s house boats.A real holiday town.

MONDAY;
Yesterday, Sunday, we woke to a strong cold southerly wind. We need to get well to the north to catch up with the front.
We decided to take off at 11, climb high enough to glide to Hay, land and refuel, for a 13:00 take off when it should have been soarable there.
We are using RASP and XC Skies. The front was lying about Hillston-Griffith-Wagga Wagga, with light showers already on the radar between Griffith and Wagga at midday.

We launched out of Hay into dead air and climbed high, then started gliding towards Hillston, later turning towards Lake Cargelligo as this would get us past the frontal cloud sooner. Gerrit managed a couple of small climbs, Pam started the engine once. As soon as we passed the front we started to get some real thermals, and could see Cu another 50 or so km ahead at Lake Cargelligo. As soon as we reached the Cu we were up at 10,000 ft. Phew! Now where to go? Narromine? Coonamble? Walgett?

Safari Hay

Mainstreet in the little town of Hay.

The forecast for the next day seemed to indicate it would pay to stay west and go to Walgett. We passed a line of larger Cu and showers along the Nyngan to Narromine road, under a thickening overcast of cirrus and middle level cloud, but still had good climbs as it was only 4pm. Ahead, the cirrus thinned out, and much smaller isolated cu with some sunshine tempted us on. We made it to Walgett, where we can refuel, although it was tempting to continue to Lightning Ridge.[Opal town]

The 2 motels in town were full and the taxi took us to a place 7km out of town, Barwon Lodge, cabins in a quiet setting next to dry lagoons and river courses. It is extremely dry here. The man in charge was a bit suspicious when we said we were here on holiday. Holiday in Walgett?

Today, only 400km to Jondaryan.

Tuesday;
Yesterday we flew from Walgett to DDSC.
We woke to a strong hot north easterly wind. The forecast was for the wind to drop and the thermals to get going about 12. We could see the frontal cloud to the south, and during the day this built up to a solid thick line with thunderstorms. The NAIPS forecast was for light showers in Oakey, Toowoomba, Goondiwindi and Moree, with cloud base over Toowoomba down to 1000ft in the easterly wind. Fortunately, that didn’t happen at all. In the Walgett area we expected Cu, and for the second half of our route both RASP and XC Skies warned of diminishing thermal activity, basically we hardly expected it to be soarable. I am not sure whether they factored in the flooding in northern NSW/SE QLD.

Safari Wallgett

Mainstreet in Wallgett.

Launching at 1pm we went straight into strong-feeling conditions and shut down the engines at 2,000ft, but the little wisps of cu and strong gusts were deceptive. It was a really hard flight, with very small difficult thermal cores every single time. It was exhausting! We had only two more relaxed climbs, one in the smoke over a grass fire and one just north of Goondiwindi. The thermals decreased as forecast, and a couple of hours into the flight we were over flooded paddocks and glistening swamps where the waters from the ex-cyclone are steadily making their way along the river systems. Walgett expects their flood peak a week from now. Currently it is crispy dry there.

There were thermals over the wet country, and we could climb to 5,000 ft agl sometimes, but only by thermalling on a wingtip and on the edge of control, to stay in the tiny cores. It helped that we were working together. The wind was light and initially NW, later SE, and later Easterly.

North of Goondi, we expected it to be less wet, and we did get a couple of better climbs, but the whole area is so wet that even the forest and the isolated farmed areas in the forest were bright green, all the dams and waterways full. The Darling Downs are the most magnificent sight, green and gold (Sorghum) and lush.

Darling downs
The Darling Downs

I had phoned Oakey to say we would arrive between 4 and 5 pm, and they said they would be active until 5, so we would have to ask for a clearance. We decided the best way to do this was to be at 6,000ft agl 50km from DDSC, when we would call them. We didn’t want to enter the airspace with the engines running, as this would make it harder to hear them on the radio.

Experiencing a long and very quiet glide over the forest, we started the engines and climbed to the planned spot, only to find that Oakey had de-activated the airspace at 4:30. We spoke to the controller, switched off the battery-hungry transponders and glid home.

We put the gliders in the hangar, not easy without help. Our non-gliding friends from Toowoomba came to pick us up and helped push the second glider in.

We must have been a sight! Two tramps in dusty clothes, carrying our luggage in 3 blue zipped supermarket cold food bags (easy to squash into corners in the gliders) and a laptop in a bubble-wrap sleeve. Absolutely exhausted as well. Worse still, they picked us up in their brand new car only collected yesterday! We put our pitiful pile of luggage into the spotless boot, and dusted ourselves off before climbing in. Makes us wonder what some of the taxi drivers and motel owners thought of us along the way…

Pam and Gerrit

 

Statistics:

Total Kms for the route point to point: 3473 km.

Total Kms OLC: Pam 3648 km, Gerrit 3768 km (not counting Balranald to Hay.)

Total Hours: Pam 40hrs 54, Gerrit 40hrs 40.

Engine use:

Self-launch Toowoomba, Mildura, Walgett.

High self-launch and long glides out of Port Augusta and Hay.

One positioning flight from Balranald to Hay.

Two low ‘saves’ Pam.

Aerotows Narromine and Waikerie.—”

Thanks to Gerrit and  Pam for keeping a diary for their club friends and sharing it with us now too.

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Gerrit and Pam with Anita in Tocumwal during the Nationals.

 

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