Brisbane Center Victor Hotel Echo Yankee Zulu is two three five miles to the northwest of
Darwin I'm not receiving you at the moment but just giving you a position report and
we'll report when closer to Darwin.
Nothing.
Hello from Dili International Airport here in East Timor I wanted to start this video
with a really quick sort of behind the scenes of one of the things that happens when you
do land at an airport that doesn't have Avgas and a fuel Bowser that you can operate yourself
or and it doesn't have a fuel truck that comes around and fills it for you they don't normally
have Avgas here at Dili but thankfully my friend Michael who's been helping me out with
this trip has organized a 44 gallon barrel of Avgas which the guys are now going to load
up into Echo Yankee Zulu so we're ready tomorrow morning to head off bright and early back
into Australia nice
a goodbye to tell that you've got Avgas in your tanks and not water it's by throwing
it out onto the hot surface to make sure it evaporates quickly water won't evaporate as
quickly as Avgas will when you Chuck it onto a hot surface Echo Yankee Zulu ready for a
departure tomorrow now look at this beautiful full tanks full tanks of out gas
[Music]
here we go [Music]
make sure I get down the back
[Music]
and sit and wait
foreign
that's not nice that is not nice [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign
[Music] which is the boundary between East timor's flight information region Fir and
Australia so kind of Crossing into Australian airspace in a second I can't reach Australia
on the radio which is too far away with something like 300 miles away from Darwin at the moment
but East Timor want me to establish two-way communication with Australia before they hand
me over but I'm also going to lose each team more shortly so I think we're just going to
go into this period of no VHF coverage it's fine we don't need two-way because we are
VFR today but it's always nice to know that you're speaking to someone so let me try Brisbane
one more time Brisbane Center Victor Hotel Echo Yankee Zulu at TODOT 9500 estimate Darwin
time zero one five seven if they hear me they hear me I don't think they'll hear me and
now I'm gonna tell East Timor what's going on as well Victor Hotel Echo Yankee Zulu at
tow.9500 we are negative two-way Communications with Brisbane Center but we'll continue trying
foreign
thanks for your help have a nice day Victor Hotel Echo Yankee Zulu
[Music]
I don't need it at this altitude with nine and a half feet it's not a legal requirement
it's just nice to have a bit of oxygen on a longer leg and I need to be on my game for
this one but I've got quite a long day flying ahead of me there's at least another four
hours after I get to Darwin any I have oxygen I'm probably less likely to get fatigue later
on in the day and uh hopefully less likely to get any headaches or anything like that
on the second leg
but it's nice
this flying trip to East Timor has been a really important one to me actually I needed
to do a trip like this where I pushed myself a little bit outside of my comfort zone of
just flying this aircraft well not just around Melbourne and my local area but around Australia
I've done that for many years now and I'm lucky to have been able to do that but you
get used to the airspace you get used to how air traffic control works so the moment you
take it somewhere new the moment I have to deal with Customs have to deal with border
patrol air traffic control services who might not have English as their first language new
airports new runways new procedures new weather systems even in four days of flying which
it's been for me on this trip I've grown as a pilot self-doubt pokes its head up every
now and again in every Walk of Life but especially in aviation doing trips like this where you
do push yourself and put a bit of pressure on yourself beyond what you're used to really
helps to break that self-doubt cycle and so this has been a really important trip for
me ultimately one day I've talked about flying around the world and these sorts of experiences
really help alleviate sometimes that self-doubt when you're sitting at home planning huge
flights and you think can I really do that do I really know what I'm doing am I supposed
to be here this trip has really helped to kind of cross some of those self-doubts and
yeah raise my confidence another level to know that I think maybe I can do something
as big as that should we see if we can get Brisbane on the radio Brisbane Center Victor
Hotel AKO Yankee Zulu is two three five miles to the northwest of Darwin 9500 I'm not receiving
you at the moment but just giving your position report and we'll report when closer to Darwin
we approach Victor so Michael I thought that was coming back to me now that was daily approached
which I still got on the other radio no they still can't hear us uh just climbed us up
to flight level 115 now 11 500 feet just to get over this Cloud layer that you can see
outside at the moment I kind of could go over the top or underneath it and I figured I've
got the oxygen on already and it's probably a bit smoother on top and actually the headwinds
have dropped a little bit on top of this layer as well so I think it's a good decision to
go over the top and it also means that I can see any build ups that are bubbling up because
I've got a better perspective and higher means I'm gonna get Brisbane Center on the radio
sooner than if I was lower so height is good altitude is your friend on these long legs
Brisbane Center Victor Hotel Echo Yankee Zulu flight level 115 we are 175 miles to Darwin
estimate Darwin time zero two zero two
uh [Applause]
Brisbane Center Victor Hotel Echo Yankee Zulu Brisbane Center good morning good morning
Victoria Hotel Echo Yankee Zillow 143 miles to run to Darwin estimate darling Darwin time
zero two zero three maintaining flight level one one five Yankees or we want to copy flight
level one one Australia
nice to hear the Australian accent again that's 142 miles from Darwin at uh 11 500 feet that's
where we get here and now it's just like being back in Australia
[Music]
I just need to concentrate now on the way out so thank you very much these two more
that will sit next to me as I go into Darwin
[Music]
that's about first island we're just passing over at the moment first bit off Australian
land that we've flown over so far but back over water again for another about 20-20 minutes
until we get to Darwin
clear digital approach uh right base Runway two nine and 10 miles out of town okay so
okay and I have to remember don't open the door don't open the door when I land otherwise
border patrol will get annoyed at me
Darwin Towers here is Echo Yankee City we are five miles to run uh just for the visual
right base Runway two nine okay Yankee Zulu Echoes available Runway tonight
don't open the door don't open the door don't open the door don't open the door don't open
the door
thank you I was told not to open the door the team at Pearl flight center here at Darwin
airport had organized for Customs and Border Patrol to meet me at the aircraft so it was
literally just two or three minutes later thank you very much when I was cleared into
the country they refueled my aircraft and I was swiftly on my way to the next stop however
the story doesn't end here if you look in the distance as I was getting ready to depart
Darwin airport you can see there are some pretty significant storm clouds building now
my plan was to leave Darwin in track South however that would have taken me right through
the middle of the storm activity so I was vectored North around the storms to try and
get around the back of it before then tracking southbound and heading towards Alice Springs
this did mean I avoided the big storm cell but what I didn't realize is there was a lot
more storm activity behind it you can see one of those big storm sales in the distance
out the side window here so instead of a nice straight line from Darwin to Alice Springs
I had to divert left and right up and down and I didn't have enough fuel to get to Alice
in one hop so I had to diver and land at tenant Creek it was such a bumpy uncomfortable flight
across the desert I didn't turn the cameras on because I didn't really feel like filming
it and I was just focusing on the Fly itself before finally getting to Alice Springs just
before the sun went down another really long day of flying down that was East Timor to
Darwin to tenant Creek Springs only just in before the sunsets thanks
so I want this to be a bit more raw behind the scenes of what it's like doing these flights
that I do no one's answering my hope of doing a quick turnaround here in broken Hill the
ice protection I have no choice because go through that up ahead of us