It's been an ambition of mine for ages now to take my own aircraft and flight out of Australia to a
brand new country. I always figured there'd be a huge sense of pride landing your aircraft in
a new country getting that stamp in your passport knowing that you were the one entirely responsible
for piloting an international flight. My problem is that I live in Australia which is a long long
way from anywhere else head south you've got nothing but the Antarctic go west it's all ocean
Head East you've got a long over water flight to New Zealand and then again it's all ocean
which really only leaves heading north to leave Australia and flying into the continent of Asia
my other problem though is that I live on the south coast of Australia and even just to get
to the northern Coastline from Melbourne it's almost 1 800 nautical miles that's the same
distance flying London to Egypt or New York to Mexico because everything is so far away
over the years well it's just been easier to fly my aircraft in and around Australia
never actually taken it outside of its own home continent that is until today tomorrow actually
until now tomorrow I'm making my way across the heart of Australia right up to the top something
I've done before but this time I'm not going to stop when I get there this time I'm going
to keep heading up I'm going to leave Australia and I'm going to go right over the top foreign
so it's the night before departure and there's a whole bunch of things that I'm getting ready
with the aircraft right now mainly the job is to load the aircraft but also take it for a very
quick test flight this is the spare life jacket that I got repacked if you watch my other channel
you would have seen me doing that and then I'm also checking everything that I've got on the
back seat here that I'm going to need so I've got my grab bag with all my safety gear that's
my life raft which I'm going to need because we are flying over water cutting tool I've got
a strong light for signaling e-perb bag of snacks very important the other bits I have to get ready
is the YouTube side of everything this is the hero Max or the 360 degree camera that's the
one that sits on the right hand Wing my regular GoPro that goes inside the cockpit so I can talk
to you and show you what's happening inside the cockpit as we're flying my drone I've got spare
lenses battery packs charging things cables all the very unexciting stuff that you have
to take with you if you're planning a trip like this and you want to actually film it foreign
test flight
okay everything's good works as it should do I'm just going to pack up the aircraft put
it back in the hangar go back home get some rest before the big trip tomorrow
foreign
5 20 in the morning I've got a departure time set for 6 a.m everything on the
aircraft is done and checked I'm ahead but that's good that's where I want to
be on this flight because I've got a lot of flying ahead of me today also I can't
really feel my hands it's good to know that the further I go today the warmer it gets
foreign
and I'm just coming up to the border of Victoria and New South Wales if you've watched this channel
for a while you'll know I go on about the Murray River I always get excited about crossing the
Murray River it's just a really significant kind of it's a physical literal border between
my home state and then leaving the home state going further afield but yeah we're coming up
to the Murray River in a second it's just been the most beautiful flight Melbourne so far I'm sitting
at 6000 feet I could go a little bit higher but there's absolutely no need I'm getting a little
bit more power out of the engine so I can get a little bit more ground speed and it's just nice
and smooth down here and it's beautiful there's no clouds as you can see I did do that on purpose I
did know today was going to be a really good day for flying and hopefully the further we get on as
well the Tailwinds are going to pick up a little bit more because there's a low pressure system
down in the southeast of Australia at the moment and that's what's passed through and actually
dumped all of this Waters so it'd be interesting flying across the desert today because I actually
think we're going to get a lot more Greenery in the desert than we normally do flying across the
desert just because there's been so much rain the last couple of months here in Australia
and we're just about to pass from here in the state of Victoria
this is going to be New South Wales and we're going to be in New South Wales for a short
period of time and then after that into South Australia and there it is the Murray River the
mighty Murray River a lot of people here in Australia call it that's beautiful hey
okay
with the long day flying I've got ahead of me today I've worked out it's about nine and
a half hours of flying today actual flying that doesn't include the time on the ground
for refueling and it's easy to get really caught up in the huge distance that I've got to travel
today my beautiful and very smart wife who I was telling this last night just said well
just break it down into small parts he says just fly the first flight and just focus on
that then fly the second flight and focus on that and the irony of her telling me that is
when people say to me oh how do I get into Aviation I want to become a Qantas Captain
I always say well that's good but break it down into smaller chunks sometimes it's amazing how
you can give advice to other people but not take it on board yourselves and so I am breaking down
today into manageable components and the only thing I care about so far off this leg is just
getting to destination number one what happens after that happens after that I also know that
my wife generally doesn't watch these flying videos so I can let her know that she is right
without her knowing that I know that she is right but yeah Jackie you were you were right
I'm not getting a response at the moment I'll try again in a couple of minutes
this is where you start to doubt yourself doubt the frequencies one two one two is correct
I think what it is is I'm getting some shielding from that's the Flinders ranges up ahead of us at
the moment I think I'm getting some shielding on the VHF signal across those mountains and
I should be able to get in touch with him before I get to Lee Creek I know I could definitely get
that signal at Lee Creek so I'll just keep going at this altitude until I can contact him and then
I'll start a descent into our first stop we're going to over fly the Airfield and do a premiere
two nine Lee Creek Traffic Cirrus Echo Yankee Zulu is one zero miles to the south east of
descent passing through 5600 inbound estimate circuit time one nine at this
stage you'll be looking to join overhead right hand circuit Runway two nine secret
traffic the echo Yankee Zulu is visual with Lee Creek Council Starwatch okay Yankovic
foreign
as well as refueling the aircraft and having a quick pit stop for myself a couple of other
points of order I need to put in a flight plan for the next leg now this is going to be a nice
simple flight in terms of navigation in that it's just direct to the next airport but a
pretty interesting flight in terms of distance because well it's the longest flight of the trip
as Regional airports go this one's actually not too bad like it's no Banyan FBO in Fort Lauderdale
executive in America but we've got a vending machine a little area to sit down and relax
toilets what more do you want now since recording that last Quick scene I've realized that I don't
actually have an internet connection here on the ground but what I can do because I'm just
flying VFR now so visual flight rules I don't need air traffic control permission to do this
flight so I'm actually going to take off call up air traffic control let them know what I'm
doing and nominate what's called a startime or a search and rescue time for my arrival
into tenant Creek if I don't get to tenant Creek by that time then Air Traffic Control will try
and reach me then they'll try and search for me and escalate basically eventually until they can
find me in the aircraft but I'll do all of that once I'm in the air because I don't have internet
you can tell we're not in Melbourne anymore Lee Creek Traffic okay is rolling Runway zero two up
with departure climbing 8 500 tracking Northbound Lee Creek oh well Lee Creek and Halo desert bumps
hey gang surely just departed Lee Creek we're tracking direct tenant Creek passing 3200 climbing
8 500 just like to see if I can get VFR flight following for as much of this league as possible
thanks very much
funny how on long trips like these little things can make you really
excited I have been looking forward to Breaking open my sandwich that I
made last night off of most of that first flight to be honest
foreign
flying right over the top of Lake here today this is Australia's lowest point
in the whole of the continent and the largest lake in Australia as well
it is
I've got you back on adsb now identified area qh1020 verify level uh one zero two zero and
we are now maintaining 8500 q h yeah look forward to seeing the video cheers thank you
mate appreciate it there we go nearest airport in that direction just as short 107 miles away
we're right in the heart of the desert now and this line that we're about to cross over here
is the border between South Australia and the Northern Territory there we go
welcome to the NT I know how much you guys have enjoyed fuel chat in the past on this channel so
just very quickly this is a fuel log that I've been keeping this is the departure column so I
departed in 2300 UTC then half an hour later I do my first fuel tank change so I started on the
right and then I switched to the left tank and I calculated there I used nine gallons in the
first half an hour then an hour later I switch back across to the right tank and you can see
there I've used 22 gallons in total that's for the total trip so 11 gallons for that last hour
and then just a few minutes ago which was an hour later again then I switched back to the left tank
the total fuel used was 34A gallons so for the last hour I used 13. I also write the next time
on here so I've got zero two thirty so I know when I'm going to do the next change and I also
write down the tank that I'm going to change it across to so and on the avionics I do have a fuel
quantity little display here which shows me what's in the left and the right but it's not always the
most reliable just because of the sensors in the wheat tank so I I use this up here this is from
the fuel totalizer it shows me how many gallons of fuel they've actually been used on the trip so far
and that's what I'm using for total fuel use if you remember Echo Yankee Zulu as well you remember
the old fuel gauges used to be here just above the fuel selector switch that's good now because it's
all digitized on the Garmin panel much much easier just to see it all up here in front if you're in
one go just to have all the engine and fuel data together in one place I'm surrounded by a vast
nothingness as well still at the moment I don't feel good to be honest I don't feel too bad on
this leg I thought I would feel a lot more tired by now I'm actually feeling pretty good and I
think I'll see how I feel when I get down to 10 in Creek I've still got an hour and 45 minutes left
to go but I reckon I will push on and do the next leg to Catherine just to cap off the trip today
that's four hours four hours on this flight so far we're a bad
start I just said in a couple of minutes time as well hooray
okay it's really turning final Runway zero seven full stop tenant Creek
I feel pretty good actually I thought I'd feel a lot more tired after that long
long flight but no not too bad second stop of the day another refueling stop
another quick FBO tour this time in the Northern Territory this is the tenant Creek terminal I
suppose you can call it there is a company called air North this one behind me that flies from here
but obviously there's no flights going from here at the moment because it's all closed up
small terminal but it's got to Telly plenty of seats no vending machine though I could do it
like a cold water right now but uh it's of the local community by breaking down the cultures
final Flight of the day it's so nice having the short flight at the end so after three and a half
and then the monster four and a half hour flight I've just leveled off in the cruise and we've only
got an hour and a half to go until our destination so nice when you've got this the short flight at
the end I really don't like it when you get the long flight at the end on the ground at Tennant
Creek I met a guy called Chris thanks for saying hello Chris he flies in this area quite regularly
and he helped me out with the procedures of getting into Temple that's what I love about
Aviation is it's a real family community feel now everyone's got time for everyone else if
you ask a question I've never met another pilot or another aviator who hasn't stopped and wanted
to give across their their knowledge to help another Pilots so thank you Chris I appreciate
your tips for getting into tindor I'm looking forward to being my first time Landing there
yeah yeah one hour to go one hour to go come on everything looks good our descent rate is looking
good as well let's go to ride the bumps now Dental traffic Echo Yankee Zulu is joining downwind for
Runway one four all right 100 knots speed is good and we are 1 500 so that's good civil traffic okay
clearly turning final Runway one four full stop title extending the rubber it looks it looks like
be a big understatement Isn't it nice when you last Landing is your best one
two things have happened since that last sequence of me Landing in Catherine last
night the first one was I met another pilot called Chris an awesome guy Chris if you're
watching this thank you so much he helped me out with a taxi from here to the airport it actually
took us longer to get from the airport here to the hotel that I was staying in last night
than it did to take me to fly here from tenant Creek yesterday the second thing that happened
then after that was I got to the hotel room and just collapsed and fell straight asleep
but I'm awake I feel refreshed ready for the 60 Minute hop now up to Darwin okay just a quick 40
minutes until we get to Darwin should be a pretty straightforward flight although I can see a bit of
weather building up ahead of me at the moment in Darwin which is pretty typical um well for Darwin
hey kinky Zulu down delivery score four six three five
Channel Islands uh straight in for Runway three six and one three three decimal one at 10 miles
oh good morning Jess my name's Stefan in Echo Yankee Zulu I've just landed
at Darwin and just want to know whereabouts you're located okay all right I'm around the
wrong side of the airport so I'll come around there in a second see you soon bye darling
ground Echo Yankee Zulu at the wrong Pearl Aviation request taxi 2 uniform two thanks
do we look like it and we really see more Echo Yankee zuga has a new home and it appears that
immigration has gone to lunch because we're actually supposed to land here at 12 30.