I don't think we're going to get through that and I think it's going to keep getting
worse as I get closer to Melbourne. I've turned the ice protection on because no
choice we've got to go through that up ahead of us. Minus one degrees
outside is a possibility of a bit of icing. EYZ deviate five miles right.
Look at that view everyone look it's just beautiful no actually this is my very very
messy hotel room nice nice dinner good morning from Alice Springs today I am flying myself from
right here in the heart of Australia all the way back to Melbourne I've got two long fly stay the
first of which is going to be about four hours then I've got another three and a bit hours to
get into Melbourne the weather's not looking great so we'll see how we go getting into Melbourne
today should be a reasonable start to another long day of flying I kind of want to make this video a
little bit different to some of the others I want this to be a bit more raw or a bit like behind the
scenes of what it's like doing these flights that I do so I'm going to show you some of the
stuff that I don't normally show you in my flying videos like this which is me at a hotel reception
waiting for a taxi waiting for a taxi to get yourself to and from an airport is a huge part of
general aviation because most airports that I fly into are a long way from town and quite a lot of
towns that I fly into are very very small waiting for transportation to and from the airport is a
big part of general aviation uh to the airport please uh neither near the flying doctors that's
before that okay all right sorry I'm not exactly sure what the case is but it's it's around there
now I can't get into the airport I'm calling them the number that
they say I need to call to get the code and no one's answering
so a lot of Aviation really is about problem solving I thought they'd give me a code that
I could use to punch into the gate myself I can't do that here at Alice Springs someone actually has
to come and let me through I've got to show photo ID and they've got to let me onto the airport and
so I can't let the big picture frustrate me I can't think I have to be in Melbourne tonight
and every little thing that's holding me back is slowing me down because that's just going
to make you stressed instead you take one job at a time and do it as well as you can and the
next job for me is to go and pre-fly that beautiful aircraft over there look at that
not that one good morning Echo Yankee Zulu the oil that's another thing that I have to do on some of
these long legs which again I don't generally film and I've got oil all over my hands which
is nice for a four hour flight that lies ahead of me pre-flight is done aircraft is ready to go the
thing I'm waiting for now is I've actually got 15 minutes until the tower opens if I leave now I'm
going to leave under ctaf conditions which is just like a common traffic advisory frequency so all
Pilots are just talking to each other and looking after themselves but if I leave in 15 minutes then
I can depart with a clearance from the tower and I love you guys so I thought you might like to
see that so I'm just going to wait 15 minutes until the tower opens and then you can see what
it's like to leave Alice Springs when the tower is active because I think some of you sometimes worry
about flying in controlled airspace and talking to air traffic control but it's actually dead easy
you watch now as I stuff it up remember when I flew to Alice Springs it's about a year and
a half ago and I did a helicopter ride over the airplane storage facility they have here
there's still quite a few aircraft parked up there please list in the comments all the
airlines that you can see parked up here big Ave geek kudos to the person who can name the most
foreign
Okay so we've got our clearance we're gonna go out by the 134 radial which I've just
startled up from the VOR here uh climb to 7000. Echo Yankee is really climbed to 4
500 cleared for takeoff make right turn climb 4500 clear the takeoff right turn Echo Yankee
leaving five thousand climbing 7500. you can see what they're doing with us at the moment
is that Qantas flight was flying over the top they took off behind us but they're obviously
faster air traffic control of kept me at a lower altitude whilst Qantas clears me
now they're above now I could climb up and I have to report leaving seven thousand so
the person behind me can climb up as well so it's very clever it's kind of this sequential
stepping up of all of the traffic to get further and further out from Alice Springs
I come from this blue line that's what I'm going to be out of Alice Springs
is controlled airspace and I'll just be bfr on my way all alone across the desert like normal
okay Yankee Zulu passing seven thousand okay thanks contact center now on 119 address Alice
identification and control service terminated g'day Alice Springs have said goodbye Melbourne
Center have said goodbye and when they say control service is terminated that
means I'm no longer in controlled airspace so I could do whatever I want now and all I need
to do is apply the how far have we got three hours and 12 minutes a broken Hill
there's not a lot to do on these long flights it's actually nice today because it's quite
smooth yesterday was a slog Darwin to Tennant Creek and then tenant Creek to Alice Springs
was awful but the good thing about the level I'm at at the moment is I do also have a slight Tower
with I'm just listening to some music that's what I normally do on these flights I'm just
having some food as well so I keep my energy levels up I'm making sure I'm drinking lots as
well the views never get tiring though I can fly over this landscape a hundred times and
it seems different every single time it's a beautiful vast scary place but I love it
about to cross into South Australia from the Northern Territory yeah it's bumpy again now
Look At This Magic Moment when you're flying you ready
less than an hour to go that's been a long flight okay now when I have less than an
hour to go I thought I'd show you what I do to set up my Approach into broken Hill
a good thing I can do here with the new avionics is I could just click on broken Hill I can go
to the runways and I could see a diagram of the running runways that they have so it's two three
and zero five I've checked the weather and I know the wind is pretty much coming straight down the
runway for 2-3 so I'm going to be setting myself up to Runway two three I get the elevation of 959
feet yeah so I know that my circuit height for broken Hill is going to be a thousand feet above
that so 1900 or I'd kind of say 2 000 feet so what I could do in my flight plan because I know I need
to descent down to 2000 feet is I got a broken Hill I click here I click altitude constraint I
put in 2000 feet at the Waypoint if I save that then actually now on here get a top of descent
point of 42 minutes from where I am now and on my moving map you can see that's where I am that's
broken Hill just at the top of the map and I have my top of descent marked here it's ridiculously
easy right the other good thing is there's an audible enunciator it says vertical track in an
American accent and that tells me I've got one minute before I need to start down my vertical
track and the other good thing is I get a virtual Glide slope as well so I could just follow that
down I've set it to be a one and a half degree uh descent because I don't want to descend too
quickly you can set it to be whatever you want and that's it and then I'm all set up for broken Hill
I just have a look at the chart on my iPad now as well brief myself on where the taxiways are I
could do all that to be honest I could do all that I don't need my iPad I know I'll be landing on two
three if I just zoom in I can see it's taxiway Alpha so it'd be a right turn onto Alpha then a
right turn on to taxiway Charlie and I know that the fuel pump is just over here at broken Hill
and I've done that I go back to watching Bob's Burgers up ahead we're gonna pass now across the
streslecki desert named after Sharon Strzelecki from catford Camp not many people know that
we have one minute and 10 seconds until I get to that top of descent point that
I mentioned you can see here on the map where almost can be there we should get a vertical
track announcement in a second vertical track there we go yeah with technology like that when
the plane tells you that you need to start descending that's um it's quite a luxury
get the cockpit ready you can go here my friend taking care
for the clouds to go through perfect that worked out well
what about why did I break it down the wind from my right so I'm aiming myself out a
little bit broken slowly turning final Runway two three full stop broken Hill
pop Journey four hour flight and we're not even home yet this is
the first of two flights that was a good flight I really enjoyed that one
so that's signed there on the fuel Bowser that says tank receiving means that they're currently
filling up the fuel from the big truck that's over the other side and they say it's going to take an
hour so my hope of doing a quick turnaround here in broken Hill and then heading back to Melbourne
kind of been dashed but it's kind of good in a way I'll have a break that was a long flight can't get
frustrated by it it's out of my control I would love to fill up and just go straight away but
I cannot
okay just planning my next flight then down to Melbourne which we'll probably
do IFR and to accompany that I've got my piece of carrot cake here and
my oat milk coffee haven't had one of these for a week that is so good
okay and as you remember I didn't get anything to eat this morning so this is technically breakfast
I don't know
still gotta wait that's all right there's a bit of weather passing
through Melbourne at the moment which is due to go through in about an hour and a half so
a bit extra time on the ground is not a bad thing I could have had a second coffee though
okay and success the fuel Bowser's opened up again just filled Echo Yankee Zulu
there's the damage if you're playing along at home
so hopefully get out the bumps when we get on top
yeah
much better much better about the cloud it's funny
after doing a week of all these long flights this one today is 2 hours 15
minutes to our destination 360 miles and that seems like a really quick holiday
yeah
I think the clouds that are up ahead at the moment are gonna be uh too high for us
to get over and I think it's going to keep getting worse as I get closer to Melbourne
so I'm going to see if I can climb us up I only need about a thousand feet I reckon okay Yankees
early we're just starting to uh go into the clouds here now request on standard one zero thousand
Thank You Yank usually there's no 45 traffic one through a thousand okay concealer climbing
even though those clouds are fine they wouldn't be a problem for us they might be a little bit
bumpy in and out the clouds minus one degrees outside so there's a possibility of a bit of icing
and to be honest it means I can't see ahead of the aircraft if I'm sitting there in the cloud
so just for comfort and so I can see further ahead okay clearly request uh five miles right of track
hey thank you Zulu DBA five miles right route five miles away I'll turn the ice protection on
so that's the TKS fluid you can see flowing over the wings there I'm just getting ready
okay Yankee Zulu they send three thousand s
I maintaining your best thank you hello home uh that's a good site breaking out the clouds
and seeing your hometown God I missed this town every time I'm not here I love Melbourne so much
I'm going to be doing a full q a about this entire trip so I want to know Down Below in
the comments what your questions are ask me about how much things cost how long
the flights were anything you want to know let me know in the comments below I'll go through
all your cues and I'll give as many A's as I can but thanks for watching over the top