Sunday, 25 July
A lovely warm morning, just right for having breakfast on the shadecloth patio! It did become rather hot by the afternoon, though.
This morning was our second big light plane adventure – this time the plane was much smaller and only held six people, including the pilot (who seem to be getting younger with every flight!!!). Why isn’t there any such thing as a new Cessna? As we were going to be flying over water, we actually had to wear our life jackets throughout the flight, and kept our fingers crossed they wouldn’t get wet – too many crocodiles and sharks around here.
Our flight took us over the immense tidal flats around Derby before heading inland across the military survival training area to the north of Derby. Flying at 3500 feet, it wasn’t too bumpy until we descended to 2500 feet to fly around the Horizontal Waterfalls. These falls occur because of the extreme tide movements and the large volume of water cannot move through the small openings, therefore it builds up and becomes a waterfall until slack tide. These are the openings that the small boats navigate with unsuspecting tourists (who also have to wear life jackets).
We then flew over Koolan and Cockatoo Islands, part of the Buccaneer Archipelago, both of these islands are iron ore mines. It seemed so strange to find to large mines in the middle of such a beautiful archipelago – the turquoise colour of the sea surrounding the thousand islands was just superb.
We were wearing headphones and were able to listen to all the air traffic as well as our pilot (amazing how many planes and helicopters were in the area). It was at this time that another plane radioed it was heading towards us at the same altitude, so our pilot, thankfully, descended to 1500 feet. Unfortunately, this also meant that our flight then did become a trifle bumpy until we reach King Sound. The run in to the airfield took us over the Derby jetty and the township – we were able to spot the caravan park without any trouble.
Cat was quite proud that the sick bag stayed in its envelope. I did rather wish that a lady on a previous flight had actually used her bag, rather than waiting until she landed and used the floor of the Ladies!
A lovely warm morning, just right for having breakfast on the shadecloth patio! It did become rather hot by the afternoon, though.
This morning was our second big light plane adventure – this time the plane was much smaller and only held six people, including the pilot (who seem to be getting younger with every flight!!!). Why isn’t there any such thing as a new Cessna? As we were going to be flying over water, we actually had to wear our life jackets throughout the flight, and kept our fingers crossed they wouldn’t get wet – too many crocodiles and sharks around here.
Our flight took us over the immense tidal flats around Derby before heading inland across the military survival training area to the north of Derby. Flying at 3500 feet, it wasn’t too bumpy until we descended to 2500 feet to fly around the Horizontal Waterfalls. These falls occur because of the extreme tide movements and the large volume of water cannot move through the small openings, therefore it builds up and becomes a waterfall until slack tide. These are the openings that the small boats navigate with unsuspecting tourists (who also have to wear life jackets).
We then flew over Koolan and Cockatoo Islands, part of the Buccaneer Archipelago, both of these islands are iron ore mines. It seemed so strange to find to large mines in the middle of such a beautiful archipelago – the turquoise colour of the sea surrounding the thousand islands was just superb.
We were wearing headphones and were able to listen to all the air traffic as well as our pilot (amazing how many planes and helicopters were in the area). It was at this time that another plane radioed it was heading towards us at the same altitude, so our pilot, thankfully, descended to 1500 feet. Unfortunately, this also meant that our flight then did become a trifle bumpy until we reach King Sound. The run in to the airfield took us over the Derby jetty and the township – we were able to spot the caravan park without any trouble.
Cat was quite proud that the sick bag stayed in its envelope. I did rather wish that a lady on a previous flight had actually used her bag, rather than waiting until she landed and used the floor of the Ladies!
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