There had been heavy rains in the north of Australia causing extensive flooding, this in turn flows via the “Channel Country” to the lowest inland part of Australia which is Lake Eyre. The catchment covers 1.2 million square kilometres and the water takes over two months to reach it's destination. Sandy creek beds turn into rivers thirty kilometres wide. The huge flocks of birdlife and other wildlife that follow this event are amazing. The area of Lake Eyre is 9700 square kilometres which is something to see as it only occurs about four times in one hundred years. The vast desert springs into life. What a great reason for a trip in the Taifun.

Home airfield is Colac in southwest Victoria. Low cloud and passing showers delayed us on the day of departure and finally took off at 1.30 in the afternoon. Head winds and diversions around rain slowed things down a bit but as we headed northwest the Taifun's cruise speed was appreciated. Crossing the Big Desert into South Australia I decided we would stay the night at Waikerie and refuel the next morning.

We were keen to see the ASW20 jet project being developed at Waikerie and what an impressive work that is. There are three jets mounted in the fuselage behind the pilots head, two retract into the fuselage and the one on top has fairings which fold around it. The climb rate on takeoff is 1000 feet per minute and better, at 70 knots. The next morning we lined up at the fuel facility only to find that the tank was empty due to a hole in the underground storage. Luckily Mark in the glider workshop had a fresh jerrycan of premium car fuel, just enough to get us to the next available avgas at Jamestown in the Flinders Ranges. After a circle around the town we landed at Jamestown just as Merv the fuel man pulled up to assist us.

The next leg was a long one to Olympic Dam which is a uranium mine. You need special permission to land here for security reasons and also because of regular jet traffic bringing staff in and out. This mine is about to change from an underground operation to open cut to become the largest open cut mine in the world with a life expectancy of at least seventy five years. Everything is big out here. Crossing the Flinders Ranges, then hundreds of miles of desert, one part of which we flew for one and a half hours without seeing a road, I was happy the GPS kept talking to the satellites. A diversion around the Woomera Rocket Range restricted area kept up the map reading skills. We landed and refuelled twenty minutes before a jet was due, we were ready to take off while the jet spent fifteen minutes on the ground.

The last leg of this section was to William Creek a distance of one hundred miles over more desert with no visual clues and a dead flat horizon just Lake Eyre slowly appearing in the distance. After tie down we walked across the Oodnadatta Track to my friend's house. Trevor owns two of the four houses here and runs a commercial flying business for the tourists and the mines. His cessna fleet includes four 207's, one 210, three 172's and others. He operates for nine months of the year the rest being too hot. The permanent population of William Creek is ten.

Final William Creek

 

The next day it was time to have a look around Lake Eyre. About half an hour we were on the edge of this vast area of water in the middle of the desert. Big flocks of birds are on a feeding and breeding frenzy because it doesn't last long. Wildlife includes camels, donkeys, horses, kangaroos, dingos and emus all following the food chain. Once out over the water which is up to 1.5 metres deep the horizon merges with the sky and there are no visual references. Because the lake is 15 metres below sea level there is a great temptation to fly below sea level. I saw the remains of a Cessna 210 which has been in the lake for about fifteen years proving how hard it is to judge ones height, I resisted.

above Lake Eyre

We spent some time in the hotel that night talking to people who were travelling through the outback in their four wheel drives. Most spoke about how bad some sections of the road were. One man told me it was so rough it shook the spots off his dalmation dog.

The following day we flew out to Anna Creek Station a large cattle property covering 23670 square kilometres making it the largest working cattle operation in the world. They run up to 16,000 cattle in good times but because of the recent drought they only had 4000. From there we flew out to the Painted Hills, only accessible by air. This is an area of about 20 square kilometres and the colouring caused by lots of different minerals is unbelievable.

The Painted Hills

Another pleasant evening at the bar talking to tourists about their travels then a good night’s sleep ready for the return journey.

Returning via Olympic Dam with the usual precise arrival and departure time I elected to stay west of the Flinders Ranges because of a cold front and rain passing through. This proved to be beneficial as we picked up a decent tail wind and headed south to Goolwa on the coast. A quick refuel and off along the coast to Naracoorte. We could see a whale and calf playing off the beach near Goolwa.

Overnight at Naracoorte where the aero club members took us into town and a motel. Next morning was a bit windy but after takeoff the tailwind was cooperative giving a ground speed of 135-140 knots. We arrived home for lunch.

After six days and 1800 miles I was very happy with the Taifun which performed very well and coped with some strong crosswind takeoffs. Happy to see any Taifun or other motorglider pilots who find their way to Australia.

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