I'll look to take off from Tindal within the hour and spend the night in Kununurra - it's a very lovely valley and I've previously taken a liking to dropping in on some of the remote farm fields unannounced in a Skyhawk.

With over 200 miles of water before reaching El Tari, I wanted a float plane in case of engine failure.  If FSX only handled ditching, I might have kept the Siai....

-----

FS² v3.0 w/172 Detail - FSX SP2 - CH yoke & pedals - GoFlight / Saitek / MPanel - TrackIR 3 w/VE

i7-920 airclocked to 166, Vista 64 Prem, GTX 260, 9GB 1300 DRAM, 1TB OS / 200GB s/s FSX drive

"Geronimo"

I barely hit the parking brake before Smitty unbucked and lept into a waiting pickup.  "I'll be back in a few hours.  You stay and... guard the Caravan."  Guard?  Funny choice of words.  So I pulled out a sunshade and set up a chair and cooler off in some trees nearby and watched some DVDs.

When he returned, Smitty was carrying a couple of ice coolers - some fish that he picked up from an old mate that worked nearby.  Excellent.  So we cleaned camp, loaded up, and took off following an odd route that took us through a narrow river valley right along the ridgeline.

25 minutes later - going through some nasty moutain gusts that prompted some undue shouting - we sat down at one of my favorite spots - Kunurunna.  Smitty packed his golf clubs and is off for a few holes in this 40C heat.  Mad dogs, indeed.

Tonight we're going to dine on fresh redclaw and some silver cobbler from one of Smitty's coolers.  (The other one's stuck shut, oddly.)  Weather looks good for flying tomorrow, but Smitty indicated that he might want to stay a day.  Lovely green spot here, so it's fine by me.

-----

FS² v3.0 w/172 Detail - FSX SP2 - CH yoke & pedals - GoFlight / Saitek / MPanel - TrackIR 3 w/VE

i7-920 airclocked to 166, Vista 64 Prem, GTX 260, 9GB 1300 DRAM, 1TB OS / 200GB s/s FSX drive

"Geronimo"

Don't get too hooked on the lovely landscape of Oz because we've got 1846nm of barren msfsx landscape island hopping Indonesia. Still I hear the Balinese babes cook a mean curry

Biggles

Although if I may be so bold to suggest a substitute for Phase 2 - I call it "Race 'Round Tasmania."  It's pretty simple, all of us race around Tasmania and the last one flying wins.  No?... Oh b*!!*ck$....

Currently we're still here at Kununurra.  Smitty won't give the go-ahead for us to leave for some reason or another.  I heard him on the phone last night asking someone "when would the mule be in place?"  Between you and me, I think he's seeing one of the local farmer's daughter.

-----

FS² v3.0 w/172 Detail - FSX SP2 - CH yoke & pedals - GoFlight / Saitek / MPanel - TrackIR 3 w/VE

i7-920 airclocked to 166, Vista 64 Prem, GTX 260, 9GB 1300 DRAM, 1TB OS / 200GB s/s FSX drive

"Geronimo"

You got it---bollards to Tas!  BUT a definite possibility for people finishing Phase II early? If you want to expand on the flight details??  NOt sure about a race as different people commit different times to fsfs ie the unfortunate workers & the lucky retired.

"when would the mule be in place?"  No way to talk about the farmers daughter

Biggles

We had a bruch of cold sandwiches and heated-on-the-engine soup and jumped over the water into El Tari.  Odd thing is, we made no landing score on this tour greater than 60 points, and did not record a single landing spot in the C208.  I guess Smitty really really really didn't like that stunt I pulled back at Scherger.

No blood, no foul as they say - so we're off to turn in the Caravan, get our visas stamped (and we all know how painful that can be) and reunite with the missus.

Best of luck to everyone in Phase 2 - apparently we can't land on the broad side of a barn....

-----

FS² v3.0 w/172 Detail - FSX SP2 - CH yoke & pedals - GoFlight / Saitek / MPanel - TrackIR 3 w/VE

i7-920 airclocked to 166, Vista 64 Prem, GTX 260, 9GB 1300 DRAM, 1TB OS / 200GB s/s FSX drive

"Geronimo"

No landing score greater than 60? There is a God and hope for the rest of us

Good luck in phase II & for the rest of 2010

Biggles

Ps: Is the Tas race clockwise or anticlockwise?

Why not 2x the fun in Tas and make it one round anti, then one round clocky?  Devonport would make a nice ''top and center'' starting point.  Don't hit the windmills as you round the bend. 

Actually now that I've spruced up some of my NSW locations - just loving what they've done with Aeropelican and Tamworth - if I can finish Phase 2 a little early, I'd like to refly the first few legs of Phase 1 in reverse order.  Sort of a ''end up where we started'' type of thing.  Maybe start at Coffs Harbour, another jewel that I missed the first time around.

-----

FS² v3.0 w/172 Detail - FSX SP2 - CH yoke & pedals - GoFlight / Saitek / MPanel - TrackIR 3 w/VE

i7-920 airclocked to 166, Vista 64 Prem, GTX 260, 9GB 1300 DRAM, 1TB OS / 200GB s/s FSX drive

"Geronimo"

Sounds very pretty. Take in Warnervale & Wallsend on the way.  Might see you on Bondi then

Biggles