Watching Weather

Flight, by its very meaning infers being above ‘terra firma’ and then somehow like a force of magic, being supported in the atmosphere. We know that possibly from the very first time creatures were observed in flight man has also dreamed of being up there with them.

Fortunately for us the eons of time have eroded many myths and nowadays, unlike those times of old, we know there is definitely no magic involved in flight….its all up to physics. Knowledge and advancements in the physics of aerodynamics has fostered aircraft development and enabled man to fly and enjoy the same environment as birds. 

Whilst continual development has delivered significant improvements in man’s ability to fly, the environment in which flight occurs remains the same as it has always been. The air surrounding our planet has not changed. Wind, rain, clouds and temperature all have an effect on flight in some way and not always with beneficial outcomes. Flyers refer to these factors as ‘weather’.  

Long-range flight, especially in a small airplane like ZK-BAZ, requires many hours in the air. The time and distance involved means the Bazflyers will invariably encounter different weather conditions along the way. Although man is unlikely to discover any meaningful way to influence weather, technology developments in forecasting future weather have been one of the biggest advancements beneficial to flight during the past 50 years, and continues to improve. 

With a particular long-range flight in mind, the Bazflyers will typically consult and monitor three or more different weather forecasting sites on the internet, looking ahead to choose an optimum time for the flight. Yesterday’s flight from Kerikeri (NZKK) in the far north of New Zealand over the Tasman Sea to Australia’s Gold Coast airport (YBCG) was a distance of 1,150 nautical miles (2,130 km). The Bazflyers were in the air for 7 hours and 15 minutes. The day chosen for the flight was not a random decision. It was based on a couple of weeks of observing forecast weather patterns for the flight and even then departure was delayed 24 hours to take better advantage of forecast tail wind conditions. When it comes to weather even the best of technology available today has not changed a saying born in the very early days of flight….”If you’ve got time to spare, go by air”. 

Flight path over the Tasman Sea from Kerikeri to the Gold Coast



Forecast weather pattern for Bazflyer’s flight. Our lovely tail-wind was due to the southern hemisphere anti-clockwise circulation around the high pressure area. However, such conditions also typically deposit warm moist air onto the Australian coast which meant an instrument approach (RNAV-Z 14) and cross-wind landing at the Gold Coast airport.  



Halfway across the Tasman Sea with cloud below and blue sky above.

50 is halfway to 100

Across the spectrum of life, events and happenings of every imaginable variety are characteristically remembered and often celebrated according to the quantum of years since past. A familiar example is a century (from the Latin centum), a period of 100 years. Life rarely grants most of us mortals the benevolence of a century but nevertheless it is a timeline of years we can comprehend. Even easier to get one’s head around is a span of 50 years, halfway to 100 which is the theme for this blog.

Today the Bazflyers took-off from Taupo (NZAP) in Piper Comanche ZK-BAZ for Kerikeri (NZKK) on their most epic aviation adventure yet. The Bazflyers are flying round the world. It is an adventure where ‘halfway to 100’ just happens to be a reoccurring theme. The circumnavigation involves 50 flights. It is 50 years since Bazflyer1 recorded his first solo flight in an airplane. The Bazflyers will fly their Comanche into the 50th EAA Oskosh, the biggest aviation gathering on earth. And significantly the Bazflyers have been together for 50 years. 

Symbolically 50 flights around the world flight will mark another halfway to 100 event…it is 50 years since New Zealander, Cliff Tait, took off from Hamilton Airport (NZHN) to fly round the world in “Miss Jacy”, his tiny Airtourer. Cliff’s flight was an amazing achievement for the time but unfortunately because he had to ship his airplane from Japan to North America he was unable to claim a complete circumnavigation.
  
Flying a small single engine airplane round the world has always been high on the list of aviation adventures. The very first  circumnavigation of the globe by an airplane was in 1924. Eight U.S. Army Air Service pilots and mechanics in four airplanes left Seattle, Washington. After 175 days, 74 stops and some 27,550 miles, only 2 of the 4 aircraft that set out eventually made it round the world. Since then there have been just 233 circumnavigation flights recorded by single engine airplanes and the Bazflyers aim to add their flight to that total. Earthrounders 

The first aerial circumnavigation of the world that involved crossing the equator twice, as the Bazflyers will do, has a special connection with New Zealand. The flight was undertaken in 1929 with the famous “Southern Cross” flown by Australian aviator Charles Kingsford Smith who was also the first to fly between New Zealand and Australia. 

Preparation for Round the World 2019 has occupied the Bazflyers for many months. Nothing has been left to chance. Personal fitness, aircraft condition, equipment, itinerary, flight planning and safety, all methodically identified and taken care of. There have been action lists, checklists, reviews and reviews. All thats left now is to do it. Flight one of fifty has been safely executed. Do join us on the journey at bazflyer.com   

Bazflyer1’s first solo flight.

Cliff Tait setting off round the world in ‘Miss Jacy’.

First flight round the world 1924

Kingsford Smith and the Southern Cross

Bazflyers and Comanche ZK-BAZ

Gulgong Gathering

The dictionary definition of a gathering is a meeting or assembly held for a specific purpose. In this instance that purpose was a 4-day Spring ‘fly-in’ for members of the Australisian Comanche Society….owners and pilots of Piper Comanche airplanes. And so it was that last weekend some thirty odd members descended on the small picturesque  New South Wales town of Gulgong and where ZK-BAZ proudly joined an impressive line-up of Comanche aircraft on the privately owned Gulgong (YGGG) aerodrome.

 

Gulgong countryside

     

Some of the Comanche line at Gulgong (YGGG)

Besides being depicted on Australia’s first $10 bank note, Gulgong's unique appeal lies in the fact that it abruptly came into being in the 1870’s before surveyors could turn it into just another country town. Consequently the streets wind and meander through a picturesque and well-preserved settlement of weatherboard, iron, stone and brick buildings with old-fashioned iron-lace verandas, tiny wooden cottages, horse troughs and hitching rails. The result is a gold mining town that once was home to 20,000 inhabitants and is now suspended in the aspic of history. Long may it last…!

The commaradie and congeniality of the Gulgong Gathering is uniquely expressed in this poem by Bazflyer2...

They gathered at the bowls club

on a sunny Gulgong morn

The Comanche lads and lasses

taking the greens by storm

With no regard for bias and

their skips plaintive cries

They hurl the bowls from end to end

their eye upon the prize

Camaraderie and Mate-ship

kept them from a fight

At the rate they are all playing

the games could take all night

They all agree to grace the bar

and gobble down the lunch

Patted each other on the back and

declared them self a bunch, of

Talented aviators the skies being where

they loved it best

They all retired from the bowls and

gave themselves a rest.

Thanks to Jeff Hutchinson the weekends

been a great success

With so many varied personalities

it could have been a mess

But it’s Camaraderie and Mate-ship

that constitutes the prize

Safe flying all you aviators

enjoy the Aussie skies. 

  

Gulgong was also a curtain call for the Bazflyer’s current Australian safari. It was time once again to fly BAZ over the Tasman Sea and return home to Taupo. An assessment of forecast weather conditions confirmed a sooner rather than later departure. Even then weather conditions for last 150 NM into Auckland were greatly less than optimal and unavoidable. After experiencing turbulence, snow and zig-zag radar vectors due to a backlog of IFR traffic, the Bazflyers were pleased to park BAZ outside Air Centre One at Auckland International Airport. 

Once again Mike announces our safe return on his MRC Blog http://mrcaviation.blogspot.com/2018/11/baz-heads-offshore-and-returns-updated.html

 

Commencing from Port Macquire (YPMQ) to Lord Howe Island (YLHI) for customs formalities, then onto Auckland (NZAA) and Taupo (NZAP) was 1295 NM and took just on 8 hours. Total safari flight time from departing Taupo 18th September and returning 20th November was 64 hours.  

 

 

Sun-up departure from Port Macquire, Australia, for Taupo, New Zealand

Rememberance Day

Visit almost any city or town along Australia’s eastern seaboard at this time of the year and you’ll be treated to the visually joyful and sensory splendour of flowering jacaranda trees. The tree is believed to have been introduced from Brazil in the 1850’s. Since then the widespread and prolific planting of this purple flowering tree, along streets, around houses and in parks, has literally transformed it into an Australian icon. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine a time when jacarandas did not rain purple.

The jacaranda tree is immortalised in one of Australia’s most famous paintings, called ‘Under the Jacaranda’. Painted in 1903 by R Godfrey Rivers. The painting is displayed at the Queensland Art Gallery. 

This morning while travelling by vehicle the Bazflyers stopped in the Queensland rural town of Beaudesert. It was approaching 11am as we joined a small assembly of women and men at the town’s WW1 memorial. Everyone stood silently together in remembrance. Precisely one hundred years ago, at 11am on the 11th of November, armistice was announced. World War One officially ended. A war that took the lives of more than 80,000 ANZACs. Many more were wounded.

Standing at the war memorial today it was difficult for a Bazflyer to imagine how the good folk of Beaudesert reacted when the news of armistice reached them that day 100 years ago. However, there is one thing that has not changed. On that day, just as it was today, the jacaranda trees were resplendent in their rich purple blossoms.

Every year on the anniversary of armistice, it’s as if the jacaranda tree had an ordained purpose, it weeps tears of purple rain. It is a tree that blossoms in remembrance of the men and women who gave their lives for us. Magically, this most beautiful flowering tree also inspires....

“The jacaranda flames on the air like a ghost,

Like a purer sky some door in the sky has revealed.”

Excerpt from ‘The Jacaranda’ by Douglas Stewart, from The Dosser in Springtime (1946)

Botanical Wonderland

The value of having a clear vision for whatever you wish to achieve is often touted as the most important element of success. However, when combined with creative innovation the extraordinary becomes possible. The Bazflyers would say that Frank Shipp must have been driven by such ideals when in 2005 he set out to turn his cattle property into what is now the Maleny Botanical Gardens.

Maleny is a small settlement comfortably nestled high in the coastal ranges about two hours drive north of Brisbane. Using the geographicly unique Glasshouse Mountains and surrounding rainforest as a giant backdrop, Frank has creativity applied his brand of innovation to the steep bush-clad landscape. The result is a lush oasis of waterfalls, ponds, plants and walking paths; and 16 acres of botanical wonderland. 

Frank’s remarkable achievement was definitely not lost on the Bazflyers who in a past life created their own 5 acre rural garden. Furthermore, it was truly inspiring to learn that Frank’s vision continues...he is working to make Maleny Botanical Gardens the best in the world.

Closing the Big Loop

It’s been eight weeks since the Bazflyers arrived at Gold Coast Airport following a 7-hour non-stop flight across the Tasman Sea from New Zealand in Piper Comanche ZK-BAZ. And so began a big loop out west. A journey of over 40 flight hours covering a distance of nearly 11,000 kms. The big loop was closed on Friday when BAZ touched down at Archerfield, Brisbane. 

The big loop out west

Jet Base Archerfield and an opportunity to wash the accumulated red dust off BAZ

Beechworth

The small picture-postcard town of Beechworth, tucked away in the Victorian High Country, came into being after the discovery of gold back in 1852. Like most historical gold strikes of that era, fast-tracked wealth delivered some colourful characters. So legend has it, one of the candidates in Beechworth’s first council election campaigned riding a horse with shoes of gold, a piece of local history that is celebrated every year with the town’s annual Golden Shoes carnival.

However, it was a rather different type of gold rush that bought the Bazflyers into Beechworth. The former railroad tracks that once linked settlements along the area’s picturesque valleys have nowadays given way to cycle trails. https://www.railtrails.org.au/trail?id=50&view=trail

The Murray to Mountains Rail-Trail attracts more than 100,000 cyclists each year into the area, supporting accomodation providers and all manner of eating establishments. Not only is cycling the new golf, it has every prospect of being a new gold rush for Beechworth.

Beechworth Post Office

Cycle Trail going into Bright

Breakfast at Lupo’s was as good it gets but the porridge was even better.

Great food all along the way could easily convert a Bazflyer into a foodie.


Bazflyers unequivocally recommend Nigel for the friendliest bike hire and shuttle service.