CAPE YORK IN A JABIRU J230

Preliminaries

It was a bit more than a year ago when I received an email thru my local Aero Club (Tumut) from Sydney Social Flying, outlining the air safaris and other activities they did for pilots.  There were two adventures that caught my eye, one to Cape York and the other to Western Australia.  Cape York has always been on the wife’s bucket list and mine has been to do the Great Australian Bight. 

I’d taken my wife on a trip called the Lake Eyre Dash, hosted by Ward Air in Bathurst, in July 2019, where, although nervous about flying, she enjoyed the trip, so thought she’d be excited about a trip to the Cape.  Unfortunately, although on her bucket list, being a trip twice as long was not encouraging.

Anyway, I put my name down for the Cape York trip and forging ahead, I went about determining how I could best afford it.  We’d done the Lake Eyre Dash in the Tumut Club plane as a rental.  Unfortunately, it’s getting long in the tooth, and the club decided it wouldn’t be available for such a trip so I had to find an alternate.  I have both a PC and an RPL, so looked into both RAAUS and GA planes available for hire, but for such a trip the costs were going to become prohibitive, especially knowing I would want to do more of this sort of tripping around, whether I can convince my wife to join me or not.

So I looked around and tried to buy Tecnam from the Soar Aviation liquidation auctions, but was out bid on every one. I then found myself a nice Jabiru J230 in my price range and had 4 months to familiarise myself with it (compared to the J170 I was used to flying) before the big trip.

I found a mate who was interested in joining me, so had a co-pilot to go with me, and we did a few flights beforehand (including a TIF for him with my instructor) and worked out all we needed to take.

Leading up to the start, COVID took over NSW and things looked like it may not happen.  Chris the organizer was locked down in Sydney, but was willing to co-ordinate the trip for all those who could make it.  I was put in “Stay at home” orders in Canberra, because I’d been in the Gold Coast for a wedding, and it didn’t end until the day before the trip started. 

From an initial 8-9 planes and 20 people, we were down to 8 people and 4 planes.  The other three planes all from Devonport in Tasmania, and they’d all left a week early due to favourable weather conditions to cross the Bass Strait and were pre-safari holidaying in southern Queensland.  Due to COVID there as well,  it was decided to move the official start further north to Airlie Beach, instead of Caloundra, meaning there would be 3 nights at Airlie before moving on.

Journey to Airlie Beach

My mate Stu and I headed off from Canberra at 6am, driving to Tumut to swap the car for the plane and took off heading to Goondiwindi, staying under the cloud base.  The further north we got the higher the cloud and better the weather.  We made good time to Narrabri for lunch, so we decided we’d go through to Chinchilla.  Sydney Safari support (Chris) arranged accommodation there, while we were flying.

Enjoying a nice beer in Chinchilla, Stu and I realised we’d both done Airlie Beach previously, so instead of 3 nights there, we’d have one in Agnes Waters on the way and thus allowing us to include a circumnavigation of Fraser Island on the way.

That was an awesome day, with the first stop at Gympie, then on and around Fraser Island, landing at Orchid Beach for lunch, spotting whales and dolphins and enjoying the spectacular scenery.  Finished up with a flight around Seventeen Seventy and into the dirt strip at Agnes Waters, followed by a 10 minute walk to the resort. 

The following day we avoided the kangaroos on the runway at Agnes Waters, refuelled at Gladstone, flew up thru Herbert Creek and over the islands, around Whitsunday Island to avoid the controlled airspace over Hamilton Island and into Shute Harbour.  Here I found some lovely tie-downs all ready for me between two other planes, so re-fuelled, tied down and caught a taxi into Airlie Beach Hotel and then notified the others we had arrived.  I later received a call from Kevin (one of the other pilots), telling me I’d taken Rhys’s tie-downs and parked in his spot.  Rhys, Roselle, Kevin and Sharon had flown to Hamilton Island for a day trip.  Fortunately, Rhys had some spare tie-downs, so they moved my plane and used those, so Rhys could have his spot again.

We had a great dinner that night, meeting each other, with me getting lots of ribbing for taking Rhys’s parking spot.  A great way to break the ice and get to know each other.  The next day, the others all went on a cruise to Whitehaven Beach, while Stu and I rented electric bikes, and toured the area, which just happened to have to include a 10km round trip to BCF to buy my own tie-down pegs.  Only to find I did have some pegs in my plane already.

Airlie Beach to Cooktown

We had a great dinner that night, meeting each other, with me getting lots of ribbing for taking Rhys’s parking spot.  A great way to break the ice and get to know each other.  The next day, the others all went on a cruise to Whitehaven Beach, while Stu and I rented electric bikes, and toured the area, which just happened to have to include a 10km round trip to BCF to buy my own tie-down pegs.  Only to find I did have some pegs in my plane already.

The next day, we headed off to Cooktown.  Kevin, another Jabiru J230 pilot, and I headed out, following an over water route to bypass the Townsville Controlled Airspace and were heading to Innisfail for lunch.  Rhys and Rob had decided to stop at Ingham.  I saw Dunk Island up ahead and decided I needed to tick off “landing on a Great Barrier Reef Island”. 

We called ahead and got no response, but proceeded to land anyway.  We had a St Maarten moment, with a group of fisherman standing on the beach at the end of the runway.  A local worker turned up and told us we didn’t have permission and should be paying a $100 landing fee, but was kind enough to let us “use the facilities” and we quickly left, before the owner changed their mind.  Kevin was going to follow me in, but he quickly averted.  The weather ahead was rain, so we had to circle back and headed to Ingham to join Rob and Rhys and discuss options over lunch.

After lunch we headed inland to get around the weather.  It wasn’t the best, with significant cloud around, combined with smoke from a fire.  Anyway we plodded on, and about 30nm out of Cooktown we hit some rain.   Kevin was ahead, and said it was thin, so we followed a river through the rain and came out the other side with a clear run through to Cooktown.  I followed Kevin and Rhys into land, and the crew of my aircraft were very happy to dis-embark after challenging day of flying.

Rob didn’t find a way through and returned to Ingham for the night.  He made an early start the next day and got to Cooktown by 10am to join us on a tour of the area, which included the well-known Lions Den Hotel for lunch.  That evening we went on Endeavour River sunset cruise where sighed a crocodile lurking in the mangroves.

The next day, we attempted to leave Cooktown for Horn Island via the east coast, but was thwarted by low cloud and rain.  We hung around the airport, hoping for clearing weather and enjoyed a modest take away “fish & chips” (only $120 including taxi delivery), before we abandoned the attempt and returned to Cooktown for another night.  We decided a dawn start would be best the next day, as well as heading to the western side would allow us to bypass the cloud and weather.  

For Stu, the fickle weather was taking its toll.  Also, the Canberra lockdown had just started and with school age children back home, decided he need to return home.  This involved catching a bus down to Cairns to catch a flight to Canberra.   Unfortunately for Stu, that was the last of the bad weather, and we had a great run for the rest of the trip.

 Thursday Island and Cape York

Leaving early and heading across to Weipa was the right choice.  We stopped for fuel, then flew up following the coast, a bumpy but otherwise enjoyable trip, completed by flying over the tip we would be visiting tomorrow, then a short over water flight to land on Horn Island, where we would be leaving the planes for two days while touring around.

After a night on Thursday Island, we caught the ferry to Seisia on the mainland, where we had breakfast on the beach at Loyalty Beach, followed by a bus ride to Cape York.  This was interrupted by a tree having fallen across the road.  Fortunately, we ended up surrounded by a posse of 4WDs, who had chainsaws, winches and everything needed to clear the road.  After a delay of an hour, we were off again to Cape York, but along with 14 other vehicles.  So here we are at the tip of Australia, and we had to queue and wait our turn for the photo opportunity.  I guess it’s all part of the experience.

Cobbold Gorge and Burketown

The next day, after a very early start, we attempted to fly down the east coast, since we’d missed it on the way up. Unfortunately, only after about an hour, we again ran into cloud and weather, so had to head both up to 8000 feet as well as inland to Coen for fuel, then on down to Forsayth, where we had a quiet ale at the Hotel, before catching a coach out to Cobbold George for the night.   

After a tour of the George the next morning, we coached back to Forsayth for the flight to Burketown.  I took a detour to fly over Cobbold George, before heading up to Normanton and then across the edge of the Gulf to Burketown.  It was here (and a few following locations) that I found that unless you have Telstra SIM (I only had Aldimobile, and my co-pilot had left) that you’re pretty much screwed for any network access for weather and other essentials.

I also had a bit of a scare on this trip.  I didn’t refuel in Forsayth, as I’d double checked my tanks, and the Fuel Flow meter I’d installed prior to the trip and decided I had sufficient for the next flight.   About half way to Burketown the low fuel light started flashing on the dash.  I checked the fuel flow and the tanks multiple times and confirmed I still had what I thought I should, so kept flying.   I still had 1.5 hours fuel remaining before I re-filled at Burketown.

The lodge we stayed in in Burketown had left a van for us to use at the airport, so we could drive ourselves into town and our accommodation.  Where we were treated to a lovely deck, bar, and swimming pool, followed by the best meal of the trip - home cooked fresh caught Barramundi, scallops and prawns.

Adels Grove, Karumba and Longreach

The next morning we headed off to Adels Grove. I again detoured to fly over the Lawn Hill Gorge before landing at Adels Grove.  We checked in and then did the tour of the Gorge, failing to realise we could have taken our swimmers for a swim in the Gorge. After a late evening chatting with fellow campers I crashed for the night.

The following day saw us flying back up to the Gulf and across to Karumba. Here we went on a sunset croc tour, including dinner on a sand island in the Gulf watching the sunset. The next morning Rob and Rhys decided to head off at 7am, whereas Kevin and I decided we needed a hearty breakfast before the trip, so we didn’t leave till around 8am.  

After a fuel stop in Cloncurry, we heard on the radio Rob and Rhys decided to detour and visit Lark Quarry to see the Dinosaur Stampede exhibit, so we decided to do the same thing.  We timed it perfectly, so that when the guide dropped them back to the airstrip, we were ready to be collected and taken to the Stampede.  After a great tour, we headed down to Longreach and the final official stop of the safari.  

I stopped near the Qantas museum to get a picture of the Jabiru alongside the 707 and 747.  The next day I toured the museum and the town while the others did a Cobb and Co tour.  After a farewell dinner and breakfast, I then headed off on my journey home to Tumut/Canberra.  The others discussed how best they could return to Tasmania, especially since they’d been away for almost a month.

The Journey Home

After a farewell dinner and breakfast, I then headed off on my journey home to Tumut/Canberra.  The others discussed how best they could return to Tasmania, especially since they’d been away for almost a month.  I headed to Goondiwindi, but decided St George was far enough, after a fuel stop in Charleville. Margaret from Riverland Motor Inn, not only collected me from the airport, but gave me a quick tour of the town and some of its history.  Rhys and Kevin decided they’d try to get home, so headed off for a night in Thargomindah.

I walked back to the airport early next morning for the flight back to Tumut, with a fuel stop at Coonamble, toilet break in Young and final stop in Tumut before lunch, thanks to a great tailwind.  Rhys and Kevin managed to get to Tasmania, via SA the same day, also thanks to the great tail wind and fine weather.  Robert and Caren continued touring, stopping over at Arkaroola and Mount Gambier before making it home.

Wow, what an experience, all along the way I sent daily KMLs of my flight to Sydney Safari Support and other friends, so they could track and replay my flight on Google Earth.  These were all collated, giving me a grand total flying time of 42.8 hours, 4648 nautical miles at an average ground speed of 108 knots with 29 landings and not a single go-around.  A huge chunk of experience to add to my existing ~130 hours.  I’d like to thank Sydney Social Flying for the great experience and support,  and my fellow Tasweegen travellers for their expertise and friendly comradery during the entire trip.  There was soo much to see and experience and it has only made me want to do more.  I think the Kimberly's is on the agenda for next year.