The Great Southern Land

[Moses03]

Not often you are greeted by a sheep.

 

[Taco]

Here is a picture of Dudley and I pedaling as fast as we can trying to catch us a whale, Ah....but no luck!

 

[Moses03]

Bright lights, big city. Inbound to Adelaide in the middle of the night.

 

[Willy]

Had some panel lighting issues (self inflicted) last night. In the electrical shop this morning.

 

[Willy]

Amazing what one can do with duct tape, tie wraps, a can of red spray paint, a big hammer and a sharp stick..... I've got panel lights again.

 

[Willy]

We put Adelade behind us and headed across the bay to Port Lincoln. Great flight even if I did almost run off the end of the runway on landing. Hope there's an Autozone here so I can get some new brake pads.

 

[Willy]

Autozone didn't have the brake pads, but Santa Claus apparently runs early down under.

 

[Willy]

Nice flight to Ceduna. If you squint your eyes at a Stratoliner, you can see the inner B-17.

 

[Moses03]

Into Coober Pedy which is halfway between Adelaide and Alice Springs. Quite hot here most of the year so many locals live underground with the opals.

 

[Willy]

A couple of shots of our Coober Pedy arrival

It's out there somewheres

I don't have the scenery installed, so it's kind of barren here except for the gravel runway and ramp, a fuel hose reel and the perimiter fence. Maybe the terminal is underground as well.

 

[PRB]

O.T. I had to laugh when I saw this. Actually I didn't notice it until one of the guys working on restoring the planes at the RAAF Amberly Aviation Heritage Center pointed it out to us. This museum is open to the public only once a month, but is available on Tuesdays and Thursday to people who have access to the RAAF base, which we did. Consequently, we were the only "tourists" there when we visited on the day before we left Australia, and a couple of the men working on various restoration projects gave us a private tour. It was very cool. One of the planes there is this one, a DHC-4 "Boo". See the round yellow things just in front of each landing gear strut? Cement blocks! Placed there to prevent the Boo and other planes parked outdoors from blowing away when the big wind storms come through!

 

[Willy]

Love it! Although it is missing the fuel status and drift-o-meter gauges. They need to run it through FSPS.

 

[Willy]

Found this out behind the hanger a few days ago. A little cleaning up and it's almost ready for flight duty now.

 

[Peacemaker]

PRB, that's a great museum. But I must admit its been a very long long time now since I was there (15 years or more.) I was in the Raaf air cadets. They were restoring a Catalina and a A-20. We crawled though the Cat. The radio operators position up in the Wing fillet was a cool spot. Had a few rides in the back of various Caribou's. They were a personal favourite. Spent many afternoons sat down by the runway watching F-111's and KC-707's doing touch and go's. Glad you had a nice trip to Brissy (my hometown).

 

[AussieMan]

I was there in January 2001 and was shown right through the area. I did not see a Catalina anywhere nor was there an A-20. An A-20 was being restored at Amberley for the RAAF Museum at Point Cook. There was a Beaufort fuselage and several other pieces of the Beaufort but no larger aircraft.

 

[PRB]

They do indeed have an A-20 now...

 

[Peacemaker]

I believe this was the Catalina. Look's pretty much the same as when I saw her.

https://www.airforce.gov.au/raafmuseum/exhibitions/restoration/catalina.htm

That being said I cannot remember if it was actually "in" the museum or in one of the surrounding hangers that were populated with various raaf aircraft.

 

[Moses03]

Made it to Alice Springs today. Getting used to this nimble little turboprop.

 

[Willy]

I'm getting rather fond of the "Skypig". Piglet did a great job with it.

 

[Moses03]

Got a close look at Uluru. Impressive sight!