N747SW to Australia

 

Over Indonesian Islands

 

 

May 12, 2002

N747SW is in Bali, tomorrow he arrives in Australia. Hopefully all the customs paper work has been done correctly, although they will proably insist on steam cleaning the plane!!

When Udo arrives here in Wednesday, if he has digital pictures of the trip I will load them and send them to you. I will also take some of the plane in Melbourne and send them as well.

Bob Hendry

 

 

Approaching Darwin

According to Udo, the ferry pilot, he was approaching Darwin Australia and was handed over to the Australian oceanic controller. Udo was asked if he had Australia in sight, he responded that he didn't know what Australia looked like. The controller replied it was the big brown lump of land right in front of him, and gave him directions to Darwin Airport.

After he landed and had to taxi to an are to allow customs and immigration to carry out their inspections etc. It took them over an hour to process him, as they couldn't figure out how he had got their from Denpasar, Indonesia in such a small plane.

After this debacle he taxied over to a hanger to ask were to tie down under cover for the night. The mechanic there told him he could park it in the hangar and opened the fridge and threw him a cold beer. He then lent Udo $50 for the cab fare to the hotel in downtown Darwin.

The mechanic then fixed some minor oil leaks at no charge. Udo was impressed with Australian hospitality, as this was the first place that hadn't tried to charge him money since leaving France ten days earlier.

In India, it took him three hours to get the required clearance from ATC so he could continue on his flight plan. He also had to pay "extra" for weather briefing, which also required more money for stamps on the documents. -- Bob Hendry

 

 

May 13, 2002

Udo landed in Darwin from Bali around 4.45 PM CST Australia ( UTC -9.5 )

Small problem with the paper work at customs, still be resolved but hopefully he will be pushing on to Alice Springs tomorrow (Tuesday) then to Melbourne on Wednesday.

Plane has performed flawlessly, flown IFR from France @ 13,000.

Bob Hendry

 

 

Over Australia between Darwin and Alice Springs

 

 

Tied down at Alice Springs

 

 

Over Melbourne at 10,000' descending in Moorabbin

 

 

May 15, 2002

Udo arrived in at Moorabbin - YMMB, at 3.00 PM EST Wednesday May 15th. 5.5 Hours from Alice Springs (1010 NM).

N747SW is now tied up on the ramp. Will send pictures as soon as we can load them from the camera.

Bob Hendry

 

 

The photo arrived upside down. We attribute this to the change in hemisphere.
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May 18, 2002

I am enclosing some pictures we took of N747SW at Moorabin airport, in Melbourne. Udo is on his way back to France on a Qantas commercial flight.

He has a week or so off then he goes back to the US to pick up another plane for ferry to Europe.

I will forward the other pictures from Udo as soon as they are developed and scanned.

We hope to take out the ferry tank next week. We have a list of minor squarks. I will take pictures of some of the minor damage done to the cowling by the exhaust -- it burnt a small hole.

Bob Hendry