30 Ayers Rock - Adelaide
23. Feb 2007
Thursday I hired a car to do the rock tour. The temperature reached 43C, and as soon as I went outside, dozens of flies were in my face. The only solution was to wear a fly net over my head.
Then off to see the Uluru and the xxxx rocks. In the late afternoon, I did the same tour in the air to see the rocks from the air.
Friday I took off to head to Adelaide. I meant to stop in Coopers Pedy, but along the way I decided against it. I did not want to arrive too late.
I wanted to file an IFR flight plan In Ayers Rock, but that is no simple matter, as they do not have a briefing room here in Australia, as I am used to from Europe. So I departed VFR. I climbed to 9500 feet but the air was very turbulent, so I tried 11500 feet.
That did not help, so after a while I descended back down to 9500 feet. I called Melbourne Center to ask for flight following – but as there was no radar in this area, it was not possible.
100 miles out of Parafield, the GA airport in Adelaide, I asked again for flight following, and was given a squawk code and a clearance direct to the airport. For some reason, there is no informatiom about Parafield in the Jeppesen Manual, so I was a bit apprehensive about the landing, as there are 4 runways, and a military airport close by.
But it went very smooth. I was given directions for descend by approach, and 5 miles from the runway, I was handed over to the tower, who gave me a visual clearance to runway 21 Right, so I could turn right base, and land with no problems.
I was met by an old girlfriend of mine, who was kind enough to let me stay in her heritage house in central Adelaide. Claude from www.Earthrounders.com, and a friend of his, was also in the airport to meet me. They had flown all the way from Perth – and they came to stay in the same house.
We had a great evening with dinner in a nearby restaurant.