Sydney Flight Training Instructors Kayla Bentley and Kate Boschen became ferry pilots for a day while transporting our Warrior VH-NFR to South Australia for an overdue paint job recently. There is always an adventure to be had when Kayla is involved - read all about their trip below.
South Australia Ferry Flight
by Kayla Bentley
On Sunday 3rd November, Kate and I had the pleasure of ferrying the mighty NFR down to Aldinga (an ALA 20nm South of Adelaide) to get a new paint job. The flight was long but adventurous, we both learnt a lot along the way and were able to put our skills and knowledge to the test along route as different scenarios arose.
While the trip had been in the planning phase for a while, Pete (Peter Edwards, SFT Head of Operations) was awaiting a date from Aircraft Painter Doug, that would best align with his schedule. About a week prior, Doug let us know he had had a cancellation and was able to fit NFR in to be painted the week starting 4th November, we just had to get the aircraft there. Looking at the long-range forecast, we determined Sunday 3rd appeared to have the best weather – high pressure system sitting in the middle of the country, highly reduced chance of poor weather such as rain, low cloud, or thunderstorms enroute. As NFR is only certified for night VFR (NVFR), we were unable to depart in Instrument Conditions and therefore had to ensure the weather conditions were favourable along our entire route.
On the morning of the 3rd, I was due to compete in a 1km Open Water swim at the Regatta Centre in Penrith, which meant we were unable to depart Bankstown until close to midday. Last light in Aldinga was scheduled for 8:15pm, this gave us a window of just over 8hrs to complete the 620nm journey, as well as making at least one refuelling stop along the way. In nil wind, the trip was estimated to take 5h 40min plus ground/refuelling time, we figured even with a headwind we would have enough time to make the journey.
Waking up that morning, we checked the weather forecast and although the sky was clear, strong winds from the west, high temperatures, and turbulence were forecast along our route.
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On our first leg to Hay, our Groundspeed did not get above 85kts the whole way, which made for a very long and slow 308nm journey! We encountered turbulence enroute and had to decide whether flying higher to avoid the turbulence but experience stronger headwinds (and therefore a lower groundspeed) or flying lower for a higher groundspeed, but more turbulence was going to be better. We opted to fly at 6500ft with an average 80kt groundspeed but encountered moderate turbulence most of the way to Hay.
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Landing in Hay, we refuelled and had a bathroom break. We also had the opportunity to talk to one of the only female Agriculture pilots in Australia – Tegan. She showed us around the air tractor, telling us all about the aircraft and agricultural flying as well as the fire-bombing they conduct in the summer months. They look like they would be quite small aircraft and often look that way when you see videos or photos of them spraying crops, but when you stand next to them, they are massive and very impressive aircraft.
Departing Hay, the temperature according to AWIS was 36O. We only climbed to 2500ft as this level gave us the least headwind and therefore best groundspeed (which was still only 90kts average the rest of the flight). Enroute, we noticed our oil temperature was high, and oil pressure low, but both still within the green arc. Given our remaining 3hr stretch to Adelaide we decided to make a diversion to a Balranald, a small sealed and certified airfield 50nm West of Hay, and land as a precaution and allow the oil time to cool down before continuing.
Our final stretch to Aldinga saw us amending our SARTIME, experiencing a lovely sunset, and enjoying a little bit of night flying as both the strong headwinds and diversion to Balranald pushed us slightly behind schedule. The paved (main) runway at Aldinga had runway edge lighting so we were able to activate the pilot activated lights (PAL) on our arrival. Within 3nm, we began our descent to circuit altitude. Our first pass over the runway was a low pass purely to scare away any wildlife that may have been on the runway, so we didn’t inadvertently impact them on landing. Our 2nd circuit was for approach and landing, and although we had a great day, we were glad to finally be at our destination.
NFR will be back with a brand-new paint scheme and another adventure as it gets ferried back from Adelaide – stay tuned!
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