Adelaide Flight 19 June 2006

Took a flight this morning from Parafield with a couple of Flight Simmers, one of them the pilot. Fairly fine but cool, and lots of haze.

Our aircraft wouldn't start despite several attempts, too cold, so switched to VH-JAZ a little later than planned. Mind you I've had cars which wouldn't take the number of starts we tried, on a cold day.

That's Jamie, the pilot, on the original aircraft doing his checks. The Piper Warrior we ended up in (JAZ) is below. BTW you can click images for bigger views.

After the routine checks and clearance, taxied to a runup point and Jamie ran up (yeah, true). Brakes on and revving the engine. Then we taxyed to take off northwards.

Our original plan was to go south to pass Adelaide on the hills side, then to Marino, and back up the coast, one of the regular scenic routes, but ATC directed us to reverse the route. Hung around whilst a couple of other aircraft landed such as the Grob in the next shot at right...

...then took off and turned west, with Torrens Island to left and St Kilda to right - that's the adventure playground near the middle, below.

Nicer view to the south, down the coast and away from the sun, but still very hazy as we pass Outer Harbour.

The Maersk Line ship was the only big thing on the water, though there were a number of small boats out on the flat calm.

Best visibility was to south or out to sea - ATC now and then asked the pilot to confirm that he had some other aircraft in sight. He always found them, I only spotted one - a biggish twin-prop, only because it glinted in the sun. Mostly we flew at 1500 ft, but got down to 500 off the coast, a lot different to the 35,000ft in airliners.

That's Glenelg on the right, after about three tries to photograph it through haze, bumps and a prop which always seemed to be in front of the camera.

Next down the coast is Brighton - about now ATC was talking over whether we would turn before, after or at Brighton jetty, which is quite distinctive with a tower at the seaward end.

We continued on, with Port Stanvac ahead.

That's the refinery, beyond which is Noarlunga and the south coast. We turned left, inland towards the hills, just here.

And here's a typical joyflight shot, had to get the wing in! We are heading north now, home-bound east of Adelaide, but at this point we are looking across Happy Valley.

Passed the city on the pilot side - if we had been doing the tour to the original plan it would have been on my side and on the outward leg. Believe me, there's no room to swap seats either...

ATC advised the pilot to look out for a Virgin Blue 737 over Modbury, and gave a caution for turbulence in its wake. When I finally saw it I couldn't believe I'd not noticed it. Never thought of bright red as effective camouflage until now!

A bit of leaning about with the camera to get a few shots...

Finally back at Parafield, landing on runway 3 right. The runways look pretty short from here, but it all worked, the weather was good bar the smog, and the trip was mostly bump-free.