diamondaviators.net

Hello

My wife and I thought we would go away for a few days to Broken Hill. The trip report is number 145, 146 and 148 on the DAN report page. This is where we left and ended up having prop damage at Marree, not a good way to spend my birthday...

Anyhow Broken Hill is touted as the gateway to the outback. Near Broken Hill is Silverton, where they have had a number of film productions, including Mad Max. Broken Hill is famous for its lead and silver mine, thats where BHP now BHP Billiton started.

A highlight of the trip was a day trip to Whitecliffs. This is an opal mining town, quite remote. It is usually 50 Celsius over summer so everyone lives underground. We were given a tour of the underground motel and an opal mine. See the pictures of the mine tailings just dumped onto the ground surface.

Have a great weekend, off to work now, much rather go flying!!

Cheers

Robin

Coming back from Whitecliffs to Broken Hill, we left Whitecliffs just on last light. The sun set, and the moon came out. It was a beautiful evening, and did the RNAV approach back into YBHI.

We then had a great dinner at the best hotel in town. The Kanagaroo was delicious...

Cheers

Robin

Very Nice.....

Great pictures.......

You have me thinking about one of those Australian Air Safaris. Do you know anything about them?

http://www.australianairsafaris.com/
http://www.airsafarisint.com/tours.html/#australia
http://www.airadventure.com.au/content.asp?id=13&cid=3

Hi Gary

I do not know those companies, I have had some contact with the following company - Stawell Aviation. All good reports. I was thinking of taking the Diamond on one of the following trips in the first half of next year. Later next year 2011 - I have to work in the Cook Islands in the South Pacific for a month. Yes a hard life.

http://www.stawellaviation.com.au/outback.html

It seems that you can have a temporary Australian Licence with a FAA licence. That is good. The other hassle which is resolved on a trip like that is having the tour leader with an ASIC - Aviation Security ID card. They are now paranoid about security, even at remote country airstrips.

I agree with the comment about the Class G airspace, you can literally fly around Australia without speaking to anyone except in the CTAF - aerodrome frequency. Nearly all the aerodromes away from the city are without a control tower.

Happy to help, let me know

Regards

Robin