We planned our getaway early Friday morning and with storms coming from South NSW thru to Newcastle we got ahead of most of it.
We departed Bankstown for Longreach. refuelling in Walgett then overflew Charleville for a landing at Longreach.
From Bankstown we flew above the clouds. Originally 6000FT but cautious that the forecast for cloud >6000 may be lower we opted for 8000FT and then up to 10000FT to remain above the cloud. We were flying under instrument flight rules (“IFR”) and needed to be above our lowest safe altitude (LSALT) of about 5600ft. Whilst east of Mudgee we heard Air Traffic Control (“ATC”) updating others about significant meteorological (“sigmet”) conditions around Mudgee and we knew then that our plan to get ahead of bad conditions was well considered.
All on board enjoyed the flight above cloud and when safe we started our descent for Walgett to refuel.
Walgett to Longreach was out next flight leg and this time we need not stay above cloud and we opted for visual flight rules (“VFR”) so that all passengers could see some of the great landscapes we would fly over. Initially at 4000ft we had a few bumps as the heat on land created some minor turbulence so we then climbed to 6000ft and then continued to 8000ft for passenger comfort.
