What a Tuesday!!!

Hi everyone,

I have a friend that is retired from the Air Force.  He flies planes from here to there for their
100 hour service.  He also flies on his days off from work just for fun.  On Tuesday, I was
invited to go along.

This is the plane we went in, just before we left. The red letters on the tail say REDCLIFFE.   I've done too many international flights in my
lifetime to count: USA, London, Australia, Japan,  Indonesia, etc....but I have NEVER been on a
plane this small.   I told myself not to be nervous....but....

Before we left, he told me there was only one engine, (Only ONE engine, seriously) ?!?!! and he told me he would take the long way and  fly along the
beach all the way so we could crash on the beach instead of the ocean, and he told me what position
to get in if we were going to crash...(He called it mandatory safety information).

We flew from Rothwell to Caloundra, in Queensland.  We were over the water in no time!!

It wasn't a perfectly clear day and we could see fires burning in the distance north to Sunshine Coast.
Most of our time in the air was flying along the coast of Bribie Island.

Here we are approaching the runway in Caloundra.  I was hoping the propeller wouldn't fail!!

This is my fave pic of all the ones I took on the day. This is after we had a coffee in Caloundra
and are back in the air on our way home.

Here we are flying along Bribie Island. The dark spot is the wheel for landing.  We both had
headsets on with microphones so we could chat the whole time.

The colours of the sandy beach and the water were just beautiful and ever changing.
The dark shadows are clouds from above.  We did go up to 1500 ft, but most of the time
we were only at 500 ft. I could see people on the beach.  Our speed was 180km/h.

 

We landed safely back in Rothwell and I survived to tell you this story.  It's not often I get

very far from home these days, so this was a VERY exciting day for me.  It's the best day I've

had in a long time! xx Debbie

There are heaps of pics....here is one more....
I will be playing with rotary cutter tonight instead of sewing....anyone care to join me?