Just some stuff I want to share with you
Holiday
Holiday: the small gap in your schedule where you don’t visit the office to do your work…
Planning my next holiday
Aug 1st
It’s that time of the year again: holiday season. This year I will go back to the US to fly again. I have joined a tour organized by 2 Dutch pilots; Jeroen van Rossum and Ferdinand de Wit. These guys have been flying in the US for several years and started organizing flying adventures in 2008. I joined the tour in 2008 and really enjoyed it. It’s great to fly in the US. That country is filled with airports and the service provided to pilots is amazing.
For us Dutch pilots it’s amazing that you can fly for hours without having to cross country borders, filling flight plans, studying air regulations/laws for the country you’re flying into. Jeroen and Ferdinand have arranged a nice tour this year on the West coast. Have a look at their website (it’s in Dutch, but has all sorts of maps showing the routes): http://www.blueskyflyingadventures.com
It’s also amazing how easy it is to get the paperwork done. It took me over 7 months to get permission to fly in Australia, but it takes 1 fax to fly in the US… Amazing, since I thought that the Americans would be far more demanding since the attacks on the World Trade Centre.
Now it’s time to do some studying. I need to refresh my knowledge of radio communications and airspace classification again. Furthermore, I will need to look into mountain flying and ceiling and visibility. This tour will take us to higher ground and temperatures, which requires some planning in order to make sure that we get off the ground safely.
With a bit of luck, I will be flying a Cessna 182T, which is great since it’s got a bit more power and as a result the limits are not as critical as for a Cessna 172. This plane is also equipped with a Garmin G1000 glass cockpit. I have been flying a Cessna 172 with a G1000 on the previous tour. It’s a great piece of kit… all this computing power in front of you, makes flying even better…
That’s it for now. I’ll be back when I have more 
A new episode
May 15th
I have been traveling in Australia for just over 10 weeks now. Tomorrow (Saturday 16 May) I will start a new episode: visiting my relatives that live here. Some of them I already met, since they came to The Netherlands. Others I only have heard of.
You may have noticed that I have posted a lot of new items over the last few hours. I have covered all days of my holiday so far. As a result some of the posts may not appear on the first page. Just go to the bottom and click on “Older Entries”. The frequency of new posts will go down a bit for now. But when I have something interesting and access to the Internet, you will read about it here.
Back to Melbourne
May 15th
After all that nature it’s time to get back to the concrete skyscrapers. Thursday 14 May I will start driving to Melbourne, but again this is too far to do in one day. Well, it’s too far for me to do in one day. When you talk to the average local, he will drive from Adelaide to Melbourne in one day. But I am on holiday and want to enjoy it…
The first track will bring me to Ballarat. In 1851 they found gold here and that made this place famous. I took no pictures today. There was just nothing that was good enough to hold on to.
The track of today:
Friday 15 May I drove on to Melbourne. But not before I toured the town of Ballarat. The weather is absolutely miserable. It’s wet, windy and cold. Not a good day to be out there. There’s a nice lake in this town (Lake Wendouree) and there are quite a few rowing clubs along it as well. But have a look at the pictures. There’s something missing here.
After that it was time to get to Melbourne. I have to get the car back, do my washing and prepare for the next phase in my holiday. More on that later.
The track of today:
Walking in the park
May 15th
I am staying at a very nice B&B in Pomonal and my hosts suggested that I should go for a walk up to the Pinnacle. From there you should have a great view over the whole region. But before I start climbing up there I went to the Boroka lookout; it’s the only lookout I couldn’t visit anymore yesterday since I ran out of daylight. The weather is a bit funny today, so the views from the lookout aren’t great. But it’s clear that the weather is improving for now, so up to the car park where I start my walk up to the Pinnacle.
It’s a nice walk up there and once you get to the Pinnacle lookout, you are rewarded with a great view. Well, you don’t have to go up there yourself; you can look at my pictures here.
When I got down to the car park again, the weather was getting worse. It started to rain and therefore I went back to Halls Gap for lunch. After lunch it looked a bit better. I intended to go for another nice walk, but by the time I got to the start of it, it was raining again. And although I have a nice raincoat, it’s just no fun to go up these tracks when it’s wet. Therefore a change of plans; I just cruised around and every now and then stopped to look at the scenery.
It’s been a nice day in the park. It’s a shame that I have to leave this place again tomorrow, since there are a lot more nice walking tracks up here.
The track of today:
Wednesday 13 May 2009
On my way to the Grampians National Park
May 15th
It’s Monday 11 May and I am on my way to the Grampians National Park. And since it’s a long way away from Adelaide I will have to make a stop in the middle which is going to be Bordertown. There’s nothing in Bordertown and the route to it is also not very inspiring.
Before heading out to Bordertown, I first drove to Glenelg the oldest European settlement on mainland South Australia. It’s got a beautiful beach and a short break here is good to wake me up. After that I drove up to mount Lofty again. The weather is much better today compared to a few days ago when I was up there. So with a bit of luck the pictures will also be better
After that I drove to Bordertown. And as I said before it’s a long way away and the route isn’t that interesting but I did take some pictures along the way. You can find them here.
The track of today:
Tuesday 12 May I am traveling on to the Grampians. Tonight I will end up in Pomonal, but before that I will still have to drive a long way. And on my way I will cross the northern part of the Grampians. I stopped at several lookouts; just have a look at these pictures.
The track of today: