birdy
Active Member
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2004
- Messages
- 7,066
- Location
- Alice Springs-central Oz.
- Aircraft
- open frame single seat & a 'wasa' RAF, among other types.
- Total Flight Time
- 7000 odd, bout 5000 gyro
Had one of the most enjoyable flyn jobs a few days ago.
Ol mate is managen a joint on the edge of the Simpson desert, one door south of me, and has a regular problem that happens wenever the Hale river runs.
His moos take advantage of the waterholes left over after the rain, and thanx to the zillions of camels on his south side, their boundery fence is general horisontal, so the moos just step over and can wander off to Birdsville if they wanted too................ unless a gyro stops um.
40 odd Km past his horisontal boundery fence, the river splits up and flows both sides of a remote, low table land, where it spreads out into silty channels and more waterholes,...... and an old dam that was built back in the 60s.
This dam is the last of the surface water to dry up, so any moos that take up residence down there will be liven on it wen the rest of the water dries up.
If we have a run of good seasons, alota young moos that are bourn there, know only of that water, and wen it goes dry, so do they. Consiquently, after this last drout, theres many more dead moos down there now than live ones.
Also, this country is sum of the sweetest cattle country in Oz, and after a few months of never haven to walk far from water to get a good feed, even the imigrants will die there coz, in the middle of summer, 50 km through thick scrub n sandhills is a fair hike for an over weight and unfit moo. :'(
Last November this river ran all the way to the tableland and further, so i get the job to do surveilance laps down there at alt, checkn tracks and to get an idea of how many and where they is.
Trouble is, at 500', you cant see jacsh1t cept for tracks, so you never know wot its actualy like down there, tho blind freddy would know its very good moo country just by lookn at it from 500'.
The other day ol mate rang up n wanted me to go back n check it out, and if i recon the time is rite, blow any moos back before they get too fat.
[ i was there before he had time to hang up the fone
]
Wot a job for a bourn n bred desert SCG.
Puttn round in gods own country, with plenty of time n fuel for lookn at anythn that took me fancy.
Straped a jerry to the mains to give me bout 7 hours airtime and took off from his joint at dawn.
The dam is bout 80-100km from his house, so an early start was needed to get the moos moven before it got too hot. Crossed the range behind his house at bout 400' and noticed the GPS said i hada tail wind. "Better remember that wen i start getn low on fuel, could add half an hour to the return trip" i thought.
Droped off the range and skimmed the sandhills, headn for the dam. Bout20 km out i could see dust near the dam. "bloodyell, must be orible quiet down there, theyv erd me already"
Let a few more rotax horses have their head to get there quick and bloke um up, coz they got a long march to do yet.
Only bout 2 mile or so from the dust and they bent round back towards home, and i could just make out they was actualy moos, and not a mob of bent necks.
Keepn me distance, i lined um up ona watercourse that would lead um back to the river, and to my supprise, they happily marched along with no more steering needed, so off i went.
Time for a look round.
I was in SCG heaven.
In me gyro, puttn round sum of the sweetest moo country iv ever seen, with time up me sleave.
Found an old bronco yard, went 20km over the tableland to check for tracks n water on the other side, came back to check the moos.
All was good, and they were maken good ground, so i decided to drop the extra fuel off up ahead abit, and have a leak.
Wen i landed on the edge of a small gillguy, and the rotors slowed, "THEY" moved in.
Flies, millions of the bastereds. They obviously dont see many blokes down ere coz they was glad to meet me.
It wasa quick stop and back in heaven agin, up away from them f^%$# flies.
Landed a few more times between checkn the moos to check out this n that, but it wasnt real comfy with all them lonley flies.
After bout 3 hours, the moos had slowed up and were pretty keen on go'n west, instead of north up the river. Had to get much closer to bend um now, and could see earmarks, and the ones that were branded didnt look like ol mates moos.
Tryed to call ol mate on the radio but i was too far out to get reception so landed back at me fuel and tryed to call him on me sat fone.
Well, them flies had other ideas.
The sat fone is hard to hear at the best of times, never mind haven a hundred flies tryn to burrow through your ear to see your brains.
I had to light a smokey fire upwind of me gyro to keep them at bay so's i could make the call. [ me fone has no battery, so i gota hook it up to the gyro batt.]
Was a bit nervous bout haven a fire upwind of the machine, specialy now that it was hot and very windy, but it all went good, and we decided that coz only 2 of the 60 odd critters id found were his, id let um go west, hopefully to his neibours place, and hopefully he'll give um back.
So, the job was cut short.
It was go'n to be hard enuff to walk his moos the 30 odd km left to go, never mind tryn to push critters that didnt want to go north.
So i straped the jerry back on and started the long [slow] windy leg back, and for sum reason, it wasnt a streight line.
Cept for the flies it was spoton. Good thing they dont like rotorblades.
And sure as death n taxes, ill be back after the next rain too. ;D
Ol mate is managen a joint on the edge of the Simpson desert, one door south of me, and has a regular problem that happens wenever the Hale river runs.
His moos take advantage of the waterholes left over after the rain, and thanx to the zillions of camels on his south side, their boundery fence is general horisontal, so the moos just step over and can wander off to Birdsville if they wanted too................ unless a gyro stops um.
40 odd Km past his horisontal boundery fence, the river splits up and flows both sides of a remote, low table land, where it spreads out into silty channels and more waterholes,...... and an old dam that was built back in the 60s.
This dam is the last of the surface water to dry up, so any moos that take up residence down there will be liven on it wen the rest of the water dries up.
If we have a run of good seasons, alota young moos that are bourn there, know only of that water, and wen it goes dry, so do they. Consiquently, after this last drout, theres many more dead moos down there now than live ones.
Also, this country is sum of the sweetest cattle country in Oz, and after a few months of never haven to walk far from water to get a good feed, even the imigrants will die there coz, in the middle of summer, 50 km through thick scrub n sandhills is a fair hike for an over weight and unfit moo. :'(
Last November this river ran all the way to the tableland and further, so i get the job to do surveilance laps down there at alt, checkn tracks and to get an idea of how many and where they is.
Trouble is, at 500', you cant see jacsh1t cept for tracks, so you never know wot its actualy like down there, tho blind freddy would know its very good moo country just by lookn at it from 500'.
The other day ol mate rang up n wanted me to go back n check it out, and if i recon the time is rite, blow any moos back before they get too fat.
[ i was there before he had time to hang up the fone
]Wot a job for a bourn n bred desert SCG.
Puttn round in gods own country, with plenty of time n fuel for lookn at anythn that took me fancy.
Straped a jerry to the mains to give me bout 7 hours airtime and took off from his joint at dawn.
The dam is bout 80-100km from his house, so an early start was needed to get the moos moven before it got too hot. Crossed the range behind his house at bout 400' and noticed the GPS said i hada tail wind. "Better remember that wen i start getn low on fuel, could add half an hour to the return trip" i thought.
Droped off the range and skimmed the sandhills, headn for the dam. Bout20 km out i could see dust near the dam. "bloodyell, must be orible quiet down there, theyv erd me already"
Let a few more rotax horses have their head to get there quick and bloke um up, coz they got a long march to do yet.
Only bout 2 mile or so from the dust and they bent round back towards home, and i could just make out they was actualy moos, and not a mob of bent necks.
Keepn me distance, i lined um up ona watercourse that would lead um back to the river, and to my supprise, they happily marched along with no more steering needed, so off i went.
Time for a look round.
I was in SCG heaven.
In me gyro, puttn round sum of the sweetest moo country iv ever seen, with time up me sleave.
Found an old bronco yard, went 20km over the tableland to check for tracks n water on the other side, came back to check the moos.
All was good, and they were maken good ground, so i decided to drop the extra fuel off up ahead abit, and have a leak.
Wen i landed on the edge of a small gillguy, and the rotors slowed, "THEY" moved in.
Flies, millions of the bastereds. They obviously dont see many blokes down ere coz they was glad to meet me.
It wasa quick stop and back in heaven agin, up away from them f^%$# flies.
Landed a few more times between checkn the moos to check out this n that, but it wasnt real comfy with all them lonley flies.
After bout 3 hours, the moos had slowed up and were pretty keen on go'n west, instead of north up the river. Had to get much closer to bend um now, and could see earmarks, and the ones that were branded didnt look like ol mates moos.
Tryed to call ol mate on the radio but i was too far out to get reception so landed back at me fuel and tryed to call him on me sat fone.
Well, them flies had other ideas.
The sat fone is hard to hear at the best of times, never mind haven a hundred flies tryn to burrow through your ear to see your brains.
I had to light a smokey fire upwind of me gyro to keep them at bay so's i could make the call. [ me fone has no battery, so i gota hook it up to the gyro batt.]
Was a bit nervous bout haven a fire upwind of the machine, specialy now that it was hot and very windy, but it all went good, and we decided that coz only 2 of the 60 odd critters id found were his, id let um go west, hopefully to his neibours place, and hopefully he'll give um back.
So, the job was cut short.
It was go'n to be hard enuff to walk his moos the 30 odd km left to go, never mind tryn to push critters that didnt want to go north.
So i straped the jerry back on and started the long [slow] windy leg back, and for sum reason, it wasnt a streight line.
Cept for the flies it was spoton. Good thing they dont like rotorblades.
And sure as death n taxes, ill be back after the next rain too. ;D
hwell:?)
