Air Adventures – Country Airstrips Australia

Polar Flight 2021

admin53 — Tue, 04 May 2021 09:55:59 +0000

Article from Lightspeed Aviation

Polar Flight 2021 is the story of two pilots who have built their friendship around their love for general aviation are launching their own adventures together. Adrian Eichhorn’s North Pole rendezvous and Shinji Maeda’s trek around the globe will begin in Maryland before they part ways over Norway. Here we will follow the two individual flights of these veteran and adventurous pilots.

Adrian’s North Pole fly over is a challenge that brings a chance to solve new problems, see new places, and make new friends. Each pilot has a different history of flying, different general aviation experiences, and different reasons for why a trip like this is important to themselves and to the aviation community. Read more about the route, Adrian’s plane and the pilots and crew below.

The Route of Polar Flight 2021

Polar Flight 2021 Route

Adventure flying is a challenge and takes a lot of preparation. Completing a flight of this magnitude involves thinking through the risks and problem solving. Adrian will be flying over remote areas while facing temperatures of 40 degrees below.

Adrian and his Polar Flight Crew plan to meet up in with Shinji at AOPA headquarters in Frederick, Maryland. They will begin the first leg of the trips together from there. About two weeks later, Adrian will land in the Pacific Northwest. Their projected flight plan is below with tentative dates of arrival to the listed destinations.

KHEF – Maryland, USA – 05/05/2021
KBGR – Maine, USA – 05/05/2021
CYYR – Goose Bay, Newfoundland – 05/06/2021
BIRK – Reykjavik, Iceland – 05/07/2021
ENBR – Bergen, Norway – 05/09/2021
ENTC – Tromso, Norway – 05/11/2021
ENSB – Longyearbyen, Norway – 05/13/2021
North Pole
PAFB – Fairbanks, Alaska, USA – 05/15/2021
KPDX – Portland, Oregon, USA – 05/17/2021

The Plane

Aircraft being flown in the Polar Flight 2021

In 1990, Adrian bought a Bonanza and started restoring it. He replaced the interior, installed a new panel, and rebuilt the engine. After years of work to get every detail perfect, including painting the plane the perfect blue, he added one of it’s most unique features – those big tip tanks on it which were old military drop tanks that were sized and built specifically to attach to this airplane. And it’s the only P-model Bonanza in the world that has those tanks. So, the airplane now can go un-refueled for 26 hours.

Read more about modifications and how Adrian was awarded for this work read Journey to the Silver Lindy at Oshkosh.

Meet the Pilots in Polar Flight 2021

Adrian Eichhorn

Polar Flight 2021 – Adrian Eichhorn

Adrian A. Eichhorn is an airline transport-rated pilot, currently flying a De Havilland Dash 8 out of Manassas, Virginia for Leidos. Prior to Leidos, he flew for JetBlue Airways as an A320 Captain for 15 years. He was also a corporate pilot for the FAA, NASA, General Dynamics, and the Washington Redskins. Adrian also has a wide range of aviation experience beyond General Aviation.

40 years ago, when Adrian was in college, he dreamed of becoming an Army aviator. His college-day efforts proved him a better resource with his civil engineering degree in the USA Army Corps of Engineers. Now, he’s fulfilling his life-long dream of flying for the Army. And in doing so he is following in his father’s footsteps, as an accomplished Army pilot. Adrian is now flying the same mission as his dad who retired in 1963 and carrying on his legend.

Adrian has received numerous national awards:

The FAA National Safety Counselor of the Year in 2001, and
The 2016 FAA National Maintenance Technician of the Year.
The sole recipient of both of the highest honors given by the American Bonanza Society – the M.D. Cashion for Technical Excellence in 2005 and the Airmanship Award in 2008.

He is type rated on:

The Airbus 320,
Gulfstream IV, III, II, 200,
Challenger 604,
Cessna 560 Excel,
Dash 8 and the
Aero Vodochody L39.

Adrian served 20 years in the United States Army Corps of Engineers, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel. From 1996 to 2000 he was assigned to the Joint Chiefs of Staff as the Strategic Nuclear Operational Plan advisor to President Bill Clinton.

Shinji Maeda

Polar Flight 2021 – Shinji Maeda

Shinji is the very first Japanese one-eyed certified pilot in the entire world. Since he was a young boy, he dreamed of becoming an airplane pilot in Japan. After enduring a horrible car accident, and was left blind in one eye. This left him disqualified from obtaining his pilot’s license, under Japanese aerospace regulations.

Determined to find a solution, Shinji moved to the United States and continue his education. Upon graduation with a Master’s degree in Safety Science from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, Shinji joined a large Aerospace company.

While achieving his professional goals, Shinji never lost sight of his true passion to fly the blue skies. He continued to participate in flight training programs, and under the United States aerospace regulations (Statement of Demonstrated Ability – SODA – FAR61.401), he was successful in obtaining a private pilot license in 2005. This was a “first” for the Japanese aerospace community to have a “single-eyed handicapped pilot”. Shinji went on from private pilot training and he is now teaching others how to fly at Snohomish flying service, WA as an FAA certified flight instructor.

Shinji is living his dream and now gives back to communities through motivational speaking. He continues to inspire others around him and we look forward to following his next amazing Journey.

We will keep you updated on Arian and Shinji’s progress – check back often!

The post Polar Flight 2021 appeared first on Country Airstrips Australia.

Long Weekend in Mungo – an Awesome Experience

admin53 — Sun, 29 Nov 2020 14:17:55 +0000

Long weekend in Mungo – by Mark Newton

For the June long weekend, I wanted to go somewhere warm and sunny. New South Wales didn’t have any warm sunny places, but some friends were planning a trip to some extremely cold and mostly sunny places. Started making plans on Friday afternoon, departed on Saturday morning.

Mungo Lodge

Aircraft parking is next to the cabins. Each cabin has air conditioning for the summer, when it can reach 45ºC during the day; And excellent heating with electric blankets for the winter. There’s also space for campsites and fire pits if you like being more exposed to the elements than I like to be. The site is off-grid. 100% of their water comes from a nearby rain catchment.

100% of their electricity comes from solar with diesel generator augmentation. There’s no cellphone service, no internet access, no in-room WiFi.

The restaurant is excellent, but during COVID-19 they’re only taking small bookings, so you’ll need to plan ahead or cook your own food on the BBQ. Slow-cooked lamb shank. Baileys Cheesecake. Whatever Cabernet Sauvignon Malcolm ordered.

This is where Mungo Man and Mungo Woman were discovered.

Mungo Woman is the skeleton of a woman who was cremated, bones crushed, then reassembled in anatomical order before being buried. Dated to 34,000 years ago.

Mungo Man is a full skeleton of an approximately 50 year old man, 170cm tall, with severe arthritis in his right arm. He was sprinkled with red ochre and buried approximately 42,000 years ago.

Both burials suggest sophisticated ceremony and a form of religious ritual. The presence of the red ochre, which originated from the Flinders Ranges 400km away, indicates the availability of long-distance trade. Other artefacts in the area, including tools and food waste, support the idea that there was a long-lived, wide-ranging civilization throughout this area tens of thousands of years ago. There is evidence of continuous human habitation here from at least 45,000 years ago to the present day.

The lake is about 30km from one side to the other. It has been dry for 19,000 years, but the fine sand in the lakebed is always shifting due to the winds and rains, and new objects are always surfacing and moving. This shell is from a marine animal that could not possibly have existed at any point in the last twenty millenia.

This shell (below) is from a marine animal that could not possibly have existed at any point in the last twenty millenia.

The shadows lengthen as the sun sets

Departing on Sunday morning. The plan is to head for Jerilderie, but thickening low cloud turning to fog enroute suggests a diversion to Hay.

We made Hay while the sun wasn’t shining.

Murrumbidgie River. Last time I was here was a year ago, during the trip where we collected Pandora the pug puppy from Adelaide and drove her back to Sydney. The river was completely empty then, not even a puddle. What a difference a year makes.

Lunch at The Convent. If the nuns were still here, they’d have rapped the knuckles of the author of this sign with a ruler for misspelling “Raisin.”

Lunch was Lasagne with chips and salad, which is more Australian than Italian when served in that combination.

Finley solar farm.

Parked for the night YYWG

Yarrawonga

COVID-19 regulations in Victoria limit group sizes in restaurants to 10. There are 11 of us, so having flown for hours to reach Victoria, we walked across the river back to NSW for dinner at the RSL.

Porterhouse, medium, pepper sauce and vegetables. Chocolate and caramel baked cheesecake. House shiraz.

Monday Morning. Lovely flying weather. -2ºC at 7am. Ice all over the canopy cover and the wings, even in the sunny bits. The entire trip was freezing cold from the get-go, but Yarrawonga was something else. Pepper steak pie and a cappuccino for breakfast.

The group. This photo was taken immediately before the 50% of the fleet equipped with carburettors ran their batteries flat trying to get their engines started. Ian from the Douglas Aviation hangar opposite came to the rescue with a jumpstart battery.

Gundagai

Burrinjuck

Yass

About 150 knots indicated most of the way home, Yarrawonga to Bankstown in 1.9 hours. Haulin’ ass over Yass. Landed at Bankstown and locked the Aluminum Mistress in the hangar about 2 hours before the weather turned to shit. Perfect timing!

The route, .GPX files from my iPad EFB:

Red: Saturday.

Yellow: Sunday.

Purple: Monday.

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