X oz
Well, I've been working hard a a number of fronts of late. But the most fun project has been planning a cross Australia (X OZ) trip in VH-RMQ. As most of you will recall, we launched her last October after a two year build and have now clocked up over 100hrs and feel we have it running pretty sweetly. So, it's time to put in some serious miles. As you can see from the Google Earth screen shot (below) the trip will be about 2,000nm each way and we are planing on it taking about 2-3 weeks. It will take us across the Strezleki, Simpson and Tanamai deserts, our destination being an Aboriginal Mission called Kalumburu, in the Kimberly region of Western Australia. We plan to meet up with friends on their catamaran up there - somewhere we can find a beach to land on and not too many crocodiles!.
Anyway, we plan to leave tomorrow and head to Broken Hill - if the weather allows us to get out of the valley! Along the way we will post to this thread for those interested. We are all loaded up - full fuel, Gayle and I and 66kg of gear. We are 688kg and 696.6 mm aft cg. 15 kg under MTOW and 9mm fwd of aft limits.
In case you don't realise, this is pretty remote country we are crossing. We have ELB, 2x spot trackers and three GPS navigators and survival gear. We have established a system of checking in and out each flight sector via spot with a group of friends. Given the remoteness and lack of internet coverage, there may be some big gaps between posts here. But rest assured, we are well stocked with cameras and have the GoPro out on the strut. (and the Ipad remote control app that Gayle will use to switch on and off as the scenery dictates.
So, fingers crossed for the weather tomorrow and hope you all enjoy the trip as much as we are going to. Welcome aboard!
Ross and Gayle
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