November 2011: Flights north and south

This month has been very busy with a lot of road travel around the Top Rnd to mines in Jabiru and around Pine Creek. But the flying continues. I has a couple of days down in Alice Springs again; this time   having to explain the rules to a recalcitrant client. But this week  on the 24th I made a visit to a mine out on the Tiwi Islands, a very special place about 20-25 minutes flying across the Arafura Sea to the north of Darwin.
The flights were unusual as they were the first in piston engined aircraft, not only for this year but for a while. SInce my son started flying jets for his work piston time has been limited and the propellor planes for work have usually been  turbo props.
Still on the way out we had 3 pax and a pilot in a Piper PA31/A1 Navajo. As we were preparing to leave Darwin we had to wait for other ground traffic which included this odd sight of a Piper Chieftain taxying with no engine cowlings on

.........and then  we saw this famous old DC3 (VH_MMA) which saw service in WW2 and is having a major overhaul, hence the lack of wings...............

....................and then this TAP (Portugal) Airbus 340  (CS-TOM) which is looking very grubby in an old all-white colour sheme, a far cry from the vibrant red green and white of its former life.....

Anyway after the delays we were  finally off to work and after about 20 minutes we found ourselves  flying over a mixture of  gum tree forest and forest plantations to land on a gravel strip called Jessie Creek

We had  busy day which included driving arund a lot on the island we were on (Melville Island)  using gravel roads and seeing wild water buffalo as we moved from site to site.

The day was very hot and we did a fair bit of walking around  but it is the build up to the wet season so the humidity was high and lots of water to drink was the order of the day. Soon it was time to head home.

Back at the strip we found  our return trip was changed to a Cessna 210 - single engined aircraft......

On the way back we saw a typical  build up storm cell heading across the harbour and then a major storm approaching Darwin........

We had to wait for a Jetstar Airbus 320 to go past and land

...........and then we were home.

A longish day  but a lot of interesting work and  a reminder of the "joys" of piston engined flight!

October 29-31: Country 93 - Timor Leste

A long weekend away to visit friends fron Vienna days who have been living and working in Timor Leste - not more than 65 minutes away by Air North Embraer 170 jet. The trip brings  the number of countries ticked off on my list to 93 with this being number 59 on the list of places only visited for holidays.
I flew off at 0630 on a humid Darwin morning  and reached Timor at  about 0730 local time. The trip was uneventful and the plane was barely 30% full.

September and October 2011

A number of flights to visit mines for work of which more anon when I get around to sorting out the pictures.

22-24 September; Freiberg, Dresden and Singapore

I had been expected to do the tour of the Wismut mines on Thursday but as it was going to be much th same as the tour we did in May from Gera I decided to miss it. Instead, after a leisurely breakfast Russ, Alex, Oleg and I  joined up to drive with Alex to Dresden where we had a meeting with Stefanie Hurst the head of radiation protection at the saxony Environment Ministry. That ended  at about lunchtime so we strolled around the old part of Dresden and had lunch before Oleg went for his train to Berlin and  Alex  drove Russ out to Leipzig Airport for his trip back to Vienna. A and  I then tried to find a hotel and ended up in the motel on the autobarn at Dresdenr Tor as all the hotels were full. The Pope was in Leipzig and so the overspill of tourists and pilgrims had fillled both cities!
Still the motel was fine and cheap enough.
next morning Alex and I went on a bit of sightseeing in Dresden  as I had never been inside the Frauenkirche. That was fantastic, we also took in a few of the other sites before meeting up with Stefanie for a farewell coffee after lunch and then i was of to Dresden airport with Alex.
Like Leipzig Dresden airport has  row upon row of last minute travel agents'offices offering cheap holidys to everywhere - seems a bit too last minute even for my planning style.
The airport is small but it worked OK and the Lufthansa Senator lounge was OK. the flight to Frankfurt was only 45 minutes or so in a B737-300 and then the usual marathon walk across FRA to get to the flight for SIN. NO upgrade and the plane was packed but we left on time and  all was well. I had seat 1K right at the front which is interesting. When we landed at SIN we pulled up at the gate and then teh APU failed and the cew had to wait fro ground power to be connectede before they could open the doors  and let us off. the ususal trail through immingation and customs and collecting one's luggage as you cannot interline bags onto Jetstar. Still I know the system and the route from T3 to t1 using the train and then the checkin for Jetstar. So now I am in the QANTAS first Class lounge with the good satay and lovely shrimp sarnies before the 4.5 hours horror ride  on Jetstar with my knees up around my ears that will put me back home into Darwin at 0430 Sunday morning

Freiberg: 21 September - UMREG 2011

Today was the day for our annual UMREG meeting; the Uranium Mining & Remediation Exchange  the day was very long but really good workwise. We had to start early with a lot of presentations to fit in and I was chairign for about two thords of the dy - but not speaking this time. At 0845 I began the opening session which was the triumvirate of myself, Alex Jakubick and Don Metzler - the executive committee. Then we had an opening speech from the Head of WISMUT and then the technical papers came one after until we finished about 1800. Time for Russ Edge and I to slink away for a quiet beer and then off to the old training mine for the committee dinner with all the UMH and UMREG helpers as well as the international programme committee members.

Freiberg: 19 and 20 September

The  flight from Munich to Dresden was in a CRJ 700 and I met another conferernce attendee on the way and we managed to negotiate the railway from the airport to Dresden main station safely and then just managed to buy our tickest for the expressi to Freiberg  in time to catch the train with less than one minute to spare. So on  a very grey Sunday afternoon we arrived in a very wet and rainy Freiberg. There were 5 other people waiting for  THE taxi on duty but when it came we found we were all going to the same conference but different hotels but we fitted 7 people and bags on board and off we went.
I am stayin in my usual place heet the Hotel Am Obermarkt - pretty central, comfortable and cheap enough with a great buffet breakfast and good staff. Soon enough I was off on the 20 minute stroll to the Univeristy (in the rain) for the registraion and  reception for the conference. Lots of old mates around and a few drinks and sandwiches and suddenly it was time to be  back in bed - I was tired I decided!
Yesterday (Monday) I was away early to meet more old chums before speaking in the opening plenary session of the meeting.
Today (Tuesday) I have been chairing a session all day on the uranium mining renaissance and this evening I willbe at teh poster session - again with old mates and a few drinks and sandwiches....
Tomorrow more old mates will be around when we have our special meeting of UMREG (the Uranium Mining & Remediation Exchange Group). It will be good to catch up with so many old friends from the industry.

September 17-18: Darwin to Munich

Well there we were again - back at the airport in Darwin. This time it was to make the triennial trip to  Freiberg, Germany for the Uranium Mining and Hydrogeology Conference, #6 in the series and I only missed #1 so far.
The trip began with ethe usual graggy flight on Jetstar, that awful low -cost subsidiary that will one day be all QANTAS has if the pesent CEO there has his way. Talk about dumbing down... The cabin crew have such average english that it is hard to grasp what they are on aboouot most of the time. Food and drink (even water) cost extra and the seats are very small and close together.  Also you cannot interline bagage unless you pay extra and then only onto a QANTAS flight. Not a real airline in the words of the staff themselves
Still it is only 4.5 hours to the sanity of Singapore Changi airport. This time I was transerring to Lufhansa and a flight to Munich with, again, a first class upgrade after all those points. 
the aircraft was an Airbus 340-300  with only 8 seats in First ansd we were only 6 passengers so it was very nice indeed. Greta service, good food and excellent wints; but the seat was not as good as in the B-747 of JUly's flight where we got two seats each! Still I got a good sleep and I am now sittimg in Munich waiting for 5 hours to catch the next flight to Dresden. Then a train to Freiberg and hope to be in the hotel Am Obermarkt (my usual haunt in Freiberg) by 1700 to go to the reception and registration for the meeting at 1800.