March, 31st

Narromine

We have made it, we arrived at the second to last - and most important - destination. Here in Narromine they host the big Australian Microlight-Meeting on Easter. The airfield is huge and usually serves as base for Australian and European gliding pilots, but since last year it is also a meeting-point for microlighters. In 1998 there were more than 200 planes, which is a very impressive number for us in Germany.

Microlight-flying is far more popular here in Australia. The AUF (Australian Ultralight Federation) has more than 4.000 members. In addition, there is also the Hanggliding-Federation which has a lot of trike-pilots as members as well. Circumstances are very different here - except for a couple of big cities on the Eastcoast there are basically no airspace-restrictions in Australia.

The airfields don't have to have an air-traffic controller and there are no landing-fees to be paid. No farmer will get in trouble for building his own landing strip next to his house. But enough of this dreaming around, you want to know about our day!

Clear blue skies over Wagga Wagga. We didn't have to fly for long today, so we took our time. Winds were very mild, so I decided to fly as low as possible. That makes the flight more interesting, as there is more to see when you are just 100 metres above ground, you can count sheep or find out how many fishes swim in the numerous water-reservoirs. Lots of farmland beneath us. Rape-cultivation is very popular here, but this is not the season to see the bright yellow blossoms. What we did see were all shades of red.

It is amazing to watch the coloration of the soil. There are lots of trees bordering the fields, but the farmer also left the trees standing in the middle of their patches of land. You can see the plough-traces going around them very carefully. That by itself was very impressive, to see the patterns made by the farmers with plough and harrow.

Our first fuel-stop after one and a half hours is West Wyalong. A small airfield, but it has a hut for a dispatch-office. After a couple of phonecalls we finally get connected to the gas station and we are back in the air soon afterwards. Now it has gotten warmer and light thermics set in. Video-taping would get shakey results right now ,but our flight is far more comfortable than it had been a couple of weeks ago.

We make the next stop in Parkes. Next to the airfield is a huge radio-telescope and we ckeck it out from as close as we can get to it. We are very relaxed in the air. Maybe that is because we have almost reached our destination, maybe it is just due to all the experiences we have gathered in the meantime.

Another hour later we have Narromine in sight. There are only ten or so trikes on the ground, but the organizers promise us that there will be lots more. We meet Doug and his son John from Trentham-Cliggs: a pilot from Serpentine welcomes us and Ian from Gawler had arrived as well. Just as we land, Toni Witlox comes by, we had stayed in his hangar in Mangalore. He manages to get us the last free room in a Bed-and-Breakfast nearby. After a couple of beers and a good dinner at the Narromine Service Clug we hit the sacks very tired - and it's only 9:30 PM...