Day 5 Curtin Springs - Uluru - Kata Tjuta - Yulara

We all collected just after dawn and had a hot breakfast before arranging for the Station staff to drop the group down to the airstrip. We needed a bit of a shuffle and so the pilots went first to untie the aircraft and get them ready for the day's flying. One of the hands was slowly working his way around the country with his wife. He flew a little Murphy Rebel with a Rotec rotary engine up front. I have quite a bit of radial engine time and so we swapped our experiences of these charismatic engines for a while. The Rebel was a nice little ship which he built himself from a kit but it was bloody slow for the big spaces out here. Must have been a patient man. He hailed from the land down under the land down under (Tassie) and had mounted a rubber snake on the tailplane to keep birds away. Too many kookaburras up our way for the stunt to work in Toowoomba.

We loaded up, the families arrived, we all said our goodbyes to the good people of Curtin Springs and piled in for the next leg. Today we would do the scenic circuit of Uluru and Kata Tjuta from the air and then divert to Yulara (Ayers Rock) Airport for some gas. Then it was off to Kings Creek Station.  We took off last again but Anthony had doubled back in an effort to get video of us screaming along the little dirt strip and so we ended up No 2 to Andrew for the Rocks. We needed 4000 feet for our run. There is a set pattern for light aircraft to ensure they remain separated and don't infringe on the Rock or the local indigenous community. Mr T had trained us well and we were determined to be responsible.

Note how much smaller Uluru (lower right)  is compared with Kata Tjuta
(not for navigational purposes)

It was only a short flight (but a bloody long bus ride) from the Station to Yulara, the airport that services the resort there, and the starting point for the scenic circuit. The desert around us was absolutely splendid again subtly displaying all the colours of the rainbow in dirt, dunes, stones, rocks and foliage. The subtlety comes from the separation of each little dot of colour by the little space of bare dirt that surrounds and frames each rock and each bush on one scale, and each little patch of grass on another.  The grass is matted so that it lets the red dirt show through and the effect is almost incandescent. We tried hard to photograph it but I have only ever seen it done some justice in aboriginal desert paintings. To see this country from this perspective allows you to really appreciate - if not understand - the exquisite aesthetic sensibility expressed in aboriginal art. It was beyond us to capture or represent it in any way that might do it justice. The Central Australian desert is a place in which punters like myself just have to be content with being. But we were all just happy to be here.

We pulled up alongside Andrew - but very very carefully - to keep close company for the run. He gave Ayers Rock radio a call to let him know we were a threesome and inbound for the Rocks. Majella asked Dustin if AR Radio worked for Airservices Australia and he replied in the negative. 'I thought so,' she said. 'He is much too polite.' (Dustin works for Airservices Australia). Andrew overflew the strip and kept away from the resort as required. The Rocks of course had been in sight since we left the ground and they were rapidly approaching the size required for monolithic status. It was a clear sky but a bit of a hazy day and we (that is everyone except Nat) would struggle to photograph them well. We followed Andrew to a point due west of the Rock and then hooked a 180 degree turn to fly an 'S' and make a run along the north face keeping beyond the sensitive areas as best we could. There was quite a strong northerly blowing and it was pushing us closer than our flightpath intended. The Rock looked just magnificent from here and we were all very excited about it.

The base of the rock is at about 1600 feet, the summit is at 2831 feet (and for Kata Tjuta the highest point is 3496) so we were about 1000 feet above it at our altitude. It is a good viewing height although we would have loved to hook low and really have a close look. Anyone doing that on the lee side in this wind though would have had a merry dance and Mr T would almost certainly have clubbed to death those who survived trying it. At the end of the east bound track along the north face we had to pull a 180 degree climbing turn to 4500 so that we were clear of inbound aircraft as we tracked back along the face in a westerly direction. The wind really messed with this and we got a pretty good view of the old thing. I was looking for the section that Norman Gunston repaired with Shelley's spack-filler a few years back but we were either too high or it was gone or maybe it had been washed into Mr T's frog pool.

Past the north face we hooked south for a brief stretch to view the western face and then we were tracking north-west for Kata Tjuta, which was clearly visible in the middle distance. Beyond that we could see the mountains of Western Australia. We flew the north face of the many heads of Olga and tracked south to have a good look at the western face where we had walked the day before. It was a grand sight and this perspective placed Uluru in the background to the delight of the shutterbugs. Once past the western face we pulled a descending 180 degree turn to track north and then east and back from whence we came. It was fun flying and splendid touring. Then it was just a short hop back to Yulara's massive 2599 metre strip to refuel the aircraft and their passengers. This was the stiffest x-wind of the trip but the long runway took much of the sting out of it. Dustin skill-fully kept JCU in the air with a trickle of power until he could gently settle us on terra firma, right wing low, nose straight with left rudder, right main wheel first, left main wheel, ailerons into wind, roll out, nose wheel down - nice flying from the boy wonder.

We pulled in for fuel and the press contingent all made for the terminal building in search of real coffee. Yulara is a security controlled airport with repeat traffic and so they had to be escorted by the holder of an Australian Security Identification Card (ASIC).  I walked across to the gate with them and then back to help the boys. The airport controller was a great guy and very friendly and the gas was not too expensive at $2.20.7 c/l. We took 190 litres which represented about 3.5 hours flying. Everyone we had contact with here was good to us. Thanks Yulara.