Navigating West Coast Weather

My departure from Perth was again met by strong winds in the morning, so I planned for a later ‘wheels-up’ time to track along the coast. Whilst it was still a little bit bumpy, the flight was wonderful overall and I had a great time tracking along the coast. The scenery is very different from what I saw before, with the red dirt now replaced with gorgeous green.

The major factor influencing my flying now has transitioned from those northern storms to windy conditions. As well as having generally strong winds, a common feature for the coast is also gusting wind, which makes landing and taking off difficult, as I find varying periods of strong or light winds harder to manage than a steady pattern from one direction.

I had planned to make it to Albany on the 20th, however with gusts of up to 25 knots, I wasn’t happy with the forecast and instead had an overnight in Busselton. Upon landing, I got to meet with a young plane spotter Reef, who was wonderful to talk to.

In town, I made my way out to explore the jetty and walked along it- almost two kilometres each way! Busselton is very different from the northern places I was in only a few days ago. It’s no longer 42 degrees and humid anymore!