Katherine

With a favourable forecast showing good weather for the day, I got myself up early to make the flight to Katherine. The early morning was beautifully cool, which was a wonderful relief considering it was over 40 degrees the last time I touched NCO! I also need to make a special mention to Tennant Creek’s ARO, Ian, who drove me to the airport at 5am. Without the support of people like yourself, I genuinely couldn’t be doing the early morning flights which require these get ups.

I conducted my pre-flights as the sun was rising and departed at 6am on the dot, taking off with a gorgeous red sun out to my right and tracking north. My initial departure was slow as I was met by a 22 knot headwind coming out of Tennant Creek, which had the potential to mess up all my calculations of ground speed and thus travel time! This is where it is important to be strategic about weather, as I was able to climb above that wind layer, where speeds were much more favourable. Today’s flight again followed a road, this time tracking north along the Stuart Highway.

Today’s flight time was just over 3 hours, and I had the further advantage of being able to pack up the aeroplane before the heat of the day had properly set in. Another big thank you to Ali, who drove me into town as well! It was great to chat to you about life in Katherine and get some recommendations for cafes.