Trip Report - MH122/123 First

[DJones]

4th photograph is very appealing.

[Grahame Hutchison]

I just found the location of the last photograph which has what looks like an airfield on it.

If you enter 23°31'23.91"S 133°40'49.00"E into Google Earth you will find the airfield which is 28km north west of Alice Springs. If you zoom in close enough you can see white markers along either side of the runway. There is a sealed road leading to the buildings, but no obvious sign of any aircraft.

[DJones]

Grahame, do you use a GPS logger to record positions you have flown at the press of a button? I know you can buy these off E-Bay I think. Handy item.

[Grahame Hutchison]

Hi Daniel,

I have a Tosihiba Pocket PC with a GPS CF Card. With the Pocket Earth application I can track the aircraft across the globe with heading, altitude and speed details. You can usually pickup 4 satellites but crew do not normally like to see you using GPS type devices.

For the potograph above where I identified the airfield, it was pure luck. I knew we were near Alice Springs when I took the photograph, so I just looked around in Google Earth and found the location.

[DJones]

Excellent Grahame and thanks for the info. I've wanted to play around with one of those GPS loggers. Not too sure how practical they are and how well they work.

[Robert S]

Originally Posted by DJones

Excellent Grahame and thanks for the info. I've wanted to play around with one of those GPS loggers. Not too sure how practical they are and how well they work.

I've had mixed success... it can depend on so many factors, so some days you'll have minimal trouble, others you'll have little joy.

Forget it if you're not in a window seat and as Grahame says, one of the many factors is crew tolerance of your device. It's certainly easier with a PocketPC type device rather than a hand-held GPS, especially if you have a PDA with integrated GPS... though it my case it may just be because my handheld GPS is an eTrex Legend that's a bit too easy to confuse for an old mobile phone if you don't look closely... whereas my PDA is an iPAQ Travel Companion and never an issue.

A data logger unit hooked up to a GPS might cause a bit of interest, unless it's an all-in-one GPS receiver and logger.

[DJones]

Thanks for the info Robert S.

[Mark Grima]

Great report as always Grahame. After such a busy day on the 9th when you left I bet the F class bed was very comfy!

Cheers

M

[David M]

I measured that runway on Google Earth and it's approximately 2800m long!!

What on earth would you need a 2800m dirt strip out there for??

David.M.

[DJones]

It is the Bond Springs Airstrip used by GA aircraft, ultralights and home of the Alice Springs Gliding Club.