March 7-22 Manilla, New South Wales

-- Life at Godfrey’s falls into a routine

The trip from Lighting Ridge to Manilla and Godfrey’s was not without car problems.  But some of the quirks of the Ford Explorer are now understood and we are learning to live with them.  The AC still ices up.  The shift lever position for putting the car into drive is sensitive.  Must be an electrical contact somewhere that is not quite hit that sometimes keeps it in second gear. 

We drove through some water that was maybe 8 inches deep which may have shorted out the 6 pin connector for the 4WD transfer case or just the solenoid sticking that locks the transfer case.  That led to the car being stuck in 4WD for a while and a visit to a shop in Tamworth.

Remants of the flooding

The mechanic disconnected the connector and then reconnected it. We drove on to Manila in 2WD without problems.  I tested the controls the next day and 4WD, 4WD Low, and Auto all worked fine.  Then a day later it stuck again.  Looking it up in Google one post suggested just hitting the solenoid with a hammer.  Oh well.  Stay tuned.  It seems to be working OK.   We’ll get it checked out when we get to Melbourne.
The mechanic pointed out a rather funky adaptation on the rear leaf springs.  Looks like one of the leaves ether broke or was replace an a half leaf added rearward of the axle.  He thought it was unsafe but we’ll see about that later.  On a more positive note, the cooling system works just fine.

Weather at Manilla this time has been flyable but not great.  Easy to get up and fly or make short cross country flights—just nothing long. 



Our Cabin

My routine:

7:30 Get up shave and shower
8:00 Cereal, yogurt, and coffee for breakfast
10:00 Mary Beth makes me a sandwich
10:30 Catch a ride up to launch in the “Basher” $5  
That was working until recently.  But the Basher broke and Godfrey wants the drivers to pay part of the repair cost.  The drivers don’t want to pay so there is a bit of a stalemate.   Mary Beth now drives me and two or three pilots up the hill in the Explorer.
1`:30-12:30 Launch
1:30- 3:00 Sink out 10-25K or so from launch
This is usually after flying over some nice brown field that for some reason produced no thermals.  I went back and read the book on thermaling.  Seems ridges have much higher probability of triggering thermals than brown fields.  Maybe I can do better working the ridges when altitude and trees permit.
3:30 Mary Beth picks me up and we ride back to Godfrey’s
5:00 Swim in the pool, or go up for another flight.
7:00 Grille something on the barbecue
8:00 till?  Drink more wine or beer than you should.
Usually this happens while sitting around a fire talking about just about anything.  Lots of nights we watch movies in the pavilion. 

Repeat as many days as possible until one of these days you get that 100k flight.

I’ve flown all the primary XC routes but just not to 100k.  In February I went west then North 83k and in the last few days I have flown north along the highway.  But I have had trouble to go more than 27k in that direction.  Nice views of the Split Rock Dam and reservoir going north.  I just seem to arrive at those nice brown fields at the wrong time or misjudge the wind drift for the thermals and end up on the deck.  I had similar experiences flying east.   Halls Creek is as far as I have been able to go.  More ridge flying and less “heading out into the valley and hoping” is needed.

Heading for the lake

To get that 100K flight you need higher cloud bases than we have been getting this year.  It’s tough when the cloud base is around 1800 meters or less.  They tell me you should have and the usual “normal” base is more like 2400 to 2800 meters.  There is some small consolation in that nobody else is going far. Unfortunately for me it looks like if I want that 100K flight I’ll have to come back next year.  January and February are better times to fly.  This year seems to have been (with a few exceptions) generally poor for flying long XC’s.  Too much rain making things green and wet and lower than normal temperatures.

I’ve had some interesting flights.  A glass off with strong winds and up everywhere but too late in the day to go XC.  Another day with clouds and managing to just get off launch and then catch very light thermals and making the flight all the way to Godfrey’s in buoyant air.

One thing you have to understand about Godfrey’s is that it is not a four star hotel by any stretch of the imagination.  It is simply a low cost place to stay.  Accommodations are basic.  It’s nice to be near the mountain so if the weather turns out better than expected such as the winds backing off after gusting all day you can go out for a short evening flight.  If you were staying in town you probably wouldn’t do that.

The barbecue is old but functional.  Same with the kitchens.  Everything  generally works and is kept at a minimum standard of cleanliness.  It’s better than a lot of hostels and one of the lowest cost places to stay in Manilla. 

The wireless internet is generally great here.  We found out today that Godfrey shuts it down when he gets near the limit of data for the month.  Too many people downloading movies or watching streaming video.  Mary Beth and I were originally told that streaming video was OK.  She had been watching the Colbert report and we have watched a few episodes of 24.  No more I guess.  We will have to stick with the movies in the pavilion.

Godfrey has lots of improvements planned but they are developing slowly.  Meanwhile we’re enjoying the place at $20/night per person.   Given the lower weekly rate its only $240/week for us.  The Manilla motel would have been around $700.

There are lots of other things going on.  Godfrey is harvesting grapes and fermenting them for wine.  His wine is pretty good.  He can’t sell it but if you make a contribution to the road improvement fund you are likely to get a free bottle.

We have been to the top of the mountain to see the sunset and enjoy a bottle of wine.  We had some olive spread made by the Greek gentlemen that runs the fish and chips restaurant in Manilla.  The olive spread is very good.  His fish and chips are ok but don’t bother with his Greek salad.  It has evolved I guess into something different.  Olives in it, but pineapple as well, Ugh?  Anyway the sunsets can be spectacular.  This time it was just ordinary.  Still very nice but we had a 20 mph wind blowing over the back that made things a little chilly.

Sunset from the West Launch

We haven’t been eating out a lot.  But one restaurant we can recommend is at the Imperial Pub.  The meals there are every bit as good as at the Royal Pub.  Mary Beth recommends the Beef curry.  Wash the curry down with a bottle Jacobs Creek Shiraz.   Tiramisu and espresso make a great desert.   You do have to be careful however how much you, drink however.  The blood alcohol limit is .5 percent.  Much lower than the U.S.

The stars out here are amazingly bright.  It’s very easy to see the Milky Way.  I wish I had a tripod for the camera to take some pictures. 

We left Manilla on March 22 heading for Bright.  Mary Beth needed a break.  Two weeks in Manilla was enough.  On the way we stopped at Temora and the aviation museum.

There are lots more pictures of flying and other things at this link:
https://picasaweb.google.com/100100812428273095003/MoreManilla#

Flight statistics from Manilla

Hours of flying time:  23.7 hours

XC cumulative distance:  238 Kilometers

Friday March 16th--The ice-cream run.

We're back in Manilla...

XCskies was forecasting a 1900 meter cloudbase and winds were from the North around 15 kph.  I think I’ve finally managed to think pretty much in metric now.

Rowan (one of my fellow Mentor 2 pilots and new Aussie flying friend) were hoping to get a shot at a longer than usual cross country flight.  We were determined to launch as early as possible since there was a risk of overdevelopment later in the day.

We launched just after 11.  I managed a low save on the way to the bailout LZ and took it all the way to cloudbase which was only 1590 meters.  Rowan and most of the other pilots who launched early sunk our after scratching for a while.   I was disappointed that Rowan didn’t get up with me but on the other side of the coin it’s always great to be the only pilot that gets up.  You convince yourself that you have a little more skill even though often it is just the luck of being there when the thermal kicks off.

Down low and search for that thermal to take me up

Mary Beth drove Rowan back to Godfrey’s and he left for better weather in Bright on his way back to Melbourne.  Melbourne is a 14 hour drive from Manilla and its only 11 or so to Bright.  Turned out to  be a good decision since as I sit writing this on Saturday the weather in Bright looks great for flying and I’m sitting here reading E-mail and blogging in the rain.

Once at Cloudbase I followed the ridge south towards Manilla.  The winds were pretty much as predicted maybe a little stronger.  Lots of drift in the thermals.  The FlyMaster B1Nav is a big help in calculating wind speed and direction and keeping in track with the thermals.  Though I guess Flytec’s models do basically the same thing.

At the end of the ridge it’s a few k across the valley to Manilla.  I made the jump with plenty of altitude.  I was pushing hard with the speedbar doing 63 kph at one point.   Once over the town I needed to decide whether to head east towards Halls Creek or go south to Attunga which is something of 27k of XC.  You can’t go much further south without getting into Tamworth’s controlled airspace.  

I started going east thinking I had the option to go further.  But after a few kilometers and fighting a few thermals I turned back to land at the River Gums Caravan park.  Too much drift from the north wind and I was going to have a lot of work to do to follow a course along the road.  There is a soccer field complex next to River Gums that has a windsock and a few light pole obstacles but is nice and big and easy to land in. 

The good part is you get a free ice-cream from the operators if you land there while you are staying with them.  Hence the title “Ice-cream run”.  They still owed me one from when I was staying there in February.  I was hoping I could talk them into another one for Mary Beth even though I wasn’t staying with them.   It didn’t work.

Once again Mary Beth came through and was there at the park waiting for me when I landed.  She even had a beer for me in the cooler.  I opted for ice cream since I thought I might get a chance to fly again.  It was still relatively early in the day.

We had our ice-cream and then after picking up a few groceries we headed back to Godfrey’s.  Driving back to Godfrey’s the sky was filled with dark clouds over launch.  We were done for the day even though the rest of the valley looked relatively good.

Flight statistics:

Launched at 11:10.

Max. altitude: 1587 meters

Max. up: 4.0 meters/sec

Max. down :3.4 meters/sec.

Duration: 1 hour 18 minutes

Open distance: 14.4 Kilometers

A couple of the pilots cooked a meal  for dinner that we all shared.  We provided the box wine.  The box wine here is fabulous and even cheaper than in the U.S.  I think it’s about the only thing that is cheaper than in the U.S.  $14 for a four liter box.   Beer on the other hand is expensive.  A six-pack costs $16.

After dinner with fellow pilots. South Africa, Germany, Austria, and Spain

After dinner and washing dishes we watched the 2011 version of “The girl with the dragon tattoo” on a 40 inch flatscreen in the pavilion and while sipping shiraz.

Short XC flight but a good day all in all.   Having fun and not spending a lot of money.  Life is good.

More pictures at:

https://picasaweb.google.com/100100812428273095003/March162012TheIceCreamRun#5720761695984563442

Lightning Ridge

Tuesday March 6, 2012 Exploring Lightning Ridge

Did you know Lightning Ridge is the only place in the world where you can find quality black opals?  Mary Beth does.

Artesian pool

We actually did get up in time to make it to the hot springs before sunrise.  The water is very warm so you don’t stay in for long.  But Mary Beth said it did wonders for her right leg.  It must have because later in the day she managed a spiral staircase with 113 steps down 60 feet into one of the mines without any pain.  The left knee is now plastic and metal and doing great. 

We took the Black Opal Tour.  Larry picked us up at the motel and drove us around the areas being mined.  Finding opals is pretty much like looking for a needle in a haystack.  They know the general area where they are likely to be found but then have to go through yards and yards of dirt and hope they find something.  Usually they don’t but when they do find them they can pay very handsomely. 

This area pretty well mined

For the first part of the tour we drove around and Larry showed us the various forms of excavation equipment and how it was used.  The area being minded is some 40 square kilometers around the town. The area here at Lightning Ridge seems to be pretty well tapped out.  There are only 50-100 individuals actively mining although there are tens of thousands of claims.  At one time there were 7000 people digging.  Lots of people come here for vacation to dig—at least that’s what they told us.   Not exactly my idea of fun but I guess this is slightly better than playing the lottery.

Midway through the tour we stopped at their showroom for coffee and scones.  Mary Beth already knew about singles, doublets and triplets but we had a very good demonstration of taking the nodules and grinding away the clay to get the stones to a saleable form.  Lots of nice jewelry there.  The singles ere in the thousands of dollars.  Doublets and triplets are much more affordable.  You can ask Mary Beth to explain the difference the next time you see her.

I'm so exited...

The tour continues with visits to some of the more eccentric homesteads and a then the tour down into one of the mines.  It’s nice and cool in the mines.  It is very hard work moving small wheel barrows of diggings up to vertical shaft to be taken to the surface and then processed (generally in a reworked cement mixer to remove the clay and hopefully expose some opal nodules. 

The tour ended just before lunchtime.  After lunch we continued exploring the town and the shops on foot.  Mary Beth managed to get her opal for this trip as well as presents for Sarah and Emily.  The temperature outside was getting a little hot but not nearly as hot as usual.  We retired to the motel room for a siesta before heading out again.

As we were getting ready to go out we discovered that Mary Beth’s cell phone was missing.  A Mary Beth no holds barred “mom” search of the car and motel room was fruitless.  Margie at the motel called nearly every place we had been and we had no luck.  Somewhere between Gilgandra and Lightning ridge there is a cell phone that will not type the letter” M” even if the person who finds it manages to recharge the thing.  Another reason to head to Tamworth before Manilla tomorrow.   We need to get a “next G” phone for Mary Beth.

We went out in the car for sunset pictures.  The check engine light went out.  Hooray!  Now the explorer is down to just two problems.  The icing switch on the AC and the transmission sometimes not shifting into the higher gear.

No clouds in the west so the sunset pictures will not be that great. 

Dinner at the bowling club.  This time we only ordered one meal and a salad for Mary Beth and then divided them at the table.  Plenty of food that way.

More pictures at:

https://picasaweb.google.com/100100812428273095003/LightningRidgeAustralia#

On the road again and trouble with the law

Monday March 5, 2012 – Change of plans: On to Lighting Ridge and trouble with the law

We got a late start on Sunday afternoon.  The replacement car we were expecting at 2 showed up closer to 5 in the afternoon.  It was raining and ugly out.  We drove just another 150 kilometers or so and stopped at Dubbo, NSW for the night.

Dan's new ride, a Ford Explorer

Monday morning the sun was shining and we started out for Lightning Ridge.  The weather in Manilla was not all that great today and it looked like it would be better later in the week.  There are black opal mines in Lightning Ridge that Mary Beth wanted to see so we decided to head in that direction and then head on to Manilla on Wednesday.

About 60 kilometers down the road we came into the town of Gilgandra.  I made a wrong turn a couple of kilometers down the highway outside town so I pulled over to turn around.  Unfortunately I made a U turn right in front of a police car.  Oops.  

When he pulled us over he checked the registration and found that the compulsory insurance had not been paid.  That’s something Traveler’s Auto Barn takes care of.  It turns out that although the sticker on the windshield says we’re good to August of 2012 the previous owner had cancelled the insurance.  After telling me that the fine was $1000 dollars the policeman just gave me a warning and told me to go straight to the local RTA office and get it taken care of before driving further.  He never got around to the U turn.  I’m happy for that.

I called Traveler’s Auto Barn and they started working on having things corrected.  Initial estimate was an hour.  We had sandwiches at the bakery in town and waited.

While we were waiting we had time to try and figure out another issue with the new car.  When they delivered it we were in a hurry to get down the road.  There was a spare tire in the rear cargo area.  I wondered why it was there and not underneath the car but just dismissed it.  Checking underneath the car we see another spare tire.  Great, we have two spares.  After about two hours Traveler’s called and the insurance had been sorted out.  They had an extra tire so they had just put it in the back.  I guess we have a spare in case Mary Beth trashes another tire driving down from launch.

We were on the road again.  During the rest of the trip we discovered a few things about the Explorer.  The check engine light came on (generally emissions issues) and the fact that automatic transmission does not always shift to a higher gear once you get to cruising speed.   4000 rpm at 100 kph is not cool or good for the fuel economy.  We’ll see what Liam at Traveler’s Auto Barn has to say about it tomorrow.

Emus along the road enroute to Lightning Ridge

We pulled in to Lightning Ridge and the Bluey Motel around five pm.  The motel manager, Margie, was very helpful.  We have tomorrow all planned.  Tour of the city and Opal mines and then all the great stores Mary Beth wants to check out.  (oh boy).  Dinner at the bowling club right across the street from the hotel. (Bowling on the green not bowling as in U.S. Bowling) 

We split a bottle of wine with dinner forgetting that we were going to go to the artesian hot springs in the evening.  1 bottle of wine is 8 “standard drinks” in Australia.  I guess that means you can have 1 standard drink an hour.  Anyway we decided we would get up and go the hot springs for a dip at sunrise.  Sunrise is at 7:01 tomorrow.  We’ll see if we make it.

Oh Lord stuck in Lodi (Forbes) again

More rain coming!

February 27- March 4   Oh Lord stuck in Forbes (Lodi) again

We got up early and picked up Sabrina at 6:30 for breakfast at the bakery.  After leaving her at the bus stop we finished loading the Jackaroo and started out at 7:30 for Manilla. 

About 100K into the trip the coolant temperature gage started cycling between normal and hot.  After 200K we stopped and let things cool down.  I added a half liter of coolant to top off the radiator. 

Max and his assistant dig for the thermostat

 

We ended up in Forbes NSW and after a series of shops we found Max Buttriss Farm and Auto repairs.  He’s a friendly guy started working on changing the thermostat.  Once he got to it he found out that the thermostat had been removed.  Then after further study he discovered the thermostat was in a different position.  Now I’m really starting to feel confident.  Ugh.

 

They drove us into town and to a motel for the night.   The Adrian Motel is very close to McDonalds  so breakfast  and Mary Beth’s desire for Lattes are easily met. Unfortunately we forgot to bring our electrical adapters so we soon ran out of power and internet access.

 

Tuesday February 28

Calling Max the next morning he advised the replacement thermostat had not arrived.  He expected it Wednesday morning have it installed and we would soon be on our way.   I hiked around and  after 3 different stores found a plug adapter for our computers.  Now we can surf and do E-mail. 

We discovered some very good counter meals at the Forbes Inn.  $17 for grilled Baramundi and $22 dollars for a nice bottle of Chardonnay to wash it down.   $56 for dinner for two.  Not too bad.

 

Wednesday February 29

Wednesday morning Max called and told us that the new thermostat was not enough to fix the problem.  Coolant is leaking.  His final diagnosis was either a blown head gasket or cracked cylinder head.  Seems to have been an all to common problem on Holden Jackaroos with the V6 gas engine.  He called Traveler’s Auto Barn and they agreed to provide a replacement car-- but not till Friday. 

Wednesday afternoon Max picked me up and I drove the Jackaroo back to the hotel.  Another night in Forbes and another dinner at the Forbes Inn.

Paragliding is not on the list

Thursday March 1, 2012

Thursday we hiked a couple of kilometers to the McFeeters Auto Museum just on the edge of town.  It’s a great museum for its size.  The owner’s wife gave us a tour.  We were surprised to find a 1962 Plymouth Valiant.  It was white just like my dad bought way back when but with right hand drive.  It’s the car I took to college and the car I was driving when I first gave Mary Beth a ride back to school in.   Lots of memories with the car including painting it metallic green and installing a custom turn signal that made everyone riding in it with me go nuts.  The wife of the owner gave us the tour.  She even was worried about Mary Beth with her cane getting caught in the rain so she arranged for transport back to the town hall.

I had one of these--just not right hand drive

 

There was an Art exhibition at the town hall.  It reminded me of the time when Mary Beth and I collected water colors.  Some really great oil paintings.  Unfortunately he things we liked all cost $2000 or more.

The downtown area in Forbes is really interesting.  Lots of buildings left over from the gold rush era and kept up nicely.  They used Forbes for the scenes in “The Dish” if you remember that movie even though the actual dish is ear Parkes about 20K north of Forbes.

Post office and town hall

 We broke tradition Thursday night and just had something from the local Subway shop.  Don't get the Tuna salad there.  Mary Beth was sick the whole next day.

Friday March2, 2012

Friday we were all packed up and ready to go when we got a phone call from Traveler’s auto barn.  The truck bringing our Ford Explorer could not get to Forbes due to the rain and flooding.  They were stuck waiting for the roads to open.  Could be Saturday or Sunday or Monday.  Oh Boy!

 

The guy at the motel loves us. With all the rain and this time of year he doesn’t have many customers.  He seemed open when I told him we might need a weekly rate.  We checked in Monday and already we have been her four days with potentially three more to go. Well at least I’ll have time to update my blog.

Train station/visitors ceter

We went to the motel restaurant for diner just to be nice and because of the rain.  $92 for a dinner that was much more expensive than and not nearly as good as what we had at the Forbes in.  Did I mention it’s been raining?  Ugh!

Saturday March 3, 2012

Saturday morning the rain subsided and I walked to the grocery store.  We’ll save a little money using the microwave and eating lunch and breakfast in the room.  I spent the morning looking at road conditions and weather.  The primary road to Manilla is currently closed so even if they got the car to me I guess we wouldn’t be going anywhere today.  

In the afternoon I installed a new application for the PC.  With “hidemyass”  Amazon Prime and Netflix think I am in the USA and don’t block content.  Mary Beth and I now are watching season 3 of 24 so the rain and no fly days will give us some last resort activities to  pursue.

I made some adjustments to the speed system on my harness.  Now  I should be able to get full acceleration.  I shortened the leg straps on the harness as well in hopes it would enable me to step into it more easily.  If it doesn’t work it’s going to REALLY constrain my private parts until I get in to the thing.  Finally I adjusted the length of my brake lines so that when I hold both handles in one hand I won’t be applying brakes.

 

Funny thing happened when I opened up my emergency kit to use the matches packed with my emergency whistle to sear the end of the trimmed brake lines.  The matches would not light. That would have been great to have happen in an emergency landing somewhere.  Now I will have a trusty BiC lighter in the pack as well.

The rain has stopped and we even saw a few rays of sunshine.  We had a very pleasant walk to the Forbes inn for the usual dinner.  Hoping the replacement car will be delivered on Sunday.  Now how many episodes of 24 can we watch before we fall asleep?   

Sunday March 4, 2012  -Last day in Forbes

It’s raining this morning.  NSW roads look good but I can’t reach the Traveler’s Auto Barn guy to see if they will be bringing the replacement car today.  However, just after 10 in the morning the driver bringing the car called and gave us his ETA.     We paid the motel for the last three nights.  He gave us a “long term” discount.Now its on to Manilla!