We have been getting a lot of rain lately and it was great when a Sunday morning and not too much cloud was around. Joe (my son) and I headed out to MKT Aerodrome, Darwin's light aircraft hub to catch the famous Crabclaw Breakfast (featured in a previous entry). We were out the early enough and Greg was out there as well for the journey and we pulled out the aircraft, conducted our preflights and I went for a quick circuit while Greg tried to jump start his Drifter.

When that didn't work, we grabbed the spare battery I now carry with me and we off and away to Crabclaw we went.

There were two layers of cloud, small puffy things hanging around at about 200ft and then another layer at about 1000ft.

Going through the first layer, or more correctly in between the puffy little clouds, Joe stuck his hand out and got to "feel the clouds" which for any nine year old earns some bragging rights.

In the wet season, things get, well, wet.

Radios either work much better or much worse in the wet. My transmissions were okay but I had a consistent weak radio reception from the VHF.

I heard Greg behind me and he landed 4 minutes after I did at Crabclaw which is another great thing about flying with a group of aircraft with the same cruise speed.

Our slighty delayed departure meant that we had missed the chef by 15 minutes and had to settle for a continental breakfast, which was nicer than not having breakfast.

Despite all the rain, there was only a little water at both ends of the runway at Crabclaw Island. After breakfast Joe went for a walk along the beach and one of the owners did point out that Joe should watch out for crocodiles which is something you wouldn't hear at Geelong.

It did give me a chance to take some great inflight shots of our club training and rental Drifter flown by Greg. If anyone is interested in renting the Drifter, see Bernie from NTFT.

  Earlier in the morning we had been treated to another missed approach by Nick in the Harvard and a trike landing after a flight...

 

Breakfast at Crabclaw 2011-03-06

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