phik

It turns out that in order to get airways clearance out of YBCG, they require a filed flight plan — an atypical situation in my limited experience, not mentioned anywhere in the ERSA — but Gold Coast Ground was happy to file one for me.

The eastern VFR corridor around Brisbane is another magnificent low-altitude coastal route, with mile upon mile of perfect, unspoilt beaches and clear blue water. Visibility was for the most part excellent, and you could see little bits of sand or reef poking up to just below the surface of the water.

Rockhampton is known as the Beef Capital of Australia, so it pained me greatly to stop only for fuel. Such is the trouble with touring eastern Australia in just three weeks. After Rockhampton we did a little deke to get inland of the coastal mountains, and then went pretty directly.

just after I took this, a cow wandered across the apron

We had planned to stop for a day in Sunshine Coast, but the rain delay in Sydney required a cut somewhere, and this was the easiest choice. We’ll have to live without seeing the Australia Zoo on this trip. The Taronga Zoo will have to tide me over, which should be easy; it was pretty outstanding.

It was a very long ride to Townsville — 7.1 hours on the Hobbs — and we arrived just before sunset. It was bumpy all the way up — a real pain in the ass day to fly without an autopilot — but it’s nice to be here.

Once in Townsville, we had dinner at the very satisfactory Michel’s Restaurant. Fresh South Australian oysters and grain-fed sirloin did not disappoint.