A Day in the Life of a MAF Arnhem Land pilot. Part 1

Another very busy week so this is my first opportunity to write another blog.

As is has been so busy maybe I will do a post on what a day involves up here flying for MAF?

Here goes

0615 – Alarm goes off and struggle out of bed. Turn the aircon on in the lunge room because it’s already 26 deg and 90% humidity. Shower, shave, get dressed etc

View from where I eat breakfast. (and all my meals)

0645 – Sit down for breakfast and look at the view with my coffee (see pic). Wait for the bus

0710 – The Yirrkala bus arrives to take me into work after stopping at various yolgnu houses to pick up the first passengers of the day.

0730 – Arrive at the Laynha Air hangar. Get the weather for the day and prepare the aircraft, refuel, wash the aircraft etc

0815 – Weigh up the first passengers of the day. They are teachers from Laynha Homelands that are going out to the various schools in the remote homelands for the day. In this case, Birany Birany (pronounced Brang Brang) and Garrathalala. Weigh and load all their gear.

Buymarr airstrip. On the way to Birany Birany

0830 – Airborne for the first dropoff which is a 25 min flight. There is weather about so can’t really climb too high and we have to weave and dodge through showers and rain all the way down.

0900 – Land at Birany Birany. Unload all the gear and the teachers. Lots of Yolngu come up to me wanting to go places. There is a funeral (a yolngu funeral is a ceremony that can last between 3 days and 2 weeks) at Gurumuru and they want to travel there to be with their family. I can’t do it but tell them to ring the Laynha office as there may be a flight coming down yalala (Yolngu for later)

0920 – Airborne for the short 10 min hop across the bay to Garrathalala. Due to the weather and low cloud and rain, we are forced to go low level, 500ft above the ground. From this low height we spot herds of dugong, sharks and a large salt water crocodile sunning itself on the deserted beach.

Low cloud and rain make for an interesting days flying to say the least

0935 – Land at Garrathalala. With the wind around this landing is tricky. It has a pronounced upslope and it is very short. It is all dirt and now because of the rain, very muddy and slippery. There is a strong crosswind because of the line of showers and rain that are now coming across the airfield. It takes all my concentration to get on the ground safely.

This could go on forever. How about we have part 2 yalala?