Singapore to Gold Coast day 4

Its a cool breezy morning in Emerald.  I had a great sleep in and have a quick breakfast and make my way to the airport about 9am.  I have scheduled my departure for 10:15am, so I plan to start-up at 10am on the dot.  I get a cab to the airport, and when at the airport have to contact the airport manger for permission to get into the airport.  All Australian airports are secure facilities and require that you show your crew pass or other security credentials.

I pull the aircraft over the the fuel pump and the friendly Shell guy gives me a hand and even makes me a cup of coffee and invites me into his little office.  Very friendly chap.

At the fuel pump Emerald

At 10am I am ready to get going.  Many of these remote tower-less airports in Australia have the ability to contact Brisbane Center while on the ground.  The procedure is to call in "Taxi IFR" before getting going.  That way they can advise of any other traffic in the area.  The wind is a brisk 15-20 knots at 170 degrees, pretty much blowing across the main runway 06-24.

Fortunately there is a small cross runway 15-33 which is plenty long enough for my expected less than 1000 foot take-off roll.  I call out my local advisories, have a brief exchange with a departing Cessna C414 twin, and am soon taking off on runway 15.  The strong headwind gets me airborne in no-time and climbing briskly to the South East more or less on course.

The short 410nm leg 7 would be pretty straight forward.  The advantage of flying IFR is ATC should keep me out of trouble navigating the busy controlled airspace around Brisbane, Amberly Air-force Base and The Gold Coast.

Planned route YEML to YBCG

 As I get closer to the busy Brisbane airspace I am also now being tracked on radar.

Radar track from FlightAware

West of Brisbane

A short 2 hours later (I now have a 24 knot tail wind) and I am being cleared to descend to pick up the VOR runway 14 approach into the Gold Coast. I track directly to way-point IGOMU, which as it turns out is directly above one of the large high-rise buildings in Surfers Paradise.

Traking direct to IGOMU for the VOR 14 approach at YBCG

Its with a big grin on my face that I am now descending on the approach and going to land at my old home town. I land and make the quick taxi over to Gold Coast Air and park to hook up with my ground handler. I had made it!

Safe and sounds on the ground Gold Coast

I give John a quick call and let him know his bird has safely arrived. I am so satisfied with the whole journey and look forward to many more. A big thanks to John for entrusted me with the last 3 legs of the trip! It once again proved to me the reliability and utility of the Cirrus aircraft.