SUBSEQUENT TRIP REQUEST: (11th and 12th Angel flights).

7 year old Channae, the youngest of three siblings, was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia in September last year. She periodically undergoes treatment at Sydney Children's Hospital, Randwick.

Mum is on a single parent pension, and is unable to drive long distances due to the emotional and physical effects a long drive has on her daughter.

Read about a previous mission for Channae (M419)

Dave Hayes - Pilot

Debra Morgan - Earth Angel
(Debra's 8th mission)

Angel flight 1 by Dave Hayes
This is Dave's 5th mission
Previous mission for Dave - M314 AF2.

Comment by Dave
"This Angel Flight was very nearly cancelled due to concerns about the weather. In the end it turned out just fine, but only thanks to a small window of opportunity that made this sort of like threading a needle… The flight planning was much harder than the flying!

The weather forecast indicated the potential for severe turbulence at lower levels in the lee of ranges (due to a strong westerly), but the freezing level suggested icing at higher levels. The aerodrome forecast at Bankstown was benign until 10 am, when the westerly was due to come in force. This was the same wind that blew the roof off a hut at Perisher and brought down trees in Sydney.

There are levels of discomfort I am prepared to endure as a pilot that I would not subject passengers to (except by choice when doing aerobatics). I was therefore happy to plan from Canberra to Young at 10,000 ft to get a really good look at the weather, including any turbulence and icing concerns. If it was too unpleasant, the mission could then be cancelled. As it happened the turbulence was light and the cloud tops were very consistent around 8,000 ft, so the ride on top was smooth in crystal clear air with no threat of icing. The direct route from Young to Bankstown, over the Blue Mountains, would be very bumpy due to the rough terrain (without much in the way of forced landing areas), so a route was chosen via Shellys, following the low ground along the Hume Highway. The descent into Sydney was going to be bumpy but, if we could arrive before 10 am, the chance of severe turbulence would be minimised.

Chennae’s family came to the airport where we wasted no time (except for a quick happy snap) loading and departing. The climb out through the “gloop” was OK and we burst out into bright sunshine and cruised serenely at 9,000 for the next 45 minutes.

The whole family - Murray, Channae, Josh, Louise, and Tilley, standing next to their transport, "Kay-Jo".

Melbourne Centre were as helpful as ever. I’m sure it helps having an “Angel Flight” callsign, but they will always do their best regardless. It was nice to be offered direct routing to Bankstown but I declined, given concerns about the turbulence. Besides, with 45 knots behind us at 9,000 ft, it was going to be a very quick trip! Jenny White’s beautiful Piper Arow IV, VH-KJO (“Kay-Jo”) was the machine of choice for this mission, and the CNX-80 GPS registered just over 200 knots groundspeed during the descent into Sydney.

Channae loves her flights. She brought her doll along to share the experience (as well as tops).

Flying high above the overcast cloud.

As expected, there were a few bumps for 10 minutes before we arrived at Bankstown but nothing to alarm Chennae or her mother Louise. Chennae loves the flights, while Louise doesn’t mind admitting she is happier on the ground!

Earth Angel Debbie Morgan was waiting at the Bankstown Terminal when we arrived right on time – a function of both a strong tailwind and the choice of a longer route. Another quick turnaround got me airborne before the nasty winds kicked in. The ride back to Canberra was slow and bumpy but, as I was only going back to spend an afternoon at the office, how could I complain about a delay?

Thanks go to the whole Angel Flight team and to Jenny White, who selflessly allows “Kay-Jo” to perform Angel Flight missions while she works towards the required hours as pilot-in-command. In return Jenny will get some free aerobatic instruction in my plane (VH-NZL), when we can deliberately subject ourselves to some discomfort in flight… And enjoy it!"

Angel flight 2 by Gary Weeks
This is Gary's 5th mission
Previous mission for Gary - M441 AF2.

Gary Weeks - Pilot

Mick Caspers - Earth Angel
(Mick's 16th mission)