INITIAL TRIP REQUEST: Eight year old Jade from Pambula Beach NSW is deaf and requires a chochlear implant. Jade and her father Jo need to travel to Sydney for a re-assessment of her implant.

Angel flight 1 by Dave Hayes
This is Dave's 6th mission
Previous mission for Dave - M454 AF1.

Dave Hayes - Pilot

Rory Delaney - Earth Angel
(Rory's 15th mission)

Dave Hayes - Pilot

Graham Bentley - Earth Angel
(Graham 's 53rd mission)

Angel flight 2 by Dave Hayes
This is Dave's 7th mission
Previous mission for Dave - M454 AF1.

Comment by Dave
"After days of quite appalling flying weather (great for the farmers) it was a relief to see blue sky dawn on 30 September for this Angel Flight. In fact the weather proved to be superb for flying all day, as a photo of the coast near Merimbula shows.

Dr Sterling Kitchings, who owns the immaculate Piper Arrow II VH-CPP, was fully qualified for Angel Flights but, as this was to be his first, he took the prudent approach of asking Dave Hayes to ride with him as “Check Captain”.

Dave, Jo, Jade and Graham.

Eight-Year-Old Jade needed to fly from Merimbula to Sydney with her Dad Joe for an assessment, then return, a trip that would be exhausting, if not impossible, in one day by road.

An early start out of Canberra allowed plenty of time for assessing the weather, route and fuel and, after picking up Jade and Joe at Merimbula, a change in course into Sydney saved some time as the conditions allowed a visual approach in lieu of the longer IFR route. An SMS was sent in flight to let Rory Delaney (Earth Angel) know our revised, slightly late ETA. Despite discussing the effect of the descent on Jade’s ears and chewing lollies, she experienced some discomfort (that fortunately proved short in duration). The lesson is clear – the more gradual a descent can be made for young ears the better, and this was put into practice on the return leg.

Jade and Joe relaxing en route. The cabin proved remarkably quiet and they were happy to leave their headsets off.

Three hours to kill in Sydney proved no problem at all for the intrepid flight crew, who found a delightful Asian restaurant only minutes from Bankstown.

Earth Angel Graeme Bentley dropped our precious cargo back at Bankstown after the appointment. The return leg proved as benign as the ride north, and Jade and Joe enjoyed spectacular views of the coast and disembarked at Merimbula with plenty of daylight left.

The beautiful coast near Merimbula, complemented by great weather for flying.

The return flight to Canberra saw the first actual IMC conditions and allowed a night ILS for currency. All in all a great day’s flying and one which made a difference.

Thanks to the whole Angel Flight team. In particular Sterling Kitchings who donated the aeroplane, then did most of the hard work in the cockpit all day and proved amply capable of flying such missions in future. The idea of new Angel Flight pilots doing at least one ride with someone more experienced appears smart and it was great to share the workload in the cockpit, plus have another crew member to help the passengers."