SUBSEQUENT TRIP REQUEST: 3rd and 4th flights.

Two month old Charlotte from Wagga Wagga was diagnosed with abnormalities of the Osophaegus and needed to travel to the Sydney Childrens Hospital in Randwick for frequent consultations and surgery.

Angel Flight assisted them on this trip, due to the frequency, cost, distance and hardship it places on the family.

Angel flight 1 by Sandra McRae
This is Sandra's 51st Angel flight

Sandra McRae - Pilot

Brendan Jones - Earth Angel
(Brendan's 1st Angel flight)

Justin MacIntosh - Pilot

A Country Care Link volunteer driver was the Earth Angel
(CCL's 287th Angel flight)

Angel flight 2 by Justin MacIntosh
This is Justin's 25th Angel flight

Comment by Justin

"We departed Bankstown with a whopping big thunderstorm off to the west. I requested and was granted a right hand turn after takeoff in order to avoid any affect from the storm. We climbed out to 8,000 feet with thunderstorm cells off to our north west.

Just after passing Bindook, there was a small and shallow rain cloud with visible rain falling. It looked rather harmless and if I was by myself I probably would have flown through it, but to be sure I diverted 10 miles left of track to avoid any downdraft. But as we drew adjacent to the little cloud, we experienced a sudden downdraft which lost us 200 feet.

Rather unsettling, but good we diverted and it just goes to show that when there are thunderstorms about it is best to avoid any cloud with rain falling from the bottom of the cloud. The rest of the trip into Wagga was uneventful, but still quite rough on descent. We also had 10-15 knot headwinds all the way from Bankstown."