Darwin in the wet

Darwin in the Wet

‍

Saturday morning began with a visit to the Gooney Bird Adventures hangar, which hopes soon to operate DC-3 adventure flights over Darwin, with the ex-Air Chatham’s DC3. Outside sat an old DC-3 relic. Callsign MMA — the once famous “Mickey Mouse Airways” of the Northern Territory and a regular on the Perth–Broome–Darwin milk run.

As often happens around old aeroplanes — and those whose lives have been intimately connected with them — stories soon followed. These routes across northern Australia were not merely airline services but genuine adventures, flown in conditions and across terrain that demanded skill, patience and occasionally a little luck.

With the local yarns completed, attention turned to engine oil. Spirit needed some, and Woody — Gooney Bird’s owner — had kindly procured it for us in a large drum which then needed transferring into smaller containers for storage onboard.

The oil was extremely viscous and, with only a hand pump available, required considerable effort to move. With two Kiwis and several Australians present, a friendly rotational rivalry soon developed on the pump.

Tyler, our young American engineer, calmly filled the containers while attempting to understand some of the subtleties of refined Australian humor. It is no small undertaking for an outsider to comprehend what the heck sheep have to do with hand pumping engine oil.

The remainder of the day was spent waiting for the rain to stop.

Luckily at 4 p.m. Spirit had her perfect hour.

That brief window was enough for the photo shoot flight, which produced some remarkable images of Spirit in the air, on approach and in the landing attitude. Also poignant were those with the historic Darwin Wharf as a backdrop. This was the scene of significant bombing attacks by a Japanese carrier group during World War II.

The day concluded with a farewell dinner for Nick Kanakis, who was heading home to California. Nick has been a wonderfully energetic and positive force throughout the first three sectors of the trip.His enthusiasm, organizational skill, and willingness to always show “just one more visitor” around the cockpit will be missed.

‍

Sunday March 8th – Darwin

Sunday provided the opportunity to get Spirit inside the hangar and carry out a number of inspections and preventative maintenance tasks.

Keeping a seventy-plus-year-old aeroplane operating happily requires regular attention, and Tyler, Morgan and Curt spent several hours giving her exactly that. Panels were opened, things inspected carefully, and then closed again in a reassuringly professional manner.

Later in the afternoon we fitted in a visit to Darwin Crocodile Encounters, where we were introduced to some of the region’s snakes and crocodiles.

One young crocodile — about a foot long and roughly a year old — was passed around for handling. With a small strip of tape across his mouth to prevent nipping, he was in his own reptilian way rather cute. In truth I cannot say the same for his five-metre-long, fifty-year-old relative. At that size the animals have very little interest in humour, conversation, or photography. They simply observe the situation carefully and wait.

Spirit also was waiting to head south out of the Wet.

‍

‍