I planned to fly with Stephan, Mitch and John with my battery fully charged. We were to travel in loose formation but as we took off my radio stopped receiving signal and my GPS ran flat batteries as I did not have it running from the plane battery. Three problems were too many for me so I landed at Serpentine airfield, just 5 miles north.

We met some local pilots who were very friendly and they helped sort out all the problems. Stephan and Mitch left around 1.00pm and John and I got away around 3.00pm for our flight north past Perth and up the coast to Geraldton. This was a particularly pretty fly. Fremantle and the Swan River with the city of Perth in the back ground looked lovely. We had to stay low under controlled airspace, which gave us a great view, and we stayed low all the way since the wind was best. Only a 10kt head wind.

The Swan River and Perth CBD from the air

Arriving at Geraldton just on sunset was exciting as we were unaware of a radio frequency change. Got it sorted out just in time and landed behind two big passenger planes, and there were two more behind us. Geraldton is a very busy airport. As we were flying along we could see a huge amount of building activity everywhere. WA is going ahead and growing incredibly, unlike the eastern states. The mineral boom is bringing huge wages and employment to everyone who lives here and\businesses are all going very well. There is an oil rig being built off Geraldton and work has started on a new shipping port 30km the north.

We saw the rest of the group off on Tuesday morning and were lucky enough to get a place to stay in an old people’s home called Nazareth House, where we were cared for by the St Josephs Nuns. Also the RSL lent us their bus to drive around while we were stranded here. The new alternator arrived on Wednesday morning and we spent most of the day fitting this and going through a full maintenance check of the plane. All the checks came up good so we should be right for the rest of the trip. I’m glad to do this now, as we are facing the most remote parts of Australia, and have some big distances to cross. I have been told to watch out for crocks in the Northern Territory if we have land out. Not a nice thought.