Flight Around Oz

I'm planning to fly around Oz in the next couple of weeks to build hours and experience before I take my commercial flight test. I'm still working on the exact route, but it will look something like this. I have a good mixture of airspace and large populated areas and designated remote areas. I've got huge bitumen strips at international airports and tiny gravel strips at remote communities and mine sites and even a remote station planned so far, I have even got a military base or two in the plan at the moment.
Over the next few days I will be ringing each of the smaller airfields to verify that they are open and have fuel and to check on any local regulations that might apply. One the route is determined I can start working out the timing and see how many days this will take.
I am really tempted to go via Ayers Rock as I suspect it would be worth the visit, I am still deciding on that.

CSU & Retracts

Yay! I passed my flight test in the RG and now have the complex aircraft
endorsement. It means that with the exception of the minimum hours
requirement I have met all the pre-requisites for a commercial licence
flight test. In order to build hours and experience and because I am in
desperate need of another adventure i am heading off to circumnavigate
Australia, clockwise, next week.
I'll be planning the trip over the next few days and contacting friends
along the way.

Night Flight Video

Here is a short video from the flight last night..

Photos from last night.

More pretty lights!
During the Right Hand Orbit of the City.
That's Perth City down there, see the new Ferris Wheel?
All those pretty lights!
I said "Karl make sure the flash is turned off as I really need my night vision!" Luckily I was talking to Clearance Delivery and looking at my flight plan so it had little effect.
Checking everything prior to Taxi.
On the ground during the pre-flight.

Night Scenic Flight

Now that I am a qualified Night Rated pilot, Karl was keen to have me show him what the city looks like from above when it's dark. I took him over the City where I did a couple of orbits at 2500ft before we headed off to Rottnest via Observation City. Then back over the city and on to Jandakot. I extended my downwind for spacing on arrival at Jandakot and as a result had to use more power than usual and had a rather flat approach to 06, then I started braking before I had raised the flaps and got a couple of chirps out of the main tyres before I retracted the flaps and made the exit I wanted. I was relaxed and really enjoyed the flight. As usual Karl took a camera with him and some of his photos and video follows.

Night Rating Flight Test

I passed my night rating flight test tonight! Yay! I'm getting stuck
into my CSU and retracts endorsement at the moment and hope to have it
done next week. Then I have to decide if I want to get my taildragger or
head off on a long trip somewhere.

Wongan Hills

Karl and I flew to Wongan Hills today. I wanted to know why my night
circuits there had felt so strange, I know now, the strip is on a hill
above the town and that creates the illusion of being high on
base/final. I've got my night rating flight test tomorrow night, I could
not get an overfly of Perth today, but I am hoping I get one tomorrow
for the test. I'm also starting my CSU and retracts endorsement tomorrow
and I hope that once I have completed that next week I will be able to
get my tail dragger and float-plane endorsements out of the way soon too.

Collie

I flew down to collie to have lunch with a friend today. So many trees!
Definitely not as much fun as the last time I flew down there in my hang
glider!

Night Rating

I have completed the required Night training and my instructor thinks I
am ready for the flight test. It is booked for the 8th.

Night Nav

Last night I flew to Narrogin and back, practising NDB intercepts in the
dark over Pingelly. It was 3.4hrs of night flying and I was happy with
my navigation and landings. I'm still having a hard time with outbound
to inbound intercepts, but will practice until i get the hang of it
today. Tonight I am flying, Jandakot - Perth - Wongan Hills - Cunderdin
- Perth - Jandakot and it will be another long flight with plenty of
practice. If I do well again tonight I should have my night rating
flight test next.

A good Cott Day

It was on at Cott today, a bit gusty and strong at times, but everyone
flew safely and had fun. It was just great to fly Cott again after a
lack of westerlies for the last couple of months. No night flying at the
moment due low cloud and rain showers. Fingers crossed it clears up and
I can continue with my night navs later this week.

Rottnest by Night

Tonight I flew to Rottnest and then back to Perth, it was black out
there over the ocean. Then I did the remaining solo time in the circuit
at Jandakot, no problems, I was enjoying it and did most of the landings
without the landing light. It's hard to fly in the circuit and take
photos, and it was dark and the multi second exposure was never going to
work well from a plane.
Into my Navs next, the wheatbelt by night should be interesting!

Solo Night Flying

Tonight I clocked up another 1.7hrs after dark. Flying Solo was easy and
relaxed. Once the tower goes to bed and Jandakot reverts to a CTAF it
seems to get busier, but spacing is no problem, I think it is actually
easier to spot the aircraft in the circuit as they make their calls at
night. I practiced flapless and all flap and with and without landing
light and felt very comfortable.
My instructor is unavailable for a couple of days, but on Friday I have
my first Night Navigation Exercise, using the Perth VOR for orientation
and going through controlled airspace. I should be ready for my Night
Rating flight test towards the end of next week if I have no problem
with the 2 additional navigation exercises next week.

Night VFR Progress

I have done almost 4.5Hrs of dual night circuits now and I have been
deemed safe and consistent. The next 2 hours are solo night circuits and
then its into the night navigation. I think I have the hang of NDB
intercepts and it will be fun to put the theory into use.

More Night Flying

More circuits tonight, I was much more relaxed than last night knowing
what to expect now. The total electrical failure was really not that big
a deal, I had to keep a red filtered torch handy and when the instructor
killed all the lights I turned it on and stuck it onto some velcro I had
cunningly put in a useful location and I was able to see the most
important instruments that allowed me to fly safely.
Landing without flaps in the dark was starting to become routine after
another 1.7hrs. One more session of circuits to consolidate and then
it's off into the countryside at night for the navigation exercises.

Night Rating

I started my night rating tonight, 1.6hrs and about 10 touch and goes in
the dark. Wow, so different. Flying on instruments is fairly easy, but
initially I had some problems orienting myself because things look so
different at night. It does not help that all the runway lights are on
and so it's easy to glance out of the window and look down the other
runway, confusing at first. I got the hang of it, so much so that the
last 5 landings were without the landing light, I flared too high and
dropped in on the first landing, but I only made that mistake once. It's
quite hard to land at night, even with the landing light on, with the
landing light off it was far trickier. Tomorrow my training progresses
to a full electrical failure so landing without flaps and with no lights
at all and a red lensed torch in one hand, or in my teeth or somewhere
useful.
There is just something crazy about flying a single engined aircraft at
night, it has that same feeling as when I go swimming in the ocean at
night and it is all black everywhere and there is that feeling that
there is something down there in the dark somewhere, but I'm not sure
exactly what.

No More CPL Exams!

I passed my last commercial written exam today, Yay!

I am currently doing my night rating, circuits at Jandakot in the dark
tonight!

Yay! RAA Ultralight Licence!

Finally I had my RAA flight test today and now I have my unrestricted
RAA pilots licence too. Next on the list is my night rating. I flew 5.4
hrs today, half in my Piper and half in a Jabiru 160.

On the way back at around 7pm I took a photo of the back of Mt Bakewell.

I've got a running Jet Ski again.

Yippee!

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and
he'll be warm for the rest of his life.

Photos

As per usual find the photographic records of my latest exploits on
Flickr, you should know to look by now!

Telstra Aaargghh

Optus Aarrgh too. I decided that nothing could make me want to give any
more money to the Evil monopoly called Telstra. So I ported my number
across to Optus as they have the next best coverage. All went well, up
to the point that they killed my number and it got lost in cyberspace. I
am now waiting for Optus to rediscover it and make it work. It means I
am without a working mobile at the moment. If you are trying to call me,
perhaps it will be possible again tomorrow.

Ultralight Licence

Last Friday I flew out to Wyalkatchem and clocked up another 2.2Hrs in
the Jabiru J160C, it takes my total RAA Ultralight 3 Axis time to 3.2
Hours and puts me only a couple of hours away from my RAA Ultralight 3
Axis licence. I need to get my RAA Microlight license sorted and then I
will be qualified to fly almost everything fixed(ish) wing.
Next on the road to my commercial pilot flight test is my night rating
that I hope to start in the next few weeks and my Constant Speed and
Retractable Undercarriage endorsement. I am also planning to do my
taildragger endorsement once I feel I have truly mastered the stick and
rudder technique that I am improving at all the time.
MTW is due for her 50Hrly service and I am hoping to get it done in the
next couple of days so that I can fly up to Exmouth and beyond in my
quest for 200+Hrs.
I am starting to realise that my initial plan to get my IREX out of the
way early was going to be doing things in the wrong order and it is now
on hold until after I pass my commercial flight test.

Putting baby to bed.

_DSC0077.JPG, originally uploaded by hangflyer.

Back at Jandakot I put MTW back in her parking spot. She looks heavier than she is, honest.

Ships

_DSC0073.JPG, originally uploaded by hangflyer.

On the way back there were ships waiting to unload at Fremantle.

Leaving Rotto

_DSC0059.JPG, originally uploaded by hangflyer.

Leaving Rottnest some low cloud started to come in, but it was only at 500ft and streeting so I was able to depart clear of cloud, it looked worse upwind so maybe the timing was fortunate.

Final

_DSC0056.JPG, originally uploaded by hangflyer.

For Rottnest Island Wind was due south 90' from left but only 10knots

Heading for Rotto

_DSC0053.JPG, originally uploaded by hangflyer.

Perth City

_DSC0041.JPG, originally uploaded by hangflyer.

On the way out to Rotto I did the mandatory orbit over the city so Karl could get some shots, less haze than last time!

Waterproof Camera

IMGP5734.JPG, originally uploaded by hangflyer.

Not waterproof! After surviving diving trips down below 15 Meters for some inexplicable reason my Pentax filled up with water when we were snorkelling at Rottnest. It might possibly come back to life when it dries, but I doubt it, it was really full when I took the cover off. This was the only tiny little issue in an otherwise great day, until a small jellyfish managed to swim up inside my board shorts and the discomfort at having been stung was mostly tempered by the fact that I managed to get it out just before it got to first base!.

Rotto

IMGP5711.JPG, originally uploaded by hangflyer.

I'm trying to work my way through all the aerodromes/strips in WA as I build hours and experience on the way to my commercial licence. On the spur of the minute this morning Karl and I headed out to Rottnest for lunch and went snorkelling afterwards. It was great Xwind practice, a bit of rotor behind the hills on arrival and a huge 90' crosswind on departure, but no problems.

Not quite a smile ;-)

But as close as I got. Honestly I was elated at this point, my
navigation was perfect, the flight & landing were perfect too & a
charming waitress just put some of my favourite food in front of me.
This must be what I look like when I am really happy ;-)

Short Video

Karl got the T/O at Leeuwin and the landing at Jandakot. Here it is.

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=gC3GPUb4qwM

This is the second attempt! the first one failed after a Youtube codec incompatibility issue. Works now!

It was slightly tail leaving Leeuwin, but less than 5 knots and I definitely wanted to be going down hill and away from the big trees. I used every inch of available ground and it was an easy T/O.
Coming into Jandakot I arrived in the circuit just behind a Fire Spotter who decided to do a right hand circuit for 24, this upset the guy who was already doing a left hand circuit in a Sportstar and so I joined the left hand circuit downwind as I could keep both aircraft visual and I flew a nice slow base and final to make sure they were both well clear of the runway by the time I got there. It was my first entry into Jandakot after hours when it becomes a CTAF-R and it was quite strange to have an empty tower. I was confident it was a left hand circuit and how to proceed, but have to admit I was momentarily thrown by the firespotter when he did his right hand circuit.

Smile you idiot!

_DSC0026, originally uploaded by hangflyer.

I just flew down to Leeuwin in my plane and am about to enjoy a gourmet lunch, whats with the long face?

Perth prepares for Australia Day

_DSC0012, originally uploaded by hangflyer.

Go on, check Flikr for all the pics.

Jandakot to Leeuwin Estate and back...

I was thinking about flying up to Exmouth for the weekend, but after
seeing the temperature was 40'C+ and realising that I would be incurring
hundreds of dollars to call the Mobil fuel people out on the weekend in
Carnarvon I decided instead to fly down to Margaret river with Karl. We
flew into the private strip at the Leeuwin Estate (after I signed the
indemnity form) and despite the warning about it having a radical slope
and being a scary gravel strip it turned out to be just fine. We left
around midday and I did an orbit of the city so Karl could get some
shots of the Australia day preparations. Then we headed down the coast
to Leeuwin Estate via Bunbury. As we tracked from Bunbury to Leeuwin
estate I had a few moments of trepidation as the Margeret River strip
was easily visible but it took a while to spot the Leeuwin strip, but as
always dead reckoning worked and the GPS stayed switched off.
We landed on 34 and I did a textbook short field landing and was at
walking pace long before the drop off I was warned about.
It was only a short walk from where we parked the plane to the
restaurant where we were absolutely spoilt with the impeccable service
and amazing cuisine. I am uploading Karls photos to Flikr at the moment
and they should be online soon. Karl also got the Take Off at Leewin and
the Landing at Jandakot on film and that will be on You-Tube as soon as
I get a chance to upload it.

Track Log

Passing Bakewell

IMGP5698.JPG, originally uploaded by hangflyer.

I passed in between Northam (on the left) and Mt Bakewell and York on the right on the way to Wylie.

Leaving Perth

IMGP5696.JPG, originally uploaded by hangflyer.

Today I flew from Jandakot to Wyalkatchem and back, I was hoping to get my RAA 3 Axis Ultralight license sorted, I have to go back next week as we ran out of time today. It was a nice flight, dead reckoning all the way and gee it works well. I have a tracklog from the GPS I turned on just so I could see my ground speed.

PPL-A!

I passed my PPL-A flight test today! Now I am a fully qualified
unrestricted pilot with an aeroplane, a good feeling. I am studying for
my IREX exam at the moment, with the plan being to resume my commercial
pilot training in a month when I will have 250Hrs and have passed all my
commercial written exams and my Irex exam.

Update 2009

Happy New Year. 2009 has arrived and I saw it in with friends and had a
relaxing time over the holiday season. Finally I have my PPL flight test
booked for later this week and cannot wait to cross that one off the list.
Some moron smashed the passenger side window of my car last night and
stole my Sat Nav and whatever else he could carry away with him into the
night. I have seriously lost count, but that is at least the 10th time I
have had my car broken into in Perth, I guess that's why we rank No1 in
Australia for theft. I did not even bother to report it to the Police,
they seriously don't care, the last couple of times they talked me out
of making a report, I guess to make their figures look better.

A new favourite

I just saw the film "Den brysomme mannen" (The Bothersome Man) for the
first time and loved it.

imgp5655.jpg, originally uploaded by hangflyer.

I think this was Wongan Hills

imgp5654.jpg, originally uploaded by hangflyer.

imgp5651.jpg, originally uploaded by hangflyer.

Salt Lake

imgp5646.jpg, originally uploaded by hangflyer.

I did a 3.5Hr solo navigation exercise yesterday and practised using the VOR and NDB instruments. My flight took me over Armadale, Canning Dam, Mount Dale, Beverly, Cunderdun, Wyalkatchem, Ballidu, Northam, Clackline , The Lakes, Canning Dam, Byford, Forrestdale Lake before returning to JT. It was quite thermic and bumpy under the CUs, but at least the air was cool up there. Just past Wongan Hills I saw this salt lake and thought the cloud refection's looked worth a photo.

On Track

I passed Performance and Planning and Meteorology this week, just 2 more
CPL exams to go next week (Navigation and Aerodynamics) and the written
exams are complete! I'll start studying for my instrument rating
straight away, but don't plan to take the exam for a couple of months.
I've got a huge solo nav planned for tomorrow, about 4hrs all over the
wheat belt with my first chance to practice using VORs and NDBs for
position fixes in the real world, it seems easy enough in X-Plane ;-)

Looking Down

Looking up the Swan River towards Perth.
The Fremantle Docks.
Clear Right, Ahead, Left, turn Left. (Looking down on Lauch)
Approaching Cott from the South.

After a fun fly at Cott yesterday and with today being NW but with a swing to the west in the afternoon, I thought there might be some hang gliders down at Cott. On my way to Murray Field (ok, a slight detour) for some xwind practice I flew over Cott, but no one was there.
It was 90 degrees crossing RWY 23 and gusty and hard work, but I enjoyed every second of it and all the landings were soft and controlled on the centreline. I used the only 2 stages of flap and extra airspeed as recomended in the POH and it meant a little more float that usual, but no problemo.

Cott!

Jason flies his Fun 160

3/12/08 was a good Cott day. Many were there, all had fun.



Karl got some video of me, and here it is!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gubcHyr5hso

MTW

I did another 2 hours in MTW today. It was hot. 36'C on the ground. I
was soaked in sweat before I got into the air, once clear of airspace I
enjoyed a little while at 4000ft where the outside air was a relatively
cool 18'C. I got the aircraft trimmed at 2500RPM and 4000ft indicated
and then got the gps to average the ground speed over a 2 minute run, I
spent 2 mins going first South, then West, then East, then North and at
the end had accurate average speeds for the 2 mins in each direction.
When I got home I worked out that the density altitude was over 5000ft
and 2500RPMs equates to approx 72.5% throttle. The result of the timed
runs was a 104knot average speed, this was actually pretty close to what
the ASI was showing me after I dialled in the height and outside air temp.
The book says I should be doing 108knots in this configuration, so I am
within 5% after 30 years, nothing to complain about there.
With the aircraft leaned correctly 2500RPM burns 28 litres per hour of
fuel, this equates to 14.6 litres per hundred kilometres at a ground
speed (assuming NIL wind) of 191km/h and gives a max range of 5 Hours 40
Mins plus a 45 Min reserve or 1073km or 580nm.

I spent another hour doing unusual circuits at Murray Field and then
30mins of PFL practice before returning to Jandakot.

On track.

MTW is behaving well, 15hrs and down just one quart of oil. Today I flew
down to Murray Field and spent over an hour doing circuits, there was
not much crosswind, but it was a bit bumpy and I did a few flap less and
glide approaches and all nice tight circuits. Then I flew around the
training area waiting for someone to say echo on the Perth Radar
frequency, when they did I closed the throttle and simulated an engine
failure. I got 3 in and they are getting smoother each time. Each day
this week will be a mix of study and flying as I have my PPL flight test
and the last of my commercial written exams to complete in the next 3
weeks. My next CPL exam is Performance and that's probably why I have
echo on the brain at the moment!

Testing times

I've completed all the required Navs for my PPL. I've also started my
CPL exams. The next month is going to be very busy for me as I try to
complete all my CPL exams. MTW is going great, I have done 12hrs on her
now and she is only down 1 Quart of oil, that could well have come out
of the breather so I am very happy with the engine condition. I'm
getting more comfortable in her, and yesterday I practised my flap less
crosswind landings and I'm pleased with everything.

Economy cruise is about 100knots when she is heavy and that equates to
about 28lt/hr or flat out she can manage about 115knots at 35lt/hr. So
far I have not been above 4500ft and I am keen to see how she performs
at her optimum height of around 8000ft.

She pulls up in around 100m for a properly executed short field landing,
but needs much more room to T/O (600m) and climb performance is never
impressive. Never any problem getting back down though ;-)

Long Nav

Did I mention it was a 3Hr 54 Minute Flight! The piper has about a 5
Hour Endurance at 2650RPM or 90% throttle. If I can live with 100knots
I should be able to get her down to 75% throttle and less fuel burn.

Perth

imgp5560.jpg, originally uploaded by hangflyer.

Here is the view back to Perth from over Cottesloe

Fremantle

imgp5562.jpg, originally uploaded by hangflyer.

Here I am tracing down the coast towards the PowerHouse in Fremantle.

Observation City

imgp5550.jpg, originally uploaded by hangflyer.

Here I am tracking South down the coast towards Fremantle after popping out over Observation City.

Perth Airport

imgp5533.jpg, originally uploaded by hangflyer.

After being sent way north I was vectored in over Perth Airport, not something you see often from a small VFR aircraft.

Salt lakes

imgp5491.jpg, originally uploaded by hangflyer.

When you are navigating with a map these are invaluable, along with Major Roads and Railways and Grain Silos, Towns and Rivers.

Nav6

imgp5484.jpg, originally uploaded by hangflyer.

My last Solo Navigation exercise before my PPL flight test went well and really tested my ability and confidence. It was from Jandakot to Corragin then Beverly and finally Northam before returning to Jandakot via a corner of controlled airspace. It was a hot and thermic day and quite bumpy, but the Piper is so much more stable than a 172, easier and more relaxing to fly. The DG stayed wonderfully aligned with the compass, requiring regular checking but no regular changes.
I have yet to work out the average speeds and fuel burn, but I am guessing that I was averaging about 110knots and 36lph. I had to dodge gliders at Beverly and deal with crosswinds and rotor at all 3 airfields, but it was no problem. On the way out I had to track around a fire at Canning Damn as the smoke meant no VMC was possible. When I got back to clackline and got my transponder code I was initially told there was no entry into controlled airspace, that was until it became apparent that there was no VMC possible anywhere near canning damn and I was vectored north of Perth before getting an overfly to Observation city and an awesome flight down the coast, returning to Jandakot via the Power House in Fremantle.

Cott!

Monday was an excellent Cott day, Karl, Mike, Jason, Rob, Caine, Gavin,
Shaun and myself were all there and we all flew. I got Karl, Rob and
Caine to fly my glider and everybody loves a Fun 160. It was gusty at
times and off to the North as well, but everyone did great, safe top
landings all round. Karl was up for ages and flew like a champ in
changeable and tricky conditions.
I'm still waiting for MTW to be ready for our adventures together,
impatiently.

Mike Tango Whisky

imgp5463.jpg, originally uploaded by hangflyer.

Piper Cherokee PA28-140

imgp5465.jpg, originally uploaded by hangflyer.

She was born in 1976 and factory corrosion proofed. Despite having been unloved and unused for the last couple of years she is in great shape, mechanically excellent and with a full set of night VFR instruments and all working accessories. 150Hp is not going to make her an amazing performer, but she flies nicely and I can't wait to get to know her better. Even with a 1940's technology 5.2 litre push rod engine she still manages to get MPG that shames some cars driving on the road today.

Solo Nav

imgp5454.jpg, originally uploaded by hangflyer.

This was taken by me on the way back from Bunbury in a Cessna 172.
In theory I am just 2 more flights away from my PPL flight test.
There are a heap more photos from the flight from Jandakot to Boddington and Bunbury and then back to Jandakot on my Flikr site.

PPLA

I passed my PPLA theory exam! Yay again!

Weather permitting I am flying down to Bunbury by myself tomorrow as my
first Solo Navigation exercise.

Only 3 more Nav flights before I have my flight test and get my full
licence, fingers crossed.

Weather permitting that could be next week. Yay!

Jandakot

My PPL is going great and I hope to have my Navs completed within a few weeks. I stitched together some shots of Jandakot to create a panorama view. Last week I became a member of the RAA and did an hour in a Jabiru 160C and I should have my RAA licence before my PPL if all goes according to plan.

Cott!

Bim & I mixed it up at Cott this afternoon. It was strange air, mostly
due west but with big holes. I top landed once and had to beach land
twice because there were too many spectators to scrape in safely on top.
A challenging day but Cott is always fun!

Back in Oz

After a couple of months in Europe I am back in Oz again. Summer was not
great, yet again in the UK. Whether it is climate change or just that I
am so thoroughly spoilt by the Australian summers I'm not sure. I drove
to Switzerland in my last week to see family.

I flew back into Exmouth as that's where I left my shell in storage.
After a week of Exmouth sun I decided to head down to Perth and I had an
entirely uneventful journey until I got about 300kms from Perth and the
right hand side leaf spring on the caravan disintegrated whilst I was
driving. Luckily my iPod had broken and so rather than listening to loud
music I was able to hear the leaf springs snap and I managed to keep the
caravan under control and get it stopped on the side of the road. The
axle was trying to get away and so I had to reverse back up the road to
get it back under the caravan and to a more level place for repairs. I
drove into Perth and got a new leaf spring and then changed it in the
mud at the side of the Brand Hwy and made it safely to Perth.

After so much travelling I am going to be in Perth for a while as I work
towards my CPL.

On Friday I did an hour of circuits at Jandakot and then drove down to
Cottesloe and flew there too.

My internet connection is not good today so I will upload photos later.

Computer Animation

It's getting pretty good now. How much of the Olympic Opening Ceremony
did you think was real? What about this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLiX5d3rC6o

Off to CH before I head back to Oz.

20 Years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you did not do than by the things you did do - Mark Twain

Telstra WTF?

This is the reply I get from Telstra this time, no shit. Verbatim.

I don't understand it, it does not make any sense. I think they must use bots that pick random english phrases out of a database and send pointless messages like this to save having real people there.

Dear Rolf S*******,

Thank you for your email dated 20/7/08 regarding your concern.

We apologise for the inconvenience this may have caused you. Please be informed that for
your account to be addressed. If you require immediate assistance and wish to Contact
Telstra Mobile whilst you are roaming on an overseas network, you can do so by calling +61 2
9396 1193 or +61 439 125 109, which is a 22.57 cent call from any Telstra mobile. This
charge does not attract GST as the call originates from outside of Australia.

You are also able to book a reverse charge call through the international operator. The
number to book for Telstra Customer Service is 617 3336 6252.

Please do not hesitate to contact us via www.telstra.com if you require further information
or assistance.

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Telstra getting worse all the time.

Thank You

Thank you for contacting us. You will shortly receive an email from us with a tracking number.We will aim to respond to your question within two (2) business days.

Oh goody another tracking number! 21 Days since the last email and still waiting for a resolution.

Nowhere on the Telstra site does it tell you how to access your messagebank messages from overseas. What moron is responsible for the worst Telco's web site in the world?

Shellie Beach - Deja Vous

Before Easter I was camped down at Shellie Beach and I had the pleasure to meet a lovely family with a talented designer in their midst. In addition to much useful and interesting information about the Rainbow Coast you can find a small video of me on their web site linked below..



http://www.rainbowcoast.com.au/areas/albany/shelleybeachlookout.htm

GB-AT-GB

My latest round trip from Essex in England to the Tirol in Austria and back again. I was driving a 15yo Suzuki Jlx 1.6 and discovered you can really affect the fuel economy with your right foot. I managed 7lt/100km at a steady 90kph or 17lt/100km at 140kph! Almost a 2600km round trip and except for the bad weather and non stop accidents on the A6 in Germany it went well.

Telstra ruins the iPhone

It could have been so good. The biggest 3G network in Australia that
works in most of the large towns and bigger rural communities, together
with the iPhone. Distance could have been beaten for once and for all by
technology. Everybody would have wanted one. I wanted one.

But alas we return to the subject of Telstra and their unfair monopoly
in Australia.

Lets have a look at the comparison between the UK where O2 might have a
monopoly on the iPhone itself, but not on the phone networks.

In the UK O2 offer all their plans on an 18 Month contract, 18 months is
a long time in the world of computers.

Telstra only offer 2 year contracts, the first example of their
evil-because-its-easy business practices.

In the UK O2 offer the iphone 3G on many different plans ranging from
30pounds a month upwards. They all include unlimited free data, after
all lets face it, there is NO POINT having an iPhone unless you can
connect to the internet and actually use it for what it was designed for.

As an example on the 35 pound per month plan with O2 in the UK you get ,
unlimited 3G data, unlimited WIFI data through the biggest UK network
with over 9500 hot spots, 600 minutes and 500 texts. Not a bad deal.

In Australia where Telstra have a monopoly you can go on a $350 a month
plan and pay over $8400 for your iPhone and STILL have to pay for your
data usage at the pay as you go rate of $2 per megabyte after you have
used the free $15 of data included. Calls cost much more than in the UK
too and you get less of them.

Yes that's right folks, Telstra have created a world where you can pay
$350 a month for an iPhone and get 7MB of included data usage, not even
enough to download one email with a couple of quality photos each month.

Telstra sucks. Telstra has a monopoly. The government and the ACCC are
failing the people of Australia by allowing this to continue.

Europe (UK)

Is where I am at the moment. I'm really just here to visit family, but if I get the chance to fly I'll jump at it. I'm heading off in the direction of Austria tomorrow, a long way for a European to drive (I'm in the UK at the moment) but not for an Aussie ;-)

Telstra (the stupid useless overpriced monopolistic morons that they are) are driving me nuts at the moment. I think I am going to have to get a satellite phone for my bush travels, the fact is that the next G network sucks, is unreliable and horrifically overpriced and the coverage is abysmal. The worst thing is that there is no customer service at telstra, everyone who works there seems to have lost the will to live and hates the world and you can tell this when you are unfortunate enough to have to deal with them.
I still say Vodafone are the benchmark for a mobile phone carrier, they are helpful and competitive and constantly evolving and getting better at what they do.
Telstra are like some sick joke.

I notice that globalstar are now down to just 45cents per minute for outbound calls on their satellite phone service, which is pretty impressive considering that it just works anywhere. Inbound calls are free and its 30cents to send a text message.

OMG I just checked my Telstra mobile bill and they are charging me $0.98 cents every month to process my payment, no shit, they debit me automatically every month and actually have the audacity to charge me extra for paying them. No other carrier does this, this only happens when you have a monopoly and you can sodomise your customers at will with impunity. Not only this but I see that they are charging me an extra 5 cents to supply the delivery report for each delivered text message. And they charge me for listening to the voicemail messages that are left because my phone never rings because their coverage is so lousy.

I went for paperless billing with everyone as soon as it became an option, because in case no one has noticed we need the trees to convert C02 into glucose and electrons are 100% recycled. But I hated doing it with Telstra, some companies actually pledge to use the saved money to plant a tree or something, telstra just make more profit and laugh.
It gets better, you can't even download a PDF of the paper bill or see it on-line, instead all you get is the front page summary that tells you nothing about exactly how they came up with their ludicrous charges. When you eventually find the buried link on their 'so not user friendly web site that is so slow that you can write a blog entry like this whilst waiting for it' you get a text file in comma separated text format and called "select". What kind of a stupid moron came up with that? Who ever you are I hope you read this and then choke to death on your own stupidity.

What I end up with in a spreadsheet for gods sake is this:

Service Number Call Type Date Time Place Called Number Alias/Nickname Rate Duration Incl GST$ Caller Group
0428 400 xxx
National Direct 30 May 10:08:00 PM Exmouth 0427 773 xxxMNET 35 03:30:00 PM 11.22 (unallocated)
0428 400 xxx
National Direct 03 Jun 10:35:00 PM Exmouth 0427 773 xxxMNET 35 07:30:00 PM 14.02 (unallocated)
0428 400 xxx
National Direct 09 Jun 06:57:00 PM Exmouth 0427 773 xxxMNET 35 04:00:00 PM 11.57 (unallocated)

I am looking at this and trying to decipher it, I guess the MNET means I called another poor unfortunate telstra mobilecrapnet customer. But what is with the duration? Can you have a duration that is AM or PM? I know I never spent 3 hours and 30mins on a call and even if I did telstra would want my first born child, not $11.22 so it must mean 3mins and 30 secs for $11.22 or $3.20 a minute. So it IS cheaper to make calls on the Globalstar Satellite network. Also telstra are charging me 30 cents per SMS which is only 3 cents less than Globalstar would.
Telstra Suck. Period.

Whilst I am at it I better warn people about the worst phone in the world, its the Telstra badged ZTE F165. It has a pointless little antenna that you can pull out when you have no coverage, it won't make any difference. I have done tests and the pull out antenna makes NO DIFFERENCE to the signal strength or coverage area, and yet they conned me into paying (and yes i feel so stupid now) hundreds of dollars for it on the grounds that it had significantly better reception than any other phone. The reality is that I have done tests and compared it to their cheapest and its exactly the same. With the notable exception that when you have a weak signal putting this phone close to your head causes it to drop out, that's right, I have to make all my marginal calls on speakerphone because my brain interferes with the phone or something. Go figure. If we were talking about a tiny Ma and Pop operation I could understand how they suck so badly, but this is a company that made 5.7 Billion Dollars from their mobile phone network in 2007. Yes, that's Billion and I can see why, charge like a wounded bull and give as little as possible.

Telstra make me angry, in case you failed to notice, they raise my blood pressure.

Http://www.humanmorons.com could be there just for Telstra, but it's not.