Well I bought a plane, now I need to get it home! Ill be bringing it home some time in January so I thought I would share with you guys my battle plan! as the time gets closer I will assess weather and base the flight around that. Its about the worse time of year to do it, but its what I have to work with!!

Realistically in general flying its a 60 knot aeroplane but my good mate who has 2 of these at my airfield (including this ones sister!) rekons that for touring calculate at 65 knots but about 16L p/h quite safely. the plane comes with a long range tank but hasnt been used in many years so I will wait till I have got that home and had it checked out before I try and use it just in case so for this journey I will just be utilising the aircraft's 74 liter wing tanks.

So the plan will be to load a few Jerry cans in place of the back seat and head from Ayr to the town of Nebo. Nebo has a nice little strip that will be a good place for a leg stretch and to empty the Jerry's into the tanks.

from Nebo I will head onto the town of Thangool. There is a service station 300m down the road from Thangool aerodrome. here I will use my Jerry cans to refule the plane, then head back down the road, and grab a feed/make camp for the night at one of Thangools pubs.

I will push off as early as I can in the morning from Thangool and continue South to kingaroy. Another leg stretch at Kingaroy an a refuel (thankfully Kingaroy has Mogas on the field!) and then its continuing south to Boonah.

To get to Boonah there is the Amberly Airforce base in the way, So I will have to make a small diversion via forest hill. However once at Boonah I will stop in and see my mate Nigel, probably the best LAME in the country and let him run his eyes over the plane. From there its just a short hop over the hills and I'm home!

so 2 6 hour days in the air and it should make for a nice couple of days, provided weather behaves! ofcourse this is all theoretical at this stage, the joys of aviation is the chances of things going to plan are slim! but I'll keep you posted as things unfold.

Looks like it will be a fun trip! but flying downhill is cheating! i don't feel so bad chugging along in the Savannah at 87Kts now..

Faster then the Drifter though! Its all relative, anytime I'm faster then cars below I'm happy. Nothing like a first long flight in a new bird.

A Storch... you lucky bastard !!!

Is it a full size German one or a Slepczev replica?

courierguy wrote:Faster then the Drifter though! Its all relative, anytime I'm faster then cars below I'm happy. Nothing like a first long flight in a new bird.

this is very true!!! I some years ago, not long before I joined BCP actually, helped a mate ferry 6 drifters to a property in Darwin. 1700 nm was the journey. We each flew off each others wing up there. dropped the planes off, jumped on a flight back home, got a nights rest and straight back to it again. so 3 trips in 12 days.....was pretty over it by the end of!

EZFlap wrote:A Storch... you lucky bastard !!!

Is it a full size German one or a Slepczev replica?

Lucky in deed! its the 912 powered slepcev storch. One of the early ones. I cant wait, it will b able to take me all sorts of amazing places!

You will have more fun with the smaller experimental Storch than you would have had with an original WW2 verison, because you can knock around in strange and risky places without risking a near-priceless antique. It's more manageable, and because it is smaller you can go into smaller places. It is my limited understanding that the Slepcev will deliver the same STOL performance as the original, just with less useful load.

EZFlap wrote:You will have more fun with the smaller experimental Storch than you would have had with an original WW2 verison, because you can knock around in strange and risky places without risking a near-priceless antique. It's more manageable, and because it is smaller you can go into smaller places. It is my limited understanding that the Slepcev will deliver the same STOL performance as the original, just with less useful load.

Your 100 percent right there. I could firstly never afford to own the real thing but secondly could never afford to really enjoy it.

This gives me the best of both worlds, one of the truly great bush planes and the "warbird" ive always wanted.

As far as a bush plane goes I believe the the slepcev storch will actually out perform the fiesler, both in short field performance and manoeuvrability. Though it is slower in cruise, 60-65 knots as oppose to the fieslers 75-80 knots

That looks like a fun trip. I'm headed across the pond next week for the first time and Byron Bay is on the agenda. I have been scouring google earth looking at places to go on the east coast and it sure looks like a nice place to fly.

I've been in and around a Fiesler... Those are big airplanes... I'm 6'1 and the main wing was at least a foot or two above my head... Had to stand an a 3 foot ladder to change the spark plugs... Which were changed every 5 hours or so on the Argus, that thing would burn though a set of plugs like crazy... Along with fuel, that inverted V8 can burn the gas... Cool thing is you could fold the wings back in about 15 minutes after the fuel was drained out...

The Slepcev's look like way more fun and a ton more economical...

Brian

Alaskan Tin Can wrote:That looks like a fun trip. I'm headed across the pond next week for the first time and Byron Bay is on the agenda. I have been scouring google earth looking at places to go on the east coast and it sure looks like a nice place to fly.

Mate feel free to say gday and come for a fly! Ill send you a pm with my details.

Nothing like a little 642nm flight to get acquainted with your new plane. Have a great trip Tim, can't wait to hear all about it!

Hey guys. Sorry I've been so slack about keeping this up to date. taking a few days off work this time of year to go get a plane has left me run off my feet the last few weeks! I however leave on the big tin bird tomorrow to head north and pick up my little fabric one.

well Ive had a change in my plans. I now have a mate coming along. Norm Sanders is a good mate of mine who immigrated from the states some years ago. at age 83 his an ex US airforce mustang pilot, Korean war veteran, Alaskan bush pilot and much more. His flown more types than anyone I know and still flys his sonex every day. his also a qualified aircraft mechanic so for a plane I have never flown I find that comforting! it has made a few changes. I cant carry spare fuel on board so I have changed my trip plans. I am now planning, weather dependent, to take a coastal route. The big advantage of this is I will be going via a couple of mates private strips which will offer great opportunity's to get to really know the plane. one of those, the first stop, is on the magnificent whitsundays......lifes a struggle.

this is the new planed route.



I had an fantastic afternoon today. My good mate Bill Mills let me take his storch for a fly to get the feel for it ready for when I pick mine up tomorrow. What an amazing machine! We where both up and down in what I rekon was easily under 30 m (90 feet) 2 up!!

It was as lumpy as all hell today at Tyagrah so I feel quite confident if i can fly it in that today, I should be quite ready for anything I find coming back. Started with a bit of airwork and then circuits with me in the back seat snd then we played swapsys. I jumped up front and the plane is just a delight to fly. Im completely in love. One of very very few planes thats in for a shot at out turning a drifter!

Its been a good few years since Ive flown a storch so it was great to get a refresher!

Thats a great looking plane. Somehow the Storch is Pretty Ugly while the Zenith is ugly ugly. Have a great trip

Well its been a long day. Starting with a 2 hour car drive to the train station. Followed by a 2 hour train trip to the airport. A 2 hour flight to townsville, then an hour and a half drive to Ayr. But itss official, Im now the owner of Storch 19-3061 "Lil Noodles"

What an amazing machine. Its scruffy yeah, but it flys evenbetter than the one i flew yesterday. It eats altitude both on climb and decent and its ground roll one up is well under 60 feet.

I must say, im might chuffed right now! Spent an hour in it doing circuits and getting to know it. Tommorow the adventure south begins!

Fly safely, buddy!

Congratulations. Have a great trip home.

That's a beauty Tim, congratulations!

Awesome Timbo! Congratulations on the new acquisition. Fly home safe and savor the moment. You have many friends here stateside who are happy for you.

I look forward to seeing some pics from your trip!

You know, a real man could get that thing in the air from inside the hangar...

Congrats, very cool bird! Sounds like a great trip/adventure to break in your new ride [emoji2]