Well guys, I always talk about flying around the desert country, but only ever seem to show pictures flying above lush trees. Thats because normally when I fly out west I'm mustering making taking photos a bitch! plus I get a bit nervous on long hauls in the open cockpit aircraft having a camera incase she goes out the side.

However I also have another little business doing aerial photo mapping work, and Last friday I went out do do a few stockpiling jobs around Roma in central queensland. because the job was organised very last minute I couldnt really get my beast ready in time so instead I hitched a ride in my mates 180 with a parachute door........and wasnt it the centerfold! This finally gave me a chance to get some photos together for you guys! even though we didnt go out as far as the famous outback, still gives you guys a chance to see something a bit different.

so the flight time for the day was the best part of 9 hours. and the flight plan was from bagotville on the coast to chinchilla for fuel. a flight from chinchilla via Yuleba, over Roma to injune, then down to Mitchell, over to Surat, then back to chinchilla for more fuel. Then back home. Most of the photos Ive grabbed are between Bagotville and Chinchilla because I was working the rest of the time. had about 4 work cameras to juggle!

a rough Idea of the flight



got few shots of the bird, VH-CDI while on the ground at chinchilla.









heading west over the range.....they are what we try and call mountains over here, but I think its safe to say you guys have us top trumped on that!



heading west over the black soil country.







If there is one thing we are not short of over here its mines! these are some of the smaller ones around here but there abundent. the real big ones are further north of these right over the the western side of the country, then right down south.









A big coal processing plant



The other thing getting big in the area is CSG, coal seem gas mining, this is one of there rigs. there littered everywhere around there you could almost walk half way across Queensland just standing on them!



and this is a gas processing plant.



No idea what the hell they where up to in order to get runoff this colour! not sure I want to know!

a few views further out west. This wasnt as far out as we went but the furthest out I managed to get photos.





A nice little typical homestead on the river. this how would probably be at least 200 miles from there neighbor.



A couple of shots of Road Trains, not sure if you have these over there so I got a couple.





A few little feed lot shots. Ive been in the beef industry for just about my whole life, but these things are almost enough to turn my vegetarian!

and incase you hadnt been bombarded enough! I grabbed a few videos to.

departing the strip at bagotville at 7:30 am



landing at chinchilla



the Royal flying doctor services arrives at chinchilla to transport a patient to Brisbane that had been thrown off his horse mustering and broken his back.

the royal flying doctor service is a free service in Australia and makes for the primary ambulance to 3 quarters of the country's surface. While government funded it runs primarily on donations.



and the RFDS departing for brisbane



Departing chinchilla heading back to bagotville



coming back in to land at Bagotville Thankfully max, the plane and strip owner knows this strip very well as its supposed to be a 500m one way, but due to sun in his eyes he came in the wrong way! he didnt think anything of it but I almost had some poo come out!