ACT ADV Riders Thread...Discover the ACT and surrounds

Shit, now one of the choppers has crashed and the pilot's died....near Milton.

Sad, just came through Bemboka to Pambula.

Choked to say the least.

The choppers went silent maybe 30 mins before we got the news a pilot had died. Very sad, and tragic for his loved ones. I'm guessing they all would have spent the rest of the day grounded. Those pilots would all be known to one another. My condolences to all.

This....



.....turned into this.....



...in the time it took to drink 2 vodkas. That orange lighting effect is from underneath, in case you're wondering.

The wind made it burn pretty well.



You can see how stiff the breeze is by the tree at the bottom right in this one.

The original fire site is now well ablaze.



The orange radiance is showing the intensity of the burn.

He apparently had <> 3000 hrs doing fire fighting stuff in a chopper according to the radio news this morning, which is a lot. Pics last night suggested his bucket cable got tangled up in a tree, but only speculation on my behalf. Good chopper pilots are a special breed, I've flown with a few.

It helps to be lucky too: when my Robinson shat itself I was over water.

On the ABC news last night they said it looked as though the cable carrying the bucket got caught in trees and down it came. They showed footage of the cable draped in branches.
Quiet so far today, only little wind but it's blowing from the fire direction so visibility is down, I can't really see the range at this time.

I can't see the Brindies at the moment GodSilla - BECAUSE OF RAIN!
Fingers crossed it's heading for you.

Looks like snow cloud up top, so it'll stop before it gets to Cooma and just send the wind.

That's the usual story here too Steve, if it comes from the west it dumps all the moisture to get over the range, leaving us with the howling winds. I often watch the filthy black storm cells over the ranges from my clear blue skies, it can be frustrating.

Update: there's a really black cloud down towards Bega, the ground here got a few spots but that's it, broad sunshine again. Bugger.
The choppers are back in action again.

We went to lunch in the cage to Tathra via Maffra, Cathcart, Tantawangalo, and Bega and back via Dr George, Bega , Buckajo and up the highway to Cooma and then via Carlaminda. A few storms about, some heavy at times, but nothing at all here by the look of it. Looks like the fires got close the the Princes Highway around Brogo, hmmmmmm...

How's things going down there 'Silla. Snowed here today and the resorts had about 25cm apparently but the RFS reckons it's still not under control. 3 houses gone, I hope that's it.

Blowing a cold and windy gale here since before sunrise. Luckily for us it is blowing the right way to keep the fire away. I dunno if it will blow across the Princes Hwy though and start in the coastal forests. It's gunna burn for a long time, until we get lots of rain, so we could be on bushfire alert here for the next 9 months.

It won't be brought under control, I can tell you that now. Where it's burning, it is truly rugged country that would take several days to hike into. They have used some remote-trained firefighters, but the local State member Andrew Constance was one of the government members who voted last year to halve the number of fire trucks available and slash equipment and budgets for the firies, so there isn't much in the way of fire trucks and people to go around with all these fires atm. Anyone in a rural area should be made aware of this, fires won't be put out so much as "contained" (until they flare again). It doesn't look good for this summer.

I talk a bit to the local Parkies up here. They do a lot of firefighting in these rough terrain areas, because if they aren't much good for agriculture, they become parks. The NPWS, like any government organisation, is going through constant reorganisation. Apparently one of the new managers went to a meeting at your neck of the woods and commented that there were " lot's of grey beards" in the room. Since then 8 very experienced field staff with years of firefighting experience have been replaced by fresh faced uni graduates. You may have to get used to fires down there.

FWIW we usually can't put out a bush fire. We attempt to contain it by creating breaks and backburning from them to remove fuel from its likely path. Direct, coerce, maybe control, but Hughy puts the bigger ones out.

Drove back through today, wifey took some photos.

Only in Australia.

I was watching the snow blowing about and drifting downwards around 2km from where it's still burning. It's an odd sight.

We got a bit of snowy sleety drift blowing about a couple of times, but the rain gauge shows probably .05mm. Pathetic really.

On a brighter note I'll probably do the gearing changes and fit motard wheels this week, the bits have (mostly) arrived.

Got my gearing changed today and fitted the hoon wheels back on. I had to grind the 15/16T case saver down to fit the 17T sprocket. I still have to try alternative front disc bolts to see if I can get the speedo working.

The chopper flew around in the middle of the day and dropped some incendiaries to cool-burn some of the forests in anticipation of wind changes later in the week. The top of the range is hidden behind the smoke, only the front ridge is visible so it's burning well.

My TTR250 goes in for the annual inspection tomorrow, so I fitted the "speedo" (a Garmin GPS60CSX) again.