Ultralight Flight into Darwin International Airport
In 2019 the Top End Flying Club in Darwin, Northern Territory Australia was invited by the Darwin Aviation Museum to fly into Darwin international airport and show our aircraft alongside the many exhibits which includes a B-52 bomber at the museum’s open day.
In order for ultralights to fly into controlled airspace in Australia such as that surrounding Darwin international airport, pilots and aircraft have to obtain permission in the form of a written instrument from a number of authorities. So there is a lot of planning, safety and process that goes into organising a flight into controlled airspace.
Because it is a rare pleasure we look forward to it whenever the opportunity arises.
This was the first time we had been given permission as a group of ultralight aircraft to fly straight up the Stuart Highway and then turn right onto Bagot Road before turning final onto runway 11. Effectively a right-hand circuit over built up area.
Being born in Darwin, this was the first time I was able to see my city from this 600 foot vantage point flying over paths I traverse daily on the ground. The special moment was not lost on me and that is why I want to share it with you.
Coincidentally, the US Marine force operating out of Darwin had some of their aircraft parked up along the tarmac at this time. I’m not sure who was more impressed, the Marines looking at these tiny aircraft landing at Darwin international airport or us, staring back at the vast array of aircraft which form the backbone of the aerial deployment capabilities of the US Marines. There were certainly a lot of thumbs up from both sides.
The video was filmed using a GoPro 4 which suffers from the so-called Jell-O effect caused by engine oscillation and the screen capture frequency. Because the flight was so special. I still include it, but thankfully the GoPro 8 and 9 don’t suffer from the same problem.
This video does not include any celebrities, cats, dogs or pets being cute or people doing silly things or crashes. As a result, it is highly unlikely that it will go viral. It would be nice though to either subscribe or post a positive comment as it is about sharing.
This video was edited using Camtasia which I generally use for software training videos but wanted to experiment and compare it with my usual choice which is Premiere Pro or Premiere Rush. one of the other reasons for using that tool when I did was because I only had a laptop which struggled greatly with Premiere pro and I wasn’t taking advantage of the two “P”s associated with editing video on poorly performing ‘puters… Namely Proxies and Prelude.
The slideshow below is from the following online album which you can browse online here
Apart from piloting small aircraft and capturing pictures and footage of the amazing things I see, I’m keen to explore and share ways in which folks can use tools like the Adobe creative cloud to capture, edit and share their stories to audiences as close as their family or as far away as international strangers sharing the same passion. Learnshifting is where I capture and share practical implementations of technology – primarily to support ICT and STEM in our classrooms.