Alliance - Fokker 100's out in the GAFA

[Adam the Akrodude]

Did my share of paxing over the last couple of weeks in Fokker 100s with Alliance flying over parts of the GAFA out to a couple of mine sites. Yep, there's still a whole lotta nothing out there except heat, red dust, rocks, scrub, flies oh and mines of course! Interesting to read about Alliance being the biggest user of Fokker 100's now for FIFO work. With resource prices improving, some mines have come out of care and maintenance so there is a bit of a resurgence in activity. Whilst the Fokker 100's are getting a bit long in the tooth, their utilisation is low meaning they could be around for some time.



https://blogs.crikey.com.au/planetalking/2015/11/25/alliance-does-big-fokker-deal-with-austrian-for-21-rare-jets/

"GAFA" below

20180313_153849_resized by Adam Dormer, on Flickr

CP Mining, Cape Preston (near Karratha) below. That grey hole in the ground will get a lot bigger in years to come! The processing plant (magnetite) is huge! This is the mob that Clive Palmer has been having a argument with over royalties. Oh, and one has to wear a respirator on-site due to there being asbestos in the ore - real fun in high 30's/low 40's heat!

20180313_154118_resized by Adam Dormer, on Flickr

Not aviation related (except for my mode of transport to and from these sites), this is one machine I was working on - a AG mill below. This baby has a 28 MW (that's mega watt folks) drive and can hold something like 1500 tonne of ore. It's job is to turn large rocks into much small rocks basically. I work on the load (weight) measurement systems on such mills - if there's too much load in the mill, they trip out on high current and that is a BIG problem! It means digging them out with the resultant loss of production.

20180314_083720_resized by Adam Dormer, on Flickr

Steel making at Liberty Onesteel in Whyalla. Onesteel (make structural steel) has a new Indian owner and he's planning on building up Onesteel which is great news for Whyalla - which would largely have died without such investment. This pic below shows just where the pig iron from the blast furnace is poured into the "convertor" where it becomes steel. It's the most awesome industrial process I think. Argon and oxygen is pumped into the pig iron and additives like aluminium, nickel, etc, etc are added to make the desired type of steel. Those ladles contain about 200 tonne of molten pig iron when full.

20180321_102813_resized by Adam Dormer, on Flickr

[F-27pax]

Very nice pictures. The Fokker 100 is good too. Do I remember right that I saw one of these at Essendon when I was last there. Does anyone know if there are any decals for this?

[Graeme H]

Yes, I believe Richard Warcup does them along with a few other Aussie Fokkers, like Flight West, and Network and Air Niugini, goes under the name RichW

He mostly does through Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/groups/600722766625039/

I think you can look at the page without being a member, and get his decal list as a downloadable PDF

[scoops]

one of my old stumping grounds driving a fire truck around the site. I just left before they open their new airport, But i enjoy the long bus ride from Citic Pacific Cape Preston mine to Karratha Airport early 2017. I feel sorry for the workers as they fly in and straight to work.

The Alliance Decals from RichW are very good, I haven't used mine at present as i kept being sent around the Pilbara and goldfields mine sites. I will scan a picture of the decals for ya soon.

[Adam the Akrodude]

one of my old stumping grounds driving a fire truck around the site. I just left before they open their new airport, But i enjoy the long bus ride from Citic Pacific Cape Preston mine to Karratha Airport early 2017. I feel sorry for the workers as they fly in and straight to work.

The Alliance Decals from RichW are very good, I haven't used mine at present as i kept being sent around the Pilbara and goldfields mine sites. I will scan a picture of the decals for ya soon.

Nice to hear from someone who has walked the same path at CPM! It's by out and far the biggest mine I've been to from a process point of view - their mills are gigantic and they also have 28 very big vertical plate filter presses in their dewatering plant I've also worked on. If I survive a few more of those Alliance flights, I might even be tempted to build a Fokker 100! I may get another trip out to Leinster sometime and mid-year I will be going to Kalgoorlie - my first trip there for another mill load system upgrade.

Cheers!

[Graeme H]

Not sure if it has made it to WA, and I'm not a drinker, so have no personal taste on this, but a friend of mine who works for Alliance tells me this stuff is total sh*t

http://australianaviation.com.au/2018/0 ... okker-100/

[Wedgetail]

G'day Graeme, that's one nice looking Fokker though and any model would come up a treat with a set of these decals on it.
The stuff in the tin probably tastes like it's been strained through a footballers jockstrap and it is probably brewed by an overseas owned company anyway.
Wayne.

[Graeme H]

Wayne it's actually brewed by Newstead Brewing in Brisbane, who make some very strange stuff indeed

https://newsteadbrewing.com.au/

[Wedgetail]

Wayne it's actually brewed by Newstead Brewing in Brisbane, who make some very strange stuff indeed

You're not wrong Graeme about them brewing a selection of strange sounding beers. Good to see the locals are serving it up to big business.
If I ever get up North again there are some tempting brews coming out of this brewery. Might have to find some sellers down here, that India Pale Ale has me salivating.

I used to home brew Pale Ale and Pilsener(Czech beer) when I lived at Bushland Beach, my mate over the road made Home brew Beer and Mango Wine, we had some great sessions of imbibing in our mixes of rocket fuel, the best brew ever was when we used the water from the covered giant rain water barrel especially after we found a large dead green tree frog floating in it after enjoying a particularly great session, must have added some body to it.LOL.

We had many afternoons of having blue coloured lips and no feelings in our lower limbs which resulted in laying flat on our backs staring at the sky.
Hilarious times like that spent with good friends are always fondly remembered, alas these days I've quietened down considerably.

Apologies Adam for hijacking your thread, now back to normal transmission.

Wayne.

[Adam the Akrodude]

Absolutely no need at all to apologise for any thread drift Wayne - we love to drift here all in the name of a good story!

Mustang drift by Adam Dormer, on Flickr