Hi there,
I am Dave and live in Townsville. I provide one of the feeds in North Queensland on Plane Plotter.
I am 38 years of age, and have loved aviation all my life as my father, his brothers and my grand parents were all involved in the airline industry in some way from catering to engineering to pilot with either Ansett or TAA. I work in hydraulic industry but am also learning to fly at the moment, so we will wait and see where that takes me.....apart from broke!!!
My old man bought me a scanner for my birthday when I was seven years old when we lived in Brisbane. Now I run Acars & SBS Radar 24/7 plus also have the scanner on when ever I can.
I live on the northern beaches here in Townsville and am about 5-6 nautical miles from Townsville Airport in a straight line. I have no mountains etc in that line of direction as it is basically swamp land so I am able to pick up aircraft on the ground taxiing at Townsville Airport.
My coverage is fairly good. I pick up the southern flights from Brisbane over the top of Hamilton Island or Proserpine which is about 150nm south, north to Cairns is also about 150nm for aircraft overflying (mainly the internationals) but only about 100nm when they are on descent into Cairns or climbing out of Cairns. East & West is also about 150nm.
This looks like a very interesting forum covering a wide range of avaition topics.
Cheers,
Dave - Townsville

Hi Dave,

Very pleased to have you with us, and thanks for your sharing.

My eldest daughter lives and works on Magnetic and loves it! She moved there a few months ago after living in Newman W.A. (yes that's a big change).

I am enjoying watching the traffic from up there.

Cheers,
Chainy

Dave, second to chainys message, welcome mate! I too enjoy watching the traffic from 'your part of the world' via your feed. Yes, seems lots of us were bitten by this aviation bug from a very young age. Wonderful stuff! Excellent re learning to fly too. Once you go solo you will never look back. Enjoy the forums

Hey good one Dave! Almost every night I am home I watch QF21 pass overhead down (via eyeball tracking) here and then see her pass you after Midnight (Sydney time) via your share. Thanks!

Cheers,
Mark

Thanks Chainy. Hope your daughter likes Maggie Island....I think it is a top place. I am taking the family over there for seven nights in January. Looking forward to it.
Speaking of WA, my sister lives in Tom Price, WA. She has been there for about six years now. She is a nurse and originally went there for a six week fill in, but got married and now has kids. I think they are ready to come back to QLD in the next couple of years.

Thanks for the welcome Darren and glad you enjoy the feed from Nth Qld. Obviously not the traffic that the capital cities enjoy, but at least it gives you an idea and different look at traffic in my part of the world.
Cheers Dave.

G'day Mark,
I pick QF21 up on my radar when he is directly over the top of Hamilton Island. I get to track the A330 for about 20 minutes or so I guess until he is too far off shore then I loose the signal.
Dave.

Sure does Dave. I always say you guys get the 'exotic' stuff in these sorts of airfields!!

Well Dave, you do get to see some traffic we don't get here, so yessum.

Welcome to this great site Dave ... N Qld is one of my favourite places . Had a great time at Shute Harbour Airstrip a few months ago . It seems we were all bitten by the same bug as kids , how lucky we were !! ...Best wishes .

Dave C