Blog Day 157 - Friday 28 August 2020

 Welcome to Virus Free Friday.

On my walk today I overheard two blokes talking, the first one said "my dog has no nose", the second bloke said "really, how does he smell"? and the first bloke said "terrible".

One of my current obsessions (apart from Coldplay that is) is an app called "Flightradar 24" and it tracks every airborne flight worldwide. The basic app is free and you can pay for upgrades if you wish.  I have been using it to follow the Victorian police helicopters as they go about their business.  The police helicopters tend to fly over here a bit when they are chasing miscreants or going out for coffee and doughnuts, so I can follow them as they fly over and see where they have been and where they are going.

One of the good things about our current circumstances is that the skies are reasonably clear of air traffic so it is easier to select individual aircraft and follow what they are up to.  It is amazing the number of private jets there are flying around Australian airspace at any one time, must be a lot of rich people out there.  This app also picks up military flights and I have watching the training flights out of the RAAF base in Sale flying around in their Pilatus aircraft.  

Something interesting happened last night (I think that it was interesting anyway).  At about 6.30pm I checked the app and there wasn't one aircraft flying the Melbourne metropolitan area, not one!  The only aircraft in the broader Melbourne region was an Air New Zealand flight over Gippsland heading towards Tullamarine.  Not one flight out of Moorabbin which was unusual as there are usually a couple of charter aircraft and training flights taking off or landing there.

Then I realised.  We had a massive storm hit last night and 6.30pm was pretty much in the middle of that, so all flights must have been grounded due to the storm.  It would be a very rare event when there isn't an aircraft in the sky over or around Melbourne.

Unfortunately the storm did a lot of damage and three people, including a 4 year old child, were killed by falling trees or branches.

Now for some good news, Le Tour is back on the telly from tomorrow night for the next three weeks or so.  For those of you who don't know Le Tour is the Tour de France, a bicycle race of some 3 weeks duration starting tomorrow in Nice and finishing in Paris on 20/9.  Very exciting and the reason for some very late nights.  About five Australians riding this year and I reckon that Richie Porte and Caleb Ewans are the Aussies to watch and given my knowledge of bicycle racing you could put some money on that.  It will be interesting to see how the French control the large crowds that usually gather unrestricted and often very close to the riders.

Update on figures tomorrow.

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