#4: [08-Feb-13]

#2: [24-Oct-08]

#1: [14-Jul-01]

08-Jan-2011 -- I heard about the Degree Confluence Project a couple of years ago and have been meaning to visit some points ever since however up until now I have not got around to it. The point I chose for my first visit was in the vicinity of my mum’s house where I grew up. It was only about 50km's as the Crow Fly's so that’s what I decided to do Fly to the point in my Ultralight.

I took off from my mum’s neighbour's paddock with the GPS telling me I had 53.1KM to my destination. My Ultralight is known as an Aerochute and it is a powered Parachute. It has a 350Sq FT Parachute, from this hangs a 3 Wheel Go-Cart frame with a 50hp 2-Stroke Engine. It is a two seater however for today’s trip I was flying solo. It doesn’t go very fast and with the wind I only had a ground speed of 50kph so the journey should take a little over an hour.

I cruised at 2000ft above the ground the whole way and the most interesting thing I found on my journey was that there was a buried gas pipeline which was laid approx 10-12 years ago was still clearly visible from the air. The pipeline runs within 1.3km of my mum’s house and I found myself following it to within 600m of the Confluence Point.

I didn’t want to land in the paddock where the Confluence point was due to the sheep and cattle so I landed in the paddock to the east which was within 200m. I set off to the exact point with camera and GPS in hand. The point itself is in a paddock near a creek which runs from the SW to the NE. There is a homestead to the west and the ground rises slightly in all directions. My watch has a barometric altimeter in it and calibrated for accurate barometric pressure indicated the Confluence point is at an altitude of 350ft AMSL.

Please note that the time on the GPS has not been updated for daylight savings. The time of my visit was 0952hrs.