Early morning arrival at Prominent Hill, northern South Australia. The two prop-jet tour aircraft, an Air South Beechcraft B1900D and Rossair Cessna Conquest, departed Adelaide pre-dawn on Saturday 23 February to rendezvous with the group at Olympic Dam airport just after sunrise. Both had dual pilot crews, and had received positive safety audits immediately prior to the tour. The group quickly embarked and departed, to land at the Prominent Hill mine airport 25 minutes later, avoiding a half day road transfer. The aircraft waited on the ground until late afternoon, when the Conquest returned to Adelaide with the 9 participants leaving the tour at the end of the Gawler craton segment. The B1900 took the 15 through-going participants half way across the continent in just over 2 hours, direct to Cloncurry in Northwest Queensland. There, they were joined by 5 new starters to continue the tour in the Eastern Succession of the Mount Isa Inlier. This, smooth, rapid, cross-continent flight was the alternative to a near 2 day commercial airline link at a similar cost. Photograph by Mike Porter.
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