G'day, I'm Steve McGrath, welcome to my Home Page.

What will you find on this Web Site I hear you ask?

Many photographs and information on my greatest passion - flying In particular flying aerobatics in my Decathlon VH-MCM, or "Murphy" as he's nicknamed.

You'll find a guide on the techniques that I use to fly aerobatics in Murphy.

You'll also find general information and photos of Trevor James' great RV-6, VH-TUP or "Two Up", which he kindly lets me fly, information on the flying conditions and weather in the Northern Territory (the hot and humid tropical northern part of Australia), helicopter flying, scuba diving and general scenic photos of the Top End and other Australian images & related links

Firstly, let me introduce myself. My name's Steve McGrath, I'm 36 and I live in Brinkin, a suburb on the golden northern beaches of Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory of Australia. The weather in Darwin is Wet/Dry tropical monsoonal. It is always hot with the daily maximums reaching between 30 to 32 degrees celsius throughout the year. Night time minimums get down to about 25 degrees in the Wet Season and about 17 degrees in the Dry Season (if we're lucky!).

There are two distinct seasons in Darwin. From about November to April is the official Wet Season, however from October to Decemnber this is in fact the Build Up months when the humidity soars, there are many afternoon and evening thunderstorms but little rain actually falls. From late December to April is the Wet Season proper. Frequent thunderstorms, rain is more abundant and bouts of monsoonal rain depressions descend on the area from south east asia. Several cyclones develop and affect the Northern Territory every year. On Christmas Eve 1974 our city was completely destroyed by Cyclone Tracey. however as Darwin is close to the equator, there is little Coriolis Force (the earth's spinning force which causes water to spin as it goes down the drain) and this results in most cyclones quickly moving further south to around the Broome region in Western Australia.

Even although it rains most days, it is rare to find days when it is not possible to get a VFR flight in.

The Dry Season is fantastic with very reliable conditions. Low humidity, blue skies and reliable winds from the east/south east.

Darwin is a city with a turbulent history. In early years the lack of a reliable water supply, and problems with diseases such as malaria, Ross River Fever and leprosy hampered attempts at establishing a permanenet settlement on the north coast of Australia, but finally after several attempts at Port Essington, Melville Island, Escape Cliffs and other locations on the northern Top End, a base was founded at the current site of Darwin.

During World War II our city was bombed by the Japanese based in Timor over a week prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbour. Throughout the war Darwin was continually bombed. When East Timor merged with Indonesia in 1974, many of the local Fretilin opposition fled Dili and other centres in East Timor to seek a new life in Darwin. Today Darwin is a very multicultural society with many different races including white European, Greek, Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islanders, Indonesians, Malaysians, Thai, Timorese, Vietnamese and people from other parts of south east asia.

As the Northern Territory is very isolated with very few roads servicing remote communities which can be travelled in the Wet Season, there is a very large General Aviation industry based at Darwin International Airport. The local scenery of vast shimmering emerald green flood plains, meandering rivers, stark escarpment and towering waterfalls over the edge of untouched gorges makes for impressive cross country flying. Perhaps however the most noticeable feature for pilots from other States of Australia or overseas is the almost complete lack of civilisation and associated navigation features once you leave the Darwin rural fringe.

My Photo Gallery