Hello Members and All,
Another airshow another club fly-away! The airshow circuit around Victoria continues and the event at West Sale was attended by a vast number of visitors, more than we could have imagined.
Getting out of the home aerodrome at the early hours is always rewarded with smooth air and empty skies (of planes). Up, away and on track for the Gippsland, while the rest of Melbourne is waking up to their morning breakfast and coffee on the 23rd of April. Terry and Mahmood were away quickly, leading the push in the 150, while we two (David/Andrew) were topping off the 172 fuel tanks.
I must mention that it was a nice relaxing flight heading out to West sale with the aircraft trimmed in the cruise as well as any auto-pilot could hope to do. The farmlands and fields drifted by under the nose as we enjoyed the scenery and chatted away about flying stuff. Now some traffic came into view and we noticed an Archer a couple of miles in front, pretty much dead-on our same track. David was the PIC with eagle eyes as I was just not initially spotting the traffic. Some days you are all-over-it, some days not so much. Approaching the aerodrome, we had to settle down into a business-like cockpit and just keep it to necessary talk only. This self-discipline really does matter when four other planes all suddenly appear around the same location/altitude/intentions. Phew! Anyway, no problem, we got in just fine with some careful selection of our circuit join.
Ground marshalling was on hand to put us into parking and a pickup bus arrived soon after to take us over to the main area. As we walked in, it became apparent that the crowd was building quickly and getting a coffee, as the last two airshows seemed before, was a line-up and wait affair. I don’t really mind as there is airshow entertainment in progress, and you stand there and mindlessly look up at planes getting thrown around the sky barley just a hundred meters away.
The wolf-pitts and the edge 540 were back in action beating up the sky like crazy. Other acts and routines rolled on through the day and even a 1950’s F86 Sabre jet fighter made an appearance. That is a rare sight these days so that is a good enough reason to get to one of these shows.
As we were wandering around the tarmac, David spotted VH-EAV parked up near the fence facing the general crowd gathering area, as a static display/backdrop. So that meant Tim P was hanging around somewhere. A quick text message and we all met-up a bit later. Now there was five of us.
Without going into too much more detail, so as not to spoil it for future attendees, we called it a day around 3pm to make for our exit from the show. After getting airborne, another nice part of the day was found in the beautifully smooth air found at all levels on the return trip. It must have been a very stable atmosphere all over the region as I counted about two or three small ‘bumps’ on the way home – YWSL – Geelong – YBSS.
So that wraps up three airshows in five weeks! If you are wondering, “how do I go on one of these?” or “is it ok to go along?, I’ve only just joined the club”. Well of course you can and we want you ask. You, the members, are the reason why we put it out there on facebook and the website event calendar, to note your interest to attend. You do not need to organise anything special, or organise a friend/passenger, or another other pilot (you can if you wish). Just leave that up to us. In fact, this is how we make pilot friends and build the social scene for future activities. Keep an eye on that calendar and please come along to these events. As an example, putting 10 people into four planes is not out of the question for one of these fly-aways.
Hope you got something out of this piece and maybe we will see your face in some future club photos.
Andrew Gellert
President PCFC.