16-17 JULY 2005 - BUNDABERG AIR SHOW

From our club we had 3 aircraft attending. Thanks go to Dave Rittie in his Jabiru, Ray Feneley & Wes Dunn in the Jodel who joined us in the trip up north. Lindsay & Maree borrowed another members aircraft, Chris Panayiotou's colourful Yak 52. A special acknowledgement for his commitment goes to Greg Ackmann who actually drove up there for the airshow. Good on you Greg - great to see you there.

Wednesday our Wedderburn group with a few extra outside parties, Ivor & Mary in the Yak 18T from Adelaide, Mark & Sharon and back seat pilots Ken & Phil in a hired Cessna 182 from the Mittagong Aero Club, Egon and Peter in their Nanchang CJ-6A, Steve and Annabel in a Yak 52 ( both from Mittagong) all take off and and to meet up at our first fuel stop at Maitland. Skirting some dodgy weather some flew up along the Sydney light aircraft lane and some flew via Victor One. From Maitland it was line astern and some great flying along the light aircraft lane following the railway line to Port Macquarie. From there we carried on, skirted around some storm squalls at Evans Head and on to Lismore and called it a day at Caloundra. Light was fast running out and although we only had a short way to go to our planned overnight stay at a private airfield near Hervey Bay it was decided for safety reasons we'd stay at Caloundra. A great night was had by all, dinner at a Thai restaurant - some hot stuff being devoured.

Early next morning it's out of Caloundra and on to Hervey Bay. We sort of invaded John Jacksons private airfield and stayed there overnight, John and Cheryl our fellow Yak compatriots, are great sports. They catered for everyone, with all and sundry being either housed, hangared, b&b'd out or billetted at neighbours. The rest of day was at leisure and with a bit of formation flying practice happening in the late afternoon by the Russian Roolettes Formation Airshow Team http://www.redstaraviation.com.au/ROOLETTES/roolettes.html. The team is lead by Lindsay (Red 1), and includes Steve Wright from Mittagong (Red 2), Jim Wickham from Tyabb (Red 3), John Jackson from Hervey Bay (Red 4) and Egon Mahr from Mittagong (Red 5). Dinner was a noisy and fun affair.

Mid Friday morning, it was a hop, skip and fly up to Bundaberg. We now had quite a aircraft contingent. 4 Yak 52's, 1 Nanchang CJ-6A in a formation approach and a 18T keeping tabs on us at the rear. The Jabiru was out afar taking the photographs and at one stage overtaking us. You ask how is this so, well you start at a very high altitude and descend, gathering much speed and you can just keep up and have your moment of glory for a few minutes with the Yaks.

We had quite a spectacular arrival at Bundaberg, and certainly woke up the neighbourhood with our radial sounds. From then on it was non stop arrivals of aircraft - when you walked around the airport it was Jabiru heaven - just ask Dave Rittie. There were fields filled with them, hangars filled with them, every hangar you looked in was crowded with Jabirus. I'm sure they bred in the dark because the next day there were even more of them, scattered around on display, on the flight line, in the air, everywhere.

From then on it was all go, go go with the airshow happening on Saturday and Sunday. Our large group was scattered over several motels in town, we all managed to meet up each day, saw some terrific flying at the airshow, and there was quite a large ground display to keep everyone interested. The airshow managed a few record beaters - the best was the wall of fire - some 1270 metres long. The airshow promoters and organisers certainly treated the participants very well. Great weather, a bit nippy in the mornings and nights but during the day, clear, sunny and breezy.

Everyone seemed to gather at the same feeding spots and on the Saturday night we were treated to Elvis serenading us.

Monday bright and early we were off, the Yaks, Nanchang and Cessna 182 all heading south - return trip via Caloundra, Ballina, and a head wind saw us landing at Coffs Harbour for a top up and then off to Port Macquarie, back down the light aircraft land chasing that railway line to Maitland. At Maitland it was goodbyes to some of our aircraft and further down the track we would be splitting in different directions. After Maitland we headed for the coast and carried on with Victor One and what a beautiful flight it was - just perfect to finish a terrific time away.

The Jodel and Jabiru took a slower return trip and stayed overnight at Ballina and Moree respectively and arrived home at Wedderburn on the Tuesday.

All home safely with some great memories to reflect back on.