Monday, October 24, 2011

Horsham Aero Club Fly In

We have a very busy weekend behind us. There was a lot going on at the field. It was for sure the busiest one in the area. There was also much to see and explore ...

Pitts

one of the two flying AN-2's in Australia

The Antonov was in the air without a break during the whole 2 days offering joy rides. I was wondering where all these people came from. I wouldn't think Horsham and surroundings had so many people interested in aviation.


beautiful Boeing Stearman on the new runway

Stearman wheels up over the new runway

aerobatic shows



fire bombers

Jabiru's

more Jabiru's

Cessna

This air ambulance wasn't actually on display. Too bad we figured that out a bit late when the patient arrived to be flown to Melbourne. I can imagine the crew was annoyed with us bothering them and taking pics. Sorry for that guys!

yes, you would look good in there Zig

There was also something for ground vehicle lovers:

cars

and AutoByk

Everyone was involved and the famous lawyer was selling tickets:

Dennis & Zig

I learned one more life lesson too. For everyone to remember! If you are sitting in front of the hangar, sipping your evening beer from the bottle and somebody shouts from the hangar: "Can you give me a hand moving this plane!?", don't you ever jump up to help having the bottle close to your mouth. The bottle made a very close contact with my teeth and chopped a bit of the upper no. 1. It was pretty painful but luckily it's not visible. It keeps annoying me though and has to be fixed. I can't wait to see the dentists face when I tell him I cracked it with a beer bottle ... I guess I should make up a more appropriate story.

mirror image

Saturday ended with a nice dinner with speeches and prizes in the hangar.

removing the worst mud and getting ready for dinner ;-)

We were asked to rig the glider and take part in the air show on Sunday. The first ever tow with the 100 HP Rotax 912S Eurofox out of Horsham and a high speed glider low pass were on schedule. Tony gave me a tow and I was really surprised how well the Eurofox was performing. Yesterday was a very hot (+31°C) and moist day but we were up in the air in no time and climbed out very fast. I have some experience with 100 HP Rotax tow planes on both ends of the rope but this one really positively surprised me.
Then an announcement through loud speakers was made and I came fast and low over the screaming crowd putting some of them on the ground ;-) I hope someone will share pictures cause we don't have any. I was coming in with some tailwind which made the speed look even more impressive and people were surprised how quiet this particular 55 is. No whistling whatsoever.

Everything was working perfectly with the glider but Ziggy just had to have the newest software installed. Nothing is working now and going back to the old version didn't help either ... 

shortly before giving up

I know I'm repeating myself but:
"IF IT AIN'T BROKE, DON'T FIX IT"

I learned one more interesting thing during weekend. My experience with airport open days for public was bit different from what I just saw. Not only the amount of people (for such a small town) surprised me.
The overall mentality of the visitors is so different from what I've experienced in other places over the years. People over here ask before they touch or even approach anything. You can leave the glider or plane with doors or canopy wide open unattended and be sure nobody will let their kids get in there "to play" or jump on the seats with their muddy shoes waving the control stick like crazy. No "tire kickers", "control surface wavers", "wing and fuselage knockers" and "sticky finger canopy touchers" whatsoever. People just behave and make your life so much easier and days like this pure pleasure.

late afternoon, Ziggy still in the glider working on the software issue