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First up is Max Patchetts pristine Tiger Moth. This was either the first or the last of the 100 imported aircraft before we started peoducing them here. Max did tell me but I don't remember now.

next is a Mignet Flea.

a Cessna 185, one of several that attended.

Next a Piper Pacer which appears to be a converted Tri Pacer according to the register. This was taken at FOF 2011 at Caboolture.


Next is a beautiful Cessna 170, also at Caboolture in 2011.

And another 195 especially for Adam.

Last but not least is a Mustang. This one waas taken at Watts Bridge in 2008.


Regards,
RHB.

Tail dragger Heaven! Nose wheels are for kids!

Seeing that C185 brought back memories of a trip I did when I was 18 up to Ayers Rock in a 185. I was "pax'ing" in the front right seat and the pilot allowed me hours of straight and level flying between Moorooduc A/F (long gone) and Alice Springs and back - I was in heaven! Now, this was in the day that the Rock was still referred to as "Ayers Rock" (I can't change calling it this) and there was a dirt airstrip there plus a camping ground plus pub right near the rock. The pilot had to contend with quite a bit of crosswind and he can very close to ground looping the 185. It is a beast of an aeroplane with that big 540 engine up front.

On the way back we stayed at a large station. There was a clapped out C172 there used for checking the boundary fences and water holes. The station pilot took me for a fly around the station - most of which was at 10-20 feet @ 110 knots! He was flying around large bushes, small trees all at eye level height!

This same 172 green stains all along the leading edge of the wing, nose bowl, wing struts and wheel springs. The station manager a notorious drunk (who used to down a box of beer a day), had recently fallen unconscious at the controls when flying back from the nearest pub. He recalled hearing a loud crashing noise and instinctively pulled back on the yoke - he'd just clipped the top of a tree! How's that! Same station manager tried to recruit me as a Jackaroo - "Ah, no thanks!" I said!

Year after we made that trip a big truck was driven through the Ayers Rock pub destroying it (I think people may have been killed/injured too). It was a wild place as I recall.

Cheers

Adam

Great story there Adam. When I was 19 (Christmas time 1971) three mates and I went on a road trip for I think it was 3 weeks. We stayed one night at Lightning Ridge and there was a photo on the wall of the bar at the pub there of half a dozen light aeroplanes tied to the hitching rails out the front of the pub. They'd flown in for the picnic race day some years earlier, landed on the strip which was at the end of the main drag, taxied up the main drag to the pub and tied up their steeds to the rail, walked out to the race track next to the strip and then walked back to the pub after the races, had a meal, drank their fill and then about midnight headed off home. By the grace of God they all somehow made it safely home. I wonder if people still do that sort of thing. If CASA heard about it there'd be a right stink kicked up. Something one of the bar maids told us was that millions of dollars worth of opals were produced there every year. The Tax Office decided to post a bloke there permanently to make sure they got their fair share. Naturally, they unknowingly posted a hopeless alcoholic there and when someone from the big smoke recognised him he was then kept permanently "pickled" by the miners. What's 20 or 30 dollars a day to someone taking out thousands per day and multiply that by a hundred or so and you only had to pay out about 3 times a years to keep him occupied in the bar.

Regards,
RHB.

Not all are successful
back in the '70's west of TSV there was property owner who also was a notorious drunk, when he flew home after closing time at the pub, he had 2 of his workers drive out to his strip and shine the lights of the cars down the strip and he would land, this was a four or five times a week thing apparently, over many years, last time he did it he miss-judged and hit one of the cars, turned over and killed himself.

All very nice but I'll take the Mustang. Being a little biased but went for a ride in MFT about 10years ago and yes it was sensational

G'day Paul. During FoF 2008 there was a local farmer who saw the Mustang practising for his display and decided to see if he could get a ride. He came over to the airfield with a huge wad of cash and asked if he could buy a ride. They said "Yes, that'll be $800 please". He pulled this wad of notes out of his pocket and said "I think I have enough here," and handed over about 1/6 of it. On a more down to earth note, just before WW2 my father, who lived around Maitland rode his motor bike to Dungog one Saturday afternoon to visit his brother who was working on a farm near there. They went in to one of the pubs in town and were having a quiet drink when this cow cocky pulls up out the front in his big Buick and walks in and starts shouting the bar whiskeys. Who said cockies are poor people? I know that nowadays many farmers are doing it tough through no fault of their own but I also worked in my own small business in a small country town for a year back in the early 90s so I know that some shouldn't have been farming and there were those who in the good years spent what they made on the good life and had nothing for the lean years. Then there was the bloke who owned a garage 50 km away. I stopped there one day on my way back from the next regional city to drop off a flyer to him and he had a car there that they couldn't get going. I knew how to fix it temporarily until I could get the part to fix it permanently. The whole job was worth $80 and I chased that $80 for 8 months. And believe me at the time I couldn't afford to be chasing any $ amount for any length of time.

Regards,
RHB.