SUNDAY 26th SEPTEMBER 2004
Dick Smith invited us to fly to his property at Gundaroo on September 26, 2004.
What a great day, weather was absolutely perfect. We had a great turn out of aircraft. Thank you to everyone who answered the call and came along. We had 22 aircraft attending.
Weather-wise the morning was looking pretty good. Blue skies and clear. Most of the aircraft lined up in the Aircraft Parking Area prior to a brief briefing. What a great sight, it would be wonderful if we get this many aircraft and more on our open day.
We progressively left Wedderburn from approx. 9.30 a.m. onwards and arrived at Bowylie mid morning to late morning. Just a very pleasant 92 nautical mile flight. Dick Smith arrived shortly after we got there and greeted us.
Dick carried out a aircraft inspection. He was very interested and impressed with the wide range of aircraft that were there. He was awarding a trophy for the best homebuilt built in the last 2 years. We had two contestants for this - Doug Montague and Jan Zytka. It was a very close call, I think Dick would have like to have had two trophies to give as he considered both aircraft excellent. However, only one winner could be had and Jan’s aircraft, the Storm-300 won. Congratulations to Jan.
Dick filled us in on what’s happening with air space management in Australia and his court case and later we had a ride on his own train around his property. What a beautiful spot.
Lunch was BYO, we had great BBQ facilities there and everyone tucked into some lunch. Dick joined us for lunch and we all had a chance to talk to him. After lunch we inspected his hangar and his $6 million helicopter - very nice.
The day served up some great weather, the sun god was shining down on us. A lovely relaxing day. Mid afternoon everyone began heading for home. Back at Wedderburn the day was finished off by a casual drink at the Club House. As a bonus and on his way back to Sydney, Dick Smith dropped in to Wedderburn in his helicopter, to check out our airfield and club - we impressed him.
Photos of the line up Wedderburn, at Dick Smiths, Hangar, BBQ lunch group and group photos will soon be on the website. So stay tuned.
Have also got some great individual aircraft photos and these will soon be updated on Aircraft Page. So keep checking.