Presidents Report – June 2022

The forecast bad weather did not eventuate for the club BBQ last month. Apart from a bit of windiness it remained dry and sunny and quite pleasant, especially in the lee of the club house, out of the wind.

The local flying club was using the opportunity to teach student pilots crosswind circuits on the east west runway, which was good fun to watch. About two dozen turned up, with 5 aircraft flying in also. Generous donations amounted to $235, all of which has been donated to our club charity, the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Thanks to everyone who helped and attended. The next Club BBQ at Murray Bridge is planned for 20th August, so add that to your calendar.

 My hobby, apart from flying sport aircraft, is building and flying radio control model aircraft. A lot of us came into aviation this way and some of us still do it. The opportunity came up to combine the two last month when the Holdfast Model Aircraft Club hosted a model aircraft flying weekend on an airfield on Hindmarsh Island near Goolwa.

This airfield is right on the Murray River with its own boat ramp which also made float plane flying possible as well. With a hand held radio and some common sense it proved very easy to combine RC model flying and full size at the same location. An inbound radio call was made by visiting aircraft and the RC models were asked to land. Once the full size aircraft was safely on the ground and shut down, model flying resumed. This arrangement worked trouble free throughout the weekend with 25+ models and 7 full size aircraft involved, including one on floats. I flew my RV7A in for the weekend after my Chipmunk went U/S.

I had my first opportunity to fly an RC aircraft off floats and I must say it is quite different to land plane flying. Water is very “sticky” and floats have high drag, giving a much longer takeoff roll and much shorter landings. I got it right on my second attempt!  Perfect flying weather for the whole weekend capped off this unique experience.

As we head into winter the weather often curtails flying activity so the committee has planned a visit to the Greenock Aviation Museum, followed by lunch at the Greenock Hotel on Saturday, July 30th. This will go ahead rain, hail or shine, so add that to your calendar as well.

Next month’s speaker was to be Qantas Capt Helen Trenery but alas the flying roster has got in the way and she is not available. She is still keen to speak to us in the coming months so watch this space..

Instead, Andrew Hogarth will give us a talk about his new Vans RV10 aircraft. He will tell us about the delivery flight from Western Australia and his impressions of what this aircraft is like to operate compared to his RV7A. If there is time left then I will ask Rob Wintulich to come up with a suitable aviation video from his vast collection.

I look forward to seeing you at the meeting on June 8th.

Blue Skies,

Steve

Perspective- Every person takes the limits of their own field of vision for the limits of the world- Arthur Schopenhauer