Narromine 2007 (NatFly)

[Admin]

Darren - I wish I could moderate that picture of me on your website - not a good look

 

Well, I think I will spend a few days trying to get my sanity back after Avalon and now Natfly.

 

The high point of Natfly for me was the opportunity to finally get a chance to meet a lot of you guys face to face - it was fantastic - although at times it was very busy so unfortunately I didn't have time to sit down and have a chat with a lot of you.

 

A HUGE thanks to both Helmut and Mike Chapman for coming to my rescue with the two flat tyres I got whilst "doing the right thing" and moving off the bitumen to let a Jabiru (yes, a Jab of all aircraft ;)) who was on final behind me to land instead of backtracking thus forcing the Jab to do a go around. Both Helmut and Mike had tubes and set about fixing the flats for me.

 

Helmut who has the only fuel injected Jab had drilled holes through his tools to make them lighter to carry with him - smart thinking but then so to is what he has done with his Jab.

 

The only other unfortunate thing for me was that I didn't get a chance to have a good look around at the 800+ aircraft that were there.

 

Ultralights, Thrasher and all you others - hopefully we can organise a Recreational Flying flyin somewhere where we all can get a chance to sit down and have a beer and chat about the fun times in flying.

 

 

[Guest Juliette Lima]

Thanks Darrin for great pics.

 

Around five years ago the 'original types' held centre stage at narromine...

 

ie. drifters, thrusters, bantam, X-air, sportstar etc......what was this years representation like ?

 

thanks

 

JL

 

 

[Guest Fred Bear]

Darren - I wish I could moderate that picture of me on your website - not a good look

Oh don't be like that Ian.I have seen way worse! Thanks for the comments JL re the pics. Rag and tube much more prominent this year than the last which was very good to see. Was an interesting array of a/c this time. I think there was a flock of about 6 Drifters in one corner, couple of Thrusters too.

 

 

[Guest danda]

Sadly this year was not ment to be for me however I can read the excitement in every post I am glad you all had such a wonderful time and I look forward to seeing the pix's so that as least I can share that much.

 

Don:clap:

 

 

[Guest Fred Bear]

No probs Chris.Glad you liked them.There will be some more up soon.Always good for those that did not attend to be able to see some of what it was like.

 

 

[Guest danda]

I to loved the pic's mate thanks so much for sharing although I must tell you I wet my shirt drooling.

 

Don

 

 

[BigPete]

Hey Darren,

 

thanks for those great shots - I'm hoping to get there next year.

 

regards

 

 

[Guest brentc]

Darren you're standing next to my favourite SR20 from Tooradin. I have around 20 hours in that beast. The SR20 was tas'ing at around 145 on the way home at 6,500ft which is the sweet-spot in the Cirrus. If you looked closely it said Tooradin Flying School down the side but it has been ripped off prior to the sale of the aircraft. I was going to polish it off next weekend. It's been up at the dealers at Archerfield and was on the way back to Melb afterwards. Had been to Chute Harbour (Spelling?) and around up north for the week before Narromine. They joined us and the 8 of us went to the dinner on Sat from Tooradin. We had 4 aircraft in total, minus one that didn't make it due weather and one pulled out the day before, so the J400, J430, SR20 and a Jab 6 2 seater. We flew home alongside the Jab SP6. I was getting a few knots on them, probably about 3-5 at 2,800rpm so we are going to swap props on the weekend to see if his can go faster.

 

 

[Guest Fred Bear]

Darren you're standing next to my favourite SR20 from Tooradin

My error mate.Indeed she's an SR20.I will edit my web page when I get a chance.Cheers for the correction. :)

 

 

[Guest Andys@coffs]

Guys

 

I saw the powered parachutes fly Friday evening..... I thought the 10th gathering may have been the one that involved a fatality.

 

Did anyone else have their heart in their mouth watch the 1st guy take off? Did anyone want to IQ test the 2nd guy who at least had the advantage of seeing the take off for the 1st guy?

 

They circled for 15 mins or so, to me they looked like they were working out the "what do we do now question"

 

Still They got down without any damage but I couldnt help feeling that if they were cats they were minus 1 life.

 

What did anyone else who was there think of that display?

 

And to finish on a positive note the gyros that were there flying, the dual machines seated one behind the other, Now there's a beast that didnt seem to be wind affected at all. I seriously wanted a go in that machine, but didnt stay long enough to try. Can anyone tell me what it was and who has them represented in Australia?

 

Andy

 

 

[Guest Fred Bear]

Andy, to answer your question...Yes, the display scared the heck out of me.I did not think they would get down.There must have been a 20 plus kt headwind there for them and the pendulum effect looked quite horrible. All of us were running to see the guys and see if they would come down safe (which I thought was more luck than anything).

 

And this comment you made:

 

I seriously wanted a go in that machine, but didnt stay long enough to try

So did I and the German guy with the pony tail that was flying this yellow machine "Tweety" was a rude pig to be quite honest. His attitude was "I am not doing joyflights, only taking people if you are interested in buying one". Now we all know in Recreational Aircraft 'joyflights' are not legal. There would have been no joyflight involved but I would have been more than happy to pitch in with the cost of fuel for the flight. If I saw this gent at The Oaks or anywhere else and he asked for a flight I would kindly tell him to "Get stuffed".

 

 

[Guest Fred Bear]

Further to the above, I wonder how many people bought this gyro off him after the flights I think they are from somewhere around Cessnock mate.Maybe ultralights knows where they are from. You avoided being dissapointed by not asking him mate.

 

 

[Guest brentc]

Weren't they from the Manilla Sky Ranch? I read that on the side of one of the Gyro's. Admittedly it would be hard for them to distinguish between someone after a joy-ride and a genuine buyer.

 

As for the Aerochutes, I have close to 200 hours in them and they are as safe as a house as they say. As long as they are not going backwards because of the headwind you can land safely. They are fairly robust machines and often tip over on landing in strong winds which is not a real drama. Perhaps they were demonstrating their ability to fly and not die in such weather? I didn't see who was flying however it may have been Steve Conte the manufacturer and CFI with thousands of hours in Powered Parachutes.

 

Incidentally Steve does around 115 TIF's per new aircraft purchase, so perhaps Darren the Gyro's are in a similar situation.

 

http://www.manillaskyranch.com/

 

 

[Guest Fred Bear]

I'm not sure Brent re the Aerochutes (I have only flown on one) and would have crapped myself in those conditions You are quite right the gyros were from Manilla Sky Ranch.

 

 

[Guest Fred Bear]

Just looking at their web site too. At $170/hr for the gyro, a little out of my price range!

 

 

[Guest Andys@coffs]

Brent

 

Unless there was some serious showmanship involved, with the aim to gent a gasp from all who watched, the thing that scared me about the first take off in the powered parachute was that the 1st 10-15 seconds was upward climb, complete with pendulum affect, with whatever engine obviously at full power (damn it was seriously noisey!!) .

 

The next 10-15 seconds saw what looked like a partial collapse of the wing with a resultant descent, despite being at full power. The wing reinflated but the descent only changed to ascent some significant time latter. I thought that one or more of the homes in the newer Airpark on the far end of 11 was about to have splat decorating performed!.

 

As one of the guys that was with me said "The only outcome from that demo is that no-one who has any shred of intellegence will buy one!" From my perspective the 7,9 and 10 news wouldnt have reported that RAAus had a very successful flyin etc they simply would have reported that "yet another ultralight flyer has added himself to the long and distinguished list of those appearing in Darwin award lists"

 

Where I viewed the demo from there was stunned silence and what I percieved as embarrasement from the pilots watching with some being angry that all off us were being damaged by one or two of us.

 

Bottom line, if thats powered parachute flying, complete with significant arm waving and deafening engine noise I wont be standing in line to try it. And to think that some percieve Trikes to be dangerous!

 

Regards

 

Andy

 

 

[Guest Fred Bear]

All pics from Narromine now on my web site in the photo album.

 

 

[Ultralights]

From looking at your photos darren, i must have walked through or past your camp are numerous times! from where you were, if you looked towards the road, and up against the back fence there was a white van and green tent right beside it, that was me!

 

 

[Guest Fred Bear]

I did see it mate.Shame you could not drop in for a beer (or two). ;)

 

 

[slartibartfast]

Nice pics Darren.

 

The URL in your sig was broken. I fixed it. All part of the service :star:

 

 

[Guest Fred Bear]

Thanks Ross.

 

The URL in your sig was broken. I fixed it. All part of the service

That happened tonight for whatever reason.Thanks for repairing. I think I will hit the 1000 post mark soon ;)

 

 

[Guest David C]

From looking at your photos darren, i must have walked through or past your camp are numerous times! from where you were, if you looked towards the road, and up against the back fence there was a white van and green tent right beside it, that was me!

So near ,yet so far as they say .... You could have shared in our gastronomic experiences , what with Fred's curry , my sausages and Darrens tinned delights it was a veritable feast .. All washed down with a few glasses of Chateau Cardboard . I did have one complaint though , Darren would insist in drinking his beer COLD !! .... Now as all we all know by now , us Poms do like a nice warm tinnie or two .

 

Here are a few pics to share . What a great weekend ;);)..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hope you like them

 

Dave

 

 

[Guest Emma Masters]

Great Pic's Dave...Thanks...

 

I look forward to next year with Marilyn...:big_grin:

 

 

[Guest Fred Bear]

Dave, excellent pics mate! Love the Chateau Cardboard and the Edu Kero! Mate, I could not get the beers any warmer for you. They were in the sun all day Just a question, in the second pic,looks like I have a wig on or my hair has been painted on.Wonder what has caused that???

 

 

[Guest Emma Masters]

Hey Dave,

 

I have already ordered my shirt for Narromine next year! Make sure you put Marilyn's order in ;)..Then us girl's will be already to join in next year :)