Introduction

[lachie]

Hi all

 

I'm Lachlan, and I am building a Jodel D18. I thought this group might like some news, so here goes.

 

Members of the Jodel (AUS) community had a great weekend at Yarrawonga the last weekend. The fly in was organised by the Lightweight Aircraft Association, and attracted a variety of aircraft types. The Sonnex group were there in numbers, but more important for us was the group of Jodel pilots and builders who attended.

 

Ashley Steed flew his D18 from Lightning Ridge, a distance of 507 nautical miles, great effort by a very unassuming man. Ashley built his d18 from scratch, and has fitted a modified Suzuki 1300 engine. The aircraft attracted much attention during the weekend, there was seldom a minute when there was no one with their head in the engine bay or the cockpit.

 

Ray Fenely flew in for Wedderburn NSW in his D1050, about 360 nautical miles. Ray had to divert out West to get around some unusually nasty weather, but persevered and arrived on Saturday about 2:30pm. What a delightful aircraft to fly! I had the opportunity to poke some holes in the sky with it for about an hour, and couldn’t wipe the smile off my face.

 

Several builders drove in to Yarrawonga, including David Bevan who is well underway to completing a D18. In all it was a further step in getting Jodel pilots and builders together, last year we had had one aircraft, this year two. Now I know that in Europe and even in New Zealand this would be a small number, but remember we have Jodel aircraft scattered over a huge geographic area.

 

The Yarrawonga flyin happens each year around the end of March, and we hope interest in joining the good fellowship of other Jodel enthusiast will grow. We’d love to see more of the Australian group next year.