[19 Oct 2017] AirVenture Australia (Narromine)

[Old Koreelah]

Lessons from my Narromine trip:

 

- wait till visitors have left before doing preflight checks; it's too easy to get distracted

 

- put your tent on high ground

 

When drying your saturated clothes in a laundrette, remember that Murphy is in charge:

 

- the soap dispenser will be out of order

 

- you never have enough coins

 

- even if there's nobody around, as soon as you strip off your wet jeans and stick them in the drier, carloads of women will suddenly arrive.

 

 

[SDQDI]

Old K it sounds like you could benefit by carrying a spare set of clothes in a 'dry bag'. There are thousands of versions of these varying from top quality ones made out of solid truck tarp material all the way down to Chinese ones made out of some see through fabric that is still apparently waterproof.

 

I have a variety of them here at home and will try and remember to show you them. The good quality ones are a tad heavier but I think worth the difference.

 

BCF have a good range and may be a good place to start. Dry Bag - BCF Australia

 

 

[bexrbetter]

carrying a spare set of clothes in a 'dry bag'....... Chinese ones made out of some see through fabric that is still apparently waterproof.

We call them "plastic bags" here.

 

 

[storchy neil]

No bex to me it looked water proof to me so I would have got one neil

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Yes, yes, yes, SD. You are quite right, but my little baby was never designed for touring; my camping gear and three days' change of clothes need to be very light- all weighed on kitchen scales and culled to the barest minimum. Spare jeans weigh too much!

 

The main lesson is to ensure I park my plane on higher ground. This is the first in ten years of long trips that I didn't, and got wet.

 

 

[David2ayo]

Old K it sounds like you could benefit by carrying a spare set of clothes in a 'dry bag'. There are thousands of versions of these varying from top quality ones made out of solid truck tarp material all the way down to Chinese ones made out of some see through fabric that is still apparently waterproof.I have a variety of them here at home and will try and remember to show you them. The good quality ones are a tad heavier but I think worth the difference.

 

BCF have a good range and may be a good place to start. Dry Bag - BCF Australia

I checked out the reference, but none of them are long enough to fit Old K. (he's such a lanky bugger!) Suggest you go to Police Forensics, they seem to have some pretty good water and smell-tight zip-up bags.

 

David

 

 

[alf jessup]

My impressions of Airventure.Cost - reasonable, 3 day on-line ticket worked for me.

Displays and trade - loved the BushCat, the Kelpie and the Quicksilver, Thursday was a good day to talk to the dealers as the crowd wasn't there. Friday was good too, the weather kept all but the diehards away.

 

Shame that Jabiru couldn't make it, not their fault but it would have been nice to have a recorded presentation.

 

Swap and sell was a good idea, hope it will be better supported next time.

 

On-field PA either dominated if closeup or couldn't be heard properly if at a distance, and intruded terribly into the seminars. One part of my business is PA, and it disappointed me.

 

Main tent exhibits good, couldn't find headset adapters (GA to Heli) so will need to order from Ian.

 

Seminar tents with airconditioning! A bit noisy, but hey! If it had been a real scorcher (not unknown in Narromine) would have been essential.

 

SAAA took their talks up to their hangar, good in some ways but not good if you wanted to get 'a bit of this and a bit of that'.

 

Food ok, but I brought my lunch from home so not sure of value. Did buy cups of tea, that was nice.

 

Security. Really! it was about as sensible as ASIC. For the amount they would have spent on that horrible 6 foot fence they could have employed / coerced some extra marshalls and had a safer and friendlier outcome. Made it very difficult to walk the aircraft parking area, which is a good way of seeing real in-use machinery and their accessories. A low mesh fence, a few sets of sensible eyes watching and a firm message on arrival (PA and written) to keep clear of active taxiways will work better.

 

Airshow - Roulettes are just so polished (although did one wingman drop back briefly once?)(says someone who has difficulty pointing in the right direction let alone getting speed right). Good variety for the rest, Matt Hall was scary,

 

A real highlight -met up with Old Koreelah, Storchy Neil, MartyG and his wife. Would have liked to have met the other forumites, but they probably were scared I'd take the pith out of them...

 

Only took a couple of photos (sorry Peter), my son got a few, will post them as I get time.

 

Will I go again? in spite of its imperfections, yes. of course, easy for me, just 40km down the road.

 

David

Lovely fella that MartyG and his lovely Deb eh David

 

Been friends with him since childhood and friends with Deb when they hooked up many a year ago

 

He once was a Victorian for many years then went soft and moved to Qld

 

But still in contact with them

 

Glad you got to meet them both

 

Alf

 

 

[MartyG]

Enjoyed the event, Worth the drive down for sure. Weather could of been better but it was good for the 2 days we attended.(Thur & Sat).

 

The 6 foot fence was a bit of overkill, If It was there to keep public hands away from the Fly-in Aircraft & Warbirds then simple up close baracades & 1 or 2 attendants would of done for the Warbirds. As to the Fly-in birds why not give owners the choice of giving the public access to view up close by giving those owners willing to do so Aircraft parking close to the main display areas then becoming part of the show.

 

Personally I would of liked to of seen a lot more involvment/displays of Manufacturers who,s Aircraft are avaliable in kit form, partialy assembled wings or rudders, just a taste to maybe spark some interest in building.

 

$35 for 3 day ticket is good value but $30 entry for the Saturday was too much, Especially if trying to get the locals who may not be aviation enthusiasts to attend.

 

Great event but good to see it even greater next time.

 

Was great to meet and chat with some forum members, Old Koreelah, Storchy Neil, David2ayo And SDQDI, Enjoyed the chat guys & look forward to doing it again at future events

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

I checked out the reference, but none of them are long enough to fit Old K. (he's such a lanky bugger!) Suggest you go to Police Forensics, they seem to have some pretty good water and smell-tight zip-up bags.David

That's an idea, David. My kid is a forensics person, so I'll ask her.