Wentworth for Dinner- Part 1

[Coop]

My employer had been cracking the whip a little heavily of late and owed me some time off. So I added a couple of days to the beginning of the long weekend to make a decent break of it.

 

The Navigator is in the middle of wrapping up some major study, and although she had expressed a wish to accompany me to Wentworth, I sensed a reduction in her usual enthusiasm as she contemplated the mound of reading she had to complete over the next week or so. The clincher came when a recurring hip problem raised its ugly head the night before our departure, and she decided to pull out of the trip to save herself some discomfort and get the reading done.

 

This left me with a vacant seat, so I rang my good mate Mick who has himself been unable to aviate of late due some pretty serious difficulties that came damn close to equipping him with his own set of wings and a harp. He was delighted to get my call as he had been planning to drive. As he said: “I’d rather spend 2 hours in an Auster than 5 hours in a Ford ute”.

 

Why Wentworth? Well, another Auster Driver, an ancient Eastern European refugee by the name of Eric, is famous for his Hungarian Goulash, and he cooks it once a year at a fly-in at Wentworth in support of the local flying club. I’d never sampled this delicacy, and was keen to do so after hearing a rave review from Mick and others last year.

 

Friday morning arrived, and Mick met me at Callington at about 9:30am. The early morning fog had appeared as forecast, but rapidly burned off as I did the pre-flight and refuelling. Mick had solved the problem of getting into the Auster in spite of his somewhat recalcitrant legs by climbing in the left side and sliding across. We chucked his crutches in on top of our bags, shut the hangar doors and blasted off.

 

The air was dead smooth, and Dorothy settled into her stride at 2,500’ as we skirted around the Murray Bridge CTAF and headed out across the wheat paddocks east of the Murray River. Mick (who is a LAME) asked if I’d had the prop balanced. I said I hadn’t but wondered why he’d asked. He replied that he could read Dorothy’s instruments, an indication that the engine was running smoothly and the prop was nicely balanced. Dorothy accepted the compliment!

 

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The trip to Wentworth was so smooth as to be almost boring. We didn’t encounter so much as a ripple until about 20 miles out. There was little traffic, and I managed to put Dorothy down gently onto the gravel of the main runway without any embarrassing skips or hops.

 

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We parked in front of the clubrooms where Eric was hard at work cutting up some prime goat meat (this is the authentic cuisine, folks!)

 

Mick had been to Wentworth numerous times before, so we took a stroll down the line of houses which flank the main runway to catch up with some of the people he knew. Our first port of call was John’s workshop where he is constructing a 90% scale Spitfire homebuilt.

 

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As you can see from the photographs, this is not a project to be taken on lightly- the amount of work involved is quite staggering and should only be attempted if you have sufficient patience and attention to detail to stay the course! This is going to be one damn fine machine when it is completed- a 200hp engine is expected to deliver about 150knots in the cruise.

 

We wandered back and examined Rod’s Jodel D-9. Mick used to own one of these, and showed much interest in the electronic fuel injection which Rod had fitted instead of the conventional carburettor. This was still undergoing some debugging as the engine was presently running too rich and was not yet delivering the performance required for test flying.

 

Later that afternoon I decided to go for a local jaunt to take a more detailed look at the area around Wentworth. This is where the Darling River joins the Murray River, and the junction is plainly visible from the air.

 

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I was a little surprised to see that the Darling is actually much smaller than the Murray. It was also interesting to note that Wentworth is built within a cut-off loop of the Murray such that it is almost an island (and certainly will be if we ever get another flood).

 

(Continued)

 

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[Coop]

Wentworth for Dinner- Part 2

 

Eric had negotiated some hangar space for me with Wynn, another ancient aviator who only recently decided to cease acting as pilot in command. She was going to advertise her C150 as “Only ever flown by a little old lady on Sundays”- a statement very close to the truth. However, a local identity knew a good aircraft when he saw one, and so Wynn didn’t have to advertise it at all. (Pity).

 

However, she hadn’t sold her hangar, and with some pretty poor weather forecast for the next 24 hours, I was very pleased to get Dorothy under cover overnight.

 

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The Hungarian goulash exceeded expectations (that's Eric in the grey, standing on right), and about 50 people turned up. The pot that Eric used was reminiscent of a witch’s cauldron (hubble, bubble, toil and trouble…) and the brew, together with some spuds and damper, had most of us calling back for seconds. An altogether most convivial evening.

 

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Overnight, the heavens opened and it poured. I was warm and snug in Eric’s caravan, and I was pleased that Dorothy was tucked into Wynn’s hangar. The following morning reports of 6-9mm of rainfall in the local area were common, and some areas of the airfield were looking distinctly soggy. A large puddle had formed where the sealed taxiway joined the sealed portion of the strip, and one member quipped this was the decontamination bath for any Victorians visiting that day…..

 

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Eric and I wandered over to Col’s place where we had been invited for breakfast, and discussion soon turned to the state of the airfield.

 

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Some time back it appeared that someone had made a tactical error and had the airfield licensed. The unfortunate result was that earlier that morning, the council employees had been out to conduct an inspection and placed a white cross on the intersection of the two runways, effectively closing the airfield. The club expected many people to fly in that day, so this decision (and the accompanying NOTAM) was met with some consternation, as you can imagine.

 

The forecasters had informed me that if I was coming back on Sunday, it would be best to return as early as possible (consistent with the fog lifting) as there was more bad weather forecast about mid morning. The weather that gave us the rain overnight appeared to have moved on, so Mick and I decided to leave later that Saturday afternoon. The sunlight and steady breeze were rapidly drying out the field, and by late morning the main runway was obviously safe to use, provided you didn’t venture off the hard stuff. With this in mind I moved Dorothy up to the bowser and refuelled, then I parked her on the grass and washed off all the mud that had accumulated while moving up the track from Wynn’s hangar.

 

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(Dorothy on the grass while Eric and Mick discuss the finer points of Austering.)

 

At this stage a white 4-wheel drive appeared with a flashing yellow light, and two council inspectors examined the strip and the rain gauge. When they returned to the clubhouse they were surrounded by a small group of club members eager to convince them to put out the dumbbell and remove the cross so that people could fly in. But they couldn’t, and their argument was that if they opened the airstrip, it had to be open for aircraft up to 5700kg, not just the hordes of Jabiru’s that frequent Wentworth. They promised to come out again on Sunday and see if they could open the strip.

 

Mick and I decided to depart anyway, as the strip was perfectly safe for our operation. So as not to create any tension, we decided to wait until after the council employees had departed before we cranked up and headed for home.

 

We sat at 500’ AGL for the run home in order to avoid the stronger head winds up higher. The rain had freshened up the paddocks we were flying over and a visible tinge of green was becoming more obvious. I hope they all get bumper crops this year- they certainly need it.

 

About 30 miles from home Mick and I observed a plug of cloud descend out of the base of a large cumulus just left of our track. It appeared to be rotating, so we decided to give it, and the rain shower associated with it, a wide berth. It dissipated in about 3 minutes, and even though we were about three miles away as we passed abeam, we noted an increase in the mild turbulence we had been experiencing until then.

 

Soon afterwards Dorothy’s wheels slid onto the wet grass at our home strip, and we quickly had her tucked away in her hangar.

 

If you are heading West, I recommend Wentworth as a stopping place. Their well-appointed clubhouse has toilets and a shower, and if club members don’t ply you with food, there are frozen pies and pasties you can nuke in the microwave. Avgas is available, and Eric is the voluntary refueller. He lives on the field, so there’s no call-out fee. The club members are very hospitable and since some of them live on the field, you are certain to get some help if you need it.

 

(The forecast turned out to be wrong, and we could have come home on Sunday without difficulty. Ah well, nobody's perfect...)

 

Coop

 

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[Guest Darren Masters]

Brilliant report mate Thoroughly enjoyed the read. Brings back memories of some of the fly-ins I went to and the mateship associated with it. You can't buy stuff like that. Looks like you all had a brilliant time. Thanks again for taking the time to write it.

 

 

[sixtiesrelic]

Hear hear. Nice to read about real aeroplanes and adventures and people.

 

Beware of Cu. I was looking up at one in Brissy on a summer day and saw a mini tornado shoot about 200 feet out of the bottom and turn parallel to the base and swoosh off about a kilometre in a couple of seconds. i rang a friend who could tell me which jet was nearby (couldn't see it) and I contacted Qantas and asked if they'd sus out the captain and get him to ring me.

 

He did and we talked about what he saw on the radar and what I saw.

 

He saw a bit of red but nothing scary. I reckon if he'd have flown through that thing he'd have gotten a big surprise.

 

 

[Coop]

Hear hear. Nice to read about real aeroplanes and adventures and people.Beware of Cu. I was looking up at one in Brissy on a summer day and saw a mini tornado shoot about 200 feet out of the bottom and turn parallel to the base and swoosh off about a kilometre in a couple of seconds. i rang a friend who could tell me which jet was nearby (couldn't see it) and I contacted Qantas and asked if they'd sus out the captain and get him to ring me.

He did and we talked about what he saw on the radar and what I saw.

 

He saw a bit of red but nothing scary. I reckon if he'd have flown through that thing he'd have gotten a big surprise.

Thanks. Perhaps an even wider berth is justified. I certainly am wary of the things, but your experience suggests bigger margins would be a good idea.

 

Regards

 

Coop

 

 

[Guest OzChris]

Great report and pictures Coop - I really enjoyed that!

 

 

[VHKDK]

Great report Coop. I was in Mildura at the weekend and I was going on Saturday but woke up to the rain and as the forecast was not good we gave it a miss.

 

Been to Wentworh a couple of times and found it very friendly, as are all of these events. Does Eric still fly his Auster?

 

Typical council. When you want them to do something they run a mile but when people look like enjoying themselves........ Anyway I suppose you cannot blame them with with the legal system the way it has become.

 

 

[Coop]

Great report Coop. I was in Mildura at the weekend and I was going on Saturday but woke up to the rain and as the forecast was not good we gave it a miss.Been to Wentworh a couple of times and found it very friendly, as are all of these events. Does Eric still fly his Auster?

Typical council. When you want them to do something they run a mile but when people look like enjoying themselves........ Anyway I suppose you cannot blame them with with the legal system the way it has become.

Thanks folks.

Yep, Eric is still flying his Auster. He has been at a number of fly-ins in recent times.

 

Nobody was too upset at the council folks. They were just doing their job as they saw it, and they did have some valid points. Getting the airfield registered was probably the main miscalculation. With an unregistered field you get your advice from the locals by phone or radio and then its up to you whether you use the field or not. The lighties could still have flown in, (with suitable warnings about staying on the hard stuff) but heavier machines could have been warned off.

 

Better luck next year. We do seem to be striking bad weather at the wrong times this year. I suggested to the folks that they consider charging the local farmers a service fee- to be refunded if it doesn't rain, and retained if it does....

 

Regards

 

Coop