David Hack Classic '08 Toowoomba Fly-In

[spacesage]

Macnoz kindly invited me to occupy the spare seat in his Jab-160 on a fly away to the David Hack Classic at Toowoomba this year. I have attached a few photos for everyone to have a look,

 

If you want to see more have a look under my galleries in my profile.

 

The trip started at 8am at Caboolture, after fueling the Jab and talking out the flight plan, we set off for a direct track to Toowoomba from Caboolture. A flight which took an hour from chocks to chocks.

 

This was a beatifully smooth ride all the way to Toowoomba, although visibility was not real great due to some early morning haze. Also attending the fly away were some other a\c from Caboolture.

 

Nanchang CJ-6A from Caboolture Warbirds

 

Piper CUB from Caboolture Warbirds

 

2 x Jab 160

 

Jab 170

 

2 x Gazelles

 

Piper Comanche

 

and Ive surely missed a few others.

 

We arrived at YTWB which is located at 2086 AMSL, right on the edge of a large escarpement, which rises over 1000ft from the valley floor. John noted on arrival that Toowoombas airfield is located almost in town, not giving much option in case of an EFATO.

 

We were marshalled to a spot in the public a\c parking and took up a position between a gazelle and a pressurised Cessna 210 centurion.

 

There were over 400 vehicles and 60 aircraft attending. Including numerous warbirds. Yaks, Nanchanges, Winjeel, Chipmunks, Trojans and a stearman. Aerotec was represented with a good turnout of thier aircraft, including the famed Zuccoli collection.

 

http://www.aerotec.com.au/

 

Not surprising seeing as Toowoomba is their home base. It was great to hear all those radial engines thundering away all day.

 

Lots and lots of all types of cars from vintage, to veteran and classic. Trucks, cars, military and the weird and wonderful.

 

Lots of GA and private aircraft, during one conversation it was noted that on the flight line RA aircraft made up nearly half of the private attendees. These aircraft including everything from Drifters to the ultra modern, glass fibre speed machines.

 

Food and beverage was well taken care of with the normal fried fare and barbecued sausages, burgers and chips. The local rotary (who are the beneficiaries of this event) supplied, tea, coffee, cakes and sandwiches. All at reasonable prices.

 

We wandered around took photos and and had some amazing conversations. We decided to depart at about 1pm, as most of the crowd was starting to thin out.

 

As we departed Toowoomba we had a following westerly wind. As we dropped over the scarp heading home we noted we were setup for climbing at Vy with no altitude gain at all for a minute or so as we rode the falling air over the scarp!

 

We soon climbed to 4500 ft and tracked direct to Caboolture, this time visibility was great with views all the way to Brisbane and Moreton Island. A litlle bumpy on the way home particlularly over the ranges.

 

We landed at Caboolture and packed the Jab away in its hangar after a successful day.

 

Thanks to Macnoz for inviting me. Have a sneaky peek at the photos from the day in the album in my profile.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest Macnoz]

I know I'm biased but nice report (oh apart from the fact that we started from Caboolture -- maybe you were thinking of the Irish blessing " may you be in heaven a half an hour before the devil knows you are dead") and photos are better than I could have done.

 

The mini line up is a classic -- no pun intended

 

And that Rapide makes me drool each time i see it.

 

thanks for sharing the day

 

 

[spacesage]

:ah_oh:

 

Fixed it, we now started at the right place!!