I have friends I've never met before.

[Guest Decca]

I had the best fun today. Matt & Kaz flew their CT-4 from Penfield to Ballarat for their weekly outing, & it seemed that I was their guest all day. Earlier I met with Facthunter for he had arrived from New Gisborne (by car) to do some socializing at Ballarat too.

 

After lunch Matt invited me for a ride in his pride & joy, & now I know why it is. He flew it well. When I asked if he could do aerobatics without his instructor he said “No, but there were a few manouevres he could do that were not classed as aerobaticâ€

 

I’ve always been a nervous flyer, and never gone outside the comfort zone when a pilot has asked if I wanted to experience aerobatics. Today was different. With my confidence in recent flying, & my confidence in Matt & his recent posts re aerobatic training, plus the a/c, it was time!

 

Of course we never got inverted, but I was on my very first roller coaster ride. I had never experienced anything as extreme as this before, but even though I was looking for some sort of structure to hang on to, I never lost it or felt crook. And all controls were co-ordinated by Matt with what seemed like incredibly small control inputs which put the a/c into fairly extreme positions.

 

2.5g doesn’t sound much does it? And I’ve never looked at Lake Burrumbeet from such a vertical position.

 

I can’t thank Matt & Kaz enough for showing me the generosity that all you guys have shown me. Matt says it was really a pleasure to see the smile on my dial, & Kaz just keeps encouraging him.

 

The only thing that was missing I think was a sociable BBQ, & next time something like this happens at my home base I’ll organise that, given a bit of lead time. I was so busy leading up to this w/e I just didn’t have time to chase up locals although Matt & Kaz met quite a few forum members who just happened to be there. Sorry guys. But we did get a quick look at the Avro Anson war bird restoration. Definitely worth a look at if you’ve got 20mins or so.

 

Thanks Matt & Kaz, thanks Nev,

 

Regards, Decca.

 

 

[Adrian Lewer]

Yo decca maybe you should just bite the bullet, ask the aero club to borrow the bbq and make a date for one saturday in the next month or so $5 a head should cover it.. count me in.