Another weekend adventure.

[slartibartfast]

An interesting weekend indeed.

 

The plan was originally, go to the Old Bar Fly-In.

 

Then it was cancelled because the strip was too wet.

 

So the plan then became, go to Taree and do the time trials on Saturday, then down to Wings Over Illawarra on Sunday.

 

Left at sparrow's on Saturday with the expectation of a few showers on the coast, but otherwise nice.

 

The view from the air on departing Goulburn indicated a lot of fog and cloud at least as far inland as Goulburn. Flew west for 10 minutes and found the edge. Tracked north from there hoping for it to be clear at the Hunter Valley, and to get under the cloud base and to the coast.

 

Looked pretty enough.

 

The view west:

 

[ATTACH]7282.vB[/ATTACH]

 

The view east:

 

[ATTACH]7283.vB[/ATTACH][ATTACH]7284.vB[/ATTACH]

 

Got within 5 miles of the Hunter, but there was no way under. So, change of plan again. Back to Bathurst to pick up some fuel, and make it to my mate's vineyard north of Goulburn to help with the netting after all.

 

Got a front wheel shimmy on landing. No worries thinks I, just adjust the tension again. This happens periodically.

 

Had a break and wander. Noone around. Took the spat off to adjust the tension and found that it wasn't just a shimmy, but the whole wheel had broken off the hub. The weld had completely given way. Figure it must have weakened during the little landing adventure last August, and not seen the damage.

 

About then I remember the spare wheel back in my hangar, and how I carried it around with me most of last year.

 

Mmmmm.

 

Just then an angel appeared out of the aero club and holds up his car keys. "Here you go" says Kevin the angel. He then proceeds to apologize for it only being a diesel ute.

 

He gave us a list of places to look and off we trot. Two hours and 6 stops later we settle on the second place we visited and grabbed a wheel for $10 which was the closest to doing the job.

 

Back to the airport and amazingly it fits pretty well. I wouldn't want to have done 2 landings on it, but I was pretty sure it would handle 1.

 

Said our thanks to Kevin, added a few litres, and headed home.

 

On the way, overflew the vineyard and saw that there was a lot of work to do to get the nets finished. So decided I would be able to help for a few hours (or at least get a grand meal and catch up with friends) and changed plans again.

 

Back to Goulburn after 4.5 hours and put it down gingerly, holding the nose off the ground until I got back to the hangar. Well almost.

 

Jumped in the car and went to the vineyard. All the work was done after all, but the food was fantastic.

 

Got home to Canberra around midnight, having changed plans again on the way. It was up early again, back to Goulburn and put the new wheel on (remember the one sitting in the hangar all this time?) and off to Wollongong.

 

The ETA was sitting at around 12:09 most of the way, and I knew the airport closed at 12:10 for air displays. Throttle up a bit. Given that once I reached the escarpment I could go 120 knots all the way to the airport, I thought we'd have at least 3 minutes to spare. Made the 10 mile inbound call and confirmed closure time. All good.

 

Then got a call from the Medical Helicopter advising priority departure. Made an expedited circuit after checking with him and telling him to let me know if I need to go around. He was cool with that.

 

Got there with minutes to spare. All in the timing.

 

Had a great day. See the photo album here. I whittled it down to just the best 80 or 90 shots for you.

 

Ran into DaveC and JustFred again. Always a pleasure.

 

HARS are doing a great job with our aviation heritage, and WOI is a great event. There must have been 20,000 people there again. Lots of great stuff flying, and even more on display.

 

Check the photos anyway. Enough rambling.

 

 

 

 

 

[eastmeg2]

Slarti, that must have been you I saw doing the right hand circuit, 35 I think. I was suprised that I recognised the silhouette of a Cheetah in circuit.

 

Cheers,

 

Glen

 

 

[tvaner]

Some great shots there slarti, thanks for sharing them.