Any Publicity Is Good Publicity!

To celebrate the arrive 24-5354 Michael Sudholz organized for a photographer from the Wimmera mail Times to come out to the aerodrome and take a picture of our flock of Jabirus. Everything was dragged out of the hangars, the two club aircraft, Phil and Doug's aircraft, the old Jabiru that now belongs to to Steve Monaghan and even Allan Dickerson flew in to complete the picture.

The picture and story were published in the Wimmera Mail-Times on the 14th of May. I currently don't have a copy of the photo from the paper. I have included a photo of the great 'Jabiru meets the press' publicity event. The quality of the picture is not great as it was taken with my mobile phone. By this time the photographer had nicked off to another important photo opportunity – the football.

Stephen Hughes Gains RA-Aus Certificate

Stephen Hughes has completed all the requirements to receive his RA-Aus Pilots Certificate. Congratulations on your achievement Steve. Next up is the cross country endorsement.

The New J120 Has Arrived

PW and Sel Ellis have arrived home from Bundaberg with the club's newest aircraft, Jabiru J120 24-5354. The flight home was a joy for both. The new 'Little Jabi' cruises very well when trimmed out and has a nice cruise speed of around 100 to 105 knots.

Both are very impressed with the finish on the aircraft. So nows the time to get out to the club and sample this new aircraft. Contact PW for a check ride.

April Monthly Meeting

The April club meeting will be held on Saturday 12th April at 7.30pm in the clubrooms at Horsham Aerodrome. Apologies and items of business should be forwarded to the secretary; Steve Schneider. Steve can be contacted on 0427 315 845.

Rohan Ellis Goes Solo

Rohan Ellis one of our newest club members went solo today in the Jabiru J230D. Congratulations Rohan on a job well done. Also congratulations to PW for his continued efforts training the club's students.

Vic Maddern Has Passed Away

Vic Maddern, a life member of the club and former Treasurer passed away at 4.00pm on the 1st April. The club offers its condolence to Vic's family. Keep an eye on the Wimmera Mail Times for details of when Vic's funeral will take place.

The Special Meeting

The club held the Special General Meeting to vote on the two resolutions concerning the change over from the jurisdiction of ASIC to Consumer Affairs Victoria on Saturday 8^th March at 8.00pm. Fourteen members were present at the meeting. The mail out of proxy forms proved very successful with 33 out of the possible 37 proxies returned and all in favor of the two resolutions. The special meeting was opened at 8:09 PM and closed at 8:18 PM, a total of 9 minutes from start to finish.

So all the paper work was completed and sent off just before Easter to ASIC and CAV. Mike Hogan received a very positive phone call about the application from ASIC and some advice about some follow up issues. Mark has since sent off the requested information. Consumer Affairs Victoria approved our application and the club became incorporated under Victorian law on the 19^th of March. Unfortunately the certificate of incorporation didn’t arrive at the club’s Public officer’s house (Mike Hogan’s place) until after the Easter break. So the final piece of paperwork went off to ASIC earlier this week. So now we wait.

The whole process has gone very smoothly, apart from one slight hiccup with the return of our 2006/2007 financial report to ASIC. But that’s been fixed. So as I said now we wait for word from ASIC.

Out with the old, in with the new

So with the Little Jabi sold, it’s out with the old and in with the new. Our new Jabiru J120 should be arriving soon. PW expects that he and Sel Ellis will bring it back from Bundaberg sometime in the next two weeks. So we’ll have another new plane to familiarize ourselves with very soon.

Little Jab Bought & Paid For

Steve Monoghan, one of our club members is now the owner of the club’s Jabiru LSA 55-0933. So this aircraft is no longer available for members to fly. Congratulations Steve on your purchase. Steve will be keeping 0933 at Horsham. So remember it’s not ours so you can’t play with it.

Been there, Done That! - Natfly 2008

The RA-Aus annual fly-in was held at Narromine over Easter from Good Friday to Easter Sunday. Quite a large party of club members set off on Thursday 20^th. PW and Wayne Jackson took the ‘Little Jabi’, Mike Hogan and Griffo set off in the ‘Big Jabi’. Phil C and Steve Schneider set off in Phil’s Jabiru and Doug Brooke and Alan Dickerson followed on the next day in Doug's J170. There was much battering between the members of the party as to which planes would carry whose tent and sleeping bags etc. There were loading issues to be considered. We also took the swags belonging to the aero club Tecnam crew as well as some parting gifts of more sleeping bags from Tony and Peter Brand. Tony and Peter were heading off on the Friday in the Eurofox.

It was a case of follow the leader as the group headed off to Griffith. Everyone kept pretty much in sight of everyone else until we passed the Murray and headed into deepest darkest New South Wales. It wasn’t so much dark as dusty. Everyone arrived at Griffith within minutes of each other. The planes and crew were refueled after the 2 and a half hour flight. Then it was on to Narromine. An uneventful leg until us and a whole heap of other aircraft all arrived at the same time. Fun and games for a few minutes.

But everyone arrived safe and sound and all the aircraft were parked next to each other. Tents were erected and camp set up before the intrepid party headed to the gliding club for a drink. In the spirit of sharing our cash around we also had a drink at the aero club, but as they were more expensive we returned to the gliding club for dinner. Those of us who dined at the gliding club ate at a civilized time. Those who ordered at the aero club had to wait 3 and a half hours to get their meal.

Friday came after for some a very restless night and a long wait for a shower. We did all the stalls and looked at all the planes. Doug and Alan arrived. Tony and Peter arrived. The Tecnam went home. I was decided that we had seen everything we wanted to see and that perhaps we’d come a bit early. So it was agreed to cut short the trip and head home on Saturday rather than Sunday. As an aside some people rediscovered how uncomfortable it is sleeping in a tent on drought baked grass and were very happy to head off one day early.

Dinner on Friday was again at the gliding club. This time it was a little bit slower as we were joined by a number extra people who were pissed off with the lack of service at the aero club.

The weather had changed overnight with a number of passing showers in the Narromine area. But everyone made it out eventually. A few miles south and it was clear as a bell with tail winds all the way home. Again we stopped at Griffith for fuel and pies and pasties. Five planes made the trip back to Horsham on Saturday.

A nice weekend all round apart from the lack of sleep, the flapping tent, the arc light shining all night etc. We didn’t need to go for three days. We didn’t even need to head off on Thursday. We probably could have made it a two day trip. Up on Saturday and back on Sunday. We still would have got to see all the things we wanted too. The aircraft traffic on Friday wasn’t as busy as I thought it would be. I think everyone thought they would arrive on Thursday to miss the chaos on Friday. But all that happened was that the chaos was one day early.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer and may no represent the opinions of other members of the party. Others may fill in more detail if the wish. The editor would appreciate some other reports.

Anyway every one was back by Saturday evening sleeping in comfortable beds.