Big Crowds at Evans Head Flyin

[kgwilson]

We flew in to Evans Head early this morning, leaving South Grafton at around 7:30am & called in for a chat with Bob McIntyre at Palmers Island on the way. With the RV6 cruising at around 160 knots the trip didn't take long & the early morning still air made the flight even better. We didn't exceed 1500 feet the whole way & came in from the sea, joined crosswind for RWY 36 & parked among the 30 or 40 overnight fly in campers. VH aircraft were well represented & it seemed there were more RVs than any other type, mainly 6s, 7s & the odd 4. Just up from us was a home built Bearcat as I recall with the rego VH-POO parked right next to the Portaloos. Very appropriate.

 

Getting there early meant the circuit was not busy & there were only about 4 others in it when we joined. This year there were a lot more market stalls and food outlets than before but few people were there early. Well that changed rapidly & by 10am there were thousands of aviation enthusiasts & the general public there, way ahead of the same day last year as far as I could tell. The first warbird to get going was a Mustang followed closely by the T28 Trojan, the Grumman Avenger & Yak 52. The aero modellers put on a good show with a couple of jets, one a Mig 29 & something else I was not able to identify.

 

The circuit really began to hot up with planes coming in from all directions competing for a slot with Warbird flights and others giving Joyflights & TIFs. The closest issue I saw was an aircraft on short final & a C172 with a bunch of joyflighters on board taxying onto RWY 36 forcing the incomer to go around. The weather was good with some cloud cover & even a light shower at around 11:00am. By then there was a good mix of GA & RA aircraft & at one time 3 or 4 Pipistrel Sinuses (or is it Sinii) flew in one behind the other.

 

This year is the 75th anniversary of the aerodrome & the Bombing & Gunnery school & there was a mid morning flypast tribute by 3 warbirds. A lot of the entertainment for the crowds was after lunch with the Paul Bennet Pitts & a Yak 52 but we'd departed for home by then. It was hard trying to find a slot to take off but we did after waiting for half a dozen warbirds to take off & a couple of latecomers to land. A few pics follow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

The Mig29 I believe is Paul Bennetts. he was flying it up at maryborough Jets late last year. He was flying model aircraft and turbine RC long before he started flying full-size aircraft

 

 

[SDQDI]

The Mig29 I believe is Paul Bennetts. he was flying it up at maryborough Jets late last year. He was flying model aircraft and turbine RC long before he started flying full-size aircraft

If it's the same one (orangey colour if memory is right) he flew it at the tamworth festival of flight in the year just gone. They are awesome to watch, good fun.

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

I used to be the importer of Simjet model turbine engines for around 10 years until they stopped production of model turbines and went exclusively to larger ones used for UAV for military ops. Paul was my demo pilot for the vigilante and The Simjet 3000 engine for many years. He was a very impressive pilot with the models, he still flys them quite a bit at the larger jet meets.

 

Mark

 

 

[Jabiru7252]

It's a pity that the Evans Head website excludes so many people because they choose not to be members of Facebook.

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

Thanks for the reports guys........