ASRA AVALON DAY ONE

[gyroo]

Hello everyone,Thursday 26 February - today - ASRA Avalon Day 1 was a great success.5 gyros flew in this morning after overnighting at Shepparton. Neil Farr - silver Calidus, Russell Duncan - Champagne coloured Magni M24, George Harris - Red Cavalon, Dean McFarlane - Orange Cavalon, Rick Elliott - yellow MTO Sport.The entry was uneventful and expeditious between 11.22 and 11.30, all 5 arrived within about 8 minutes. It was pleasing and impressive to see, especially because our boys were mixing it with all manner of aircraft, including some military fast jets not too long after they arrived. Adhering to "arrival slot times" is an absolute necessity at an event like Avalon because there are huge numbers of aircraft ranging from B52"s, F22 Raptors, F18 Hornets, F16s, JetStar A320"s, jet tankers, jet and turboprop transports, to Warbirds, Bizjets, and Cessnas all vying for the same runway. The slot time is where your wheels have to be making contact with the runway, so you have to plan backwards to ensure your wheels will grease on to the runway at your allotted time. You also need to deal with making the right radio calls at the right times and being contingently prepared for several alternative courses of action depending on what the tower tells you to do at any given moment. Today was all the more impressive because 3 of the 5 haven"t operated in controlled airspace before - the boys have had about a week and a half of continuous email and phone briefings from me and Allan Wardill about how to go about the entry. CASA"s Sport Aviation Office Head Lee Ungermann and his lieutenant Mick Poole came up about a 1/2 hour after the group arrival and were highly complimentary about the entry procedures and radio work. They facilitated us flying-in by kindly temporarily amending the regulations to provide that our guys could operate into Avalon, the sort of zone and event where people normally must have a really good reason for being there and hold either a CASA flight crew licence or military accreditation to operate into. CASA were sticking their necks out quite a bit by allowing recreational pilot certificate holders to fly-in to this international event onto the main runway 18/36, but it worked.Ian Morcombe trailered-in his white Sport Copter M912, as did Brett Perry with his white Brako tandem 2-seater. Ron Neitvelt, Bryce Neitvelt"s father from Swan Hill, trailered in a red homebuilt single seater, but unfortunately Sam Owen from Sth Australia towing a Sport Copter Lightning had his gearbox blow up near Maryborough (Vic) and had to pull out.The 6th gyro to fly in was Michael Waldon in his red ELA. He overnighted at Goulburn after being delayed by rotten weather out of Wollongong and couldn"t make the 11.30 "slot time", so he diverted to Bacchus Marsh and waited out 4 or so hours until he could get a "slot time" of 6.30pm. He also arrived uneventfully among an extraordinary mix of warbirds and business jets, and Ian Morcombe and I were there at the enclosure to park and receive him.So, we"ve ended up with 9 gyros on site, only 1 being a homebuilt.ASRA has bought a $399 42 inch TV which is up and running and continuously playing gyro videos from a 3 hour-long compilation of 30 shorter videos on a USB stick.ASRA has the prime position in the general aviation and airsport area - right smack bang at the entrance. We are very close to a lot of large and fast military aircraft. The pictures give you an idea.Cheers,Mark Regan

[aussie_paul]

Well done guys.Aussie Paul.

[gyroo]

Thanks Paul,And for the benefit of those who might not know, many years ago Paul actually did demonstration flying of his RAF 2000 as part of the early Avalon AirShows flying program.AirShows DownUnder don"t have space any more in their very crowded flying program to accommodate gyros or other recreational aircraft demos, and we also don"t have anyone on our books other than Paul who can rightfully claim to have experience as an airshow display pilot anyway.Mark R

[MadMuz]

Ditto, well done

[Disco]

Good stuff. I hope I can drive down next year if I"ve caught up on life by then. It looks awesome. Well done everyone.

[gyroo]

Hey Disco - You"ll be lonely next year if you drive down!Being an internationally scheduled aerospace event, Avalon alternates every second year with the Singapore Air Show.So, 2015 Avalon, 2016 Singapore, 2017 Avalon, 2018 Singapore, 2019 Avalon .........The 2 year cycle is why the event can be kept so big and have big trade and general public attendances.Maybe see you in 2017?Mark R

[chook]

Fellas great outcome.Ok now what is the story behind the 2012 registration sticker on G0624"s cheek plate?Regards.....Chook.

[Tim]

we also don"t have anyone on our books other than Paul who can rightfully claim to have experience as an airshow display pilot anyway.Mark RThere are quite a few others who have had experience as an airshow display pilot Mark, some better off forgotten.I think you might be right though, I think Paul may have been the only one to Demo at Avalon.Well spotted Chook?Anyhow, what a great feather in the cap for ASRA.

[Brian]

A terrific publicity story having a number of gyros flying in &

[gyroo]

AVALON DAY 2 Well spotted Chook - yep, little 624 has been sitting in a shed at Swan Hill unflown since 2012, but that"s bye-the-bye, because it"s function at Avalon is to show people that there are "entry level" machines out there that can be had for less than $10,000. Everything else on our luxury lot has a starting price of $65K through to $140K.The "usual" range of extremely loud jets thundered overhead throughout the day, and with 2015 being the centenary of Gallipoli, there was a very entertaining World War One "furball" with up to 9 biplanes and triplanes dogfighting shooting at each other with propane-fuelled machine guns.Day 2 had the general public coming in from lunchtime, and the day ended up with a night show involving parachutists with flares, a jet glider with flares and fireworks, a Hughes 300C with flares and fireworks, a "night assault" with explosives and a so-called "wall of fire", and a fireworks finale.The ASRA enclosure is functioning very well and has settled naturally into a routine. The amount of interest it is generating is really impressive, and the most high-powered visitor we had today was Air Vice-Marshal Gavin Turnbull, Air Commander Australia (http://www.airforce.gov.au/Our-Peopl.../8ce4kHNl59b+g) and his aide de camp. The AVM, who has a background in Iroquois choppers and Hornet jets, was clearly very interested and very impressed with our top-of-the-range machines. Jeff Blunt, who had flown in for the day in a Cessna Conquest, ably assisted and chatted with AVM Turnbull for quite some time. All mightily impressive if you ask me.Tomorrow (Saturday) is traditionally the busiest day, and Sunday morning is also very busy. After that we"ll start a slow pack up through to 6pm, and most of the New South Wales contingent will be flying out on Monday morning.Like the Olympic games head honcho says, "This has been the best ever".

[gyroo]

AVALON DAYS 3 & 4 - SATURDAY & SUNDAYGreetings everyone,Avalon 2015 finished last night with a well earned "Mission Accomplished" after ASRA"s most successful exhibition at the show ever.ASRA sincerely applauds the exhibitors who dedicated practically a week to getting to and from the event and exhibiting so happily and always cheerfully -George and Marnie Harris - Tamworth NSW - Red Cavalon - G1970Dean and Jennifer McFarlane - Tamworth NSW - Orange Cavalon - G1828Russell Duncan and son Rory - Redhead NSW - Champagne-coloured Magni M24 Orion - G1827Bryce Nietvelt and father Ron - Brisbane QLD (Bryce) and Swan Hill VIC (Ron) - "Red Lady" homebuilt - G624Michael Waldon - Illawara NSW - Red ELA - G1958Rick Elliott - Berowra NSW - Yellow MTO Sport - G2366Neil Farr - Manilla NSW - Silver Calidus - G2367Ian Morcombe - Wahring VIC - White Sport Copter M912 - G9120Brett Perry - Altona VIC - White Brako Tandem - G2022A big vote of thanks also to Sam Owen from South Australia who towed his Sport Copter Lightning 3/4 of the way to Avalon only to have his gearbox expensively pack-in at Maryborough in Central Victoria, with no hope of a rapid fix in time to get to the show. Thanks heaps for making the effort Sam!This year, the Sunday crowds were noticeably bigger than the Saturday crowds, with the Sunday crowd being described by the organizers as "bumper". Certainly, at the ASRA enclosure business was brisk for most of the day.On Saturday night Dean McFarlane won the GA-AirSports "Best Rotorcraft in Show" for his orange Cavalon. The award was presented by His Excellency Alex Chernov AC QC, Governor of Victoria, who had apparently surreptitiously prowled around on Saturday afternoon (without his official entourage) and made the selection himself. Dean was competing against all the other gyros as well as all the light sport and privately exhibited GA helicopters at the show.I"ve attached the final pictures for this thread.The first 2 show activity at the site, no 3 shows Dean and Jenny McFarlane and His Excellency"s pick, the 4th the novel sight of the gyros being fuelled from a Shell Fuel Tanker, the 5th shows Bryce and Ron Nietvelt wheeling out G624 amidst the exiting sea of people and child strollers - and showing the clear advantages of little gyros, the 6th shows an ominous looking F22 Raptor with a green glint coming off the head-up display, the 7th a couple of colourful F-16s, and the 8th a B-52 all the way from Louisiana.Russell and Rory Duncan flew out last night during "rush hour" - a mad hour where there are heaps of takeoffs (including quite a few formation takeoffs). They were intending to overnight at Benalla (NE-Central Victoria) at a motel right next to the Airport.Neil, George, Dean, Michael and Rick will be all departing at 9.30am in a block this morning (I write this at 8.50am), with takeoff separation of roughly 30 to 45 seconds, with Rick and Michael heading west then north, and George, Dean and Neil all initially heading west then turning south for a scenic loop down over Port Phillip Heads, morning coffee probably at Phillip Island, then north to the east of Melbourne before heading home (well, that was last night"s plan anyway).I"LL PLANT THE SEED NOW ENCOURAGING PEOPLE TO EXHIBIT AT THE NEXT SHOW - 2017 - IN 2 YEARS TIME - IT"S A REWARDING EXPERIENCE!Regards to all,Mark ReganMelbourne

[Brian]

A great report Mark, well done!!

[RickE]

On behalf of all of the gyros that flew in for the event I would like to thank Mark, Allan and Ian for all their help in regard to a smooth entry and exit through controlled airspace which for us novices made for some pretty nervous studying beforehand. I even gave them a vertical descent over the threshold at no extra charge in an effort to slow down to allow the previous gyros time to exit the runway.ASRA did a great job and we were repeatedly told what a great display we had. Congratulations to all concerned.

[MadMuz]

Yes, not only is Mark an incredibly good looking bloke, he is very handy to have around as well

[Tim]

You need some legal work done Muz?