Dragonboat racing took us to the sea side
resort city of Caloundra, about an hour north of Brisbane, Australia.
Between dragonboat activities, my husband Henry and I were able to do
some sight seeing on our own. One interesting place was the aviation
museum at the Caloundra airport. For such a small place as Caloundra it
had a surprisingly large museum. It had acres of inside and outside
static displays consisting of military aircraft, ones that had been in
the mail service and many others including a DC 3.
Across
from the aviation museum were some flight schools. While Henry, and
friends Bill and Laura did a sightseeing trip in a C172 over Caloundra
and the dragonboat race site, I signed up for a check out ride in a Sky
Fox, a plane I was told was built right in Caloundra. My instructor,
John Hausler, from Skyfox Flight Training, took me to the ramp and
introduced me to the brilliant canary yellow, canvas covered, tubular
frame plane. It reminded me of a piper cub. It was a step up from an
ultra light, in the light sports category. The two seater plane was
powered by an eighty horse power, four cylinder, liquid cooled Rotax
engine with a twin bladed wooden prop. It held 50 gallons of fuel with a
fuel flow of 14g/hr. Cruising speed was 70 Knots and Stall speed 43
Knots. Twenty instructional hours was all that was required to learn to
fly the Skyfox. A Navigational Endorsement, using Nav computers,
compass, charts, plotters etc. was optional. No Medical is needed just
what is required for driving a car.
After
the walk around we got into the open cockpit, me in the left seat.
Although driving in Australia is on the left, flying is the same as back
in North America. Visibility was great out of the wide-moulded
windscreen and through the gull wing doors. Brilliant sunlight shone
through the sky lights. The instruments consisted of an Air Speed
indicator, Altimeter, compass and slip indicator. The engine instruments
were the Water temperature gauge, EGT, Tach and Hobbs meter. The run up
was done and radio calls made at the uncontrolled Caloundra Airport (YCDR).
With winds light and variable, temp 24 degrees Celsius, and a cloudless
sky we chose the runway closest to us for take off since no one else was
flying. While taxiing to the threshold there I spotted something
grayish brown bounding away at the distant end of the runway. A
Kangaroo! What a reminder that I was in Australia. I have seen coyotes,
deer and Canada geese on runways but a kangaroo was a first. Rotation
was at 43 Kts and best climb 60 Kts.
We
climbed out towards the east over the red roofs of our resort, towards
the blue green of the ocean and the practice area over Bribee Island a
long spit of land running for miles along the coast of Queensland. We
did steep turns, stalls and spiral dives. The Skyfox was not certified
for spins.
No one
from my team has seen Australia from my vantage point… spinning,
twisting and turning below me a kaleidoscope of colours ….greenish blue
from the sea, vanilla white of wide sandy beaches and green vegetation.
All too soon we straightened up and it was time to fly back to the
airport, over the streets of the city, where we held the parade of
athletes, the park where the opening ceremonies had been, the beaches
and swimming pool beside the beach, shark nets (Yikes!) and the
restaurant on the board walk where we had breakfast every morning. In
the distance were the peculiar shapes of the Glasshouse Mountains.
The
circuit was approached overhead and I prepared for the landing. No
flaps….just flaperons. Speed was controlled by the throttle and
attitude, raising the nose with the control stick. John talked me
through the landing and we touched down smoothly. We taxied back to the
hangar and so ended a most exciting hour and another interesting
addition to my log book.
