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VINTAGE GLIDER RALLY IN BORDERTOWN (AUSTRALIA)
In the past few years I have been informed about the Vintage Sailplane
Australia thru Vintage Time, kindly sent to me by Dave and Jenne Goldsmith.
I have been for long dreaming to fly one day to Australia and attend to
one of their Vintage Rally. I was in fact missing having flown in Australia
in my "PASSENGER LOG BOOK". It was actually the only continent
where I did not fly. I flew in fact many times in different places in
Europe, I did it in USA at Elmira and even in Japan. Well, around the
end of last year I decided to stop dreaming and book my flight to Australia.
On January 12th I flew with MARCO, a good friend of mine, to Melbourne
via Singapore. Quite a long flight, but it turned out to be worth while.
We arrived to Melbourne next day in the evening, just in time to stretch
our legs… and lay in bed. Next morning, we took a 7 hours trip by
train and coach, to reach Bordertown, a 1500 souls between Melbourne and
Adelaide. All what we could see in these 7 hours journey, was huge farms
and several cow and sheep herds.
At our arrival at Bordertown, Dave Goldsmith and Alan Patching met us
and drove us to the airfield. Most of the pilots were in the air, so we
joined Dave in his camper for a good glass of wine. Soon after, we met
many participants, who gave us a very warm welcome. We also met, with
great surprise, Ken Ueyama, coming from Japan with his Eon Olympia. Martin
Simons also joined the Rally and took good care of us by driving us back
and forth to the motel, where we were lodged and driving us to Adelaide
after the meeting was over.
Dinners and breakfasts were available at the club house for a very reasonable
price, with a self service system Lot of talks enjoying good friendly
atmosphere with some glasses of good Australian wine.
I first had the chance to fly with the motor glider Dimona, as I wanted
to take air photographs of ES52 Kookabura and the next day I had a flight
on the same sailplane. The cockpit was a bit too small, but the staggered
seats did help. I was happy with both flights, as only in Australia I
could have had the chance to see and fly an original ES 52 Kookabura.
My friend Marco experienced his first glider flight with a Twin Astir
and he was enthusiastic.
Other typical Australian gliders which I never saw before, were the ES
60 Boomerang and the ES 60 B Super Arrow. Almost all other sailplanes
were known to me and seen in other Vintage Meetings. It was a great Rally,
the only regret is that we stayed only 3 days. A good reason to plan to
return again to enjoy the excellent VSA hospitality.
01 - In Australia
02 - Kangaroo Martin Vincenzo
03 - Dave Vincenzo in the camper
04 - Bordertown Aerodrome
05 - ES60B Super Arrow
06 - SZD30 Pirat
07 - ES52 Kookabura
08 - ES52 Kookabura
09 - ES60 Boomerang
10 - boomerang shaped tailplane
11 - First glider flight of Marco
12 - KA - 77 .
13 - Chilton Olympia
14 - Grunau Baby winch lounched14 .
15 - Air view of Bordertown
16 - Kookabura
17 - Marco Vincenzo
18 - My Flight on ES52 Kookabura
19 - Marco on Demona
20 - Farms & Farms
21 - Bordertown - participants
22 - Martin Vincenzo Jenne Marco