Going by air (Part 3)
We’ve been travelling with a reporter from the Adelaide Register newspaper, on the nascent Australian Aerial Services airmail flight between Adelaide and Sydney – a direct distance of some 630 nautical miles. (As a comparison, London to Paris is 184 nm, New York to Albany is 117 nm, and L.A. to San Francisco is 292 nm.) The land along the route was slowly being occupied, … Continue reading Going by air (Part 3)
Going by air
In 1925, a correspondent for the Adelaide Register took the opportunity of a lifetime – and flew on the De Havilland DH.50 airmail between South Australia and Sydney. Over 90 years later his account is a wonderful piece of time travel, that I’m not about to tarnish by over-amplifying the context. I’ll save the background for a subsequent post. (Although, I have to point out … Continue reading Going by air
Out and back
Lessons learned This was going to be the post about how I’d finished sandblasting my rusty pilot’s licence, completed my RA-Aus (Recreational Aviation Australia) endorsement checkride, and been cleared to fly solo pretty much whenever I wanted. (Which is pretty much all the time.) As it happens, that’s not quite how things turned out. Go? No go. Flight training has a frustrating capacity to teach … Continue reading Out and back
Still with us
History in the making Late one English midsummer afternoon, eighteen young men fell out of the sky over Allhallows, Kent, in England. The date was June 19th, 1944 and they were the victims of German flak. Not from the ground below, obviously, but from a target area half an hour and 83 miles behind them. Closer to their Kimbolton base than the combat zone, they … Continue reading Still with us
Decisions, decisions
Valuable lesson Everyone should watch the video clip below. Just over half a million people already have, but ‘everyone’ is over 14 thousand times more people than that. Even the world’s piloting community is a more than 500,000 people strong, and they should definitely all watch it. Besides, I’ve watched it three times already so two people are missing out right there. Mustang down In … Continue reading Decisions, decisions
Nice ideas
Boxing Day click-bait The internet might have been made for Boxing Day. After all, the house is full of food, there isn’t much to do, and no one has the energy to do much of anything. Perfect web-clicking conditions. So make yourself a generously laced hot chocolate, or scrabble around in the bottom of the esky for the beer that’s been swimming in icy water … Continue reading Nice ideas
Auld Lang Syne
Back from the past It’s no practical solution to anything really, but sometimes when I’m not sure what to do with ‘airscape’ I just sit back and see what serendipity brings… Sure enough, last week whatever Great Spirit you choose to believe in stepped up with an out-of-the-blue email from Gander, Newfoundland. I showed my kids how almost exactly on the other side of the … Continue reading Auld Lang Syne
Tell the sky to rejoice
3, 2, 1, Breathe How long can you hold your breath? For 30 seconds…? A minute…? Actually, it’s longer than you think. For me, it was a little over 12 years. To be precise, it’s been 13 years since I flew anything with a throttle, and about 11-½ years since I flew a glider. After a while, the numbers don’t matter. Twelve years seems about … Continue reading Tell the sky to rejoice
Pioneer Trail
Augustus Moore Herring When I scan my mental list of ‘first flight’ claimants – or even powered flight pioneers – the name Augustus Herring is something of an unknown quantity. That’s a massive oversight, as even a quick read of Herring’s Wikipedia entry proves. Herring wasn’t just one of the USA’s most important aviation pioneers, he was arguably one of the key threads linking everyone else’s … Continue reading Pioneer Trail
Vital signs
Enjoying the country air You see. This is what I’m talking about… In the past two weeks I’ve been to two small, country air shows. And country shows are the best. The first was quite by accident. The small airfield at Aldinga (YADG), about 45 km from central Adelaide, had promoted an ‘Open Day’ that I wanted to go to. (You’ll see why in an … Continue reading Vital signs
