On the Bottom Half

Good Friday Two!

Because I miss flying so much and now that I have my own mode of transport, I transported myself to the Subury Airfield yesterday to hang out around some airplanes and hopefully find a flying club to rent airplanes from. (I know that prepositions are not words to end sentences with, but it will have to do for now.) It's quite a ride to Penfield Airfield... Anyway...

I got there and poked around the terminal for a bit to read the informative posters and realise the alarmingly large number of ultralights that seem to use this airfield. I found evidence for a few companies that do rent airplanes of some description, but no one was in the office at the time so my inferences were left unchecked. Then, this family arrived and I started chatting to the husband/father Brenton. He was there to take the flying club's Texan out. I got all excited for a minute with the possibility of that Texan being what I know a Texan to be - namely a Harvard, but what he actually meant was this. It is an Italian ultralight that cruises at 115 kt with a 650 nm range! He is awaiting delivery of his own brand new Texan, which is set to arrive in two weeks. Nice airplane, but y'all probably know my feelings about ultralights. However, my recent dearth of flying hours has tempered those feelings. After getting a little closer to these new machines as well, which are made of METAL and SCREWS and have FLAPERONS, SPOILERS, FULL INSTRUMENTS, ENCLOSED CABINS, etc., it turns out that I would fly them given the chance. Now, we were standing on the hangar line, as most pilots are wont to do at airports, chatting about - you guessed it - flying, and a Virgin Blue 737 flies through the sunlight overhead; Brenton looks up, points to it and says, 'that's what I fly!' It turns out he is a First Officer for Virgin Blue flying 737s and he only got back into the game a couple of years ago after 20 years of telling computer chips how to manipulate electrons (programming). What a thrill! Here I am all worried that I'm shooting my flying chances in their proverbial foot by Ph. D-ing for 3 years, when Brenton gets back into it after 20 years of a different career. He did, however, have three thousand hours when he stopped... Hmmm.

Anyway, we chatted for a while longer, and his wonderful wife was so patient letting us banter while the kids were indicating that it was time to leave. He pulled out his little Blackberry type thing with which he keeps track of his schedule, flights, phone, e-mail, text massages, etc., and I asked him where he'd been today. I told him that I was heading to Adelaide on Tuesday and he whips out the electronica again to check his schedule next week. He's flying to Sydney on Tuesday, which he said was 'too bad - you could ride up in the jump seat all the way.' My response you can guess... He continued: 'Well, he said, I live in Sunbury, so give me a call anytime. I'll be out to the airfield pretty frequently and we can go flying when the Texan comes in... Just let me know. Oh, and if your around, we can head into the airport (meaning Melbourne) and go take a look at the 737s in the hangar.' Me: '!!!!!!'

I'll have to look into what it takes to get an Australian ultralight permit with a Canadian Private License and maybe continue on with the Sunbury airfield for a bit. Heading into town today to go to Brokeback Mountain. Shame on the mainstream Melbourne screens for being too afraid to show it. Oh well, kudos to the private and arthouse screens as they get to show it.

posted by Kyle @ 16:59