My lovely Pitts Special has gone to a good home. It took me more than a year to sell it but I got a good price for it in the end. I gave up aerobatic competitions a while back (after 14 years of fun). It was all getting a bit too hard and a lot too expensive. Costs shot up for insurance and hangarage – not too bad when I was working full time, but not when I went part time (and when my superannuation nest egg took a huge dive in the Global Financial Crisis).
I wasn’t flying it much when I was trying to sell it. I now have about 1150 flying hours, more than 600 of that in Pitts Specials. Without a single crash! Not bad.
I also have a few trophies – one for Australian Advanced Aerobatic Champion, a few NSW state wins, and lots and lots of second places.
I have checked out in a four-seat Piper Archer belonging to a flying group I joined years ago, and I shall fly that for a while. I can now take other people flying. My single-seat Pitts was a bit selfish, really. I shall miss the aerobatics but I can always hire a Pitts and have a play if I get desperate.
The cost of flying is affecting everyone. Bankstown airport, where I have been flying from, used to be really busy at weekends but now it is quiet because many of the flying schools and clubs have gone out of business or moved. The owners of the airport seem to be intent on driving the planes away and turning the site into an industrial park. I guess there is more money in that.
In my albums
