Flying

Posted on August 5, 2010 by John

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.

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Changes

Posted on August 4, 2010 by John

APRIL 2010


Big changes in my life.


1. I am working full time again (sob!)
2. I sold my Pitts Special (sob!)
Actually, both are good news.
I am working at the City of Sydney in Town hall House as an editor for the city’s publications.
It is a three-month contract with a view to extending it or making it permanent if it all works out. It is nine to five, five days a week with half and hour for lunch. I’m a proper commuter, coming into the city on the train with all the other lemmings. I leave home at 8.17 and am at my desk by 8.57. It is three minutes and 40 seconds from the train to my desk. I get home at 5.45 pm. Pay is not bad, but no holidays or sick leave – I am just a contractor.
I am part of the Communications and Media team working under the City Engagement director. My team is friendly, helpful, hard working and averages less than half my age. Most of them are young women but (possibly because I am very old) I have been given the status of honorary girl so I can share some of the best gossip and swap fashion tips.
My induction formalities included the very important question: “Can you bake?” D’oh? It turns out there is a baking roster! The comms team has morning tea at 11 every Friday and someone brings along a cake, usually home baked. I look confused and babble some evasive answer. I think “Oh dear, can a cynical old journo like me fit into this supportive and encouraging environment?” Of course I can.
On my first full day I find there is also a kitchen roster! There’s more chores here than at home!
Here are some impressions. I edit a job advert for an IT person. It is about “The digital environment – customer-centric digital experience for our communities.”
A lot of us had tea with the Lord Mayor in a newly refurbished space under the Town Hall. I wear a tie for the occasion. Lousy coffee, good biscuits. A feel-good speech congratulating everyone, a very professional powerpoint display behind her, changing to match the subject. She speeds through the speech a bit to tick all the boxes and congratulate everyone on the list. But she’s very good chatting to people and having photos taken.
I have my photo taken and put on the internal website. Fame!
Meetings are very quick smart. The managers all lay their blackberries on the table before them, look at them and finger them intermittently. I learn about collateral and how not to put precise dates on projects because of all the uncertainties. A few ongoings and actionings and going forwards pepper the conversations.
CEO tells us that after extensive workshopping, the City of Sydney has decided the purpose of our organisation is to: Lead, Govern and Serve. And that our values are: Integrity, Innovation, Collaboration, Courage and Quality. That sounds just like me!



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On the wing

Posted on August 3, 2010 by John
Pitts VH-FFW at Parkes airport in country NSW
One of my last Australian National Aerobatic competitions was at Parkes in country NSW. In this picture you may note the white headband – it is needed to keep in place my Bose noise-cancelling headset. My Biggles-type flying helmet would not fit this new-fangled headset so I devised a chinstrap and headband method (a bit like belt and braces) to keep it in place during negative g manoeuvres. I had to endure a certain amount of ribbing from my unkind competitors, some of whom were apt to break into singing “Let’s get physical” when I donned the headband. It’s a good job I’m not sensitive.
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Posted on December 12, 2006 by John
This was taken quite a few years back – me flying a two-seat
 Pitts Special over Iandra, NSW 

Welcome to the blog, a way of sharing some thoughts and pictures with friends.
Look on the bright side. With this new technology (unlike with the holiday slide show) you are not forced to look at any pictures of me with aeroplanes!

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