Happy New Year to all. A rather belated report this month due to plenty of commitments for Kerry and myself as we have the remainder of our family depart the madness in the USA and staying with us. Our son Stuart returned after working and raising a family in Arizona. Four years of Trump politics, the mismanagement of COVID and now civil unrest was enough and we are lucky to have one half of our family safely back in Tasmania. “The other half”are located in WA and we look forward to visiting once COVID is hopefully under control.
We have now seen the back of one of the worst years in my living memory. However, the new year has already demonstrated that the worst is not over with Victoria and NSW having moved back into lockdowns as COVID shows the result of complacency and the impact of ignoring social distancing. Thankfully this now appears under control again.
We here in Tasmania have been very fortunate so let’s keep it that way and not take our success for granted. It is important to maintain hygiene so please continue to observe the guidelines and when at the field use the sanitisers and record your visit.
Christmas Lunch – December 5
Saturday, December 5 was our annual Christmas Lunch event. Originally scheduled for December 12, we decided to change the date to avoid a clash with the PFL Pattern event which would have meant some of our members and our friends from RFAM would not have been able to attend.
As it turned out we had the best roll up for many years, with 33 adults and 3 children in attendance. Whilst we didn’t get the full contingent from RFAM, we were very pleased to see Tony and Elaine Grey and Will Deal. We do not take for granted the effort they make to travel north for our function. Elaine actually commented that the looks forward to this as their highlight. Unfortunately, Geoff Hays was unable to attend as his daughter had flown down from Queensland to help him prepare for his relocation. As usual Kerry had prepared quite a feast, supplemented by food donations prepared by Gloria Willis and Kaye Hope. A big thank you to all the ladies who assisted in preparing and serving the food to everyone. The food started off with Kerry’s now famous home made spring rolls and we were quite proud to have our recently arrived granddaughters, Marina and Sienna passing these around to all the members and guests.
The weather was great early on and Rodney flew a couple of his warbirds. Kevin Hay also put in a bit of a pattern display, no doubt preparing for the upcoming PFL event. Fred brought his Fly Baby and after some tuning by Kevin, the model was in the air. Nice to see Peter Daniel join us, as he usually does every Christmas. His mate and flying buddy, Doc Baldock was sadly missed as he passed away earlier this year. Peter flew the “Doc” designed, “Phaze Doc” in his memory. Our new member Phil Elliott, commented on how much he enjoyed the day and particularly the camaraderie at our club.
Images captured on the day are courtesy of our granddaughter Marina, who readily volunteered for the task. I thought I got off lightly with Marina doing the roving reporting. At least I expected that, until I uploaded the images from the card and found I had 528 images to sort through! I have narrowed it down to 68.
New Members
We have been fortunate enough to have another 2 new members join us. Father and daughter, Bruce and Emma Gilham. Welcome to both of you and we hope to see you at the field soon.
From the World Wide Web….
I’ve added another snippet from the WWW. This time a jet that cost over $A90,000!
Now if you thought landing on our field has it’s challenges some time, spare a thought for the FA-18 pilot landing on an aircraft carrier as in the video below.
Bon Voyage to a long time member and friend
On January 22, a few members attended an informal dinner at the Queens Head Inn at Perth to say goodbye and wish our friend and long-term committee member Geoff Hays, a safe and happy move to be with his family in Nambour, Queensland. We thank Geoff again for his longstanding support of the club, his outstanding contribution to the maintenance and the upkeep of the clubhouse and surrounds. We will miss you Geoff. All the best from all of us.
Whilst the menu was not as comprehensive as in the past, anecdotally the food quality was excellent. The steak was especially good. All in all, a good night and word was that we should do it more often, so look out for another dinner in a couple of months or so.
Thanks go to those who have stepped up to the plate and taken on some of the maintenance tasks. A job shared is a job halved.
Lastly, the subject of the club having a Facebook presence raised its head again this month. The club has had a Facebook page since June 1, 2015. The link is on the Home page on our website. I have mentioned this previously. Unfortunately it has not been well supported either due to many members not being very active on FB (such as myself) or lack of interest. However if you are interested the link is here. You will need to join by following the links in order to view or post as it is a “Private” Group.
In closing, we know some our members have had some health issues in 2020. Let’s hope 2021 sees them enjoy some better health and a return to the flying field and a COVID free 2021.
Well that’s it for this month. Don’t Forget – Put a Spark in your life and fly electric!
George
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