Foxbat ferry flight – Tyabb to Townsville

VH-ZGQ handover

Foxbat VH-ZGQ hand over to Cleveland Bay Aviation

New Foxbat owners Cleveland Bay Aviation from far north Queensland, collected their white A22LS Foxbat VH-ZGQ from Moorabbin Airport on Thursday 17 September and departed to the north for their ultimate destination – Townsville. Pilots Adrian and Chris are taking the scenic route home, via all sorts of outback destinations.

Follow them on their Facebook page – click here: Cleveland Bay Aviation Facebook. As of writing they had stopped for the night in Hay, New South Wales, and the next day were approaching the Dig Tree, near Innamincka…envy, envy, regular subscribers may recall this was the intended destination for our recent outback trip, which ended with 4 days of bad weather at Broken Hill. See below for a list of the post links recording our progress – or lack of it!

When the aircraft finally arrives home, it will be put to work as a flight trainer. Contact Cleveland Bay Aviation via their website by clicking here: Cleveland Bay Aviation Website to book your flying lessons.

The aircraft is well equipped, with a full 10″ Dynon SkyView digital instrument panel, back-up analogue ASI & ALT, with Mode S transponder, fuel computer and high quality German VHF dual watch radio.

STOP PRESS! Sunday afternoon, 20 September; VH-ZGQ has arrived at its new base near Townsville. Well done Adrian & Chris for their 1300 nautical mile trip.

Trip to Innamincka – day 1
Trip to Innamincka – day 2
Trip to Innamincka – days 3 & 4
Trip to Innamincka – day 5
Trip to Innamincka – day 6, 7 & 8
Trip to (the edge of) the outback & back

Aeromusical

Click to view video

Click to view video

Just for a change, here’s a perfect piece of aerial whimsy. I don’t know why anyone hasn’t done this before but the aerial ballet of two pilots, flying in a confined space, is magical and very enjoyable to watch. The skills of both the male and female pilots are remarkable, considering how low they are flying!

Don’t forget Ausfly!

Ausfly reminderA last minute reminder that the 2015 ‘Ausfly’ show at Narromine, NSW, is scheduled for Friday 4 and Saturday 5 September – only a week away!

Foxbat Australia will have on show at least one current A22LS Foxbat as well as the new A32 Vixxen – its first formal public outing since its first flight in Australia only a few weeks ago. We are also hoping to show the latest A22LS Foxbat from Moruyair, with controls modified so that disabled pilots can learn to fly it.

The show is jointly sponsored by the Sport Aircraft Association of Australia (SAAA), AOPA Australia, Australian Warbirds and last but not least, Recreational Aviation Australia (RA-Aus). As a result, there should be a wonderful gathering of all types of aircraft, from ultralights to heavy metal and all points in between.

There are air displays planned for both Friday and Saturday, with warbirds, solo aerobatics and the RAAF Roulettes strutting (or should that be winging?) their stuff.

The weather is looking hopeful at this stage – certainly for the Narromine area – but it’s still a long way off in weather forecaster’s terms, so my fingers are firmly crossed that the cloud will be high over the ranges.

If you manage to get to the show, come and say hello and have a look at the A32 Vixxen for yourself. The show site layout is still a bit flexible but Foxbat Australia will likely be on the apron between the indoor exhibits area (hangar 10) and hangar 17 – look for our black teardrop flags with the red & white Fox head logo.

Foxbat – bush destinations

Cygnet Pearl Farm

Cygnet Bay Pearls Airstrip S16°26’23.22″ E123° 1’2.48″

Here’s news from would-be Foxbat owner Bruce Brown, of Cygnet Bay Pearls, near Broome in northern Western Australia. This is what he says:

“We are the oldest pearl farm in Australia and for the last 5 years we have opened to the public, a situation bought on by the GFC and our need to diversify.

So it was a pleasant surprise this morning when I found a Foxbat sitting on our airstrip! Peter and Stephanie set off from Queensland a little while ago and are heading all over Australia. Both are keen bird watchers and Peter uses the aircraft for bird observation and recording. A few days before they arrived, we also had a group of other Light Sport Aircraft come in and stay a few nights. We are located about 5 kilometres east of Cape Leveque which is a popular place for touring aircraft to visit.

Cygnet Farm 02We want to publicise our airstrip and facilities to attract more touring people. We are only 40 miles from the famous ‘Horizontal Waterfalls‘ and adjacent to all the rugged Kimberly wilderness country. We are only 100 miles North of Broome with our own 1200 metre hard red dirt strip with no stones (unlike Cape Leveque Airport). With a little prior notice, we can supply fuel and we have Safari tents, standard tents, old pearlers’ cottages, and a camp ground, as well as a restaurant and swimming pool. We ferry people from our airstrip to our facilities. We offer pearl farm tours and boat tours of the tidal Buccaneer Archipelago.”

Sounds pretty much like heaven to me…and you can see it all by clicking here: Cygnet Bay Pearls

Thanks for the information Bruce and very best wishes for a successful future – I hope you get plenty of visitors!

Brazilian Foxbat – a trio of videos

Brazil Video 01

Brazil Video 02Brazil Video 03

Here is a very nice set of three videos from Eduardo Fernandes Gontijo, A22LS owner in Brazil. Although fairly long – 6-11 minutes each, they show great views of the interior of this vast South American country. The music is good, even relaxing, and the various view points he’s used for the cameras also adds interest. It’s also good to see the aircraft being used to visit friends!

I can’t be certain but it looks like Eduardo has an MGL iEFIS installed in his A22LS with maybe a Garmin 695/795 for navigation. So far in Australia we have installed mainly Dynon equipment – anyone any experience of these large MGL screens?

Anyway – thanks for the video links Eduardo, it looks like you are enjoying your flying!

As usual, click on the photos to go to the YouTube page for viewing.

A22LS Foxbat flies at Oshkosh

Oshkosh A22

Foxbat at Oshkosh – click picture for video

Here’s a video from across the Pacific from my colleague Dennis Long, newly appointed as one of the agents for Aeroprakt in North America. He took his new A22LS demonstrator to Oshkosh and flew into the grass ‘ultralight’ strip…quite a few times, judging by the video!

I have never been to Oshkosh, one of those ‘must go’ places for anyone who really calls themselves a pilot! Maybe next year…

Ausfly 2015 – 4-6 September

Ausfly 2015One of the few specifically light aviation airshows in Australia this year – Ausfly 2015 – will be held at Narromine, NSW, from 4-6 September. The main days for exhibits and flying displays will be Friday and Saturday (4 & 5 September) with most people, as usual, departing for home on the Sunday morning.

I’m pleased to announce that Foxbat Australia will be publicly showing the new A32 aircraft for the first time, alongside the familiar A22LS Foxbat.

As well as all the static exhibits, a full flying display is planned, with plenty of aerobatics and other aerial delights.

The show is primarily sponsored by the Sport Aircraft Association of Australia (SAAA) who are the body mainly responsible for amateur built aircraft. Although there will be many workshops around building your own aircraft, there will also be safety and other seminars covering a variety of other aspects of light aviation.

For me, one of the highlights of these fly-in airshows is wandering along the lines of parked aircraft and marvelling at the sheer diversity of all the flying machines. Ausfly caters for a wide variety of aircraft from warbirds and general aviation through to amateur built, light sport and recreational/ultralight aircraft. Occasionally you might see one for sale – you never know what you might find!

There’s a dinner on the Saturday evening, where awards will be presented to special aircraft in a range of categories. If you haven’t already booked accommodation (or you’re planning on camping), it might be a bit late for motels in Narromine itself, but there’s still plenty of room available in nearby Dubbo.

Come along and say hello and have a good sticky-beak at the A32. You won’t be disappointed!

Borodyanka Fly-in 2015

BorodyankaIt’s good to view some fly-in aerial activity from the other side of the world – in this case, near Borodyanka (sometimes spelled ‘Borodianka’) which is located to the north west of Kiev in the Ukraine. Here is a very nicely made little video which captures well the feeling of a local fly-in. [Click the picture to see the video]

Sitting where I am, wrapped up in my warm woolies and scarf in the middle of a Melbourne winter, the clear sunny summer skies look very inviting! There’s an interesting mix of aircraft at this fly-in, from an aerobatic Sukhoi through various Cessnas to some offerings (of course) from Aeroprakt. CEO Yuriy Yakovlyev arrives in his personal A36 and there are examples of the A22, A32 and the seaplane A24. There’s even a short display by Aeroprakt with smoke trails from the aircraft…I must ask them to send me a smoke kit for my demonstrator.

Roll on summer in Australia!

Foxbat landing Jandakot Airport

Landing at JandakotHere’s a link to a short video from Foxbat owner, Andrew Murray, flying his aircraft into Jandakot Airport, Perth, Western Australia, for the first time. It’s also his first in-flight GoPro video – not bad at all on both counts!

Jandakot Airport is the general aviation hub for Perth and lies just south, close to Perth International Airport. As well as being the home base for the Royal Aero Club of Western Australia, it’s one of the busiest GA and training airports in Australia.

Click on the photo to open the video.

 

 

Aeroprakt A32 flies in Australia

A32 landing 01Monday 20 July – the first Aeroprakt A32 in Australia, VH-VBQ, made its maiden flight at Moorabbin Airport. After flying some circuits I then flew it to its new home at Tyabb Airport.

I’ll be writing a full ‘first impressions’ report soon but meanwhile, I can tell you the aircraft exceeded all my expectations – I even had to take two friends for flights just to confirm I wasn’t dreaming.

All the development work on the aerodynamics has paid off handsomely, with a quiet and smooth cruise, while retaining all the short take-off  and landing characteristics which are the hallmarks of Yuriy Yakovlyev’s designs.

Today’s flying totalled less than 90 minutes…watch this space for more.

As usual, thanks to Mike Rudd for the photo – click on it for the full size version