Airlie Beach Air Show

It must have been a record crowd last weekend for the Airlie Beach Airshow at Whitsunday Airport - there were people everywhere! Clear skies made excellent viewing conditions and a stiff breeze gave respite from the hot sun.

Crowds out for the Airlie Beach Airshow

There were a variety of planes on display, on the tarmac and in the air. The military aircraft consisted of a magnificent Spitfire replica, Aero L39 Albatros Fastjet, a T-28 Trojan, a P-51 Mustang, a Wirraway and a Grumman Avenger.

Spitfire replica

Yakovlev Yak 52

North American P-51 Mustang

There were helicopters galore,  including the local army cadets demonstrating a heli medivac. There were Gippsland Airvans, Beavers and Caravans, all doing fly pasts. The Whitsundays own 1940's DH-82A Tiger Moth was also showing his tricks from the open air cockpit.

Tiger Moth

Just to drive home that anything is possible, a local man with his Zenair 701 was there to talk about his outback flying adventure with his mates last year: 8484 kilometres over 26 days to the west coast and return. What an adventure. What freedom!

Rogan with his Zenair 701

One of the main attractions, the Paul Bennet Airshow, left everyone in awe of the precision acrobatic manoeuvres of the hand built Wolf Pitts Pro, screaming up to speeds of 300 kilometres per hour.
This amazing pilot looped and rolled then tumbled out of the sky after climbing 2500 feet - there was a collective gasp as the plane went quiet for a couple of seconds as it went into a stall. The grand finale was the triple ribbon cut, at just 16 feet above ground and spaced 300 feet apart this is something that must be seen to believe it is even possible.

Stuntman Paul Bennet in the Wolf Pitts Pro

The final act was the formation display of the Royal Australian Air Force Roulettes. The six Roulettes fly at speeds of up to 590 kilometres per hour in their PC-9/A aircraft and may experience up to 4.5 times the normal force of gravity during their aerobatic display. I have seen these guys fly at many places around Australia: Mt Panorama in Bathurst (several times over the years for the annual car race), in Hobart, and Coral Bay on the North West Coast.

PC-9/A designed by Pilatus Switzerland and built under license by Hawker de Havilland in Sydney.
Introduced to the RAAF in 1987.

RAAF Roulettes in action

From an event management perspective, the Airlie Beach Airshow was a very well organised event; from the park and ride to gate entry and layout of the venue. There was a variety of quality food stalls, shade areas and toilets so there was no queuing or standing around in the hot sun. An excellent day out. Looking forward to the next one!

Girls in the jeep

Airlie Beach Triathlon

As a regular bike rider and swimmer, I thought I would enter the Enticer Airlie Beach Triathlon. My only concern was the run leg - it's not something I am particularly good at, except when I have a tennis racquet in hand.

I was able to convince my husband to be my support crew, which actually really only meant him getting up at the crack of dawn on a Sunday morning with me instead of lying in bed. Registration was the day before, so the various stickers were already placed on the relevant paraphernalia that's required for identification: number 177 was stuck on my bike helmet and bicycle, pinned to my running top and tattoed on my arm.  The pink wristband was adorned to enter the transition area, and the GPS tracker ready to be strapped to my ankle before the starting gun.

Transition area

The weather was superb with a light breeze, 17 degrees Celsius and clear skies - perfect conditions for a 300 metre swim beside Airlie Beach lagoon, a 10 kilometre loop bike ride to Cannonvale and 2.5 kilometre return run along the boardwalk.

Ready for the swim

I didn't break any records, but I put in a solid midfield performance (14 out of 22) and completed the course in just under an hour at 00:59:29. Swim time was 00:09:12, ride 00:32:35 and run 00:17:41.

Start of the 10km bike leg

The overall winner of the Sprint Triathlon, which is twice the distance for each enticer leg, finished in the same time as me. It's amazing how fit some people are.

Finished!

Thanks to my husband for the encouraging clapping and cheering (and photos), as well as to all the volunteers from the Whitsunday TriClub and the emergency service personnel who gave up their time to help make it a fun, smoothly run event.

Bring on the Bowen triathlon next month!

Spring blooms

Colours were abalze at the 73rd annual Proserpine Uniting Church Flower Show on Saturday. It would have been hard work for the judges to select the prize winning bloom for each category as there were so many beautiful entries.

Surprisingly, there were a number of cooler climate flowers such as the rose, alyssum, petunias and phlox, in amongst the tropical favourites of bouganivillea, desert rose, orchids and bromeliads. There was also a native flower category with lovely bottlebrush and grevillea on display.

Orchids are the main attraction of the show - their colour and bilateral symmetry are what makes them so desirable. There are more than 25 000 documented species and these masters of deception grow naturally all over the world. The reproductive parts of many orchid flowers are coloured and shaped to look like the insect they are trying to attract, so once the pollen sticks the insect flies off to find another 'mate'!

A timely segment of Gardening Australia on Saturday evening showcases one gardner's passion for the orchid family.

The local school choirs provided some entertainment while we sipped a cup of tea and munched on homemade biscuits and scones, and we bought some unusal plants on sale on our way out the door.

Flying to Innisfail

It literally was a flying visit to Innisfail, but we did also have the intention to fly once we arrived there!

Departing the Whitsundays on Friday afternoon, we were both looking forward to another Delvy adventure. Heading north on the Bruce Highway, the dusty, tree-stunted landscape, interspersed with fields of sugarcane between Proserpine and the north of Townsville, finally gave way to some tropical vegetation just south of Ingham - our stop for the night. It was as far as we could manage to drive, and we were still only halfway to our destination. We squeezed Delvy in amongst all the other highway travellers at the roadside camp of Frances Creek. The only sounds were those of passing traffic, and as the night wore on it was less frequent.

Awake early and on the road by 6.30am - we had another three hours driving to get to Innisfail on the Cassowary Coast!

The vegetation was becoming more dense and the air thicker with humidity. A stop off at the Hinchinbrook Island lookout was hard to go past. The largest island in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, I have always wanted to walk the Thorsborne Trail since my Queensland Travel consultancy days. However, it may remain on the wish list as the resort has just been destroyed by fire.

Hinchinbrook Island

We continued along The Great Green Way, driving adjacent to the Hinchinbrook Channel, through the waterside town of Cardwell. There was no time to explore the hinterland and National Parks - we'll have to have a few more days for sightseeing next trip.

Banana plantations were becoming as common as sugarcane as we passed through Tully, and then finally into Innisfail. It was 9.30am and it was time to learn to fly!

Learning to fly a gyrocopter

Gary had a couple of hours in the air with Rob, the instructor, before convincing me to get in the chair and see what it's like. Terrified at first, I soon eased into it and the wonder of feeling the warm air pass over me as I soaked up the views. Rob flew me over Etty Bay and the caravan park we were booked into that borders the Moresby Range National Park. Our friends who travelled from Cairns to meet us waved enthusiastically - we were only about 500 metres up in the air. Stunning coastline, lush rainforest and Johnstone River views were just mesmerising. The cultivated symmetrical patterns in the red dirt were striking from the air: a beautiful contrast to the lush green ordered rows of papaya, bananas and cane, all neatly contained in square fields. No photos from the air unfortunately, as to have a camera on board was a little precarious.

Cassowary on the beach at Etty Bay

Coming back down to earth I was buzzing. Nearly as much as Gary was - he has always wanted to fly and he was loving it. The gyrocopter is a fascinating machine - it's grass roots flying, completely open to the elements. That's the attraction I think - Amelia Earhart style. Whilst the weather was very favourable on Saturday, Sunday morning was looking less so. Still, we both managed a turn in the air before the showers became too heavy. This time I took control of the stick - only for a short stint though as it's quite daunting!

It was a long drive back home on Sunday, but we were both on a high (pardon the pun) from our flying adventures. Stay tuned for some more gyrocopter action - we are hooked!

Cardwell jetty