Eastern Creek - World Time Attack Challenge

This past weekend I took the Rebel down to Sydney to fly at Eastern Creek Raceway.
The weather getting to Sydney was challenging with storms and rain.  I ended up diverting to Cessnock for more petrol and to check the weather.  When I arrived at Richmond, there was a storm over one end of the airfield!

Luckily, the weather was fine the next morning for the actual display.  The track is in a bowl with very large power lines running through it - this made for an interesting display flight.  A lot of fun!  Being close to Sydney airspace and Bankstown, CASA required a ground observer to clear me into the site and also coordinate with local ATC.  Stuart Hutchison took care of this, and things ran exactly to plan.  Thanks mate!

After the display I landed back at Richmond and then took a helicopter ride back to the track.  A couple of hours later the helo took me back to Richmond.  The only way to travel - thanks Mark!

The Superlap Challenge was a great success, my congratulations to Ian and the other organizers!

Newspaper Article

World Time Attack Challenge

22 May - Eastern Creek Raceway - Hope to see you there!!

http://www.superlap.com.au/

I'll be flying over the track just before lunch time on Saturday.

Mudgee Airshow 2010 **Updated**

I've just got back from the Mudgee Airshow! It was a terrific event with something there for everyone. There was plenty of cloud in the morning and most of the other display and visiting aircraft could not get out of Sydney for the trip across. We joked about how many displays I might need fly to fill in the day ... Luckily, the weather cleared and everyone arrived, albeit, a little late. Rob and the other organizers did a great job massaging the program and things ran smoothly for the rest of the day - good job everyone!



I flew my 5 minute aerobatic display and received some great feedback from various people. My display is certainly a work in progress and I'm adjusting it as I get feedback. Different people like different things but in general I seem to be heading in the right direction.




A little later in the day I did a couple of drag races with this race car, it is a very nice Lola.
It looks like I'm winning but it was actually a very fast car. Even though the Rebel is probably the highest power to weight aerobatic aircraft in the country, he was able to beat me until about mid runway when I would slowly start catching up. He reached over 300 km/hour, which is impressive - the Rebel was just reaching its stride of course. The car was in front virtually all the way to the end of the runway!

It certainly was a lot of fun and no doubt a spectacle for on lookers.

I've now received some information about the Lola. It is a 1987 Lola F3000 with a Lites 630 HP Buick engine. It has a top speed of around 350 km/hour, does 8 second quarter mile passes and has a better power to weight ratio than a current Formula 1 car. The car won the Australian hill climb championships in 1989, 2004, 2006 and 2008. It also does 0 to 200 km/hour in just 6 seconds.

Doug Parry - you have a very impressive car!

No wonder it was hard to catch, even in the Rebel ...

Another interesting spectacle was this helicopter that dropped a car from 1000 feet directly in front of the crowd - it certainly got a cheer!



Overall a great event, crowd numbers were good and so the hard work of the Mudgee Aeroclub was rewarded. Congratulations to all involved.