Fly Me Friendly

On a cold & windy morning at at the end of May, we had cancelled the day’s scheduled balloon flight in the Yarra Valley so on the way home, I figured I’d drop by Moorabbin Airport to pick up a few items from the pilot shop. I arrived about 45 minutes before the shop opened but fortunately there was some activity over at the Australian National Aviation Museum (aka Moorabbin Air Museum) where I’m a member, so I drove back over to check it out.

It turned out to be the Volkswagon Car Club who had come to set up a concourse amongst the aircraft on static display outside the museum hangars. The museum staff had opened the fence to allow them to squeeze in and get positioned. Excellent!

There were VW beetles everywhere so I started grabbing some photos which have now been loaded into an album on my gallery. They were still bringing in vehicles as I was leaving to go back to the shop, including a great collection of Kombi vans and more modern vehicles as well.

Unfortunately I was pressed for time as I left so I wasn’t able to get photos of the rest of the cars that arrived. The main length of fence along Second Ave was packed with vehicles squeezed in around the aircraft. Most amusing to see :)

I got the word from John that the Victorian chapter of the Aviation Historical Society of Australia was having a Christmas BBQ at Moorabbin airport (YMMB) today. So, I went down to hang out, meet new people and spread the word about our podcast.

It was definitely worth while as I definitely got to meet some interesting people, including Keith Meggs (founding member of the AHSA & current president) and Dr Carlo Kopp, a defence analyst who’s work I’ve been reading for a very long time. Dr Kopp is one of the founders of Air Power Australia, an independent defence think tank.

After a few hours chatting with a number of the people there, I headed off to the Australian National Aviation Museum to catch up with what might be new and on display. I’ve been a member for a while although I’d lapsed and not renewed my fees for a few years – ooops. I renewed recently as part of my DC3 excursion to Albury (yes, I need to write that adventure up – sorry – been busy :) and sorted out the back fees so I’m definitely current now :)

Going through their book pile, I found a number that included biographies, novels and historical narratives. After buying a stack of them, I noticed more in a pile waiting to be put out on display. Guess I’ll be going back again after payday to buy some more :)

The other task I have after I get paid is to join the AHSA as it would seem I may be able to help them with getting their print, audio & video archives online. While I’m certainly no historian, I do enjoy reading biographies & historical narratives and am definitely a big fan of capturing & preserving history online for people to access.

I’ll keep you posted on how all this progresses :)