April 25th here in Australia and in New Zealand was ANZAC day. ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, The name given to soldier’s from both Countries who served in world war 1. The date April 25th signifies the Gallipoli landings in 1915. When Australian and New Zealand forces landed on the Turkish beaches to a rain or fire and heavy defence. The battle was all but a massacre for both sides . Today Anzac day is a day taken to remember those who served in all theatres of war.
Evans head is home to the Evans Head memorial Aerodrome. A typical World War 2 3 runway Airfield of which for the war was the Home of the Bombing and gunnery training school. Over A quarter of Australian air force personal who lost their lives during world war 2 trained at Evans head. This year the Evans head RSL (returned servicemen’s league) asked me to organise 2 fly over’s of 2 services for the day, probably one of my greatest honors to date!
My day started with a 4:30 dawn service at a small local town to me called Mullumbimby.
I then went down to the hangar to open up. Loved the view I was greeted by. I have had a temporary neighbour up from Tasmania for the week, an ex West Australian Forestry’s Scout with long range tanks, VG kit, bush wheels and baby bush wheel, pilots porn! And if you knew what he payed for it…..you would hate him to! He joined us for the fly bys to.
I Also had a passenger for the day, young Fletcher, a colour blind 12 year old who’s always wanted to be a pilot. Unfortunately hes school year advisor told him he couldn’t be a pilot because hes colour blind. His dad has been wanting me to take him flying where possible to reinstill he drive to fly, nd the bush flying community is the place to do it! He may not be able to fly a 747 but a caravan is still n option and way more fun! At 7 o’clock we met up with motor glider YHB, the third aircraft in our formation and head south for evans head.
Heading south, great view of the rising sun over Cape Byron. Also looking south to Lenox head (that picture went all fuzzy when I shrunk it for some reason?)
Passing over Ballina and Ballina airport, and of course we cant forget the big prawn! Or the big shrimp as you Americans would call it!
When arriving at Evans head the scout motor falke and I formed up just north of the field and flew 3 fly overs of the ceremony, landed and joined the very small but very nice private ceremony with just members of the local flying community, ex servicemen and RAAF personnel.
After that we headed for the air once more, there was another public ceremony we over flew at the war cemetery not far from the end of the runway in formation.
After tea, coffee and biscuits, all the aircraft headed home to the own airports, while the scout and I headed over to a private strip belonging to a friend of mine, the strip I did the takeoff and landing record at. He had a student on board who was doing his constant speed and tail dragger endorsements and was looking for a field to do some touch and goes at without traffic.
While I was there I couldn’t help but grab some photos of it all! My wife doesn’t like me perving on things prettier than her but I couldn’t help myself with bush tyres like that!
From there the Scout flew back home to my strip and I tracked north along the Wilson river to Lismore to drop young Fletcher off with his mum. After getting out of the plane, the over excited 12 year old didn’t even get a good bye out, just a “mum mum! Can I borrow your phone to call grandma and tell her all about it!”. I think his mum must have got in his ear however cause as he drove off he yelled! “bye maverick!” of which I replied “cya goose!”.
After leaving Lismore airport (first photo) I overflew the old copper sulphate mine at Bexhill. It flooded about 20 years ago, and the cooper sulphate has turned it that amazing blue. However there’s still 2 excavators in it! If you look closely you can see one under the water there in the bottom right hand corner.
From there I continued to head home over the closest town to where I live, Federal as you can see in the photo. The other photo shows one of the many macadamia farms in the area around me. The macadamia nut was actually first created only about 20 K’s as the crow fly’s from the federal township.
With the airstrip in site, I got to say, I think I get one of the best heading home views a person can have. Back at Tyagrah the last photo shows a very happy young man beside the plane that provides an endless list of amazing experiences. The Icing on the cake for the day was once home, I got to take 2 ex service men for a 1 hour flight each. I don’t think days get much better than that and I look forward to doing it all over again next year!
