Cool video! I like that effect!

Quick trip to the Western Slope for the weekend.

Flew over and hand delivered some ice cream sandwiches to a camp. The kids seemed to like it.

Then buzzed the river home.

Had a bit of a special flight today. I took a young fella by the name of Bruno for a burn today.

Bruno is an 18 year old kid whos had it tough. Grew up in an abusive home until the age of 9 when his Dad died of a drug over dose. At age 10 his Mum decided she couldn't take life as a mum any more and kicked him out on the streets. He moved around regularly where ever he could hitch a ride to, never wanting to stay with the same group for to long for fear of being lead down a poor track. Spending most of his life in Sydney, he used to love to make his bed for the night at the end of runway 16R at Sydney airport. While that was the closest he had ever been to a plane, he had fallen in love with them. He said he had always seen planes as a path to freedom, a way to get away from all the negative. He said he would dream every night of flying the planes away to a better place. He some how made his way to the town of Grafton as he thought he remembered his mum telling him once he had family there. He wasn't looking for a place to stay, he was just hoping he could track one of them down and hopefully help him get a job. He never found his family but did meet a fellow I know well by the name of Terry. Terry is an aboriginal fella from a remote mission known as Malabulgilmah of which has just received a great deal of renovation work, a project I was involved in. Terry mentioned to Bruno that he was welcome to stay in the community for as long as he wanted and hopefully he may get some work with the building crew, of which he did, and he was exceptional.

He over heard me talking about flying one day and asked if I flew myself, once he heard I did he asked me every question possible, its all he wanted to talk about and told me how he dreamed of flying but that he had never seen a plane up close. I casually mentioned he is welcome to jump in with me and its all hes apparently thought about till today when one very excited 18 year old kid jumped in the back of the drifter for a 1.5 hour scenic flight around the northern rivers.

While I didn't get to many photos as its a flight I really take for granted, he kept screaming through the headset the whole time things like "oh my god I cant believe I'm flying, I never thought I would ever get to do this" and "this is amazing! just so so amazing!" it was a truly stunning day for it aswell.

During the flight he got to see sharks, whales, dolphins, stingrays, manta rays and a giant turtle, as well as a fly around mount warning and the famous Byron Bay light house.

Then to top things off, when we got back in my good friend Macca was just finishing some work off on a Dimona motor glider. I had been telling him what an amazing experience gliding is which was convenient because Macca called out that he was going for a test flight and wondered if Bruno wanted to jump in. So before he knew it, the kid from the streets who spent his nights dreaming of aeroplanes but had never got close to one, had 2 flights in a single day, in 2 kinds of aeroplanes most people never get the opportunity to have a ride in.

Bruno is a heavy smoker as a lot of kids from the streets are, but before we left he noticed the training rates on the club house wall, through his cigarettes in the bin ans said "I dont smoke because Im addicted, I smoke because it takes me from the pain, but nothing has ever made me feel better than flying, it was the most incredible experience I've ever had, so I'm giving up smoking and saving the money for flying lessons".

anyway sorry for the long story, but today, my simple flight around my local area of which I've done thousands of times before proved to be one of the most rewarding things I have ever experienced.

An early morning but what a day for it.


Bruno one minute, biggles the next!


In the Dimona

Flew to Bettles, met the new owners and enjoyed a really good burger!

Overall the trip was very smokey and very bumpy.

CamTom12 wrote:Flew to Bettles, met the new owners and enjoyed a really good burger!

Overall the trip was very smokey and very bumpy.

We stopped on there on the way to barrow at the end of May. The new owner was super nice. He hadn't opened the lodge building yet, so we ate in the building next door. Had some of the best smoked pork I've ever eaten. Certainly a great spot. Glad you enjoyed the trip.

Brett

Changing someone's life by your contact with them is perhaps the single most rewarding thing one can do. Well done. He'll need a pilot mentor for quite some time.

Nothing like having a young person watch what we do to make us stand up straight and do the right things and do things the right way. So the magic works in both directions!

P

That is absolutely awesome Drifter!!!

Drifter, love it! Good work!

CamTom12 wrote:Drifter, love it! Good work!

+1
Nice!

Just a bit of a follow up to that last post guys, i told that story to another group im involved with, the drifter aircraft appreciation society (yep, hows that for a plane nerd group!)

Anyway we have about 700 members here in Aus and have decided that we are going to put forward a group nomination on behalf of bruno for the lone eagle flying scolarship.

Its a $6000 scolarship that if he is succsesful will take him to his recreational pilots certificate (kind of equivilant to your sport pilot certificate). Anyway if his succesful and we hope he is as there are few more deserving, he well get all his flight training covered in a.....you guessed it...... DRIFTER!

A bit about the scloarship if your interested.
http://loneeagleflyingschool.org.au/upc ... holarship/

Found me a nice short rough gravel bar and some cool water to swim in


I don't think it gets any better.

Took the family down to Seldovia for the annual 4th of July festivities. The weather was perfect for flying with almost no wind and zero bumps.

Man I love seldovia! I can't wait to fly in there next year when I fly up.

DrifterDriver wrote:Just a bit of a follow up to that last post guys, i told that story to another group im involved with, the drifter aircraft appreciation society (yep, hows that for a plane nerd group!)

Anyway we have about 700 members here in Aus and have decided that we are going to put forward a group nomination on behalf of bruno for the lone eagle flying scolarship.

Its a $6000 scolarship that if he is succsesful will take him to his recreational pilots certificate (kind of equivilant to your sport pilot certificate). Anyway if his succesful and we hope he is as there are few more deserving, he well get all his flight training covered in a.....you guessed it...... DRIFTER!

A bit about the scloarship if your interested.
http://loneeagleflyingschool.org.au/upc ... holarship/

You're a good fella, DrifterDriver!

Way to go Tim! Thank you for doing that. It is a turning point.

Run up to Pelican. Been really smokey around here from fires.

Well, I flew but I didn't get anywhere, tried to go to Juneau to pick up family and while doing preflight I found two blown exhaust gaskets.Oh well they will blow once in a while so after a moderate amount of cursing I changed them while watching the deteriorating weather. I called flight service and the report didn't sound great but didn't sound terrible so I went to look. Made it down about halfway and turned around, Call me chicken but I have buried several friends who didn't over the years.

I will try again when it gets better.

I got to get muddy for a good purpose yesterday. We had a call come in of a motorcycle accident with a broken ankle WAY out in the sagebrush. We had coordinates, but it was going to take several hours to get to them on the ground. I jumped in the plane and got to them in under 25 minutes. Landed on the closest dirt road, which was even muddier than it looked, and was able to provide some assistance. Fortunately, the break wasn't severe and all turned out well in the end.

The only thing better than flying is having an excuse to fly that helps somebody else!

Excellent! Glad everyone is ok!