After the last event slot was cancelled due to poor weather on the 19th of March; the weather on the 23rd of April, couldn’t have been better for the planned 2016 Wylie Fly in – blue skies all round. I was flying a Cherokee 140 on the day. Another UFC member was up and at it early in the morning and was already at Wyalkatchem by the time we got airborne from Serpentine.
I’d built an adsb-pi (Raspberry Pi ADSB receiver – costs about $50 and hooks up to Avplan or Ozrunways using wifi. The same setup works with both apps) the night before so we decided to try it out with Avplan. It worked really well with incredible range and promptly picked up all of the heavies heading in and out of Perth along with quite a surprising number of aircraft on the way out to YWKM. We noticed the skydiving aircraft at Brooklands drop zone were ADSB equipped so we could keep tabs on where they were. I definitely recommend these little gadgets as an aid to situational awareness..
En route to YWKM we maintained 3500 initially to remain clear of the class C overhang between YSEN and MUE. The immaculately maintained little Cherokee 140 hummed along and it was a nice smooth flight out to the field. With the recent rain, all the fields were full of colour and we had a great view. We arrived at Wyalkatchem and joined midfield crosswind for 03 a number of aircraft were already in the circuit and we could hear more approaching. We landed around 10am and we were quickly met by the “follow me” quad bike and waved into parking on the gravel taxiway between 03 and the terminal. We were surprised how many aircraft were already on the ground.
We packed up the aircraft and went to meet some of the people and thank the organisers who were doing a great job making sure the arriving aircraft found the parking areas. A short time later we were greeted by the arrival of a Grob 109b with a 19m wingspan – a very impressive aircraft that most people don’t get to see very often. The aircraft on show included about 25 Vans of various makes RV-6/7/8/9/10, A “Fly Baby” open cockpit aircraft, a number of really nice Bonanzas, a Glassair GIII that had flown from SA that morning, a number of FlightDesign CTSWs and CTLSs, various Cessnas and Pipers, a few different Foxbats, a CT4A, a very interesting Mercedes Powered FK-Lightplanes FK9 ELA and UFCs CSA PiperSport looking nice and shiny. The total count was almost 60 aircraft.
The local Wyalkatchem council and community put on a generous breakfast, refreshments throughout the morning and a BBQ lunch. They also shuttled visitors into and back from the town all day to visit the CBH Museum. They did a fantastic job and put on a great feed for everyone. I’d like to give a huge thanks to the Shire of Wyalkatchem and the Wyalkatchem community for organising the event. It’s great to see local councils supporting GA. I’ve had nothing but good feedback from people. The shire are hoping to make it a regular event.
You can view some of the event photos here https://flic.kr/s/aHskvvXPz1
Scott Palmer – Club President
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