By Jeanette Walker

I am building this blog site at the same time our long-awaited hangar is under construction at Yarrawonga Airport.
Last Friday (12 September 2008) my husband, Stan and myself visited our block of land at Yarrawonga Airport where the concrete footings of our hangar, set with bolts to hold the steel frame, had been poured.
Well, that might not seem very exciting for some people, but for us it certainly was.
It has been three years since we paid a deposit on our little airport block of land, which measures 25 metres across by 35 metres deep. The attractive part for us is that one end 25 metres fronts onto an asphalt road, and the opposite end fronts directly onto the sealed taxiway at Yarrawonga Airport.
While we were at our block of land viewing the footings, a large truck arrived and workmen proceeded to unload the steel for the frame of our hangar.
Construction is finally underway!
Our hangar will measure 18 metres by 18 metres, but on the road end we are using six metres within the hangar to build a caretakers residence, which obviously should leave us with hangar space 18 metres wide by 12 metres deep to house our Microlight Trike.
Yarrawonga is situated approximately a four hour drive from our home, so we have at times found it a bit difficult organising building contractors “long distance”. At the same time, all we have dealt with have been extremely helpful.
For those unfamiliar with Victoria, Australia, Yarrawonga is situated on the southern side of Murray River, which defines the major part of the border between Victoria and New South Wales. It is on the edge of Lake Mulwala.
We chose Yarrawonga for several reasons, the first being airport blocks of land became available in a new subdivision, and airport blocks are rather scarce in Australia. I believe there are now a few more subdivisions being contemplated in other areas.
The second reason is that several friends also purchased blocks at the same time we did. It isn’t often you get to move into a street where you either know or know-of most of your neighbours.
The third is with approximately one-hour flight time in a Trike (slow for aircraft, approximately 100 kph) in most directions of Yarrawonga there are suitable airports for landing, having a chat and a cuppa, and an hour flight back to Yarrawonga.
Yarrawonga itself is a lovely, large country town that for many years has been extremely popular with tourists and holidaymakers, particularly over the summer months. And while it has the feel of a country town, it has all facilities required by modern-day visitors, from top-of-the-range accommodation and restaurants, to caravan parks and campers and fast-food outlets, and everything in-between.
A flight along the banks of the Murray River reveals many campsites hidden under large gum trees. The river and Lake Mulwala abound with pleasure boats for skiing and fishing. In fact, in summer it fairly hums.
Now like us, you will have to wait for the next piece of our hangar construction!