Weekend 14/15/16 August
Stan had another busy, but successful weekend at Yarrawonga.
I am now working only four days each week and having Fridays off, so it should make it easier to go to Yarrawonga Thursdays after work which gives us two full days before packing up and travelling back on Sundays. It is usually several weeks between each visit.
Cobram Windows delivered the first part of our last window order and some Colorbond flashings from Cobram Engineering and Plumbing. On the foggy Friday morning Stan placed the upstairs kitchen window and finished off the timber framework around it. This is an internal window.
Then he tackled the large end window above sliding glass doors.
We are pleased with the outcome and the view from this window as we can see some planes parked at the northern end of the taxiway.
The electrician also came and hooked up the Solar Hot Water so now even if the sun hasn't been on duty during the cooler months we will still have hot water.

Well we have just spent the coldest eight days we can remember. So cold we wrote out a sign 'Welcome to Mawson Base Camp'. Most visitors agreed.
Dianne and Gary McNamara have welcomed the safe arrival of another daughter, Natalie Rose, born on 1st of June. And she is so cute just like big sister Elly.
Stan framed upstairs around the stairwell and also around upstairs sink.
Our plumber Peter Russo, wife Debbie and then daughter Jane spent three nights at Yarrawonga while Peter and Stan installed all the up and downstairs plumbing. I'm sure we now have shares in Reece. Must mention the great service provided by Reece at Yarrawonga.
It's hard to break the habit of filling water containers as water is now connected to hangar sink.
We only had one short flight late in the day - just enough to fly over Lake Mulwala to see how unusual it presently looks without any water. Enough water left to see the original Murray River winding its way through the lakebed. Apparently they have drained the lake as the area has an algae problem and the best way to deal with it is lower the water and hope for cold weather producing five frosts to kill the algae.
Every other day either Stan was too busy, it was raining, or foggy, or windy, but believe me, every day was cold.
And our solar water service arrived but missing a brace, so when we left it was sitting on top of our roof waiting to be connected (which I believe Cobram Plumbing and Engineering has since finished). They installed most of the necessary internal pipes for the solar while we were at Yarrawonga.
Also a local electrician Luke Brennan connected power to our sewer pump so that is now fully operational.
All our insulation batts are at the hangar waiting for the builder to complete more framing.
The builder is now employed elsewhere so might be a few weeks before we have another progress report.
Peter and Anne McLean and Mark Howard now have lift up hangar doors and there is at least one other to go in shortly for Ingo.

We went to the hangar late Friday 8th May with Stan intending to stay until the following weekend and I was going back to Pakenham Sunday and return for him the following weekend. Plans changed quickly with the return of Peter and Anne McLean's Megafauna trip when I managed to obtain a ride home Saturday afternoon.
I left Stan with enough food to last the week (not sure why he's losing weight!) and he accomplished a lot.
Cobram Plumbing and Engineering had delivered the upstairs shower base and flashings to complete the windows, so before Van Steensel Timbers delivered a load of timber and other building materials early Tuesday, Stan had completed the remaining downstairs windows.
He took half a day and made up the stairs so we no longer have to rely on the ladder.
We're not sure why Stan couldn't get any takers to help lift the shower base up the ladder, but once the stairs were in place the shower base was taken up and glued in position.
He was then able to complete the frame for upstairs bathroom and toilet, including the cavity sliding doors.

A lot has happened since I last made an entry.
I might be a few weeks out with dates, but around weekend of 28 March Stan's sister Ada and husband Rob Nicholson came to visit our hangar. We all stayed overnight at our favourite Yarrawonga Waters. It was great to have them there as Stan and Rob put their heads together and worked out a few minor problems. Stan and I thoroughly enjoyed our weekend - hope the Nicholson's felt the same. Since then Rob has been hospitalised with a scheduled major back operation so it will be some time before they can return to Yarrawonga.
The following weekend my brother Kevin and his wife Sandra from Orbost were passing through Yarrawonga so we also met them at the hangar. We now know we can fit two Prado's and a caravan inside along the driveway edge of the hangar. Not sure why but they seemed a bit nervous when the hangar door opened above their Prado!
We took some merbau timber to Yarrawonga for edging the outside of our sliding doors. Stan fitted them and then they received a couple of coats of paint to dry for a week.
Came home Sunday and next day Stan's cousin Shirley and husband Ken Methven from Warneet visited the hangar in our absence. Apparently it was blowing a gale but they said 'they'll be back'!
Then it was back to hangar again at Easter, this time for several days. A bit quiet as the McLean's and the McNamara's and several others were away at Narrabri - getting rather wet and muddy - but that wasn't supposed to happen.
Stan fitted the merbau to the doorways, then painted all some more. Very pleasing end result.
Had three good flights during our stay, first time trike out of hangar on new asphalt. We will have to think about being really lazy and fitting a remote to the hangar door controls.
Last Friday, 24 April Stan talked his cousin John Morgan from Morwell into driving him to Yarrawonga for the day. It was a bare block of land last time John was there so it certainly has changed. Stan had a few things to sort out getting ready for the next time he's out of work and can work at the hangar instead.
Next time we visit Yarrawonga it will be sometime in May - where has the year gone?

Stan's sister Ada and brother-in-law Rob Nicholson went to Yarrawonga with us last weekend. It was our first visit when we didn't have work on the agenda. They took the opportunity to go as Rob is having a major operation next Monday so may not be capable of visiting again for several months.
It was lovely to drive on concrete from the road into the hangar for the first time.
Stan and Rob wore out the tape measure working on further stages of the construction before retiring to the Services Club for the evening.
Doug Brooke and his brother had tuned our television in our absence (thank you), but we won't really try it out until Easter.
All we need now is good weather over Easter to get back in the air and hopefully catch up with friends at nearby airports.

I took my mother, Ruby Cousin all the way to Yarrawonga to visit our hangar. She turns 95 next week so it was rather an epic journey for her. Although extremely tired when she arrived back home, she had enjoyed herself immensely.
I know she was impressed by the hangar and all the work Stan has been doing, but I feel the highlight for her might have been Anne McLean's treasure-trove of quilts. They are absolutely beautiful, and I strongly advise anyone visiting the Lore of Flight Pilot Shop to also ask to see Anne's quilts.
Back to our hangar.
A lot has happened in the week I've been away.
The asphalting is now completed from taxiway to the concrete in front of our hangar, and it also joins onto Peter and Anne's hard-stand area between our two hangars. I know we would have been sorry later if it didn't connect.
Brian Godfrey, the concretor, went home as there was a hold-up on raising the top of the electrical pit in our driveway. He arranged for Bonat's Concreting to finish the driveway out to the road, and that is now completed. Looks good, next time we can drive on it.
Stan borrowed some scaffolding from Douglas Aviation and was part-way through the second-storey framework before running out of materials. We returned the scaffolding and Stan came back to Pakenham for a week while new orders are delivered.

Thanks to a lovely lady friend, I can now put some photos taken over the past few weeks onto this site.
Many photos taken around this time show our hangar walls as a yellow colour instead of white. It was caused by the sun shining through a blanket of bushfire smoke.

What a change in a week!
Apart from the inside of the hangar covered in red dust, we now have a one metre wide concrete footpath right around the hangar, AND a large area to form an outdoor area directly off what will be our kitchen/lounge.
We hadn't planned putting in all the concrete quite so soon, but Brian Godfrey our concretor arrived to put the floor in Mark and Jeanene Howard's hangar next door so he completed our concreting at the same time. But at least we hope it means we will be out of the dust. When it rains (if it ever does again) the soil immediately turns to red clag which sticks to everything. Nothing like walking along and growing taller each stride as mud builds up on the soles of your shoes.
And our driveway from roller-door to the boundary is also concreted. Just a few metres left to do from our boundary to the road. It would have all been completed but for an electrical pit fair slap bang in the middle of the drive so we had to wait for electrical company to increase the height of the pit. And the best part is there are no electrical connections to that pit, we were instructed to use one a few metres away.
Stan had the sliding glass door frames set down in the concrete slab to overcome the problem of a small ledge when you walk in or out, and we're extremely pleased with the result.
Darren from Cobram Windows came with our fly screen security doors to go on the sliding doors and he also changed the glass in one sliding door from clear to grey glass. It was incorrect when it was originally delivered. The grey sheet glass certainly cuts down glare from the surrounding white hangars and we know we'll never be sorry we used it.
As our concrete onto the taxiway was still above ground level by about four inches, Glenn Saunders came in and excavated soil with his bobcat and refilled it with three truckloads of crusher rock which he compacted to a solid surface. The taxiway is to be resealed so we will pay for this area to be sealed at the same time.
And Stan hasn't been at all idle through the week. He has secured in place all the floor struts for the upstairs section, and just on completed the sheet flooring on top of them.
And when I arrived home from Yarrawonga today I opened a letter from Moira Shire saying they have renumbered John Duigan Drive and our number is now 35. It doesn't really affect us apart from advising utility companies, but it will be painful for businesses with stationary and advertising printed with their original numbers.
It's very strange to come home and not find dust and grit all over the kitchen benchtops. And no, the dust in the hangar isn't at all like household dust!
That's it for this week - the camera is still at the hangar so unless I work out how to get photos off a little disk, the photos still won't be updated for at least another week.

Last weekend I forgot to take camera to Yarrawonga, so no photos to add. But Stan, with Peter McLean's assistance, placed the front glass sliding door of our accommodation on the Saturday, a day which turned out to be 46 degrees plus, and Victoria's worst fire disaster. We were in stifling heat, but luckily many miles from the fires.
Smell of smoke filled the air Sunday morning, and after a few hours visibility was down to less than one kilometre. Stan and Peter put our four metre wide glass sliding door in, and by that time smoke was visible in the hangar, and our eyes started to sting.
I was going to drive back to Pakenham and Stan was intended staying the following week, but with the fires still raging and the road we usually take impassable, Stan decided to come back to Pakenham with me.
We actually thought he would go back to Yarrawonga a few days later, but now, nine days later, the fires have taken their toll and are presently contained, but the road up the Melba Highway is still blocked.
We came home on the Hume Highway via the city of Melbourne, which meant driving through 15 kilometres of blackened countryside around the Kilmore area. Homes and sheds were scattered through the ashes that had been saved from the devastation of the fire, and others that hadn't. Very emotional journey.
Back to Yarrawonga via the Hume on Friday night, 13 February. The temperature was at least 15 to 20 degrees cooler this weekend.
Brian Godfrey, our concretor and Glenn Saunders, our excavator and bobcat driver, had been busy for a few days getting Mark Howard's hangar ready for concrete and ours ready for concreting around the surrounds and driveway. Stan and Brian continued over the weekend and some concrete might be poured early this week. This Sunday I did leave Stan there and came home alone.

Stan went to the Hangar on 22nd January, and drove all the way through one of the windiest days Victoria has experienced for some time. Often once you drive over the Great Dividing Range north of Yarra Glen the weather changes completely, but not this time.
He went to receive a delivery of floor trusses which arrived on schedule but were five short, so another delivery still to come.
He is still held up waiting for a delivery of glass sliding doors to complete the framework around the lower level.
The intention was to go back this coming week, but weather forecast for Melbourne over the next five days all seem to be 40 degrees plus, so he will probably put it off for another week.
While moving floor trusses around on top of the frame he discovered the temperature was at least 10 degrees hotter than ground level, and we do have air conditioning at Pakenham!

Well, we've had a further three weeks camping in the hangar and the timber frame for the caretakers residence is well underway. Now a little hold-up waiting on delivery of more glass sliding doors and also floor trusses for the upstairs area, so decided as the weather became extremely hot to head back south to the air conditioner.


And yes, Yarrawonga is starting to feel like home and we've come back to Pakenham for a holiday! Not yet!

But we really have been enjoying our hangar.

From first thing in the morning waking to the chirping of the sparrow family who, up until a few days ago were calling our hangar home, until late at night sitting outside star gazing. (Hope the sparrow squatters haven't taken the opportunity to reinvade during our absence).

Of course we also enjoyed waking each morning to the sound of trike motors, and more often than not, wind. Which prompted the question - are we building in the Windy City? We've been assured it's just the windy time of the year, but I'll keep you informed on that as the year progresses.

Once relatively respectable each morning, we raised our huge hangar door and spent the day admiring our view over the airport to the countryside beyond. Well I did, Stan had to keep working on the framework. But work was nicely interrupted throughout each day by many visitors, numerous cups of tea and of course stopping to watch arrivals and departures of many aircraft.

A vast majority of aircraft arriving at Yarrawonga come to visit the Pilot Shop in the next hangar, run by Peter and Anne McLean. Many of these aircraft park on vacant land between our two hangars which gives us the perfect opportunity to admire and photograph. I intend starting up a page for Planespotting. If I'm going to spend a lot of time at an airport I may as well try to learn the type of aircraft I'm looking at.

New Year's Day and I took my first helicopter ride with Bright Helicopters from the Aerodrome to the Ski Club where the helicopter was taking joy rides. It was a five seater Jet Ranger owned by Craig Campbell, and based in Albury. Stan drove to pick me up and the next morning it was his turn, and I was the pick-up driver. It was really good, no wind in your face!

One windy morning Ken and Pauline Jelleff flew in from Porpunkah where the weather had been calm. We put their trike in our hangar while they looked around, took refreshments, visited Peter McLean, and then decided time to head back. We opened the hangar door, pushed their trike out and an extra strong gust of wind caught it and before we realised what was happening it was on its side with Pauline under the leading edge. It's time like this we received a lot of help from our friends and many others and we thank you all. A reminder to all to be extra vigilant in turbulent conditions near hangars as the wind gust on this occasion came in from the opposite direction to the prevailing wind.


Later in the day another stationary trike blew over in a similar 'mishap' for want of a better word. I make it sound minimal, but any incident is upsetting and of course any damage is expensive.


It was good to see Shane and Paula Gleeson's Drifter fly in a couple of times during our stay. As always, they were really good fun.


Our friend Doug Brooke (who calls himself our 'other son' since he adopted us on a Megafauna trip several years ago) offered his expertise to help Stan for a few days, and duly arrived in his Jabiru which he'd lovingly built himself. And he did a really good job. He also did a really good job of flinging his automatic tent in the corner of our 'lounge room'. Two very important jobs took place due to his expertise. Firstly the rear roller door was programmed so more than one remote operated it (so scared I would lose the one that worked) and he helped purchase and then install our television antenna. So we had telly until it literally blew up several days later, (but that wasn't Doug's fault). McLean's to the rescue yet again and we can now keep in touch with the world beyond the hangar with their spare telly.

One great thing about living at Yarrawonga, whether it be flying or driving, you have many large towns in several directions within an hour. One day while Doug was with us we tripped to Albury/Wodonga visiting Bunnings for the antenna, and generally going around in circles so in the end we were convinced there were 17 Bunnings in Albury.


Another day we did a triangle trip to Wangaratta (where we visited Brian Carey, a cousin of Stan's, and the Brucks Mills) and then on to Benalla, before returning.

Ian Buchanan-Black visited Peter and Anne and they shared him with us one weekend. He seemed to accomplish a lot of flight time during his stay as everytime I turned around his red trike was taxiing for take-off.


We also managed some time with Russell Purdy who flew his Pegasus trike in from Mansfield on 13th January looking as cheerful as ever. It might have been a quick trip back to Mansfield if the tail wind at Yarrawonga continued throughout his flight. I've realised Yarrawonga time doesn't just apply to the time of day, but the date of the month, so I'm starting to set camera with dates on the photos.


And a few nights ago we went to inspect floor coverings in a magnificent holiday castle located on a big bend in the Murray River in Tocumwal.

We also called in to the Museum in Mulwala which is a 'must see' for everyone. It is so well set up and extremely interesting. (Bit scary when you recognise many items on display and can remember using them). We went there especially to see a very early aircraft which, prior to our visit we thought was John Duigan's who in July 1910, made the first flight in an Australian-built aeroplane. (Our hangar is situated on John Duigan Drive). But we had our wires crossed and the aircraft housed in the Museum was in fact built by Australian pioneer aviator Douglas Sloane who lived from 1890 to 1917 and came from Mulwala.