From NATFLY to Auskosh

Opinion. As it has for many years, RA-Aus’s annual NATFLY has been and gone this Easter. For the first time this year it hasn’t been at its former home of Narromine, but at the new location in Temora. I didn’t make it this year, but there was a record attendance of aircraft and people, making it a great success; not in a small part thanks the Bureau of Meteorology scheduling great weather for it.

Last year, RA-Aus started shopping around and through a tender process, Temora got the contract to host the next three events. Unlike so many other councils that were handed a great airport by the Howard government they decided not to eat away at it for residential development with the aim of buldozing it completely later. Instead, Temora took their asset, recognised its value and decided to develop it. What a novel idea!

The Temora Aviation museum hosts a large collection of airworthy aircraft that regularly take to the skies, with warbirds ranging from the Tiger Moth and Spitfire to jets like the Vampire, F-86 Sabre and the world’s only flying Gloster Meteor. Not bad for a small country town.

A fly-in attended by 750 aircraft and thousands of people combined with a big airshow of classic warbirds, Chris Sperou in his Super Stinker and to top it off the RAAF Roulettes showing their stuff in close formation, what could be better? Well, for one, they could have actually put on the airshow. Instead, “due to the volume of flying activity at Temora Aerodrome over Easter, none of the Museum Aircraft will be flying.” Seriously? Who came up with that idea? Tell all the participants the field is closed for displays from 10 till 3pm one of the days, NOTAM it and you are done. Instead, the next flying day will be this weekend, a week after it should have been.

Despite this unbelievable SNAFU oversight, there is lots of good news. Depending on who heard it right, the council is now willing to invest 2 to 3 million dollars in upgrades to the airport for the next few years of NATFLY. That money would go a long way to more and better campsites and toilet/shower facilities, taxiways and indoor space. This could make Temora a world-class fly-in/airshow site so that in two years time, the event will have grown so much, moving it elsewhere will be impossible. In my opinion, that would be a good thing as things can only get bigger from there. Hopefully, RA-Aus, the museum and the council will realise from comment such as this that having an airshow during the weekend is the logical thing to do.

To reach full potential, though, we need to get all of Australia’s many personal aviators on board. First of all, SAAA and RA-Aus should combine forces; the two group’s members do essentially the same thing – flying personal aircraft for fun. One has an all-experimental fleet, the other a largely experimental one but even the certified ones are being maintained by their owners. Having two fly-ins with workshops every year that cover the same topics makes no sense.

Once there is a full-blown airshow, just like at other airshows, those people flying certified GA aircraft will also flock in. It will no longer be an RA-Aus only event to them where they are just a guest; the fact that RA-Aus organises it becomes secondary.

NATFLY at Temora has the potential to become Auskosh. Of course it will never be as big as EAA Airventure or Sun ‘n Fun, but with the enormous amount personal aviation committed per capita compared to the rest of the world, it can easily become the world’s 3rd biggest fly-in.

Now wouldn’t that be better than a weekend of compulsory in-law visits and Easter egg hunts?

Tell your friends about this post on your favourite social networks: