TEFC                     

Went out to MKT yesterday for my first flight in a while, what with holidays, Christmas and renovations to the laundry. It was good to drag the drifter out and get it ready for a lazy trip out to Adelaide River. This time of the year is fantastic for flying in the morning. Zero wind and thunderstorms normally hold off until the afternoon. As usual, the time from undoing your tie downs to getting in the air takes much longer than the normal preflight time as you have to catch up with folks and yesterday was a little special.

Harvard at MKT

I heard the thundering sound of an approaching Harvard (which I recognise only because it does frequent these parts) - I grabbed the camera and got some very nice shots of Nick conducting a close up inspection of our airfield. When Nick came around again and I saw the landing gear down I wondered why Nick was going to land as he normally does a fly past and heads off South for some fun.

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This entry was posted on January 4, 2011 at 5:17 AM and has received 375 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

We arrived just after 7am to find Sam Meyering, grandson of the owners of MKT Airfield manning the entrance ready to guide people to the correct parking area. Resplendent in his reflective safety vest and trademark smile we were informed that visitors had already arrived. There were still signs to put up, aircraft to wash, tables to set out and many other things to do before the main body of folk came through.

It was an open day and we had interesting visiting aircraft like Max's Gyrocopter, Greg's Tiger Moth, Nick's Harvard and three flavours of Texan including the new Storch which was a real headturner and  was a progressive contrast to the drifter that I fly.

I'll thank specific people a little further along but a big thankyou goes not only to the members who helped make the open day happen, but to those who came along, those who brought their aircraft and those who had a yarn sharing everything from old friendships and memories to those igniting that desire to fly in young and old.

I think visitors were surprised at the variety of aircraft and the numbers of aircraft. There were 30 aircraft parked out on the flightline with probably another dozen at least tucked away in hangars.

There were highlights throughout the day and one of the great things was that there was a serious amount of flying going on. I estimate that there were up to 150 landings between 8am and 3pm - All without incident.

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This entry was posted on August 24, 2009 at 12:12 AM and has received 331 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Well the weekend down at Coomalie Airstrip went well. The NT Orienteering Championships went well and I understand that no one was left out there. We headed down in the Drifter early on Sunday morning and with my radio in for repair we used a uniden scanner that had the required frequencies already dialed into memory. With the receiver in the top pocket and the earphones in the ears under the headset now functioning as ear muffs we took off and headed South towards Manton Dam and then onto the rehabilitated woodcutter's mine (over some bushfires on the way)

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This entry was posted on July 7, 2009 at 8:26 PM and has received 317 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

This was posted under a previous posting but here it is again.

 From Steve

The Top End Orienteers will be holding their NT Championships over three days on the weekend of 4 and 5 July.  yippee!

What does this have to do with us?

They will be hosted by Richard Luxton at his Coomalie Creek property. 

The actual Championship run will be around the property on Sunday morning, 5^th July (up in the hills, etc.)

HOWEVER on the afternoon of Saturday 4^th they plan to have World War 2 historical activities including DC3 rides and Richard is hoping that the Harvard and Tiger Moth will attend.

The water bomber will be there and Richard is hoping that someone will arrive in the Yak, as well as mobs of TEFC aircraft.

In the evening the folk band will perform and there will be a moonlight dinner.

Sound familiar?  Yes!  It’s the new-look

NOT MERLIN NIGHT!

- with all the old familiar stuff (except the Merlin)

.  .  .  so be there!

Info supplied by Steve Allen, your friendly flyaway organiser

For those at the monthly meeting, Richard Luxton made a welcome guest appearence to let us know about the events going on down at Coomalie Airstrip this weekend.

Coomalie Airstrip and the surrounding area has a rich wartime history.

Have a look at what you can see in the area from the air... the township including the historic railway bridges, the cemetary and snake creek historic war buildings.

Click on the highlighted links above to see what you might see.

Here are some previous entries on the event...

TEFC - Merlin Magic 2008 Jul 10, 2008 photos: 103

TEFC - Merlin Magic at Coomalie Jun 24, 2006 photos: 62

http://www.xsymetrix.com.au/blog/index.cfm/2006/6/27/Landing-for-the-event

The map below shows how to get to the airstrip via road.

View Coomalie in a larger map 

This entry was posted on June 30, 2009 at 9:14 PM and has received 328 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.