Tour incidents
Anything you can do I can do better…! Pulled up next to Mel & Judi at the motel in Swan Hill and proceeded to unload the car only to find the boot would not open! After initial wiggling ( the boot that is!) without it opening, Mel offered advice of how we can undo the boot by removing the gearbox and left front wheel ( or something similar!). He then sought to expand his strategy by showing me his (that's boot catch!). But, would you believe it, his boot wouldn't open! After some less than cultured English and much of that wiggling I previously mentioned both opened. Some adjustment to the catches and all seems ok. 🤞 
Our Past President caught short...
The roads travelled were interesting and
generally in good condition, but there were pot
holes! Ken and Lorraine Mc found one that
flattened the tyre and damaged the rim! Stuart
and Yvonne were on hand to change to the
spare.
Wednesday saw rain before dawn and the threat of more to come! Which couple didn't even bring their roof and had to face the elements? 
Simple! Swap the fronts with the backs!! Les and
Paul wondered what was the cause of the they
noise when they cornered? The problem was the
new tyres purchased for the back were 185s and
were scrapping the lefthand guard on corners!
Swapped with the 175 fronts and problem sorted.
At the Lake Boga Catalina Seaplane Museum,
Rob Hutchins was able to view the very plane his
father flew and the records documenting those
flights. Very special!
Lake Boga Bonus!
When I saw that the Annual Tour would be visiting
the Catalina (Flying Boat) Museum at Lake Boga,
my thoughts naturally drifted towards my father
Bruce who was a WW2 RAAF Pilot. Having ended
his service career flying Catalinas and Martin
Mariners, I retrieved his RAAF Flight Log Book
that hasn't seen the light of day for many years to
refresh my memories of his flying boat service.
Needless to say I was intrigued to learn that the
last flight he made as a RAAF Pilot was from
Rathmines (Lake Macquarie) to Lake Boga in a
Martin Mariner! I thought this may have been of
some interest to the Museum so the Log Book was
packed for the journey.
For an aviation tragic, the Museum is an excellent
trip down memory lane when aircraft sounded like
nothing else on earth and actually needed to be
wrangled by Pilots for the whole trip. I proudly
pointed out the last entry in dad's Log Book to one
of the Museum attendants and pointed out that he
had been a Catalina and Mariner Pilot. Without a
blink he informed me that it was almost certain he
had piloted the Catalina on display in the museum!
How so I asked? This aircraft had the RAAF
designation A24-30 and was used extensively to
train pilots converting to Catalinas. "Check the Log Book"
was the instruction and there in his neatest fountain pen
writing was evidence of flying A24-30 on 25 occasions!
In my father's case, A24-30 was not his training aircraft but
used for operations around Australia and to Manila and Moratai.
It was quite an emotional moment and it was lovely to share the story
with friends in the shadows of the mighty A24-30. Vale Bruce. Rob Hutchinson
Rob Hutchinson showing his father's WWII RAAF
Flight Log Book to officials at the Catalina (Flying
Boat) Museum prompted me to think of my step-
father who also flew Catalinas in WWII. I jumped
onto the computer at the Museum and the
friendly attendant showed me how to search. In
less than three minutes I had found 44 pages of
documents about my step-father's service record
which I will pass onto my nephew who will add
them to his flight log books. Members wanting to
search from home just need to log
onto https://www.flyingboat.org.au/
Nick McClaren
"Judging of the Silo Photo Competition was
intense and "appeals" were quickly disallowed.
Geoff however didn't seem interested! 
The group singing competition involved the whole
tour group divided into teams of four and the
competition was intense! 
