Gateway Gathering 2001: Day1 by Randall Mowlam

Well the weather was perfect for day 1 of the Gathering and all the pilots’ faces told the story of appreciation for it too. The day began with the usual setting up of the tents and Australian flag as the busy workers rallied to get all last minute preparations in order. Mike Edmond’s announced the pilots brief over the loud speaker and the masses assembled for the compulsory Casa briefing. Paul Franks read out all the rules for the day and then told everyone the most important rule for the day was to have fun.

First up was the Funfly balloon bursting which is a favourite with many as each pilot tries his hand at lining up a target and finding it a tad more difficult than it looks. Next up were the Helicopters with Mick Warren (current Australian, Qld & NSW champion) performing some aerobatics to entertain the crowd, while a few other members performed some smaller hovering manoeuvres lower to the ground.

General aircraft took to the sky for some scale flying and also some aerobatics from Ted Bullock and his large scale Extra 330L including smoke. 

The boys from S & B Models had journeyed down to TMAC for the day, to show off their impressive electric planes and stunts that could be performed and the crashes that didn’t harm them in any way.

Richard Galeano and Darryl Smith took to the skies with 2 ME163 Komets for a mock dogfight and combat routine.

Soon it was time for another Funfly events this time in the form of an Egg drop, with each pilot attaching a cup to the top of their plane and carefully taking off and performing a roll or loop to release the bomb over the target. The closest pilot was Richard Galeano with his old favourite Hustler trainer.

More scale aircraft took to the skies as the day rolled on before the lunch break and time to sample some of the great food on offer from the canteen. The raffle tickets were selling fast, thanks to Richard Cunningham who did a great job for the last month bringing the prizes down to the field to help push sales.

With the batteries recharged the electric planes took to the sky again with Darryl & Geoff putting their electric aircraft through some amazing stunts and crashes with no harm to them at all. Darryl was using the new Nickel Metal Hydride batteries 1000mah, which really help, keep the electric flight time up for sometime.

Well the last Funfly event was a streamer fly with pilots trying to perform the best stunts as their streamer trailed behind them enhancing their every move. Not too many pilots took to this as most thought it was a streamer-cutting contest and their plane may have midair, none did as all pilots restrained themselves.

Helicopters again took to the sky with some more hovering and aerobatic manoeuvres and this time a drag racing contest between Mick and Brendan McLearie, unfortunately for Brendan he was out of luck with Mick’s skills being too good in all three heats. After all the helicopters had perform for the crowd, Mick fired up his Kyosho Calibre sporting the new OS 90 SXH engine to show the crowd some F3C manoeuvres that helped make him Australian Champion.

Time for some pylon racers in the form of the golden era radial engines and a few inline planes for a demo pylon race. Noel Wilson flew his Davis DK1, Wil Sipma flew his Brown, Doug McIllwraith flew his Baby Bullet all to the cheers of the crowd as they rounded the turns. With the other pilots looking on it wasn’t long before they wanted a turn at a race also. With general aircraft of all different types in the air the blood was flowing and it was on for young and old. One crash eventuated with a mistake in a turn sending the aircraft into the edge of the dam.

The remaining events were some scale aircraft performing beautifully for the crowd as the afternoon sun slowing started its descent in the sky. The day closed at 2pm with the pilots allowing a walk through the pits for those interested in asking some questions about their particular aircraft. One model that caught everyone’s eye was a large scale Seafury belonging to Dave Gibbs, which he has been building for 4 years. Although it was only static at this stage in time it was truly a magnificent aircraft to look over. Hoped to see all pilots and more back tomorrow.