Catching Up - May - Soar, Ride and Shine

Okay.  It's time to get back to catching up on the last few months.  

If you think our  April was busy, May was just as bad if not worse.

A major event was hosted by the local Lifeline branch to raise some much needed funds.  This was no cake stall, or even a book fair, of which they hold two very successful ones each year.  No,  how about something a bit more spectacular - like an air show, car and motorcycle show and retro pin-up fashion competition.  

Soar, Ride and Shine was born.  

There has not been an air show in Bathurst since 1964.

We were a little bit involved with Olga the old girl going on display and with other members of the Historic Car Club, we gave a bit of a hand with the set up on the day.  

The weather was great on the day.  On the previous day there had been a really thick fog.  If that had been on the day of the air show, many of the planes would not have been able to land at the airport. The organisers were very fortunate indeed.

Let's start by checking out the bikes. There was a nice selection.

Followed by a few of the cars.  

Vehicles travelled from all over the place to attend.  

There were the pristine ones ....

.... as well as those that weren't.

Hotrods.

Even a cute caravan.

What about this one, owned by a local fellow.

There were even some other bikes and an almost flying machine.

The car and bike show was really well attended.  It took ages to walk around and see them all.

Time to look at the market stalls.

Enough of these, let's check out the airshow.

One of the big draw cards was the C-27J Spartan.  Now that is one big plane.

After queueing for a while we entered the main cargo, or passenger area.

And Mick, like the  big kid he is, was able to check out the cockpit, which was just all dials and buttons to me.

Back outside the stunt planes were in action.

There is a bit of a contrast in size here.  The little jets actually flew on the day.

The majority of the air show was put on by Paul Bennett Airshows.  They had a great array of planes, did amazing stunts and gave a great commentary while it was all going on.  This is "Miss Kitty".  I don't know what she is.

Mustang

This DC 3 was headed to Hong Kong the next day.

Now for some stunts

What about some water bombing?

The local REX plane gave joy flights all day.  They were $50 and went for half an hour.  Great value for those lucky enough to get a ticket.

The Avenger from WWII is rather neat in the way it folds its wings up, and it all happens so quickly.

This was one very pretty plane.  It is a Beech Staggerwing and dates back to 1938.  Who'd a thought.

The Navy chopper was another big draw card.

So, what about the pin-up competition?

After some of the event organisers attended "Goodwood Revival" in the UK last year they decided to have a bit of a retro fashion theme.  Some ladies, gents and tiny tots really rose to the occasion.

Don't you love the presentation stage and the props.

A great line up of entrants.

And the winner .....in an original 50s outfit she purchased in the US.

What a fantastic day it was.  There were huge crowds that attended and it was all so well organised, considering this was their first go at something like this.

There will be another Soar, Ride and Shine next year, going over two days, and then the plan is to hold it every second year.  Let's hope it takes off (pardon the pun) as an ongoing event.  We really enjoyed it.