30-09-2008
Trevor's travails
After a series of ups and downs, Trevor Withnall (left) is happy to be able to present a banner from the Rotary Club of Hilo (Hawaii) to President Mike. Trevor attended Hilo's meeting while trying to get his new acquisition back from the US. His account of the situation is below.
- I bought a plane on eBay for $20,000 less than I would have normally had to pay.
- I’ve been to the US 4 times this year on account of the plane.
- There were a few things to fix. For instance, the engine had 2,380 hours (380 hours past the limit) so I got it overhauled in Montrose, Colorado. That took from March to June to do.
- I got a Bankstown firm to ferry the plane from the US to Australia. They wanted to ferry 2 planes of the same speed, but the other plane wasn’t ready and delayed mine.
- The departure point from mainland US was Santa Maria, California. I arranged to stay overnight with some friends, and ended up staying 2½ weeks.
- When the other plane couldn’t fly, I decided to go back to Australia, but the ferrying firm said they would fly my plane to Hilo in Hawaii. Unfortunately, they had trouble with the electronics and had to return to the US when they were 4 hours out.
- The firm eventually got the plane to Hilo, then 11 days later made arrangements to carry on to Australia 4 days after that. A further 4 days after that date, we left Hilo and flew to Christmas Island (the largest coral atoll in the world). One end of the island was used for nuclear bomb tests, and is now radioactive and fenced off.
- We then flew to Pango Pango, then on to Noumea, and then to the Gold Coast, and straight on to Bankstown Airport. Each leg of the trip from Hilo took a day, but we crossed and re-crossed the International Date Line, so the day and date changed forwards and backwards.
Last changed: 17:32:51 05-10-2008