Wings Over Illawarra Frenzy
28th February 2010

Five 928s headed out for Wings Over Illawarra from the Crossroads Pub, Casula at about 6:30am. Paul, Ross, Frank'N, Greg and Glenn and I in FIN.

We arrived after an almost uneventful tour down the M5 and Picton Road to Albion Park. Frank's T/belt light came up intermittent but cleared, allowing him to slowly make the trip down.

A was a glorious morning. To the west, a large fog bank appeared to slowly pour over the escarpment. Like a huge cascading waterfall in slow-motion, it was a fascinating display and provided a magnificent backdrop to the Aerodrome. We arrived in good time and early enough to have pride of place. First row and aside from a single XJS Jag, we were it! :)

In no time flat Paul had his portable Kabana erected and had staked out our base of operation for the day. As the morning progressed, an impressive line of vintage vehicles, classic cars and motorcycles began to first trickle then pour in. Car after car, Ross had every marque spotted and identified, I want him on *my* trivia team, well done! lol!

The day's flying event began with an impressive display by the RAAF Roulette's, in their shiny red an white Pilatus P9 trainers. Our location provided us with a ring side seat, near the centre of the Aerodrome, with the formation buzzing and zooming low over our line-up of sharks, a marvellous spectacle!

As the various marques continued to roll in, we were joined by Ralph and his lovely wife in their Cassis S4, attending from the weekend KV Frenzy. Their arrival completed our small but impressive display of six 928s.

It was a fairly typical summer's day, starting out sunny and hot, gradually clouding over. By lunchtime the weather had overdeveloped and a couple of storm cells ringed the Aerodrome but fortunately moved out to sea, leaving us unscathed.

Sadly and due to the proximity of neighbourhood dwellings, restricted air-show related activities to take-offs, flybys and landings. Still, there was enough variety to keep the attention levels high. Standouts were the low passes by the T6 Texan, the Mustang and Constellation take-offs were well worth seeing and hearing. Later in the afternoon we were treated to a close-in display by an Fa18, out of Williamstown. Extremely manoeuvrable and doubly noisy, it was a powerful display of this aircraft's performance envelope.

The facilities, food and various static displays were well organised and interesting. The limited porta-loos were inadequate for the large number of visitors, causing some extended queues and waiting times. Overall I'd like to thank the organisers of Wings over Illawara for a well run event. I'd also like to thank everyone who turned up, for supporting this Frenzy and for displaying their beautiful sharks to an appreciative audience. A good time was had by all.

Thanks also to Paul who, in very short notice, agreed to do three (slow) laps with his stunning red S4, in the public viewing arena. Yes Paul, we *know* you've seen how it was done in Top Gear! .. lol! ;)

We may have to do this again next year! Thanks to all again,

Leonard Zech
'95 GTS, Sydney

As it was. I had the most difficult task of keeping the Visa card in pocket. Around 600 cars and motorcycles of classic or historic vintage. The afore mentioned Fords were in no doubt the stars but there again there was a Buick coupe (very art nouveaux) that I did make an offer on and was rejected, bugger.

The selection of cars, planes and motorbikes was a heady mix. Watching a motorbike and sidecar from around 1940 tip onto 2 wheels and do a circuit was a highlight. The aircraft were something else, there was a display of model aeroplanes which was interesting, some of them inclusive of helicopters and gliders did perform some amazing stunts and were not the size I would normally associate with these model aircraft, they was big!

As far as the cars were concerned I have never seen (and I mean this in the best possible way) so many anally retentive people. How clean are these cars and bikes, it is a worry.

One great aside, there was a Datsun 260Z coupe with a trailer painted in the same colours as the car, on this trailer was his wife's motorised wheelchair. I talked to them for a while and the feeling that I got was that she had suffered a recent setback and he had built the trailer as she wished to still go with him to the shows.

For me that said it all, it was all about sharing.

Great day and company.

Frank N,
'87 928 S4, Sydney

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