I acquired a pair of chilled stubbies and conveyed them to the table where Allan sat beneath a bumper sticker commemorating a visit by the 'Wheredafukarwi Touring Club'. Allan was suffused with a strange happiness.
"You like it here?" I said.
He shook his head with a kind of speechless delight. 'I do. I actually do.'
'But I thought you hated it .'
'I did,' he said. 'But then I was sitting here looking out the window at the setting sun, and it was lovely - I mean really quite astoundingly lovely - and then I turned and saw the bar with all these outback characters, and I thought: "Bugger me, I like it here." ' He looked at me in the frankest wonder. 'And I do. I really like it.'
Bill Bryson, Down Under.
It's been long time since I flew an R/C model in Czechoslovakia. Now I have few new models in my garage, but time is not my friend. I hope to get into it some time later.
I am far behind the new technology - carbon fibers and molded parts which make the plane stronger and faster are out of reach to me. I made an electro model - a wonderful combination of silent flight and powered flight. I still remember my old glider powered with 25 OS MAX engine - what an awesome plane - and what an awsome friends, they are gone with the wind...
And here is a new electro design - the model I loved to fly (before I crashed it). Also few pictures from aerotow:
If you design your own models you may be interested in my airfoil plotting software Aero Plot. It plots an airfoil from .dat files, offsets the profile, you can print the profile directly from the application or make a dxf file and open the profile in AutoCAD - and it's free.
Click the image bellow to download the free Aero Plot software.
The Mountains
Australia is a relatively flat country. It is actually the flattest continent on Earth. Despite of this fact, there are some nice hills and mountains where you can enjoy sort of aerial view. The highest peak is Mt. Kosciusko in New South Wales - 2228m high. You can walk to the top, you can take a chair lift and then walk, or you can ride a push bike. No matter how you get there you are rewarded by a 360 degree breathtaking views:
There's no need to climb the highest peak of Australia a thousand kilometers away to see the beauty of this planet; some forty kilometers from Melbourne is Mt. Donna Buang where you can enjoy fresh air and the views as we did on one Sunday afternoon:
A few pictures from our trips to the Wilson Promontory NP and Mt. Kosciuszko NP.
Melbourne has been my town since 1990. It is said to be the most liveable city in the world. I leave it to others to show you this city from their own perspective - some pictures were published in The Age 2003 - My Melbourne:
