The Steamtug Blog

I was very lucky to be invited by Mitch (my pilot son) to come flying with him up into the mountain country. He was going to Mansfield to meet up with some of his flying buddies who were all flying in from various airports for lunch at the local pub.

I caught the early morning train from Geelong to the big city and promptly got lost! The plane we had booked from the aero club was the old banger which had to be back at the airport by 2pm, so getting away on time was imperitive, and getting lost was definately not helping the plan. After a barrage of frantic text messages to my phone, directing me to alternate metro trains, Mitch picked me up in his car at a compromise railway station and we made it to the airport only a bit late. But time was against us, and a hurried get away would be the only chance of fitting in the 1 hour jouney, lunch, a couple of quick beers and return flight.

As Mitch was booking the plane out, one of the airport instructors noticed Mitch’s tension and suggested we take the new plane. It was not booked by anyone, so was free the whole day! It’s only a couple of years old, has leather seats, fancy navigation equipment, bigger fuel injected engine, higher cruising speed and is comfy and quiet inside. “But we are not allowed to land the pride of the fleet on a dodgy grass runway” Mitch reminded the instructor. Well, a quick chat with the senior flight officer and we had clearance Clarence, and we were off in luxury and style!

We headed up into the mountains, and even though the altimeter read 4,000 feet, the ground look close underneath us. The scenery of the hydro powerstation dams of Lake Eildon and surrounding country looked great. Were last to land at Mansfield and after some quick introductions, we squeezed into a waiting car which took us into town. I tracked the whole journey using my laptop and GPS which indicated an average cruising speed of 200kms/hr. Thanks Mitch for a great day out!

Footy!

I was there for the first match at our home ground in Geelong for this season. Geelong comfortably beat Port Adelaide making 24 straight wins without loss at Kardinia Park, the home of the cats. It must be demoralising for teams to travel such long distances only to be beaten with no mercy! The Geelong team looked great. We lost our best player who defected to the new Gold Coast team at the end of last season, but we have some new young talent who all made big contributions to Sunday’s game. The future looks good for Geelong! Go Catz!!!!

More Beer!

Meanwhile out in the shed, I have at last made my first ever batch of all grain beer. Yep, no help from any factory, everything was made by me. The past year I have been experimenting with partial mash beers using a can of extract mixed with mashed grain. Now I have gone all the way. You may recall from my previous post that I constructed a proper mash tun for making grain beers. Now I have to put my investment to work. I made a pale ale and I will let you know in a couple of months if it is any good.

Boat people

When I finish work this Friday, I will be on holidays for 2 weeks. I plan to move onboard Adaqua and float my way around the bay. I have the same crew that came last year (see post “Alex’s Birthday) coming with me and we are planning to visit the South Channel Fort, accessable only by boat, and maybe even stay in the big city at Docklands. Watch for my next post with an update on this!!!