Sonex 0297

At 0930 today, from the Colac Municipal Airfield in Victoria Australia, plans built No 299 leapt into the air after an elephantine gestation period, (9 years). The test pilot was Aubrey Cootes, an 85 1/2 year old ex RAAF B24 Liberator navigator/bomb aimer who has in excess of 20,000 hrs, all in single engine aircraft, with over 100 types of aircraft. He currently instructs ultralight pilots, and flies his own KR2, and is an all round great bloke!!

299 flew for 1 hour total, the only problem being that it flies a bit left wing down, and more importantly, the ASI on my MGL singles kept dropping off to zero, so that Aub had to land with no AS indicating!! I have borrowed a steam ASI to continue flying.

I would like to thank Kerry Fores for all his help over the past year, and anticipate a verrry good flying New year!!

Bring on the Onex!!!!

Gary Wright