ABS Fly-In Savannah, Georgia, May 16-19 See Page 3 - American ...

Oceans colliding.The next hurdle was the legality of flying an Oz-registered plane withan American license. It turns out that with submission of my experiencevia logbook, pilot certificate, and medical, they would grant me a 90-daytempo rary license with only one more requirement…passing an Englishlanguage proficiency test in front of an Australian tester. That meant thatI would have to get it done after arriving via airline and before departingvia Bonanza, not leaving much time. After many emails back and forthto CASA (their FAA) and the FBO renting me the plane, it was all readyfor my arrival on Monday morning. The “test” was just showing myface and speaking English. A form was emailed to CASA, and the nextmorning, following a phone call to CASA, the license was emailed tome within the hour. Three days later and after a quick checkout byBINI, the FBO (who was a great help), we were on our way to BrokenHill, the first stop with the ABS group trip.We met up with the other eight planes and spent two nights witha tour of the area and two great dinners. Next we were off to Forrest,a remote outpost about 700 miles west of Broken Hill. It has two verynice long, wide paved runways and some cottages to spend thenight. The airplanes enjoyed the night in a very large hangar. Afterdinner and dark we went out on the runway with our hosts and, withno lights, enjoyed the Milky Way and other southern hemisphere stars.During that short cruise we also saw dingoes. This was truly the outback. Therail lines running next to Forrest go for 1000 kilometers without a single curve.The next day was on to Kalgoorlie, where a forgettable night was spent.Then on to Busselton and a stay at the very nice flying club. They welcomed uswith tea and sandwiches and great hospitality. We rented cars there and spentfive wonderful days with a base hotel on the beach about 45 minutes away. Wevisited numerous wineries and many restaurants, some good, some just average.All were expensive. The mining industry has made this area quite wealthy, withlots of miners with money in their pockets. We paid as much as $20 for a bowlof soup, albeit at a beach restaurant.Then we went off to Albany and Esperance. Leaving Esperance, we foundthe cliff area of the Great Australian Bight, which is a coastline of cliffs about300 feet high. We dropped down to about 400 feet and cruised for 30 minutesThe Right Connection!Super Power Alternator Conversion.STC’d for Beech Debonair & BonanzaUPGRADE TO NEW SUPER POWER,MODERN ALTERNATOR SYSTEM. NEW STCCONVERSION ELIMINATES ELECTRICALBROWNOUTS AND PROVIDES SPECTACULARPERFORMANCE & RELIABILITY!.* KITs include FAA-PMA N300 12V 70A alternatorwith state-of-the-art ACU and are direct replacementsfor 35 or 50 amp belt-driven generators.SOME N300 alternator features:* Heavy duty brushes* High output at low engine speed* Precision balanced rotor* Cool operation at maximum load* Extensive Radio Noise Suppression* 600 HOUR/2 YEAR WARRANTYNATIONAL AIRPARTS, INC.1-800-713-1111 or 386-734-3365web site: http://www.nationalairparts.comVolume 13 • Number 2 AMERICAN BONANZA SOCIETY 63