October 29 2006
The next 3 stories tell you all about the final day at Sportavia in Australia.

What I learned yesterday was to never ever sell gliders on an auction when you want to see dollars!!!!
On the other hand when you want to have a bargain buying a glider you should go straight to an auction.
First of all compliments to Peter Menhennit for having ALL gliders looking in absolute fantastic state.
Also Bob Smith and Bill Harvey deserve compliments for working so hard on the Scouts!
The sale started at 10 and people were walking around with phones hanging on their ears and talking in it all the time.
the old field cars were the first to go. Even ” Helga ” was sold! Bill Harvey was the lucky one to buy the yellow ute and Mary Russel got back her husband Dessies very old ute. Don was so good to put 300 dollars on the table for “OUR BUS”.
The first glider for sale was the junior and it was bought by one of our regular guests for don’t fall over!!!!! 6000 dollars!!!!!!That set the standard in prize as all gliders just went unbelievable cheap.
What about 12.500,- for and IS 28, also bought by a local , but for sale when somebody wants it!Between 2000 and 5000 for the Blaniks and around 40.000,- for the LS 4 gliders. 46.000 for LP the LS 6 and just under 100.000 for the duo. This dual- seater will leave for the Hunter Valley together with the orange tow plane.Benalla bought the yellow tug for their operations in Liliedale. The other 2 tugs have not been sold yet.
There was a run on kitchen items and the brand new coffee machine from the bar, was sold for 1900,-
Tom Gilbert’s daughter nearly bought all office stuff and they need to come back from Temora to get the rest today as the trailer they brought yesterday could hardly close with everything in it.
Instuments, loggers and parachutes were gone in a flash.All buyers looked as they had had, a full plate of whipped cream.
It all finished around 7 and another day , a more different then normal, was over!!!
We finished the day saying goodbye to friends leaving and drinking great red wine from the winery owned by Graham Bunn. What great wines he makes!!!!!
Margie Close did buy some blankets and bedspreads for the dogs and we used them to sit under them , as it was “bloody” cold, even the red wine helped ONLY after a few bottles. Luckily Graham brought a lot.
This is the last story about Sportavia. Forgive me for getting into so many details , but for a lot of pilots this might help to get over it.
It is “just a gliding field , others would say. But……As only pilots know who have been there it was a special one!