Donnington Airshow & Country Fly-In 1979 in Woodstock, Queensland, Australia | Community

Donnington Airshow & Country Fly-In 1979

Locality: Woodstock, Queensland, Australia

Phone: +61 418 636 727

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25.01.2022 This year marks 40 years since the first airshow (known as the Donnington Country Fly-In back then) at Donnington Airpark. It was held on the 15th and 16th of September 1979.

25.01.2022 Those who were involved in the airshows 1986 - 1993 may have run across Jim Stewart, who worked at Town Automatics but got his whole family involved as volunteers at the airshows. We had lost touch after 1993 but recently his son Shaun Peel dropped into my workplace to advise that Jim was in Palliative Care (cancer) and did not have long to go. At work last night I was told by his son William and former partner Judy that Jim passed away on Thursday night. Funeral details will be advised as soon as they are known.

25.01.2022 Bit of a blast from the past! With Darryl Pitt and Laurie Gehringer in the Flinders Mall circa 1982 (?) guarding Barry Hempel's Pitts Special overnight. It was on display as a promotion for Donnington Airshow & Country Fly-In 1979 - 1993. To help the time pass, we were drinking "cappuccino" out of foam cups - actually beer with a good frothy head but the patrolling police weren't to know that!

23.01.2022 "Jack" Jones, who was a stalwart member of the Military & Historic Vehicle Club of Townsville and exhibited at many (if not all) of the Donnington events, is now in Palliative Care at The Townsville Hospital. I visited Jack today and we had a yarn about many things, particularly Warbirds and military vehicles. Thoughts are also with Jack's family and friends as the end approaches.

20.01.2022 Another of our band of dedicated volunteers has passed on. Brian Strathdee had a massive stroke recently and did not recover. His farewell will be held from 4-30 pm tomorrow, Wednesday 20th September at the Ayr Showgrounds Hall. Dress casual, no flowers by request. Refreshments and sharing of memories afterwards. You may remember Brian for his cheeky humour and laconic attitude in the bar. Usually he'd be out harvesting cane or ploughing fields until dark and would then race up to help out in the bar on the Saturday night. Brian was also responsible for re-aligning the creek at the end of the main runway, in his other guise as an earthmoving contractor. RIP, old mate.

19.01.2022 I am going to create a FB Group (page) to gradually replace this FB Page, because of the limitations imposed on Pages with visitor posts not being displayed on the Timeline, whereas they will be in a Group. I value external input and it is one of the main reasons I created this page, in order to connect with people who had participated in or attended the airshows. Facebook does not currently allow a Page to be changed into a Group, therefore I have to start all over again but hopefully the end result will be of benefit to all. Bear with me as I go through the process and I hope you will all join me in the new Group when it is up and running! Regards, Christian.

17.01.2022 While attending the recent MagnetiCon event, I was reacquainted with Aaron Drew, son of Julie Drew who, as Ticket Quik, did all my ticket-writing for the airshow signs and even hand-painted a huge roadside billboard on one occasion (pretty certain both Mike Wilson and Allan Mackie were on hand for that exercise!). I was greatly saddened when Aaron told me that his mother had passed away in October last year after many years of ill-health. Julie was a real trooper when it came to getting our signage just right and her efforts made the event look all the more professional. I was in the book trade at the time and as Julie was also an avid reader, I swapped many of my sales samples in return for her work! RIP Julie!

16.01.2022 I don't know why posts by people other than Admin are not shown in the Timeline - settings are such than anyone can post pix or videos but for some reason all the non-Admin ones end up in the side-bar where to my mind they are nigh-on invisible! Can anyone advise on how to overcome this problem?

16.01.2022 1993 Donnington Airshow & Country Fly-In - "Warbirds Over Woodstock".

11.01.2022 Well, it has taken a while but I finally have some content on YouTube! With thanks to friends Martin Lawlor and George Koulakis for their assistance with video conversions and editing, I have today uploaded a little "doco" about the early days of the ultralights at Donnington Airpark. It started life as 8mm footage shot by the Super 8MM Film Club of Townsville, was edited and produced by member Don Pickett, transferred to VHS tape and passed to my parents, then years later I ...managed to copy that to a DVD format and now finally it is preserved in the digital domain. It is historical (hysterical?) footage showing a typical flying day for the Super Ultralight Aircraft Association of Townsville (SULAA) members and their Skycraft Scout ultralights at what was then a fairly "new" Donnington Airpark (mid to late 1970's). Hope you enjoy it for what it is (certainly won't win any Oscars!) and feel free to share. :-) https://youtu.be/d43-sVc1_uM See more

11.01.2022 Sad news from Innisfail - Carlo Prete has passed away. I knew Carlo in the years I was organising the Donnington Airshow and often called in to his hangar then and in the following years for coffee and a chat when I was doing work trips through the FNQ area.

09.01.2022 My father, Ray Smith, handing over a cheque to the RFDS after the first airshow.

07.01.2022 Donnington Airpark beginnings

06.01.2022 I'm working on getting some historical (hysterical!) footage of the early ultralight days at Donnington Airpark ready for YouTube. A big thanks to Martin Lawlor who helped out today by converting some old DVD files (which are actually copies of VHS footage) into a more usable format. I now also have footage of the Donnington Country Fly-In/Donnington Airshow from 1979 to 1984/85 which can hopefully be edited to provide snippets of action. Watch this space - I'll advise when it has been uploaded.

05.01.2022 https://www.facebook.com/events/478103172709479/

04.01.2022 1989 Donnington Airshow.

03.01.2022 Guarding the Pitts - take 2! :-)

02.01.2022 Another of our dedicated former airshow volunteers passed away last Friday. Steve Iliff drove up from Brisbane several years in succession to help us with the event. He will be sadly missed. His funeral is at St Andrew's Indooroopilly (Brisbane) at 11 am Wednesday 3rd August with a wake at the Breakfast Creek Hotel afterwards.