A website of stories, fun, travel and
 adventure.

   Boys Own Adventure

  Those (insert expletive) boy bands! Now whenever I think of or write Boys Own Adventure which incidentally is a nice warm fluffy place where I go to escape the crap of the 21st century, they keep creeping into my head, it shouldn't be happening.

Boys Own Adventure, Batman and Robin, Bluebird, Thunderbirds are go. 007, shaken not stirred. The Flying Scotsman, George Best, 1966, There's people on the pitch. I Spy books, Sekiden guns, Apollo 11, E Type Jags, Supersonic flight, The Midland Pullman. TT races, Land Rover, Travel, Black and white Television, Blue Peter, Val's knickers A boys own dream, er adventure! Boys Own Adventure. Red, the colour red. Red for danger. Red for excitement. The Red Arrows, Jet Provost Jets with fuel tanks in their wing tips. That's what Boys Own Adventure is and should be. Discovery, learning, wonder, being amazed, knowing that you are alive. Not a $#@#!!Boy Band,
I was a 15 year old school teen Prog Rocker. I wore a RAF Great coat and carried my books around in an ex-army rucksack with ZOSO written on the back. I should have known better and chucked them over the nearest hedge. I wore Doc martin boots and at 16 rode a FS1E. Led Zeppelin, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Hawkwind, The Who, Pink Floyd, ELP, Barclay James Harvest, Abba! Uriah Heep. Moog synths, 25 minute guitar solos. What I'm trying to get across here is that pimply manufactured boy bands have no place in my psyche!

Sorry where was I?

Boys Own Adventure. Outback South Australia, 600km north of Adelaide. 45 degree heat, great excitement in town. Oh yeah. I had nipped out to buy a bottle of milk and a notice in Wardell's shop window caught my attention. "The Roulettes were coming to town"
Roulettes? You've got the better of me there.
Pole dancing croupiers? Girl Band? British 70's one hit wonders? Didn't they sing "Sugar Baby? Okay I give in. Here take a sticker, Thanks.
"Roulettes Royal Australian Airforce Aerobatic Team."  Oh similar to the Red Arrows then.
Apparently the whole team were scheduled to drop in (if that's the right word) to Woop Woop airport tomorrow lunchtime to meet the locals and schoolkids, a sort of show and tell. It was just one of about 12 fuel stops enroute to Singapore where there were performing at an air show. I guess that weight is a problem with these small planes but with the price of fuel in the outback, $1.68 a litre for diesel, never mind aviation fuel! They'd have been much better off financially by taking a tip from the locals who carry a 36 gallon drum in their Ute with fuel purchased from down south.

Woop Woop airport, it's hardly Heathrow as there's usually more Kangaroos than planes on the runway. I'ts mainly used by the Flying Doctor and for flying in and out workers from the coalfield up the road. Station owners use it too whenever they fly into town for supplies. But today was a special day, the Roulettes were coming to town. So just after midday I turned up at the airport and lined up with the local schoolkids kids and teachers to wait for the arrival. We waited and waited, listened for the engines, looked to the east, looked to the west it was a hot day. Our patience was eventually rewarded with a short aerobatic display over the town until eventually one by one the pilots that make up the Roulette team of seven landed in their Pilatus PC-9/A aeroplanes along with a plane full of ground crew and supplies.

The kids had a great time, I know I did, because the event became a real "Show and tell" when we allowed to go onto the apron (that's jargon for us flying types, it means tarmac) to meet the pilots ask questions and even touch the planes. Well one of them anyway whilst the rest were refuelled. We listened in awe for a good few hours and learnt that the PC-9/A, a two-seat single-engine turboprop aircraft is the major basic training aircraft for the Australian Defence Force (ADF). It is flown by the Central Flying School at RAAF Base East Sale in Victoria, where the ADF’s fixed-wing flying instructors are trained.

What a fantastic opportunity this was for the kids living out here in the outback to be allowed to get up so close to the planes and crew with no over zealous health and safety or security officials to spoil the day.

 

 

THE ROULETTES HOMEPAGE