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The following
photo of Bill Schoon (deceased) has been provided by his
daughter Lyn Whimpey. who was a foundation member of
the Caboolture Gliding Club and its predecessor the
Brisbane Valley Gliding Club. Bill was a tuggie as well
as an instructor and was CFI in 1982 and 1983. He was
also honoured as a Life Member of the Caboolture Gliding
Club. Lyn has also provided a copy of an article
written by her father about his epic flight from Romania
to Australia by Motorglider (see hyperlink below). |
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Bill
Schoon, Bert Persson (life member at Alice Springs and
Caboolture) and Bill Riley (founder of Riley Aeronautics and
the Sportavia Soaring Centre at Tocumwal) did the trip in May
1980 in three IS-28M2 motorgliders.
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Why
did they do it? ... in Bill Schoon's words ... "Bill
Riley, the importer of these machines, had been quoted $14,000
as the shipping cost for three motorgliders - so why not fly
them out ourselves? By doing so we could have a working
holiday, see many interesting sights, and prove the
reliability of this type of aircraft".
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The
Motor Lark IS-28M2 was a two-seater (side-by-side) motorglider
developed from the two-seater (tandem) IS-28M1.
The rear fuselage, tailplane and wings are
similar to the IS-28B2 glider. Powered by a Limbach engine
driving an adjustable pitch Hoffman fully-feathering
propeller, it first flew in 1976.
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Bill
Riley, who was the importer of IS-28's had also been the
importer of Blaniks. It is interesting therefore
to contemplate just how many Australian glider pilots would
have done at least some of their training in a two-seater club
aircraft that was imported by Bill Riley!
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>
Return to "Gliding
Queensland - HISTORY"
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