With the onset of Autumn, has come the end to an extremely long and at times very hectic fire season. As a special thank-you for everyone's efforts Ray and Eleanor Cronin invited all of the fire crew and staff that helped out during this busy period to a weekend away at Pinnacle Valley Resort. The 'end of fire season celebration' was enjoyed by all. A fantastic weekend of laughter, relaxation, social fun, team building and a chance for the partners to get to know everyone as well.
Horse riding, massage, golf, four wheel driving to Craig's Hut and abseiling were the main activities for the weekend.
Without a doubt the abseiling, which took place at LaTrobe University, Mt Buller was the most challenging and nerve racking activity for the majority of the group. The absolute fear in the face of each person was most evident as they took the first step off the edge of the 6 storey building, with a drop of 70ft below them.
A feeling of great relief and achievement was felt by all once our feet were planted firmly back on the ground. For some the adrenalin rush got the better of them and they opted for a second go. Eleanor Cronin likened the feelings she experienced similar to those feelings she had when she did her first solo in the helicopter.
On behalf of all of the staff, thank-you to Ray and Eleanor for their generosity and treating the Kestrel team to a fabulous weekend.

Kestrel's 'Kulnine Flyaway' held in March was once again a great success.

Our regular receiver's of our quarterly newsletter, past and present students are aware of the flyaway's however for our new readers here is a little background information about Kulnine and the Flyaway program, which is unique to Kestrel Aviation.

Kulnine Station, Kestrel's 30,000 acre outback property, is located 70kms west of Milldura. It provides an ideal environment for Kestrel's students to experience some real operational flying, and a realistic operational environment for student pilots to apply the basic skills learnt to this point.

The station environment sets a practical arena for tasks to be issued to students. The distances are large enough and the complexity of the station islands means that the pilots need to take note of where they are, and use situational awareness to achieve the end result.

A good example of this was when a student was tasked from the portable yards to fly back to the camp to get the lunches. The visibility had reduced as the morning progressed thus removing some of the more obvious navigational features. The student returned to the out camp with lunches on board and an improved confidence in his skills and a sense of self-satisfaction.

It is very satisfying for Chief Pilot Ray Cronin to observe the improvement in skill and confidence of flyaway participants. Over the years this has become so obvious that the flyaway is considered an essential component of the student pilot's training course.

For a more specific account of flying and non-flying activities that took place during the week, please click here....