Vegemite, for those of you who have never had the harrowing experience of being fed it by an Aussie as a joke, is a salty, slightly bitter brown food paste made from leftover brewers yeast extract.  It is actually nothing more than a by-product from beer manufacturing with a few vegetables and spices added.  Sound yummy, eh?  The truth is that Vegemite is one of the richest sources of vitamin B you can purchase anywhere in the world, has less than 1g of fat and 9 calories per teaspoon.

Invented in 1923, this Aussie icon is sold world wide and is used as spreads, pastry filling, broth, seasoning in place of bouillon,  and, of course, torture devices for unsuspecting foreigners.  Best way to eat it?  Butter a warm piece of toast.  VERY Sparingly spread on the Veggie.  (Not thick like peanut butter.  Think THIN). Cover with a piece of cheese and eat.  If you’re interested in purchasing Veggie in the USA, contact the Australian Catalogue Company in Atlanta.  www.aussiecatalog.com Use code:  AASAF and receive a 5% discount.  Or try www.vegemite.com.au for more info and recipes.

The new Australian Air Safaris website is operational.  It greatly resembles the old website in coloring and photos, but offers a few new options that makes it more user friendly.  The top three boxes that we affectionately call the “Cool Thing” boxes, are updates, news flashes, photos, etc that are pertinent at the time.  The individual pages are now in a printer friendly version.  All of the pages are also available in pdf format and able to be emailed to a friend when you find something of interest.  Aussie folk artist, John Williamson, still plays our opening song, but for now, we have eliminated the didgeridoo music from the tours pages.    Enjoy! 

In February 2008, three ladies from Virginia decided to brave the summer weather in Australia and had what they have called an “Adventure of a Lifetime.”  One of these ladies, the only American pilot on the tour, has blessed us with a written version of the trip.  Parts of it will have you laughing out loud.  Other sections will have you shaking your head, (poor Phoebe losing her passport in the Sydney cab), but it’s easy to see what a great time they had.  If you’re interested in reading about their two weeks in the 100+F temperatures, keep reading.

Thanks again, Susan, for sharing your vacation with us.

FYI - Susan says she is looking forward to her next trip and is going as soon as she can find a passenger. 

In early September Mick will be heading to Australia for the arrival of two “new” Cessna aircraft that we shipped a few months ago.  Both of these were our personal planes kept at the airport here in Georgia. 

If you’ve read the article published in Auto Pilot magazine about True Blue Skies, then you’ve heard the story about the 172 he bought back in 2005.  He plans to sell the 182 while in Australia, but wants to take advantage of having it there to do some R&D for a requested Aussie Winery tour that we will be putting together late 2009 or early 2010.  You can thank the McKeens for the idea!!!!  

Mick will also be flying into Melbourne to have a look at the Gippsland Aero (G8 Aero) factory and determining its use for families who want to tour with Australian Air Safaris, but need more seats and weight capacity.      We also hope to use these planes for custom group non-pilot tours.  Fortunately for Mick, he will be in Australia while the Australian Rules Football Grand Final is played this year.  It’s a pity his team finished thirteenth out of sixteen teams…or as he says, “Thirteenth from the top.”  Always the optimist. 

GO PORT POWER!

As first time exhibitor and attendee of EAA in July, I have to admit to being a bit overwhelmed at the volume of people wandering through the place. The Aussie expression “mixed bag” kept coming to mind as Mick and I looked around everyday.  Thank you to everyone who came by just to say “G’day.”  It was great putting faces and names together. 

We were also amazed at the number of people who commented, “I didn’t think we were allowed to fly in Australia anymore.”  Luckily, for us and you, the rules have “relaxed’ a little since the initial government reaction to September 11, which caused a year back log for licenses issued in Australia.  Thankfully, all paperwork can be submitted from overseas now and the forms are on our website. 

The following photo was taken by Mark and Yvonne Sanderson as they were leaving Oshkosh.  The Sandersons, along with their “mates” the Remleys, will be flying Australia in November on their own customized tour.
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