Penfield Airfield for Sale

[mickjoebill]

Penfield Airfield, in Settlement Rd Sunbury, North of Melbourne is for sale.
$25M
Star Weekly | Penfield's historic sale - Star Weekly (http://www.starweekly.com.au/news/penfields-historic-sale/pub/sunbury_macedon_ranges/)

Not to be confused with Riddle Airfield near Clarkfield Station.

mjb

[kaz3g]

How many house lots.

old Doc Penney must be rolling in his grave.

kaz

[IFEZ]

Article says property is in a green wedge zone and can't be developed for residential housing. Rrriiggghhht......Lets see how long that lasts. The sharks will be circling and the pressure will be intense. (and the brown paper bags will be getting filled in readiness) :}

Good investment and good luck to them - turned $800K into $25M..! Can't see anyone shelling out $25M for it and running as a going concern though. More likely someone with inside knowledge of future planning scheme 'amendments' who'll turn their $25M into about $500M when they develop a couple of thousand house lots on it.

[machtuk]

I used to operate out of old Penfiled, Doc was a real character especially with his rat dog that used to sit up atop the seat in his old Holden Panel Van, Doc's hips where pretty bad there for years:-) hard to imagine him in the role during the 2bd WW, he was a little bloke, probably shrunk....lolol
I was away interstate living when I heard it sold for $800K, I near cried & was in shock.

It's not a pleasant place to visit these days, former shadow of itself, the owner isn't too friendly towards aircraft:-) Cant see it getting that much $$$$ but who knows with our corrupt Govt !

[CoodaShooda]

Jeez this brings back some memories from a time long gone.

Rob Pickhaver and Bev Roediger instructing.
DCA sending Rick Tate along to do our license tests.
Choice of four runways but all operations to the west. To the east lay a shotgun wielding chap who was convinced our aircraft were spraying his washing with oil.
Joe Drage being a regular visitor in his C195.
Bill Bell and his $1000 Chipmunks.
Bill Waterton and his Aeronca and a rather unique approach to circuits.
Ham Oliver and his Tiger Moth.
An open day including a Dragon Rapide (?) Wirraway and assorted Tiger Moths.
The Thorpe T18 doing a submarine approach through the power lines.
An autogyro that convinced me to avoid them like the plague.

And Doc. Always happy to let me hang around; to the extent of giving me a tractor endorsement to help get PKU and CYD out of the bogs that developed on 18 from time to time.

They were good days.

[Centaurus]

Jeez this brings back some memories from a time long gone. DCA sending Ric Tait along to do our license tests.
Now there was the finest DCA Examiner I ever knew. A kind, well-mannered officer and a gentleman. In 1953 Ricky Tate was a RAAF Flight Lieutenant and my instructor on Avro Lincoln heavy bombers at No. 10 (Maritime Reconnaissance) Squadron at Townsville. I later knew him when he was in DCA at Moorabbin.

At Townsville I was having trouble with crosswind landings at night and losing my nerve. The long nose of the Lincoln Mk 31 blocked the view of the runway on short final and being a tail-wheel aircraft the Lincoln was prone to ground-looping if you let it swing on the landing roll. Old fashioned pneumatic brake bags gave slow response when used to stop a swing. I wasn't the only pilot to sweat out crosswind landings at night. Even the test pilot at ARDU Laverton wrote that the view from the cockpit of the Long Nose Lincoln was terrible at the best.
I asked Ricky Tate if he would accompany me on some night crosswind landings to see what I was doing wrong. We spent an hour on night circuits with a 10-15 knot crosswind; thankfully from the right which gave a better view of the left side runway lights. I was 21 years old with around 1500 hours.

Sufficient to say practically every touchdown was a greaser. Afterwards Ricky said "I can't see your problem - they were pretty safe landings." I said to him I couldn't explain how things went so well except to say his very presence in the cockpit with me that night restored all my lost confidence. Yet all he had done was sit quietly in the copilots seat and watch my flying. I shall never forget him.

[Al E. Vator]

The Tates are a fine flying bunch from Warrnambool. Rick had a younger brother Frank who was with ANA and then QF for many years. Also a lovely bloke and still going strong at 90.