The term FAIL comes to mind as I sit to write my ‘fortnightly’ summary here. My computer tells me the last one I wrote was in early December…oh well…

Summary of what we have done…Flown at the Jack Newton Celebrity Classic, formation flypast for the 30^th Anniversary of our sponsor Massel, formation and single ship demonstration over Sydney Harbour for New Years Eve, display at Evans Head, piloted the Extra 300L as Grant Denyer passed out on live TV, became the QBE Airmanship ambassador, did some corporate speaking, flew at the Australian International Air Show, raced Jamie Whincup at the Top Gear Festival, did a whole heap of joy flights, and, oh yeah, released an autobiography somewhere in there too!

Hmmm, no wonder I am tired!

Matt preparing to lift off at Avalon 2013 (Image courtesy of Daniel McIntosh)

Another development that is quite significant for us… we have employed a new full time member into the team. Eric Cieslar has moved up from Melbourne to join us as our technician and joy flight pilot.

Eric Ciesler is the new technician and joy flight pilot at Matt Hall Racing

Eric has an extensive background in both maintenance and flying, with most of his training being completed under the watchful and professional eye of Judy Pay. Eric brings another set of talents into the team, and we are glad to have him on board.

So, what is coming up?

Apart from starting to get more serious with our joy flight business now Eric is on the books, we are also starting to take on a little maintenance ourselves, working in conjunction with Aero Jacks from Perth.

Jack was my race technician during the 2010 season, and we still work very closely together, so now we have Eric working on the East Coast with us, Aero Jacks has the ability to do maintenance on both sides of Australia. A win-win for all concerned.

Along with this, we have a pretty full schedule for the next few months.

I am doing quite a bit of travelling around the country on behalf of the QBE Airmanship program to educate people on safe airmanship practices, we have a few book signings, plus our V8 support schedule kicks off again at Symmons Plains in Tasmania.

I am overseas doing some aerobatic coaching in April, then getting ready for the Wings Over Illawarra airshow, which will be the first Sydney region air show I have flown.

Matt’s full schedule is here.

And any spare time I have at the moment is going into the planning process for the Blue Mountains Bicentenary Flyover, occurring on the 25^th May this year. If you or anyone you know is interested in participating, just drop the team a line at joyflights@matthallracing.com to get a registration pack, and be involved in an historic flypast!

Hopefully I will be back writing before another 3 months passes!!

Matt.

December already! I am probably not alone when I say that I keep waiting for things to slow down so I can take a break, but the slow down never comes

Another busy month is behind us. In November, I was able to do four corporate speaking events, one display in the Extra in Melbourne, a big weekend in Wollongong with both aircraft, and some coaching in Malaysia. We also brought the P-51 Mustang down to Maitland for a month or so of joyflights, and had a few trips out to Bathurst.

We also announced in November a project we have been contracted to run. We will be coordinating up to 300 aircraft to cross the Blue Mountains next May, following the route of Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth used 200 year ago, as part of the Bicentennial celebrations of the first crossing. We have been out to Katoomba and Bathurst a few times in the last few months trying to sew up the details, and it looks like being a great event. We will be calling on pilots to participate early in the New Year.

With Christmas approaching, we have joined the spirit and offered a 10% discount on our normal joyflights if purchased between now and Christmas, which are then issued with a gift certificate for 12 months. We have also introduced another option into the sales – a 10 minute ride of your life for $390. We can also do 2 of these for $750…not a bad present for a couple to share the experience, and see who handles it best!! Book online at our website if you want to participate.

As we head into the New Year, things continue to get busier. I have finished all of my training for my Helicopter CPL, and just waiting on a clear space to do the flight test. Massel have just signed on for another two years as our major partner, and we will be doing a formation flypast of Blacktown on Friday 21^st December to help them celebrate their 30^th year in business. Massel have been a wonderful supporter of Matt Hall Racing for several years now and I would like to thank them for their support.

I am displaying then playing golf at the Jack Newton Celebrity Classic 17-19^th December, and then the all important New Years Eve display over Sydney Harbour. Throw in some joy flights in the Mustang and Extra, a few Christmas parties, and I am once again wondering where the ‘slow down’ is!

Talk soon

Matt.

I have failed!! This time I missed September completely with my blogs…must say something about being busy…

While I sit here in my office writing, I can glance up on my wall calendar and quickly see what I have been doing, and what is coming up. September is a flurry of scribble, that is for sure.

Since last writing (yes, in August…), I have been doing quite a bit of work out at my old stomping ground at the RAAF base at Williamtown, assisting in the training of Defence personnel. It is quite rewarding for me to go back out there and catch up with a lot of people, and have the satisfaction of helping people improve, something I am very passionate about.

We also ran a competition on the radio for a Fathers Day present, to go for a ride with me in the Extra. We had a lot of people apply, though I am not sure the winning Dad was filled in on the competition he was entered in as he still has not come forward!! The good news is, lots of people have been up in the aircraft now and the word on the street is “that is the best thing I have ever done!”.

I ended up down in Victoria at Echuca to do some aerobatic coaching for a number of pilots down there who are competing in the Australian Aerobatic Club, and I shall be returning in the not too distant future to put some more polish on them prior to the National Aerobatic Championships.

Pedita and I were also fortunate enough to be guests of Shell Aviation at the inaugural Australian Aviation Hall of Fame in Wagga. A black tie event, it was great to catch up with some of Australia’s most successful aviation business people, and friends and family of the recipients of the awards. It was quite a privilege to sit at a table with descendants of Lawrence Hargraves and Sir Charles Kingsford Smith.

I continued plugging away at my Helicopter Commercial licence, doing quite a few flights around the local area with either instructors, or taking my Dad for a fly just for the fun of it!

We finished the month off by packing the whole family up and flying over to Perth, to spend a few days relaxing in South Perth prior to attending the inaugural Westfly, a joint venture of the RAA and Sky Sports Innovations who develop the EQ Wireless headset that I use in the race plane. A very relaxing and enjoyable event for us all.

There were a few other things that occurred in September, though we are keeping a few secrets to keep you interested….more to come!

All the best.

Matt.

I know I said I would be writing these posts every week or two…my Operations Manager Dave Lyall, fresh back from the Olympics, just reminded me it has been almost a month since I wrote!! How time flies….

The end of July and first half of August turned out to be a very busy few weeks. We conducted another photo shoot with both aircraft and the Massel race car at Maitland airport, all on the ground this time. I then did a few days of work at the RAAF base, helping out with Exercise Pitch Black in the Northern Territory, before heading away to Queensland with both the MXS and the Extra. That was a very successful trip, where I did 4 demonstrations at Ipswich race track, during the V8 Supercars round and the Extra was kept busy all weekend doing joyflights from Archerfield.

It was then off to Chinchilla. This was a surprise visit that had been organised by one of the mining companies up there, to give a talk on Risk Mitigation, and then take a few of the employees for a flight in the Extra to demonstrate my own Risk Management (quite a graphic demonstration, and sure beats looking at power point slides all day!!).

Out of Queensland, it was race home for another presentation at the 22^nd Annual Mechanical Electrical Engineering Safety Seminar…once again talking about how I have managed risk in a risky environment.

We then filmed the TV show Alive and Cooking for 2 days in front of my hangar at Maitland. I took celebrity chef James Reeson for a flight in the Extra, and he taught me how to cook! I am not sure who had the better deal!!

Somewhere in there, my son Mitchell had his 7^th birthday and his party with all his mates, we ran a radio ad and competition for Fathers Day, we did some media about the Red Bull Air Race return, and I planned some aerobatic coaching in Echuca and Malaysia, which we have ultimately postponed due to weather (and to give me a breather!!).

So, what’s on the horizon? Well, it seems the Red Bull Air Race is getting quite a bit of attention, as the Herald Sun in Melbourne ran a front page article on it potentially coming to Albert Park. I ended up being interviewed by them and a few radio stations on the topic. Perth then responded with their own articles, followed closely by the Gold Coast. It seems it is in demand as far as a host city is concerned.

For us, we have no major bookings for a few weeks, though we are gearing up for Fathers Day, as we have the Extra ready to go for gifts.  We have a few other things coming up in September, though I will leave that for my next post, which will hopefully be sooner than 4 weeks time!

All the best.

Matt.

Since the car and plane race at Temora, things have been relatively quiet here at Matt Hall Racing, which is good, because it gives me some time to think, develop, and spend time with the family.

One of the fortunate items about running your own business is the ability to somewhat control your calendar (somewhat!). I was able to take advantage of this last week, having the day off on Wednesday to help in Mitchell’s school sports carnival. It was very cool to see all the kids participating, and how serious they get when the word ‘competition’ is mentioned…I have no idea where kids get that from!?!

We have also spent the last few weeks catching up on some joyflights and media opportunities in the Extra. That is becoming more and more popular, starting to almost become it’s own business entity. We are about to do some increased marketing leading up to Fathers Day to see how that goes.

Coming up, we have another photo shoot this weekend at Maitland, then full preparations for heading to Queensland for the V8 Supercars. I will be taking the MXS for the displays, and we will also have the Extra up there doing adventure flights. We are basing out of Archerfield, with the support of Archerfield airport administration, so come out and have a look at the ops if you are around.

Other interesting news for us is that the Mustang, which has been grounded for the better part of a year having a very large engine overhaul, flew for the first time a few days ago. It is now full steam ahead for joyflights and airshows in the aircraft. We are also looking at bringing it down to the Hunter Valley for regular periods to share the ‘love’, making it part of our offerings to compliment the Extra.

If you follow my facebook site, you would have seen in the last few days an official announcement from Red Bull Air Race saying the there is no race season in 2013, though they are working hard on a race calendar for 2014. Fingers crossed on that front.

Lastly, we are considering making these blogs a bit of a forum in the future for people to discuss what is going on in the aviation industry as a whole. Topics such as Airline disputes, low cost airlines, airshows or products will all be fair game. If you have a topic you would like to see discussed, drop us a line!

All the best.

Matt.

I must admit when my Operations Manager Dave Lyall suggested I write a blog at a rate of up to once per week, I thought I would struggle to think of things to talk about. For the last 5 days I have been taking notes on what to put here, and I think we can write a book on it (hmmm….).

The big news of the past week was our promotional event with our sponsor Massel. About one year ago, Mark Caine (part of the family company and Marketing Manager for Massel) brought their RX7 race car to the hangar for a photo shoot. It was there he suggested we get together sometime and race the car and plane.

We recently visited the idea again, and agreed on Temora as the location due to its wide and long runway, and relatively low movement rate. The Council gave us permission to shut down the runway for 4 hours, and CASA gave me an approval for low-level aerobatics over the field, and we were off.

On Thursday I flew to a friend’s place in the Upper Hunter to do some low level training, then flew down to Temora on Friday for the event itself. What started as a cool idea to race the car and plane, was turning into an event bigger than Ben Hur. We had 2 TV networks, multiple newspapers and professional photographers, videographers, race car mechanics and official observers!

We did a lot of runs, with me in the MXS, and Michael Caine, Mark’s brother, in the RX7, from a standing start out and back race (it was always going to be hard to beat an aircraft that can do almost 500 kph!). We filmed a few tight finishes, then proceeded with the promotional shots. These were well planned and briefed shots involving a video platform driving down the runway, the RX7 driving behind it, and the MXS either side slipping next to or inverted 15 feet above the RX7! We have obtained a huge number of photos and video footage, which we will be releasing in the future for promotional purposes with Massel.

Massel MXS-R and Massel RX7

If that was not enough, the next day I was fortunate enough to fly in a new aircraft type for me, the A37 Dragonfly, thanks to the Temora Aviation Museum.

If you have not been out there, put it on your bucket list as it is quite incredible how well these old aircraft are maintained and displayed!

A quick trip home on Saturday evening and I was back home with the family for dinner. Sometimes it is hard to call what I do a job…but hey, someone has to do it!

Until next time.

Matt.

Hi everyone,

Happy to announce we have been working hard on developing new ideas for the business over the quieter month of June. What we have discovered is we tend to get busy doing, and sometimes miss out on either planning or communicating, so the first step in our changes is to produce regular Blogs, which will allow us to communicate new events and ideas more regularly without limitations of normal social media, or the additional effort of a Newsletter.

What has been going on? Well, March was an amazing month with no fewer than 5 different flying events, using both aircraft. We then progressed into April and May, continuing to support V8 Supercars and developing our new hangar at Maitland Airfield.

We also took on a new partnership with Avia Aircraft, based out of Moorabbin Vic, who are setting up high end Fixed Operating Bases around Australia for the pilots who are time poor (who isn’t?!). They are also the agents for a number of aircraft, including the Extra which I own. Our first event together was at Moorabbin Airfield, which involved a dusk display in the Extra, followed by a talk to their invited guests in the beautiful Royal Victoria Aero Club. We look forward to a conducting more events with them in the future.

In June, the planning on where we are going and what we are doing took place. We have been looking at a number of items, such as employing a full time maintainer and pilot, opening up our available options for display flying, and increasing the availability of the Extra for joy flights around Australia. While there is always a lot of work to do in keeping a business running, we are never short of ideas at Matt Hall Racing that generate work!!

We have also had word recently from the Red Bull Air Race. While there is definite interest in future racing, they have informed us that the 2013 race season is too close now to run, and have refocused on 2014. While very disappointing for us, we feel we have our own direction we can chase in the meantime.

Talk soon.

Matt.