Wednesday, Dec 13, 2006 at 11:22
The RFDS branches have to finance their own aircraft and the Govt grants pay for the genertal runnung cost of the operation and staff etc.
The cost of the planes vary a bit due to the exchange rate of the dollar.
Broken Hill base have not too long ago bought their very first brand new Kingair. Up until that time, they never had enough funds to buy a new aircraft, it was always a 2nd hand one.
By the time they convert the plane with the big door ,
strenghten the tail area because of the rougher landing strips,
put 4 blade props on it because they are shorter than the 3 blades so less dust problem on the station strips, and the list goes on with the mods.
That's quite apart from fitting it out as virtually a small intensive car unit.
It doesn't look much like a standard aircraft inside.
All that is is about $7m.
Another thing is that these planes do a lot of hours and
Broken Hill has 3 planes here usually, and they have to be replaced as they accumulate flying hours.
All the tins for fundraisng you see around the country are there to finance a replacement aircraft for the local branch.
So drop a few coins (or more) in them next time you see one.
They say that there can be RFDS assistance anywhere in outback Australia within 2 hours.
How long does it take a taxi to come to your house ??????
One of the fundraisers the
Broken Hill RFDS have, there are many women from the local properties come into town in October and they make 2000, 1Kg Christmas puddings to sell to help get a new plane.
Imagine the time and work involved to make that many puddings.
And they are fabulous.
Not sure if it has anything to do with the 200 litres of brandy in the mix :-).
Dave
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