Last Week's Meeting

Sergeant Les called the meeting to order.

He welcomed the guest speaker Lochie smart as well as the partners and guests of members. Alan Bethune from the Rotary Club was also welcomed as was exchange student Gertrud.

 

President Mike then officially opened the meeting with the loyal toast.

 

INTERNATIONAL TOAST:

Kevin Curd proposed the toast to the Rotary Club of Lae Huon Gulf in PNG.

 

PNG has 12 clubs with a total of 183 members. The Rotary Club of Lae Huon Gulf has 23 members and meets at the Lae International Hotel on Tuesdays at 7 pm. their main projects include  an Annual Charity Golf Day and an Annual Black Tie Ball. Their projects include providing school equipment, community projects, Pride of Workmanship Awards, sports and mentoring program, school scholarships and medical equipment for Angau hospital.

 

GOLF DAY:

Tony long has the golf day in hand. He will have a mystery guest for the post round presentations.

 

VOCATIONAL SERVICE:

Barb bailey advised the club that Pat Lawton is very ill. Also Lyn Mason is undergoing surgery. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Mike and Pat and Brian and Lyn.

We also now have a formal agreement in place that establishes a sister club arrangement with the Rotary Club of Onah in South Korea.

 

COMMUNITY SERVICE: 

Kevin Leadbetter reminded the club of the Melbourne cup function sponsored by the Rotary Club of Caloundra to be held at the Power Boat Club. See the flyer later in the bulletin.

Our club will also support the Little Ray of Sunshine  project by donating toys that will go to Joel Archer's project to help disadvantaged children locally.

 

RYDA:

A successful 2 days have just been concluded.

 

RIKI TIKI:    not held.

 

SERGEANT at ARMS:     Ross Harrison did a splendid job.

 

GUEST SPEAKER:    Lochlan Smart.

 

Ross Harrison introduced Lochie to the club.

At the tender age of 16, Lochie set a goal of flying solo around the world. He gathered a good support team around him and with his parents he set about fund raising and obtaining sponsorships to bring his goal to fruition.

 

Lochie spoke of his "adventure". He started from the Sunshine Coast Airport at 4 am and his first stop was Fiji. Shortly into this leg Lochie realised that he had left his laptop and lunch box behind. After some drama these were delivered to him in Fiji by a kind commercial pilot.

From here he flew to American Samoa, Christmas Island and on to Hawaii. From here it was on to California, which involved a 14 hour flight over open ocean and through the Intertropical Convergence Zone at the Equator - this produces heavy storms.

 

From here, with the company of Fred the teddy, he flew to Las Vegas, Texas, Nashville, Niagara Falls, St John in Canada and to the Azores.  The flight from the Azores to Biggenhill UK was difficult as he had to have waypoints every 50 nautical miles. Lochie's great grandfather flew spitfires from this area in WWII. Lochie was able to have a rest period here and was able to catch with family and do a bit of sightseeing.

 

The next leg was to France via the White Cliffs of Dover and onto Crete. From here he the flight path took him to Saudi Arabia, Oman, Sri Lanka, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia and Jakarta. From Jakarta he flew to Broome, Darwin, Longreach, Bundaberg and finally touching down at the Sunshine Coast Airport after 8 weeks of flying.

 

He currently holds the record for the youngest pilot to fly solo around the world, an achievement that Lochie freely admits that will be broken in the future.

 

His future goal is to establish a foundation to help and support Young Achievers.

 

Peter Asher had the privilege to thank Lochie for his excellent presentation. He noted that Lochie is a very confident young achiever and on behalf of the club wished him every success in the future.

 

RAFFLE: was drawn

 

CLOSE:

President Mike thanked all for attending and congratulated Lochie and is parents on his achievements so far. The meeting was closed with the singing of the National Anthem.