Qld Air Museum Troop 5-6 July 2014

Date: Sat and Sun 5-6 July 2014

Venue: Queensland Air Museum, 9 Pathfinders Drive, Caloundra West, Qld

Time: 0900-1600 each day

Mission: To add some Star Wars magic to the Air Museum’s annual Open Cockpit weekend, their biggest fundraising event of the year. This is our 2nd invite and joint troop, and the organisers love us attending and interacting with the crowds. A Miniature Xwing game was donated by Fast Break Sports Nundah, and we chose to fund raise for the Community Funded Museum.

Trooper Attendance:
SATURDAY

RL:
Rebelrach – Xwing pilot

RBG:
Solo – TK
Duck – Tusken Female
Rubber – Tusken / Sandtrooper
Rebelrach - POC

MM
Baytrooper – Mando
GA:
Maverick (could you get a cooler name for an Air Museum troop?) – Vader
Lauren - Jawa

Support Crew / Guest Trooper Attendance:
TK Ratchett (SSG) – TK
Scoot040 – (RGB) Cadet and road testing pending Reserve Pilot costume
Chookie (SCG cadet) – Wrangling husband and GA’s
Viperscout (RGB) – Wrangling GA jawa
Brock (GA) – Mini GA Vader assistant


SUNDAY

RL:
Gene Neon – Xwing pilot
Thrawn – Rebel Fleet Trooper
Rebelrach – Xwing pilot

RBG:
Duras – TK
Buzzard – Imperial Officer
Chopper – Tie Pilot
Muppet – Tie Pilot / Gunner
Bigmac – Gunner
Terrafirma – Gunner
Rebelrach - POC

GA
Maverick – Vader/Yoda

Support Crew / Guest Trooper Attendance:
TK Ratchett (SSG) – TK
Scoot040 – (RGB) Cadet and road testing pending Reserve Pilot costume
Chookie (SCG cadet) – Wrangling husband and GA’s
Gene E-di (Tatooine Base) Xwing wrangler/photos
Brock (GA) –GA Yoda assistant

Thanks also to: Nate (Muppets son), Robyn and daughters (Choppers family) and Ravyn’s dad for supporting the troopers.

Details: The coded message (an older code but it checked out) went out that at Mos Eisley Spaceport (AKA Qld Air Museum) aircraft were being assembled for the annual inspection, and a Star Wars presence was naturally required to ensure law and order was maintained amongst the mass of Galactic Citizens arriving.

Troopers boarded transports, gunships and speeders, hitting light speed through early morning galactic mist, arriving safely from 8am on Saturday, to observe the local citizens and test out the ‘Old Republic’ aircraft on display, keep galactic order and recruiting new pilots, collecting fines and looking for those missing droids (still).
Troopers were immediately popular with the local inhabitants and themselves awed by the array of old air transportation on display, most with old school jet fuel engines, wheels and something called ‘propellers’. Tie Fighters and Xwings were forgotten as troopers sat in the cockpits of an F-111, Sea Vixen, DC3, Phantom, choppers and even a jeep, made of all sorts of crude matter.

The uneasy truce betweenRebels and Imperials remained intact on the Saturday, under Mando and Tusken supervision, with mini Vader making a guest pilot appearance and a cute but pesky jawa attempting to steal some engine components. Simmering tensions erupted into a full scale photoshoot on the Sunday in front of the Caribou and fascinated crowds, with Rebels completely outnumbered by Tie Pilots, gunners and troopers. At one point troopers were distracted skywards as a very familiar looking transport with markings that matched a ship that blasted its way earlier out of Mos Eisley flew off (a chopper flyby), and as well as getting hungry and wanting to head to the Cantina, the battle was forgotten. Yoda also made a popular appearance proving size matters not ...

The combination of the display table (and raffle), the impressive PR and citizen relations the troopers displayed, the Galactic Academy presence and general awesomeness of the troopers left the local galactic population in awe, many donations were made towards improving the space port, and the Mos Eisely administrators were most pleased with the Star Wars presence, inviting all parties back next year, but with bigger numbers.
Troopers flew in and out over both days, committing many hours to observing the Galactic citizens. While a few lucky troopers were able to test drive the F-111 jet, others waited patiently for the chance on Sunday afternoon after crowds dispersed, but hearing rumours of an increasingly dense asteroid field (traffic jam on the M1), and with troopers having to travel many light years home, the Imperial decision was made to pack up and abandon the space port before the Twin Suns set. Let’s face it, the odds of successfully navigating an asteroid field are 3,720…. to 1.

Charity Funds Raised: $265.30

Injuries / Malfunctions: Nil

Public Incidents: NIL.

Mission Status: HUGE SUCCESS!!! The clubs have already been invited back next year, and we get to choose the best spot ourselves to set up in. We got a lot of positive feedback and thanks from the organisers, volunteers, vendors and the public. It’s a fun troop, with great photo opportunities with the vintage aircraft, cars and props (engines, missiles, propellers etc). QAM will donate to us for a future raffle prize (at any event we want it for) a museum pack including a tour of the museum and F-111 cockpit.

My personal thanks to Stormraven for organising the event so well, making it easy for me to be POC for the weekend. (He sourced a Miniature Xwing Game, donated from Fast Break Sports Nundah which was very successful, selling 1 ½ books of tickets).

Thanks to all that drove long distances to troop and those that that brought models to display and leant helmets, it made the table display look awesome. The troopers were at their entertaining best and having pilots there tied in the clubs well. The weekend operated so easily and folk had a great time. Wranglers, spouses, GA kids and support crew were all fantastic. The good natured rivalry between the clubs made for great sport and photos. The weekend was a great combo of trooping, socialising, fundraising and being part of the museum and military exhibits. Perfect sunny Tatooine weather (and nice and cool on Sunday). It’s just a great fun, easy going troop. We hope to make it bigger and better next year too - with more Rebels!

Photos:
Table Display

Duck and Rubber’s Tusken Family

Looks like it was another great troop Hopefully next year we will have some pilots to attend, and get photos in some of those awesome planes.

very nice display Rach- don't know why we don't do more of that

great work on this Rach, did well.

so did anyone get rushed off MASH style?

Why not settling on games that is fun and at the same time your earning. Well it'll make suspense because the game is well but dude just try it and it gave me hope while pandemic is real rn. DIFFERENT TYPES OF ONLINE SLOT GAMES