Alan Szabo and I finished up flying at the 2006 Smackdown event in Melbourne Australia. We both had a great time and were treated like kings at the perfectly run event. The hospitality of the Australians who attended this event from all over the country really made our visit an absolute pleasure. I was amazed at the much improved flying skills and overall helicopter interest since my last visit in 2002. Both Alan and I are already looking forward to our next visit down under.
Please pay a visit to the Australian heli forum www.archeli.com.au for more info. We're now heading across the Tasman Sea to New Zealand for another heli event and some sight seeing...feel free to check back for more news and photos.

Our adventure in New Zealand was great!!! We did lots of interesting things and met some cool pilots who took great care of us. Aside from the heli flying with Frazier Briggs there is plenty of fun stuff to do down there. Alan and I went jet boating, sailing, bungee jumping (just Alan did that one :-), down hill street luge (this was awesome..but a bit dangerous), a 2000 kilometer road trip and we even got to fly a a Cessna down to the south island..anyhow I can't wait to go back. Thanks for everything guys!!!