December 2008

Coordinator and Editor Ross Wood

Second Edition

How the Challenge is going

I have had a very busy second half of the year having been to exhibitions Sunpex in Brisbane, in August, Praga 2008 in Prague and Wipa 2008 in Vienna in September, Indonesia 2008 in Jakarta  in October and Tarapex 2008 New Plymouth in November as well as being chairman of our local Swan River Stamp Show in  October 2008. Now that I have recovered from all those exhibitions I will bring you up to date in what is happening in the challenge. The great after forty five in aerophilately (GAFFA) challenge is open to all still so if you know anyone who may be interested please pass on a copy of this newsletter. The good news is that the Western Australian Philatelic Council has obtained permission for the Philatelic Society of Western Australia to hold a national exhibition in June 2012 in Perth Western Australia. (2012 is 100 years of continuous meetings of the society originally formed in 1893). This will be a full national exhibition with all the main FIP classes with the main emphasis being on aerophilately and the GAFFA challenge.  Though the planning is in it’s infancy it is believed that like the 2004 Swan River Stamp Show  this exhibition will be held over 4 days.

Though the challenge has been widely advertised there are still some interesting areas that have not yet been taken up. Though I have had several additional challengers since the last newsletter I would still like more as there is still some interesting countries that had large scale developments after 1945.

CURRENT CHALLENGERS

The next exhibition in Australia that will accept an aerophilatelic entry is in Melbourne in July, 2009.  New Zealand are accepting entries for their National Timpex in October 2009 at Timaru all classes including the most important one aerophilately. In March 2010 there will be a National Exhibition in Canberra. As this is 100 years since the first  controlled powered  heavier than air flight in Australia the emphasis on this exhibition will also be aerophilately.

It was on March 18^th 1910 that Mr Harry Houdini at Diggers Rest near Melbourne Victoria flew several flights in his Voisin biplane and gained the height of over 100 feet on one of the flights. Yes it is the same Harry Houdini born in Hungary in 1878 as Ehdrich Weiss and became the great illusion artist and toured the world showing that he could escape from anywhere. He was in Melbourne at the Opera House performing his illusions in front of large audiences when he took this first successful flight. At the time there were several other people trying to be the first to successfully fly a a powered heavier than air machine, These were a Mr Ralph Banks in  Wright  biplane but after only just lifting off the ground crashed and was destroyed at Diggers Rest. In Adelaide at the same time(March 1910) Mr Bill Wittber had built and engine in which he had put into a Bleriot monoplane and was doing taxiing tests when the plane “flew” up to five feet into the air for some forty feet. As this was not a controlled flight it was not counted as the first flight in Australia but is referred to as the “Wittber Hop” The first person to fly an Australian built plane was Mr John Duigan at Mia Mia Victoria  on July 16^th 1910.

You may think what has all this information to do with the GAFFA Challenge. It has a lot as without the challenge that was taking place in Australia in 1909-10 for the first person to fly in Australia as well as the first person to build and fly an Australian built plane where would aviation be today. It was over 4 years after this before the first airmail was flown in Australia. If the challenge to be the first to fly in Australia had not been taken up in 1909-10 then it may have been many years later that the first mail was flown. Take up the GAFFA challenge to increase the awareness of aerophilately throughout the world. You will not be disappointed with the result and what you have learned by the time that you complete the challenge

In the first newsletter I gave details of what makes up an aerophilately exhibit and you should be aware of this at the beginning of collecting your airmail material for your exhibit. This is not what I made up but it is Article 3 of the SREV’s (Special Regulatiions for the Evaluatiion of Aerophilatelic Exhibits at F.I.P. Exhibitions) for aerophilately.  Now that you are aware of the material that you can use in an exhibit below I have listed that types of arrangement that you may use for your exhibit. Again this is from Article 3 of the SREV’s (Actually Flying Boat is not in the SREV’s but I collect and exhibit them as do others throughout the world)

Happy New Year to you all and I hope you have a prosperous new year as well as a happy one and get out there and take up the challenge as you have only just over three years to go.

Ross Wood

GAFFA Challenge Coordinator

December, 2008