August 31 
A fly-in over the week-end at Watts Bridge just to the north west of Archerfield attracted a large number of vintage and historic aircraft to the old wartime memorial airfield

Included in the more than 150 aircraft attending the Queensland Vintage Aeroplane groups "Festival of Flight" event was the newly restored DH-84 Dragon, one of the feature aircraft that will be on display at Archerfield next week-end September 6 & 7^th

 August 26 
A designated aviation medical examiner at Mt Coolum on the Sunshine Coast has been fined $4000 and had his pilot licence cancelled for 3 years by the Maroochydore District Court

The DAME was the owner and pilot-in-command of a 10-seat Cessna 402 twin-engine aircraft that crashed shortly after take-off at Maroochydore Airport on May 18, 2001 after running out of fuel

" ..the jury took less than two hours to find Sunrise Beach general practitioner Richard Heath guilty on the Commonwealth-prosecuted charge (of recklessness) after a five-day trial"

The 2001 News Desk Report is HERE

 August 29 
Local media has reported about a security scare at last year's Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting (CHOGM) held at Coolum in Queensland back in March 2002

RAAF controllers had positioned a fully armed F/A-18 Hornet fighter ready to shoot down a light aircraft (it was a Cessna C172 ..Ed) that was heading for the restricted airspace around Coolum

"We actually had the delegated authority of the Prime Minister to order a shoot-down ...the person (farmer from up north ..Ed) flying the lightie still doesn't know"

 August 23 
A US$6 million Brazilian designed space rocket exploded during testing killing 21 personnel associated with the launch

The 66 feet tall VLS-1 VO3 unmanned rocket was due for launch in 3 days with a payload of 2 satellites (also destroyed)

The explosion occurred at Brazil's Alcantra space base near the equator when one of it's 4 main engines accidentally ignited - the launch pad was decimated

Australia continues it's race to get into the space business - click HERE for the latest info