There and Back dedicated to Aviation, Airmanship and the Craft of Flying - by Owen Zupp & Robert Brus

Owen Zupp flies the Qantas A380 Simulator

Today’s the day! It’s dark here, but I can see stars out my window. My fingers are crossed that the weather will play the game so that ‘There and Back’ will make a a scheduled departure at 10am. One last ‘Thank You’ to everyone for their messages of support and donations thus far. Also, to [...]

Over the last few days I have received lots of support and good wishes from folks as far afield as Africa. However, I received a very special wish from a little 6 year old girl from Bowral NSW named Ava. It came in the form of a card made with a lot of thought and [...]

Yesterday was quite a day! So much so that the first spare minute to blog about ‘There and Back’ this morning came today! Firstly, through a combination of cheques and online donations, a further $1,000 has been contributed to the Royal Flying Doctor’s cause. This amazing degree of generosity sees the total donations pass $3,000 [...]

With eight days to go, my eye is warily cast over the synoptic charts of the approaching weather systems. The month of May was selected as it has generally friendly weather patterns characterised by big happy high pressure systems loitering in the Great Australian Bite. Meanwhile the dry season is in full swing across the [...]

As ANZAC Day dawned for another year, it once again called forth thoughts of those who have served and those who actively serve today both at home and abroad. The day has always held special significance in our home and will again this year. Though my late father was never one to march, he would [...]

The interest in this around Australia flight continues to grow and I’d like to thank evryone for the growing list of emails of support. I am making a genuine effort to answer each and evry one and to date I think that has been achieved. Also, a very special thank you to everyone who has [...]

Today marked 100 years since Harry Houdini took to the skies under power at Digger’s Rest in Victoria. That flight , in a Voisin biplane, set Australia on a very distinguished course as the young nation went onto become a pioneer in aviation with names like Hinkler, Kingsford Smith, Bonney and the Smith brothers all [...]

As the countdown to departure on May 5th continues, the Bundaberg News Mail continues to support ‘There and Back’. Bundaberg is central to the centenary flight in so many ways. It is the home of the Jabiru Aircraft facility and the town which gave us the aviation pioneer, and my boyhood hero, Bert Hinkler. Follow [...]

Hi All, Well the ‘There and Back’ Jabiru was completed and ready to test fly this week. Unfortunately, the weather intervened and the first flight was not possible as evidenced in this photo from the team at Jabiru. With the aircraft ready and other aspects of organisation in full swing, the around Australia flight now [...]