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

While the flight ‘There and Back’ has concluded, the journey is just beginning in many ways.

Owen Zupp recently featured in Snap Shot Magazine – Click the image to view the edition.

After a fantastic day off with my family, it was back to the skies today. The little Jabiru had rested the night in the hangar at Mittagong and was soon refuelled and ready to fly on its first short flight of today. A mere hop to the east, the flight was a terrific opportunity to [...]

With ‘two sleeps’ to go until departure, sleep is a treasured item. Today was spent at Jabiru’s facility and my first meeting with the ‘There and Back’ Jabiru J230 in its new scheme. The day was spent familiarising myself with the various small details relating to the aircraft that, if overlooked, could lead to inconvenience [...]

Here she is! The first shot of the ‘There and Back’ Jabiru J230D in its special scheme for the upcoming flight around Australia. The team at Jabiru produced the tailored scheme on-site at their Bundaberg facility and the aircraft looks fantastic as the date of departure nears. To be honest, I can’t think of a [...]

Captain Harry Butler’s Red Devil As disappointing as yesterday’s announcement of the closure of Woomera’s airspace may be, there is no denying that when one door closes, another opens. My route will now head south from Streaky Bay to Port Lincoln on May 13th. The next day I will pay a visit to Minlaton, the [...]

This rather average paddock is the site of a rather significant event. The pine trees in the distance provided the backdrop to Harry Houdini’s first powered flight at Digger’s Rest Victoria on March 18th, 1910. Driving down the road, if you blink you’ll miss the historic marker. Yet with a breeze blowing and a QANTAS [...]

Hi All, Despite the weather’s best efforts to spoil the show, the flight test program for the Jabiru J230D is now complete! The aircraft is all set and ready to go and will make the trip to Temora for Natfly, which will provide an excellent opportunity to confirm performance and planning figures. The attached photo [...]

It’s been a busy time here at ‘There and Back’. With all of the operational planning in place, it’s been a matter of liaising with our good friends in the media and working on fund-raising to ensure that we do our utmost to raise funds for the RFDS. Check out the final route and dates [...]

Hi once again, It’s hard to believe that 3 weeks ago, the ‘There and Back’ Jabiru was a maze of components on a hangar floor in Bundaberg. It is now standing on its own undercarriage with its wings attached and systems being connected. Over the coming week it will commence its test flying program and [...]