Aircraft and Airfield vandalism again, except they have caught this t**#

One hopes he not only gets a long prison sentence, but that he also has to pay from his own pocket, and if that means the courts selling everything he owns, so be it..

, A 20 year old local man has been charged over a couple of vandalism attacks at Rutherford, home of the Royal Newcastle Aero Club. There are quite a number of private hangars there now and aircraft nad vehicles stored in them. This young vandal broke into 10 or so of the hangars over 2 nights and caused hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage to the hangars and aircraft and some vehicles stored in the hangars. He’s been charged with trespassing on the inclosed lands of another, break and enter and criminal damage.

No word yet on whether he’s part of any possible local organization? that is making noises about aircraft noise at Rutherford. There is a home and landowners association that is trying to get the airfield closed because of so called excess aircraft noise but the airfield provide the local council with too much in rates from the Aero Club and all those private aircraft and hangar owners for them to even consider that. Their folly has been in allowing residential and boutique winery development right up to the boundary fences.

When I learned to fly there 30 odd years ago the locals were fewer and farther betwen and none of them minded the aircraft flying over their territory. There was one family who had a house on the side of the hill just to the right of the approach to runway 10 who if they were sitting on their back patio used to wave to and smile at us as we approached past their house. Now we get the raised middle digit from the family who bought the house as the original owners passed on. Even their young kids are rude to us now as we approach from that direction. Back in the day we used to return the waves and smiles; now we’re not game to return the pleasant? gestures we receive from this family.

The RNAC moved to Rutherford in 1961 from an airfield about a mile from my house. They had to move because until a couple of years later there was no TV station in Newcastle and even then most people liked to watch the ABC evening news. The fact that apart from NBN the nearest TV stations were in Sydney making tall aerials necessary. The RNAC’s Broadmeadow field was already surrounded on 3 sides by houses and on the other by a heavy engineering works which still exists today. Now that old field is a sporting complex, harness racing track and rescue helicopter base so there is still some aviation activity there.

This vandal obviously didn’t stop to think what he has just cost the owners of the hangars, aircraft and vehicles, or did he? I hope he feels the full weight of the law on his shoulders over this as he has just cost the owners their no claim bonus plus the excess charges. Good one sport.

Ross.

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