AFF Gathering #17 in BNE on 18 - 20 October 2024

We're pleased to announce that the 2024 AFF annual gathering will be held in Brisbane, the sunny capital of Queensland!

The weekend of Friday 18 - Sunday 20 October 2024 has been chosen for the event. As per past years, there will be a welcome dinner on the Friday evening, optional activities on Saturday and a main dinner on Saturday evening. There may also be an optional activity on Sunday in the late morning.

All AFF members (and +1's, etc.) are welcome to attend. Most people usually fly in on Friday afternoon and leave on the Sunday afternoon/evening.

Your lead organisers for this year's event are @NM and @QF WP. Other Brisbane-based members are also welcome to volunteer to assist.

We'll update this thread over the coming months with more information about the planned activities, dinner venues and costs, which we expect to be similar to past gatherings. There will be a $5 registration fee per participant, plus the cost of any activities and/or meals that you choose to join.

For now, please feel free to let us know in this thread if you think you'll be able to make it! For those unfamiliar with the AFF terminology:

• "Platinum" means you're planning to attend and have booked flights/accommodation
• "Gold" means you're likely to attend but will need to confirm at a later time
• "Silver" means you're unlikely to attend at this stage.
• "Bronze" means you're unable to attend.

The AFF Leadership Team can provide support in terms of money collection and distribution, and editing this thread as needed. If something needs to be updated, please simply report the post with the update so anyone on the team can action it (starting a conversation only alerts one person).

We're looking forward to seeing you all in Brissie!

 

[bPeteb]

Optional activity can be helping you move?

hahaha! Perfect

 

[jumpjam]

Message sent for Experience A.
Platinum for dinner Friday and Saturday

 

[NM]

Saturday Experience Update:

The 12 slots available for the B737-800 Flight Simulator experience are now all allocated. I will maintain a wait-list for people still interested in case any of the assigned spots become available due to changing circumstances.

5 spots remain for Experience A (Aviation Museum and wine tasting)

Still plenty of seats available for Experience B (Winery Behind the Scenes Tour and Montville visit).

Per refer to Post #2 for details and please follow the directions to let me know which experience you would like to attend.

 

[JoshWP]

Platinum
The Sebel Brisbane

 

[gwilli1]

Message sent for Experience B
Friday Dinner and Saturday Dinner - YES

 

[henrus]

Will sadly have to be in Sydney the weekend and unable to attend. Am Brisbane local but in the wrong city

 

[Ade]

@NM - sent a PM to register my EoI for Experience A.

I'm most likely a NO for the Friday dinner, but a definite YES for the Saturday dinner. I will update this thread shortly for the dinner confirmations.

 

[straitman]

A friend of mine and his wife are now going to come to the Friday dinner.

Mal & Kay Hurman. Mal and I were flying instructors at 1FTS RAAF Point Cook in the late 1970s.

Mal was a Mirage & F-111 pilot who had a much more 'colourful' aviation career than most of us. Amongst other things he ejected out of a Mirage and had a double engine failure in an F-111. (Fortunately got to relight one)

I do have to add that I managed to open Mal's eyes really wide in an Iroquois Helicopter once by demonstrating how to do a landing after a (simulated) Tail Rotor failure.

 

[Ade]

@NM - sent a PM to register my EoI for Experience A.

I'm most likely a NO for the Friday dinner, but a definite YES for the Saturday dinner. I will update this thread shortly for the dinner confirmations.

Update:

1. Flights - My flights have now changed due to unexpected work commitments. New flight details below;

Friday 18 Oct QF1264, arriving into BNE 2240h

2. Friday Dinner - I'm unable to participate as I'm arriving late into BNE.
3. Saturday Dinner - I'm in for Saturday dinner
4. I have indicated my preferences to @NM via PM for the Saturday activities
5. Sunday activities - happy to take participate any of the aviation related activities as I'm only departing BNE around 1700h.

 

[nancypants]

Looks like the Saturday activities are booked out?

 

[serfty]

Looks like the Saturday activities are booked out?

I think this recent post is still pretty valid:

Saturday Experience Update:

The 12 slots available for the B737-800 Flight Simulator experience are now all allocated. I will maintain a wait-list for people still interested in case any of the assigned spots become available due to changing circumstances.

5 spots remain for Experience A (Aviation Museum and wine tasting)

Still plenty of seats available for Experience B (Winery Behind the Scenes Tour and Montville visit).

Per refer to Post #2 for details and please follow the directions to let me know which experience you would like to attend.

 

[NM]

Looks like the Saturday activities are booked out?

Saturday Experience A is full. However, plenty to spaces still available for Experience B (Winery Behind the Scenes Tour with tasting and grazing platters, plus Montville arts/crafts/cafes etc.).

 

[Sprucegoose]

Looks like the Saturday activities are booked out?

There’s only the quick and the dead in AFF…….

 

[nancypants]

Saturday Experience A is full. However, plenty to spaces still available for Experience B (Winery Behind the Scenes Tour with tasting and grazing platters, plus Montville arts/crafts/cafes etc.).

As I feared when I totted it up last night

There’s only the quick and the dead in AFF…….

Yes I am tardy. Does anyone know if the control tower thing might still be happening perhaps on the Sunday? I am not much of a wine drinker

 

[NM]

As I feared when I totted it up last night

I have sent you a conversation message

I am not much of a wine drinker

We won't hold that against you and we can accommodate people on both Experiences excluding the wine tasting if desired. You will still visit the winery but we can accommodate excluding the winery activities (Wine Tasting for Experience A and Winery Behind the Scenes Tour for Experience B) from the cost. Then you can still enjoy the company of AFF members for the event.

 

[JessicaTam]

I have sent you a conversation message

We won't hold that against you and we can accommodate people on both Experiences excluding the wine tasting if desired. You will still visit the winery but we can accommodate excluding the winery activities (Wine Tasting for Experience A and Winery Behind the Scenes Tour for Experience B) from the cost. Then you can still enjoy the company of AFF members for the event.

So you are saying if someone has to put up with AFFers they get a discount?

 

[Ade]

Does anyone know if the control tower thing might still be happening perhaps on the Sunday?

OOOhhh... I'm keen to know about this puhleeeseee...

 

[NM]

OOOhhh... I'm keen to know about this puhleeeseee...

Its proving to be quite challenging to arrange and unfortunately at this point in the proceedings is unlikely ... but we never say never (until the day before).

 

[Sprucegoose]

Its proving to be quite challenging to arrange and unfortunately at this point in the proceedings is unlikely

Wasn't another erstwhile BNE-based Moderator trying to arrange this for the last decade or so?

 

[Sprucegoose]

Wasn't another erstwhile BNE-based Moderator trying to arrange this for the last decade or so?

QF WP, you have outed yourself!