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 As you all know, we started this new feature called Member of the Month 2 months ago. So far we had Greg and Chris who have been great contributors and have spent time making our sites even better. For this month we have another member who has been very active and has truly made our sites a better place for others to hang out. We want to thank everyone for being loyal members and for their contributions. So quickly jump in and find out who has been chosen to be put in the spotlight!
To some he is known as Gerard and to others he is known as flyingdoc; the one with the Qantas logo as his avatar and over 6000 posts. Usually you'll find him hanging out in the Air Hostesses thread with a big smile on his face. Hi Gerard Tell us a little bit about yourself Hi, I'm Gerard. I'm an orthopaedic surgeon living in Melbourne , Australia. Life is busy between work and my 5 kids plus my girlfriend and her 5 children. None of them is an aviation enthusiast like myself! All my life I have had an interest in flying and aircraft - my model aeroplane collection is an (almost) affordable way to keep the dream alive.
How did you get started? When my children moved away from Melbourne I had a lot more time on my hands and a need to keep my mind occupied. Oh, and also I had a bad habit of visiting eBay!
What do you collect? In the beginning I collected anything I thought was interesting in 1:500 scale. An accidental acquisition of a 1:400 B747 soon had me hooked to the larger scale and pretty soon I discovered that I needed to focus things or go bankrupt!
These days my collection focuses on Australian aircraft of all scales, although I have kept most of my worldwide 1:500 fleet. I also have a love for flying boats and, more recently my collection includes military as well as civil aircraft. How do you display your collection? I reckon there's no point in keeping them in boxes. These days the collection is housed in glass cabinets from Ikea. It's the subject of a thread somewhere...
How did you find out about W9/DA.C? One of the great gentlemen of the collecting world, Hugo (who also is a great retailer), recommended I look at the W900 site. Not long after, I was hooked!
How long have you been a member? Since September, 2006 What do you get out of W900/DA.C? When I started it really helped me stop buying duplicate models because it let me catalogue my collection and it still does!
The thing that I most enjoy about Wings900 is the great camaraderie and friendships I have made. A lot of my friends here I have never met, but I have been fortunate enough to meet some really great people who are fellow collectors when I have had the chance to travel abroad. They include Silverbird, British Airways, a_loser, Captain Wahoo, Kaptain Kardar and Eherran as well as many others. They were cherished experiences. Do you have a favorite model/series/mfg or something you just gotta have? I think my favorite models are probably the ones where an act of kindness on somebody else's part made them happen. Some have been rare finds or holy grails that took years to acquire. Others are gifts or customs, like my fantasy BA tail B747 G-FDOC from Hugo. Perhaps the most valuable is my unique DragonWings sample Qantas B747-338 - the only one in the world!!!
What would you like to see in the future? There are 2 models I would dearly love to see Corgi make:
The first would be 1:72 RAAF 463 Sqn Lancaster, JO-D/"Digger". This is the only remaining RAAF Lancaster squadron not represented by Corgi and the aircraft flew more missions than any other in the squadron.
The second would be 1:144 RCAF 423 Sqn Sunderland, A-Able that was flown by a W900 member's father during WWII.
I would also personally LOVE to see either Andrew Klein (1:400) or HobbyMaster (1:200) make one of the Air Express DC-4's that used to reside at Essendon Airport back in the 70's. Would also settle for Shorts 360's in Murray Valley Airways and Simmons Airlines colours. ;) Thanks Gerard for this great interview. Hope you guys enjoyed. See you all next month. The Wings900 Team
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