HGFA Skysailor Magazine

36 SKY SAILOR January | February 2019 I have spoken to many airfield operators who’ve told me that the Cat Problem is getting way out of hand. So, I asked, how do they deal with this Cat Problem? The answers were diverse. 1. Some operators have been known to use thousands of rabbit retainers (rabbit traps). As we all know, a cat is too smart for the old rabbit trap, but you quite often see a number of three legged cats limping around airfields. 2. The propeller method is a good one, and a friend at Shepparton Airfield showed me this. You have an aircraft with a three or four-bladed propeller, and you attach a small length of string with a small fury item tied to its end. Then sit in the cockpit and start the engine, but leave it on idle. The small fury item will spin around and as we all know, cats cannot resist little fury items that move. Sooner or later, the cat will sink its claws into it. This has a dramatic effect: The claws go in and puss gets spun around and around until something has to give... If you have attached the string properly, the string will give way and the cat will be thrown into the next hemisphere... or at least off the airfield. A helicopter is an even better choice of aircraft for this method. 3. The baseball method. This is not a good one unless you are very fit. It entails chasing the cats around the airfield trying to hit them. I can’t see this method working for most pilots. 4. Land-on-em! This is a good one and I would have to say that over the Christmas/New Year holiday I saw this method in action. It was called spot landings… or rather fluffy landings! At Porepunkah YPOK airfield, trikes were used to flatten cats. A local authority told me that you need to sprinkle a line of cat food along the runway. When the cats come out to eat the food, the circling trikes cut their engines and do a dead stick landing. You can end up with a flat cat or even two. We then went to the Great Lakes Airport YGLK at Lakes Entrance. They also use the aircraft method to flatten the cat problem. The trap is set as follows: Position the aircraft in the hangar on a slight incline, place cat food in front of the main landing gear. When the cat takes the bait, the aircraft rolls forward over puss. Result: one flat cat. But the pilots at Great Lakes have an even better way of catching the frisky felines. You can only fool a cat with the rolling tyre method for a while. So they place the bait under the wing and remain very quietly on the top of the wing waiting for a cat. When an unsuspecting cat stops to eat, you release a 20-litre jerry can and, voila, you have a flat cat. This will not work with a 10-litre jerry can which will only make the cat cross-eyed. The next airfield we visited was West Sale and they too use the rolling wheel method. From there we travelled to Latrobe Regional Airport. The Aero Club members couldn’t catch the cats with the rolling wheel method, so they invented another way. They have an A-frame for advertising the Aero Club which has proved to be the purrfect way to flatten a cat. I was astounded when the Aero Club guys showed me the results. Two cats at once… Well done guys. Next we headed coastal to Tooradin Airfield. I was happy to see that the Cat Problem was now winding down, and they have found a new use for the flat cats. Yes they use them as wheel chocks. Outstanding guys, that’s resourceful! People were cheering as the pilot of the Tigermoth grabbed a couple of cat chocks and tossed them under the wheels with flair and skill to stop the Tigermoth from rolling away. So, there you have it, how to stop the Cat Problem at airfields. I admit, I was a cat hater, and in my past would shoot feral cats. I even have one as a seat cover. But amazing as my dislike of cats may have been, I actually owned a cat... or should I say that she chose us as her people. Yes, that’s right, we adopted a cat that had been dumped in the bush. She had already been house trained, and we called her ‘Mirreow’, because that was the noise she made when she wanted to come in. We worked away from home too often to own a pet, but she was extremely persistent, and eventually earned her keep by saving Anne from being bitten by a snake (hiding in Anne’s ornamental grass garden). She even- tually died at a ripe old age, during a winter solstice, and we still miss her. Disclaimer: No cats were hurt during the writing of this article. The flat cats were purchased in a shop in Tocumwal., called ‘Cat Jam’, and made by a company called Meeeowch! Solving A Big Problem at Australian Airfields Anne and I visit a lot of airfields around the country, and I have noticed a big problem arising… that of CATS! by Peter & Anne McLean Left to right: Porepunkah YPOK airfield, Great Lakes Airport YGLK at Lakes Entrance rollover method and jerry can trap, Tooradin airfield Efficiency at Latrobe Regional Airport Mirreow the cat