Stratford Fly-in
There did not seem to be any enthusiasm from students to take up the opportunity to journey to Stratford for the RAANZ annual get together.
It was left up to the old stalwarts to go, some with empty seats. Oh well never mind, we had a plan in mind.
Old Rog was to tow a small pop top camper up, for he and yours truly to sleep in some modicum of comfort, along with all the tents, fuel etc for the others.
Friday loomed and the weather forecast was a bit ominous with relatively low cloud base, patchy drizzle and a stiff westerly all day. Phil decided he would go earlier rather than later so headed off prior to lunch. JBR rang about 1430 and asked what time I was to go as he had just seen Frank and the trusty Drifter straining into the wind over his place heading west.
Mark in his pocket rocket, JBR with his gullible mate Gus in EBR, Stan and Bill together in ZOT, ED in the other Skyarrow, and Myself in the Avid, all met up at about 1700 to ready for the journey. Mr Bogeyman was to join us in his Jabiru but found he had flap problems so remained behind to repair the problem and joined us the next day.
The weather had not improved. We eventually got our donkeys all warmed up and took off together in what is probably one of the easiest cross countries to do. All we had to do was follow one set of transmission lines from Feilding that lead you all the way to Stratford. Simple really and very fortunate to have them to navigate by as the weather, although in the beginning had a cloud base of about 1500 with reasonable vis amongst the light showers, it did get a mite worse. The 90kt brigade averaged about 65kts for most of the journey – how did the drifter fair? Bit more on that later.
About 25nm from Stratford the cloud base started to lower somewhat, although the vis was good underneath it was going to be touch and go. Mark had forged ahead by this time and reports were that the base was right on minima’s and only for about 8 miles or so, then it broke quite quickly to the south of Stratford with blue sky above.
As I said thank goodness for the power lines. We all allowed a bit more distance between ourselves just in case the one in front had to turn around. Good thinking. 500ft ish is not the most comfortable feeling but we all made it through and climbed for an overhead rejoin. Stratford can be a fickle place for winds. At times it could not make out what direction it would take although there was a stiff westerly coming off the big Taranaki rock. Was it 09 or 27 or 16 or 34? I think all of the vectors were used at one stage.
The early contingent greeted us but Frank had an uneasy mood about himself. He promised that he be given time to let his wife know before we went to publication. It seems he had a real ‘brain fart’ and calculated that he would have about 3.5 hours endurance based on 12lt/hr. He was proved wrong when at 2hrs 50min and 15nms short of destination, the Rotax decided that it could not run on air alone. Fortunately he was at an altitude that a successful forced landing was made into a suitably sized paddock. Embarrassingly he filled the tanks from the container he had tied to the back seat and went on his not so merry way. 18lt/hr would have been more appropriate. Enough said, as a lesson was well learnt fortunately with a safe outcome.
We all made our night arrangements and then hit the club house, and for some of us, a very merry night of revelry and imbibing of liquid refreshments.
The morning dawned with a very blurry lack of vision. Twas not the result of the night before thank goodness –apart from one or two, but extremely thick fog. As the cloud base rose above minima about mid morning the Drifter was fired up for a few circuits prior to a pilots brief on the competitions. Yours truly got to have a go and on my third circuit and approaching late downwind some thing whizzed close by my peripheral vision with a subsequent load crack, followed by quite a developing vibration from the prop. I immediately throttled back and turned toward the field. After landing I gingerly taxied back to investigate. A small chunk was missing from the leading edge tip of the prop but scarier than that were the two big splits along the length of the blade. It would not have taken too much more whirling around at speed and there could have been a more disastrous consequence. It was most probably a bird strike.
Fortunately we were able to locate a suitable 3 bladed pusher prop from a 503, in one of the hangers, that was originally from the Vampire lookalike. Phil fitted this, test flew it and ‘voila’ it served the purpose for the rest of the weekend and more importantly managed to get the Drifter home.
Pete and Pam arrived in PLP. Old Pete in his Pioneer decided to pull the plug as the weather was still not to his liking so stayed at home looking after the fort.
The rest of the day was taken up with some intense competitions with some pleasing results.
Stan with Ian on board ZOT, won the Cross country. Roger started out with Phil in the Arrow, but threw his map out the window –you will have to ask him to elucidate.
JBR won the bombing using the Drifter.
Phil, in KOS and Bill in JFR along with a Stratford pilot in a 701, were all 1st equal in the spot landing. We all hit the spot twice –pretty awesome stuff.
It was decided a fly-off was warranted, so we 3 had to have another go but this time they were to be glide approaches. We all missed the target but!!!, by all the same distance. How uncanny!!.
Into our steeds to have another go. This time there was a result. Phil 2nd, myself 3rd and the SD guy 1st but in an unconventional way – he hit the target hard with his nose wheel and wheel barrowed down the runway until under control. A win is a win.
Prior to the evening presentations and just before dusk we were entertained with some incredibly professional aerobatics by Kevin Jane in his Yak. This was followed by our own Mark leading Wayne Richmond (in their Sonerais) in a high speed, high maneuvering tail chase with spectacular ground explosions and pyrotechnics being emitted from Wayne’s craft. A Magnificent show.
An absolutely enjoyably tender lamb on a spit was offered at the evening function with more jolliness following. Maybe we are all getting a bit old or suffered from the previous night’s antics, but we all retired relatively early.
The next morning was marred by thick fog once again. We all managed to pack up and get away about 11am. An uneventful rock and roll trip home took about an hour. We passed Frank in the Drifter about Waitotara and this time a tail wind assisted his passage and he made it this time in 1hr 45min without having to stop for any reason.
A great event, great companionship, great competition results, a great time.
Bill.
Wanganui Fly Away
Eight of August saw the first of our Saturday fly away trips in response to the recent question air.It was a day out of the box,clear sky and barely a breeze.
Four planes took part,Bruce & Steve in Cessna 150,Peter & Tony in the Jodel, Stan & Dave in the 601, Pete & Roger in Pioneer 300. The plan: Depart FI 9-30am to Oroua transit lane,Himitangi and up the coast to land at Wanganui. This was great for some who hadn't seen this area before.
On arrival we headed to the eastern hangers where Bill Bennett and Jeff Gilbertson are currently building two microlights. Bils is called a Condor One which will be powered by a “95hp UL Power” motor. Its up to the stage
Of mounting the motor and making the cowling, could be flying by xmas. Jeff’s is a kitset 750 a step up from the 701. This plane only been started so will be some months away. After a very interesting morning chinwag and cuppa we headed back to Feilding.
Future fly away's will be posted on the MMC website on a Thursday and Friday.
Motueka Fly-in
On the morning of Friday 13th, which no one considered ominous, a number of our club’s intrepid aviators gathered at Feilding in preparation for their journey to the 2009 RAANZ National fly in at Motueka. The organisers had promised brilliant weather as is quite the norm for Nelson bays and all were looking forward to a fairly straight forward trip.
Frank and Tony (complete with silver tea pot) realised that although ZK-SKO is a cavernous aircraft some stuff just had to be left behind.
JBR and ED fitted into ZK-EBR snugly.
Stan and Bill P shared ZK-ZOT’s cockpit. (the Avid was still not repaired after it’s hanger rash disaster).
Old Pete had young James as navigator in ZK-LPD and lastly was Mark in his steed ZK-SND.
First stop was Koputaroa to meet up with Big Pete in ZK-PLP, for an updated weather brief. This unfortunately turned into quite a long morning tea break. Many thanks to Pam for the many coffees and teas. Our intention was to first to go to Omaka for lunch and visit the museum but the miserable Met dept had used the wrong coins in their meter and Blenheim’s cloud base was not much above tree top height.
A couple of hours later it started to improve so off we set. The cloud base did limit us to flying a bit lower than our sphincter muscles were comfortable with when flying over water but we all made it with out too much trouble, although Pete did sojourn over Woodbourne looking for Omaka.
Neil and a couple of his wee clan were there to greet us in ZK-go fast.
We had lunch at the Museum followed by a conducted tour. This was just awesome and suggest to others to do so when they can. You will get so much more history and great stories with an expert guide rather than just wandering around by your self.
Our next plan was to travel south down the Wairau river valleys to Lake Station then turn north up towards Nelson. The cloud base was about 2500ft with some lower patches marred by some rain which was reducing visibility. Chatting to some locals they said we would not get though the passes to the south and suggested a zigzag route through the Marlborough hills via Havelock and the Rai River valley.
Lots of pencil scratchings on charts and briefings on how to tackle the task was accomplished and then we prepared for departure. We were all given a Domes departure by Woodburne Tower which involved tracking west and around the zone before turning north again to pick up the entrance to the required valley. This put a bit of pressure on the controller and he did remarkably well in containing his disappointment when we were all airborne and discovered that over half of us did not notify him that they did not have a transponder, which is required. He was well relieved when we were all finally clear of his patch. Although he did give one of our pilots, who was returning to his Bulls strip, a bit of a bollicking for not carrying out the Ponds departure correctly.
The trip through the valleys required some skills that not all had experienced before and demonstrated how it can very easily turn out unsavory if you do not map read effectively and keep you wits about you. We eventually broke out into clear weather north of Pepin Island and then tracked directly across Tasman Bay to Motueka.
Once we had tied down, registered and had our fill of a great BBQ meal we all traipsed off into town to our find our accommodation, apart from Frank, Tony and PK who decided to rough it on the airfield in tents. We met up with the Stratford chaps and chapesess who were at the same place and had a few convivials. They certainly know how to keep all aroused.
We had spotted JJ in town entertaining a local red head lass in a bar so a few of us went in to put a spanner in his plans. He has settled into the easy life rather well and really enjoying himself.
Next morning was competition day with bombing, spot landing and cross countries planned. The weather was a bit overcast and decidedly cooler than we anticipated. Bombing comprised of 3 attempts at dropping a zip lock bag full of sand onto the target which was an old, but still mobile, car. Frank and Tony were first up and they thought the car was just a joke so had a go at a set of tires a further distance away until their misconception was pointed out. Tony had apparently worked the trajectory parameters out mathematically rather than using the mark one eyeball and they did quite well in the end and got quite close. Yours truly had James hanging out the window of the Skyarrow and with great team work he subsequently exclaimed after our second pass “I think we hit the bloody windscreen” to which the judges confirmed “Bulls eye”. We did not win the competition as it was an aggregate score but we did get a prize for the only hit.
By this time there were about 6 or 7 aircraft continually in the circuit for the competitions as the spot landing was running parallel to the bombing. This certainly had your eyes out on stalks trying to establish a good sequence especially with the mix of types and performance. There were a couple of idiots who decided they would do orbits on short final with numerous others behind them. They did get some short sharp comments of disapproval.
Spot landings were interesting with some of use getting very close to the spot. One of us was lucky that his passenger did not have false teeth with the subsequent very firm touchdown. Again it was aggregate scoring but I believe one of us Manawatu-its may have got a placing but will have to wait for the RAANZ magazine to come out as they only announced the winners.
PK decided that as the circuit was so busy he would do the short cross-country that had been planned. He got James to do all the work and navigate, and I am proud to say that James won that event. Well done.
In the afternoon most anticipated in the long cross country. This was not a timed event so you could add whatever sightseeing you wanted to it. By this time the weather had improved somewhat. This event involved identifying some prominent land marks and picking up playing cards at an uncharted strip and Takaka. We all thought we had won it but sadly the judges did not agree.
There was a ROTAX work shop run by Colin Alexander of Tauranga which was extremely worth while. He really has an entertaining way of ensuring that all have a correct understanding of what is required for engine maintenance.
The prize giving was held in town with a sumptuous smorgasbord of edible delights, along with copious amounts of enlivening liquid refreshment. The guest speaker was from a company that restore and build Vintage World War 1 aircraft. They make every thing from all flying components to engines, and to the exact original plan specifications. The end result is an aircraft that responds and flys to the original flight manual specs. They are certainly skilled trades people.
The evening, for some of us, ended up with the raucous Stratford mob until the wee hours. I reckon Mark has a split personality and has been unduly influenced by his numerous trips to Taranaki. You would not believe he may not be the quiet reserved chap you know.
Young James decided that Motueka was really rocking on the Saturday night, quite different from the backblocks of Taihape, so went out on the prowl. He came back most disappointedly saying that he could not find a suitable member of the opposite sex that did not have a tattoo or a ring through some part of their anatomy. What a good clean country lad up bringing.
Sunday morning dawned and promised to be an absolute cracker of a day with nary a breath of wind and hardly an ominous cloud in sight.
Whilst down in this wonderful area we could not miss out on a flight over and through the ranges to the west coast, landing at Karamea, north along the coast to Farewell spit and return to Mot. After a couple of false starts awaiting for JBR to clear his flooded carbs we set off and enjoyed some most spectacular scenery.
Unfortunately whilst we were away there was a fatal accident involving a Skyarrow in the Westport vicinity. The registration was SKA and being very similar to SKO it was thought by the local organizers it may have been me, who was flying it at the time. It was with due relief when we all eventually turned up unscathed.
A bite too eat and at about 1500 we said farewell to a great fly-in and set heading for home. By this time we had come to rely on our trusty steeds and their reliable hearts of mechanical fire, that the long stretches of water were of little concern.
I can truly say that a tremendous time was had by all and we all experienced and learnt new skills that enrichened our love for flying.
Bill Penman
