To Wanaka

Steve,had a meeting with Peter Hendricks at Wanaka,so Nick and his student Alistair came along for the ride.
The forecast was for fog in the morning but it was not too bad just high overcast with hardly any wind,nice flight up smooth flying conditions,at Queensbury VRP we were confronted by lots of aircraft taking off from rwy 11 so elected to keep north of the valley,they were all off to Manderville for something or other.
All admired the new WACO biplane that Peter has just acquired,beautiful,will have to have a ride in that!
Wanaka was fairly busy with helicopters and one of Peters students doing circuits in the Citibria,
Smooth flight back,then Nick and Alistair were off to do circuits.
Steve,had a meeting with Peter Hendricks at Wanaka,so Nick and his student Alistair came along for the ride.
The forecast was for fog in the morning but it was not too bad just high overcast with hardly any wind,nice flight up smooth flying conditions,at Queensbury VRP we were confronted by lots of aircraft taking off from rwy 11 so elected to keep north of the valley,they were all off to Manderville for something or other.
All admired the new WACO biplane that Peter has just acquired,beautiful,will have to have a ride in that!
Wanaka was fairly busy with helicopters and one of Peters students doing circuits in the Citibria,
Smooth flight back,then Nick and Alistair were off to do circuits.

Gliding! Why would you??

Something that has been in the back of my mind for awhile in aviation is gliding,we here in Alexandra at the Central Otago Flying Club, have a very active gliding section,also we have a two seat glider a Twin Astair which is a modern Fiberglas aircraft,so in glider terms its quite fast.
Catching John Robinson in town he suggested that I come up for a fly on Sunday afternoon,which I duly did.
With gliding it is a bit of a team mission as it needs at least half a dozen people to get the systems in place,the gliders have to be taken from the hanger,the winch towed to the far end of the airfield the rope laid out and some runners for the wing tips as you take off,so it’s not a spur of the moment thing.
John gave me a briefing on what to expect,as we are doing a winch launch its a bit more difficult than an aero tow,so donning a parachute I climb into the cockpit whilst John gives me some pointers.
Our winch is powered by a big V8 motor and is capable of launching us skyward at an amazing rate,the rope slack is taken up and he calls out,”all out all out”, as the winch motor is put to full throttle,the rate of climb is like being in an express lift and before you know it we at two thousand feet,the rope drops away and we are gliding(NO MOTOR!).
The first thing that strikes you is how silent it is,all you hear is the air rushing by as you float there,coming from a powered aircraft the contrast is stark you can have a conversation at normal levels,anyway no time for looking,around I have to try to come to grips with this new form of flight,its almost like having to relearn the basics,as such small control inputs are all that is required but also you need LOTS of rudder,unfortunately we did not find any lift and had to start to commence our landing,and of course you only get one go at this,so with John doing all the air brake stuff and calling out instructions we make a landing back at the airfield.
John takes up someone else for a while but the tow rope broke,but fortunately they we still able to get airborne and got around twenty minutes before having to return.
Meanwhile the rope is re spliced and we are set to go again,this time I go up with Pete Mc Kenzie,and by magic he finds some lift from somewhere and we are able to stay aloft for about 25 mins which enabled me to try and come to grips with the controls of the glider,unlike the Cessna the glider has these two huge wings and you are sitting way out in front with not much around you,also you are always flying it or you will lose height,Pete found some sort of lift and we went round and round looking for that elusive up draft,magic.
Making sure we did not stray too far from the airfield we always had to keep an eye on where we were,soon it was time to make another landing with Pete handling the air brakes we made a respectable landing with only one bounce!.
Thanks Guys really enjoyed it,if you get the chance give it a go,I am going to do more.

our glider ZK GJW with John and myself.

John taking Martin up while Phil steadies the wing.

Pete and Phil splice the broken tow rope.

Was it worth it?

The main questions everyone asks is would you do it again,and was it worth it?
The answer to both is,Yes!.
The amount of work that the organizers put in would have been immense,what with planning the route, working with the “authorities”, the aero clubs,the accommodation and airways corp,they did a great job and on the actual safari having to contend with the weather.
Full marks to the team,thanks guys you did a great job.
Meeting other pilots from overseas was fantastic,and what a wealth of info they had as well as lots of anecdotes to relate,in conversation with them they would love to do it again if they could.
Without a doubt flying into places where one would never normally go was fun and a challenge as it makes you really do your homework if you are not to make an idiot of yourself,we always tried to fly like everyone was watching,keeping headings,staying at a constant height,doing circuits properly,and when taking off keeping to the center line,as you fly out,it just looks better!.
We and a lot of the other entrants also agreed that flying with two pilots was the way to go as the work load is halved,also it means that the preflight and after flight procedures are shared.
To experience 34 aircraft arriving at more or less the same time and at the same place is something to believe! ones head is on a swivel at all times,entertaining and stressful all at the same time……
A big thumbs up to the professional staff at Airways who kept their cool at all times.
This is the last post from us and I would like to thank the Central Otago Flying Club for letting us take ERW away for two weeks,thanks guys!,also thanks to Roger Bennett for giving so much of his time and experience with flying,thanks Roger.
Last but not least special thanks to Russell,we had fun,and I learnt a lot especially the Russell shuffle,to get the aeroplane moving,Cheers.
Bye for now from Steve and Russell,safe flying.

Russell Anderson and Steve Whitren with Cessna 172, ERW,Central Otago Flying Club,Alexandra.

The Flight back home

Well the only thing we have to do now is get back home,we have been keeping a careful eye on the weather,via metvue,and its going to be an early start for us on Saturday morning,we need to be airborne at first light as a front is coming in for the afternoon in the south of the country.
It’s decided that we will take a direct route with no en route stops,calculating we should be back in a little over 3 hours,also the wind favors our route with around 15 knts at 7000 ft,so we plan Motueka – Hamner Springs-Alexandra,at 8500 ft.
We have arranged for Vincent of the aerobatic Pitts Special to give us alift to the airfield as he is going to Omaka early,so after a cup of coffee each we leave the motel at 6.15 am and start the walk to the airfield,soon Vincent comes along and we are very quickly at the aeroplane,we adopt the slick teamwork we have developed with Russell doing the preflight checks and myself doing all the inside prep and filing a flight plan with airways.
We do a double check on MCT(morning civil twilight) as its still pretty dark( yes we were legal)soon however we see a lightning to the east and taxi to the holding point call Nelson tower who gives clearance at Motueka and we are off looking like a Christmas tree with all lights blazing down the runway.
Leaving the lights of Motueka behind us we climb to our assigned altitude 8500 ft,heading for the Kaikoura range and Hamner Springs,as we climb it gets gradually lighter and we can make out the details of the extremely rugged country beneath us,also true to the forecast we have around 15/18 knots tailwind and have 123/125 knots of ground speed,just bit of lee turbulence to contend with but Russell does a fine job of keeping us at the right level,soon Hammer Springs comes into sight and we set our final heading for Alex direct.
Soon the sun breaks through and we have the whole of the South Island beneath us as we head home,calling Christchurch Control,the nice young lady gives us a clearance straight through at our established height,which is good for us as we don’t have to descend or climb which would cut into our planned time.
It’s amazing even at the height of 8500 ft we experience the effects of the wind coming down the inland valleys from the Alps sometimes we get a strong lift at other times a strong down draft so on occasions our ground speed slips from 110/105 down to 85/95 knots,because we have been given an altitude it’s important that we maintain that whilst in controlled airspace.
Very soon we are back in surroundings that we recognize,the Hakataramia Valley,Waitaki ,Otematata,with leaning rock appearing from the haze as we cross the Hawkduns,at 8500 ft,from here its a fast gentle decent into Alexandra.
Our planning was spot on, we touched down after 3 hours 6 minutes from Motueka,a good time,the big adventure is over,it’s back to reality and work,but neither of us would have missed it!.
Next post will be some conclusions of our experience.

The lights of Motueka.

Note our ground speed.

The sun comes up over the Kaikoura’s

Rakaia river.

The Hakataramea Valley,with Mt Cook in the distance.

Downwind 32 over the club house( note the large crowd gathered to meet us)

The metropolis of Alexandra.

Turning finals for 32 at Alexandra,with leaning rock in the distance.
Home!.

Oh! The excitement.

Final official day of the Air Safari,the day is ours until the evening for the prize dinner,at the Seigfried Estate near Nelson.
So we arose at the leisurely hour of 7.30 had a a cup of coffee,and Russell discovered he had mislaid his flight bag and his new expensive glasses( warehouse $12.00) so walked up to the airfield to see if he could find them,meanwhile we did a bit of laundry before heading into town for a real breakfast.
We were lucky to get a lift from the organizers who had the aero club van and that saved us a walk of about 3 kms,we dully had the best breakfast of the trip,good coffee AND the plates were hot! Amazing.so after our breakfast in which we were joined by some other pilots we again got a lift back to the motel.
The day was once again a blue sky day,so we walked up to the airfield (its only when you fly that you have to do so much walking!)I had noticed Russell having a look at the Pitts special s2 the day before,and we wandered into a very nice and well organised aerobatic place,sitting around chatting in the sun was most pleasent,Vincent the pilot was very knowledgeable and was good at relating his flying experiences.
Russell was of two minds as to take a session with Vincent,but the day was too good a one not to take advantage of,so after signing his life away and having a briefing he was packed into the little Pitts,away they went and zoomed up into the sky where loops,spins, barrel rolls,hammerheads were performed.really good to watch as we had the ringside seat.
After 20 mins they returned,Russell grinning from ear to ear,which he did all day,after his flight one of the other pilots Peter from Christchurch also went up,a good day for Vincent and his little aircraft.
The bus picked us up from the motel to take us to the dinner venue ,everyone had donned a little finery and looked very smart,we were greeted with a lovely venue, white linen table cloths wine glasses and polished cutlery and had a nice final dinner with a great speech which was just right for the occasion from a test pilot of the First World War aeroplanes at Omaka .
Prizes were given out ,the team from Waikato won overall with the airforce second,e mail addresses were exchanged and we arrived back at around 11.30 a big night for all

Vincent briefing Russell on the finer points of aerobatics

Biggles Anderson !!

Startup and away they go.

The grin says it all,on return.

Two proud pilots with there certificates of completion.

Being flagged off from Tauranga

Some pictures of ERW on the start line at Tauranga

Over the Strait.

We have a bit of a slower start today,as we do not fly until the afternoon,instead this morning we visit the Southward Motor Museum,have a group brunch and have a look at the old shitters(cars).
Mind you this was not until later in the morning so we strolled downtown and had coffee,and I had some poached eggs on toast.
Some of the other entrants had the same idea so it was nice to sit down and have a leisurely chat.
Packing up our stuff from the motel the bus picked us up on time and we arrived at the museum for the brunch,leaving all our belongings locked in the bus.
I was glad I had my poached eggs earlier as the brunch was shall we say OK ish,the scrambled eggs were powered,and we all sampled what was without doubt the worlds worst coffee!!! YUK YUK.
The car collection is of course stunning,I was most impressed with a recently restored Alfa Romeo,type 3c 1930, absolutely beautiful,in all we had a couple of hours there, most appreciated.
We then all re boarded the bus for Paraparaumu airfield and our afternoon take off,for Motueka across the Cook Strait,the weather once more was fantastic,with only some low stratus cloud in the strait,down to 800ft in places but nice calm conditions.
The recommend route is from Ohai point to the Brothers then up Queen Chalotte Sound,to overhead Picton,then to French Pass,Pipin island,then across the bay to Motueka.
This is the route we choose to take,around 1-45 mins or so,load up the aircraft check it over and away we go,keeping 1500 or below we fly out of Paraparaumu and track down to the point for our last flight across the Strait,the conditions are ideal apart from the stratus cloud patches which are more of a nuisance than anything,but have to be avoided.
The Brothers soon are under our wings and we set course for Queen Charlotte Sound,and are reminded of the strength of the wind as we are given a bit of a bouncing around crossing the ridge into the sound,so we climb from our low level of 800 ft up to 2500 which is a more comfortable level for us and the aeroplane,also gives us a spectacular view of the sounds.
Flying over ferrys and pleasure boats we soon arrive over Picton,then we head north East to French Pass and see the currant being compressed as is flows through,more low cloud is in evidence in the bay with several layers at different heights which was a bit of a pain as we did not want to be caught between them with no horizon………
Arriving on the other side of the bay the clouds clear and we have the airfield in sight make a good landing,picket the aeroplane down,put our bags in the waiting truck and head for the bar.
The aero club did a great job we even had nibbles before a dinner of spit roasted lamb,scollops,and salads,nice.
This being our last aero club reception a convivial time was had by all…………
Tomorrow is a lay day before the final prize giving dinner,and I shall tell you about Russell’s exciting time.

preflight before the trip over the water.

The Brothers.

Turning overhead Picton setting course for French Pass.

French Pass.

Happy Times!

Some of our American visitors from Colorado.

John and Steve from Carolina.

Noel from Australia.

Peter who flew his Cessna all the way from Australia ,and now has to fly it back!

Hasting to Paraparaumu.

Well,this is the last competition leg of the safari,and we took off from a very hot Bridge Pa aerodrome for Paraparaumu.
Our airplane has given us no trouble other than the number one radio failing,always starts well and is returning around 30 liters an hour,we work on 35 liters for flight planing,so with careful leaning of the mixture we generally get 30 liters an hour.
Some of the other Cessna’s seem to have starting problems every time they tried,perhaps there starting procedures should be looked at.
Once again the weather is perfect for our flight across the north island,we leave Hastings track to the coast and head south for around half an hour before setting off to the west and Waipukaru,then to Danneverke,Woodville and thence into Paraparaumu.
Our arrival into Paraparaumu went well just having to to carefully sequence ourselves into the traffic flow ,as this airport is a FISB airport the same as Milford Sound which means that aircraft have to sequence themselves in or out,naturally there was a lot of traffic arriving from the safari plus commercial traffic and gliders,the club ground marshalls were very efficient and we were soon refueled and picketed down for the night.
Once again a few beers were sampled in the club hanger and Russell and I admired a very nice Cessna 177 Cardinal parked in the corner,very smooth!
A bit of a mix up with the bus to pick us up for transport to our accommodation which was about 45 mins late,which meant we had to have a very quick shower as we were due at the Paraparaumu golf club for dinner that night,a very nice buffet meal was served and Russell and I had a great chat with some of the club members.
The same could not be said for the after dinner speeches,the first was by the local Mayoress who banged on for half an hour about all the great stuff she had achieved for the area,next was a totally weird/strange experience by some guy trying to sell us his captive audience some kind of life improving self hypnosis deal,absolutely not suitable for the participants on the safari,fortunately Kevin (one of the organizers)started to move him on and we could return to flying talk……………
We stayed at a nice motel close to the golf club so it was only a short walk back to it.
Tomorrow we visit the Southward Car Museum for brunch and a look around,then it’s over the Cook Strait to Motueka.

the participants of the NZ Air Safari 2013, Gisbourne.

Off to the other side!

After a great nights sleep in our posh motel,we only had a cup of coffee for breakfast as Russell was getting over his “pig out ” the night before,we got on the bus to the airport to attend the mornings briefing,I must say that most people were very quiet!,after the great meal the night before.
This being the last full day of competition flying those who were serious about it were very attentive,as this day would decide the winner,we made a point to stay out of their way.
Another beautiful day weather wise was ahead of us,as our course took us down the coast to the tip of the Mahia Peninsula,then across to Wairoa,inland to Lake Waikerikerimoana(I think that’s how you spell it) then track down south inland from Napier to Hasting aero club,for lunch.
From the advantage of an aeroplane one can really see the effects of lack of rain on the countryside,as it is extremely dry and parched looking.
Lake Waikerikerimoana is much to our surprise located at quite a height and it took a hard climb up from the coast,the lake is very pretty and is surrounded by holiday homes and tramping tracks,and is set deep in the surrounding bush.
The country south from here is extremely rugged and is marked by lots of slips,we also noticed lots of the frame we flew over had their own airstrips,mind you looking at some of the back roads an aeroplane would be the best bet if you need to get anywhere in a hurry.
Avoiding Napier airspace we soon arrived at our turning point for our last leg into Hastings(bridge pa) aero club.
A smooth arrival was achieved and we parked amongst the other aircraft,the airport was in the midst of the drought area and it was bloody hot,a nice crusty bread roll for lunch with some crispy local apples,nice.

The tip of Mahia Peninsula.

ERW arriving at Hastings.

aircraft at Bridge Pa aerodrome.

Sunny Gisbourne

This afternoons flight has been looked forward to by all the entrants,especially as the weather is still fantastic, a trip around the East Cape and into Gisbourne.
Our track could not be easier,follow the coast around until we reach Gisbourne,say around two hours flying time.
Needless to say it lived up to all expectations with good flying conditions and great visibility.We even dropped down to low level to say hi to a yacht who was very pleased,well we think so anyway!!
The photos say it all…………
Arrival into Gisbourne presented no major problems with the controller doing a great job sorting us out,arriving at an airport where one has never been before is always a difficult exercise even if one has studied the AD( chart of the aerodrome) also we were pointing into the sun on our arrival,which complicates things,however we soon picked it out on the eastern edge of town and executed a good arrival.
The Gisbourne Aero Club was a great club to be hosted by and they really put on a great evening for us with camp ovens over open fires cooking pork and lamb with lots of potatoes and veges even gravy!!!.Russell and I got talking to the guys doing the cooking and when they found we were from Alex gave us big hunks of crackling,Yum!!
The local radio station had made a thing of our arrival so there were lots of people and kids around looking at and sitting in the aeroplanes with a queue to sit in the air forces CT 4 trainers,all in all bloody good.And really showed up the rich dudes at Whitianga.
A marquee had been set up for us for the meals and the now for us normal speeches I think a lot of alcohol was consumed,by some (no names).
Unfortunately Russell could not help himself with all that pork and lamb I think he must have had about 3 kgs at least I did see him have THREE helpings of meat,mind you he paid for it during the night!.
True to his word Graham from Elliot Travel had sorted us out a very nice motel close to the airport and at least I had a good nights sleep………..
Tomorrow we are off to Hastings then Paraparaumu ,the last full day of the safari.

take off from Taura

formation flying!

following our trusty runway HD

as runway HD says Wakatane

Whanarua bay

East Cape

East Cape Lightho

friendly yacht

ERW in the line up at Gisbourne

sitting in the sun after a great days flying ,tough but someone has to do it!!,