Tuesday 20 August 2013

ZK NYS

Our new little aeroplane.

Well ,whilst ERW is away we have the use of a very nice C152 from mainland air.
I took the opportunity to have a test flight in it with Nick Taylor the other day,must say I was very surprised at how nice it was to fly,very easy and docile, stalls nicely and pleasant to fly in the low flying area,it also gets along fairly quickly and is no slug,a great training aircraft.



Monday 12 August 2013

Sunday 11th August 2013

Another nice day in Central, despite the forecast of course! We met at noon with the aim of getting Jack current in winching. John, Doug and Phil all helped, either back-seat or winchdriving. After 2 simultated breaks and 7 launches Jack was solo again. He did another quickie then we packed up. The bar key was missing so we headed around to Doug+Chris's, joined by Karen and Terry.

Sunday 4 August 2013


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.
20130414-163710.jpgour glider ZK GJW with John and myself.
20130414-163824.jpgJohn taking Martin up while Phil steadies the wing.
20130414-163950.jpgPete and Phil splice the broken tow rope.

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.