Miles M38 Messenger

Having nothing much to do today, I was out at the club helping with a bit of painting... just before we finished, a Miles Messenger pulled up which was being parked up for the evening. Unfortunately with weather issues, this is the closest I came to the Classic Fighters 2011 airshow...!

This aircraft, ZK-CMM, is the only one of type on the New Zealand register, although I hear another one might be being rebuilt. Here are three pictures of the aircraft - note the last one is an enlargement of the right hand wing root showing the ram-air generator. Also, no electric start on this one - hand-swinging the prop to the only way to start it.

Final picture is a Piper PA28-180, ZK-FSP, registered to a Rangiora address.

Well that didn't quite work out...

Today was the first day of the awesome Classic Fighters airshow, over at Omaka aerodrome [near Blenheim]. I was ready to fly over in a Cessna 172, but, consistent with almost every time I plan a cross country of any type, the weather forecast was not overly favourable...!

In the end, it was decided not to head off, as it would have been a rough trip, and we would have been pushed to get there before the airspace closed and home again before dark.

Darn! Check out the Classic Fighters website for reasons as to why I would have loved to have been there.

We are not without hope however! Although tomorrow's weather is far from ideal at Wellington, I am on a standby list to get a ride over with Vincent Aviation in their DHC-8. This would be ideal as it will be IFR [Instrument Flight Rules], and we can come back in the dark. Here's hoping!

Anyway, one small visitor I photographed today was this Cessna 182T, ZK-MAR, registered to a Rotorua address, taxiing for departure this morning.

Massey Aviation Diamond DA40 Diamond Star

A quiet afternoon at the Club this afternoon, with a wee bit of painting and paintscraping done to help spruce this up a little. Today's "somewhat slightly interesting" visitor was this Diamond DA40 Diamond Star, ZK-MTE, registered to Massey University School of Aviation. I think this is the first time I've seen one of these Massey aircraft which can into service around mid-2009.

In other news, I hope to be off to the Classic Fighters Airshow at Omaka in a couple of weeks. If I do make it, there'll be photos of some interesting and extremely rare aircraft... more on that later.

Round and round and round we go...

A quiet day today for me, although I did get to go up as a passenger for a few circuits in the Club's Piper PA28R-201 Arrow, ZK-EIF, while someone was getting some dual time.

All good and just a couple of photos of the airfield and circuit area.

As for tomorrow afternoon, probably some painting and/ or paint scraping at the Club's "new" hanger [for the Club members reading this, we could do with a bit of a hand! :-) ].

Today's flight from Kaikoura back to Wellington

I only planned a short stop in Kaikoura, and so spent a few minutes in the Wings Over Whales building. There were a couple of English tourists waiting for their whale watching flight, so I had a quick chat with them before heading back to the plane for the flight home.

Photos in this post start with the aircraft lined up on Kaikoura's runway 05 [yes, I put the camera away before taking off!] - this is noticeably narrower than Wellington... followed by some of the scenery I got to see flying north. I'm particularly pleased with the last photo which is looking south-west along the Kaikoura ranges [I took a quick detour inland for a few minutes to have a look].

The middle three photos were taken with the side window open, at around 5500 feet. Some of the hills had a little snow on them, so an open window made for a cold breeze!

Today's flight from Wellington to Kaikoura

Yippee! I got to go flying again today, and what a cracker of a day! Normally, if I plan a flight somewhere, the wind picks up, the clouds come down and flying is cancelled. Today however, the winds didn't get much above 5-6 knots at Wellington and the skies were basically clear! Awesome!

Wellington Aero Club has a Cessna 172N, ZK-EJT, online at the moment [this aircraft was online with the Club some years ago also] and it was this that I went across to the South Island then down to Kaikoura in. No particular reason, except that it's close [about an hour away], and different [shorter and much narrower than Wellington] and the scenery is fantastic.

Photos today include Lake Grassmere [used for salt production?], then looking south along the coastline, then towards to west. My phone has GPS in it and this was put to good use. Last two photos are of ZK-EJT at Kaikoura, then a Wings Over Whales Gippsland GA8, ZK-KBZ taking off.

Enjoy the photos - the next post has the trip home!

A couple of visitors

Visitors to Wellington and parked outside the Aero Club today included this Partenavia P68B, ZK-LAL, registered to Air Manawatu of Palmerston North.

The second visitor is something you don't see around Wellington so often - a Piper PA25-235 Pawnee, ZK-CIQ, registered to a Blenheim address. Awesome!