A fun time in Masterton

For the first time in many years, Wairarapa and Wellington Aero Clubs held an inter-club competition last Saturday. These used to happen regularly, but haven't for a few years now. There is even a rather large and impressive cup, the Liverton Cup, on offer.

The competitions

The day consisted of three competitions taken from the excellent [I may be biased!] set of competitions run by Flying NZ for their regional and national competition events. We also used the relevant safety standards promulgated by Flying NZ, especially for the landing grid set-up and operations.

The three competitions were:

• Precision circuits [based on the Wigram Cup Senior Landing comp]
• Non-instrument circuits [based on the Wigram Cup non-instrument circuit comp]
  
• Forced landings without power [based on the GM Spence competition rules]

To give different people a fair go, there were three categories, Junior [student pilots], Senior [licenced pilots] and Special [CPL, instructors and other "special" people 😆]. It was a friendly get-together, with an emphasis on having fun and learning something and serving as an introduction to pilots from both clubs who had not experienced competitions before.

I had planned to spend most of my day running the landing grid... but I found out partway through the day that someone had entered me into the precision circuits and forced landing competitions. They also decided that I would also use the Nanchang CJ6A, ZK-MAO. Funny people.

Nanchang CJ6A, ZK-MAO, operated by Wellington Aero Club

As it turned out, I only had time for the forced landing competition. I flew it fairly well and had a lot of fun doing it. Rumour has it, I may have landed on the grid also, which was very helpful for the end result.

That might be the last time anyone enters me in a competition without asking first 😁.

Kiwi Coffee and Kai Catering

Kiwi Coffee and Kai Catering provided delicious food in the afternoon and evening. Yum! Apparently they cater all over the place, and I'm sure Wairarapa Aero Club will be happy to have them back another day. The owners of the food truck came along for a ride in Wellington's Cessna 172N, ZK-EKE - a nice little 20 minute trip. Check out their FB page for some photos and video of the flight.

Cessna 172N, ZK-EKE, operated by Wellington Aero Club

Flying Tigers

The Wairarapa Flying Tigers were out in force, providing rides in their two DH82A Tiger Moths. Very impressive machines, and I know everyone enjoyed their rides.

I signed up as a member of Flying Tigers a while ago, but being busy, yet again I managed to fail miserably at going for a ride. Sad. Another day.

The end result?

Everyone had fun and I'm sure most people learnt something [I learnt that I should be more careful about applying sunscreen everywhere exposed... Grrrr!].

I actually had fun gliding the Nanchang onto the ground - that last 500' is always the fun bit. I also flew the Nanchang to/ from Wellington - again, good fun.

Congrats to Wairarapa Aero Club who took out the Liverton Cup this year. We'll be back next year to take it back!