Downloads

There are days in my wife’s and my Waikato homeland when the air is so crisply clear, the rural landscape so lovely, that it is hard to imagine a more pleasant place in which to live. As we motored south to visit Hugh and Justine Baxter at their Te Kawa West home, snow-capped Ruapehu dominated the central North Island and nearby bush-covered Mount Pirongia presided over the western Waikato farmlands.

Changes are afoot in the aviation tourism sector, driven by a number of factors. Climate change is one, as is the deepening economic gloom covering the world. Regulation changes also have an effect, along with shifting patterns in tourist groups and movements.

New Zealand has a new oldest registration. Bob McGarry describes the rebuild of his 1929 Simmonds Spartan, one of the world’s rarest airworthy biplanes.

On 11 July 2008 I saw something remarkable at Hood aerodrome, Masterton. Kerry Connor, CFI and owner of Ace Aviation wanted me to witness a circuit flight by Jack Snow, in Ace Aviation’s Piper PA 18 Super Cub. The reason was that Jack Snow was reliving, 50 years later to the day, his first solo flight, undertaken at Rotorua in PA 18 Cub ZK-BTQ. This event in itself maybe does not warrant an article, but the more I talked afterward to Jack, the more I became intrigued, not just by the flight, but by the amazing things he had done and contributed to aviation in those 50 years.

Wings over Wairarapa to honour ace and RAF - Vintage Aviator Air Display and open days - Omaka Italiano

Possibly the most successful fighter pilot in Europe during the last month of World War II — shooting down 10 enemy aircraft in the space of three weeks — “Smokey” Schrader is one of New Zealand’s living legends. Now in his late eighties, he spoke to Max Pudney about his wartime flying.

Sixty-eight years ago this month, one of history’s greatest dramas was reaching its climax over southeast England. Providing a fitting coda to the Battle of Britain is this story by Max Pudney.

While Friday the 13th is traditionally unlucky for some, local Air New Zealand captain and self-proclaimed piston engine buff Al Marshall pushed the start button on board Omaka’s resident Bristol Freighter for the first time in over 18 years, bringing back to life one of New Zealand’s iconic aircraft.

Common sense has prevailed in the long-running battle to stop residential housing development encroaching on Bridge Pa aerodrome at Hastings. On 15 April 2008 the Environment Court ruled in favour of the Bridge Pa Aviation Group and other appellants and completely overturned a previously granted resource consent for up to 113 dwellings on land adjacent to Bridge Pa aerodrome, 5km from Hastings.

As visitors to Masterton will know, triplanes are a reasonably common sight at the airfield, although always of the German variety. But this year things have changed with the addition of a Sopwith Triplane replica. This example is one of several Sopwith Triplane replicas designed and built by Chad Willie of Corning, Iowa, in the USA, working from original drawings and original dimensions but incorporating some modern construction techniques including steel tube fuselage, a modern engine and simplified wing construction.

Trustees of the Auckland Recreational Airparks Trust and more than a dozen supporters turned up at the Auckland Regional Council’s annual district plan review on 23 May to argue for the reinstatement of Pikes Point as a recreational airfield and education centre.....