The 2010 Parakai Aviation Day was a great success this year.        

The day was fine once a few dark clouds bearing showers departed. Photos from the event can be seen on the photos page here.         

Alternately the complete flickr set can be seen http://www.flickr.com/photos/chris021/sets/72157623466467037/         

Harvey Lockie writes about the event ”Current and retired Air NZ pilots George    

A small selection of images from the event:

A few weekends ago Danielle and I took CDL away for an overnight trip. After studying the charts we decided to head for Tokoroa as it appeared to have accommodation within walking distance of the airfield. A quick check of the NOTAMS showed an overnight drag race but nothing much else to worry about. We flew down via the city and Thames.

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Today is the annual Parakai Aviation Club fly-in / Drive-in event. The weather for the event looks fantastic!

See www.parakaiairfield.co.nz for more information.

Check back here after the event for photos from the day.

Yak52

Everything is set for the vintage fly-in / open day today! Hope to see you on the field today. Aircraft should start arriving around 11am. 

Click here to download it: 

PAC Flyer

For more information on other activities on happing this year visit the Heritage Day website: www.helensvilleheritageday.co.nz

CDL by the pumps (NZPI)

Today was my first flight with a passenger, quite the mile stone. Yesterday I sat my final flight test and passenger rating with Harvey. Not the most enjoyable flight as it is rather hard on the nerves!!! I got there in the end with the all important pass! Upon solid advice from both Harvey and Simon Lockie I remembered to keep my turns shallow and everything gentle and pleasant. Read the rest of this entry »

Today prior to the meeting in the club rooms, I went for a fly. I had previously planned a cross country, but Harvey felt the weather wasn’t suitable. Although the wind was 15 knots gusting 20ish it was coming straight down runway 25. I keep my taxi slow and controlled as I did not want CDL to wind cock in the strong wind.

As soon as I was off the runway I could tell that things were not normal. At about 50 feet the turbulence was pretty severe. I climbed straight out and veered slightly to the south to avoid the cloud system to the north. Once overhead Muriwai at about 2000ft I continued north, climbing as airspace would allow to 4000ft, crossed over the harbour mouth and continued to where the airspace would let me climb.

I continued my climb up to just shy of 8000ft where I was pretty surprised to that the towering cloud I was observing still made me feel like I was at sea level! I now really appreciate just how hard it is to gauge the height of cloud formations.

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In an effort to make sure the parakaiaviation.org.nz website has frequent and regular new content I have created a ‘blog’ section where users can post about recent aviation experiences. For the first while I will just be me posting, if you would like to contribute to this page, please let me know and I can set you up with a login.

Blog posts will also appear on the front page of the website (below any important club notices which will always be on top. To see a listing of just blog entries you can click the blog menu above and to the right.

A PAC Meeting has been sheduled for this Sunday the 18th OCTOBER at @ 2.00pm (not November 8th)
New members are most welcome to turn up to the meeting.

Vern Booth writes:

“It’s official, the club sign is up on the clubhouse!!!

We are calling a general meeting to organise a fly-in, in conjunction with the Helensville Heritage Day, with an accent on Vintage. I know time is getting short but this could be made into an annual event and I think we should get together and give it a go.

It may take 2 or 3 years [for the vintage event to fully] catch on but if we want to make our club something to be proud of we have to keep moving foreward.

There is a lot of of organising to do in a short time and we will need helpers on the day so that the load is not carried by the usual few. We are aiming to get a few vintage aircraft along and I have been in touch with a vintage car club who has agreed to participate.

We are hoping to get a few radio control modellers plus a good possibility of a Westpac Rescue Helicpter to put in an appearnce plus a caterer on the field and who knows what else might turn up.

So come along and give us some support to make it happen….. if we don’t try we can’t achieve anything.

Regards, Vern.”