Big Blow Tuesday

Was a good 20kts NNE on Tuesday and I took the JW to the top of the Mount where I met up with Humis - first fly together for a few months!! The conditions were a little strange as the wind was being split right on the point, but the lift was just like an elevator and I could do inverted climbs with ease! Yeeeha!

At one stage, Humi's Corsair got tangled with my JW and it sent the plank into a frightening nose over tail spin that seemed to last for ages, but it pulled out shortly after and appeared to have sustained no real damage - but I landed just to check for sure. Wicked spins. Ralph has had a plank do that before and now I know what it looks and feels like - scary.

So here's a few pics of the day with a nice video of the Corsair to be posted soon.

ANZAC Day

Went for a fly on ANZAC Day and this was the view from the top of the Mount - it's those beautiful cloud reflections in the sea again! Not often that they happen but today was a fabulous example. (Right click the pic, then open in new tab for a bigger version)



The wind was very light NE about 5kts but with a the lightweight BalsaBanana sailplane I enjoyed two hours of flying. The only drawback being the constant hassle of onlookers asking the same old questions : What's the range? How far can you fly it? Where do you land it? How do you get it back? Do you land it in the sea? Have you ever lost it? How long do the batteries last? etc. etc. What a pain.

And just in case you thought the "Tank" was a forgotten relic languishing on the workbench, here's a pic showing fiberglassing the wing. I decided to use polyurethane varnish instead of epoxy resin (cost and messyness) and I'm pretty happy with the outcome after applying 3 coats.

Mitsubishi A6 Zero in town

I can now add the Zero to the list of warbirds I've been lucky enough to see. This beastie was at the Wanaka airshow for Easter and it just happened to be at the Mount before being loaded onto a ship to travel back home to the USA.

After a bit of detective work, Douggie and I managed to track it down and were allowed to get some piccies of it in the hangar before they start to remove the undercarriage for transporting.

It is one of only two Zero's in the world in flyable condition.

Just love that classic cockpit shape. This one is now powered by a double row Pratt and Whitney radial. Would have been nice to see it fly, but at least we managed to see it in the flesh.

The New Mount Hard Core!!

Just a few pics of last weeks flying off the Mount. That's my fellow pilot Daniel with his sister at the top on a very light day.

I had the JART and Daniel was flying his Fusion. I managed to lose the JART in the lightest of airs at the end of the day - it just wasn't enough to stay airbourne - but I managed to land the beast just behind the fenceline and with no damage to boot.

And a pic of the sunset clouds to round things out.