April fool and all that Jazz

Well you may have noticed a gap between the posts recently but as usual there is a reason or more accurately a whole list of reasons.   April is a notable month in the family diary as we have our wedding anniversary on the first, can you believe it?  Then in 1984 I spent the 4th, a glorious flying day, on the top floor of Guys hospital while Sue delivered our first born (and only).   To help us celebrate these anniversaries we were visited by my daughter and boyfriend from the UK who packed a whole New Zealand experience into two weeks annual leave – as only the young can!  Great that the sun shone throughout which is a huge bonus when you make such a commitment of time and money.

Training has been constant, in fact we have signed up four more students to RAANZ and have been in the air daily with Tauranga controllers hearing new voices on the radio.  To reduce the strain we often visit the Control Tower and chat to the people who are responsible for aircraft movements,  it helps everybody to put faces and personalities to the voices.

Steve  is back in the air in his Dominator and he flew it to Matamata with me in formation in an Eagle.  It is now housed in Sybe Haakma’s hangar and Steve will complete his solo training there, benefiting from the huge expanse of grass and the relatively light air traffic.  

Although we have flown folk in their 90′s it is the first time that I have had an eighty year old comence a training course with me.  Accompanied by his wife, who achieved her PPL on Tiger Moths at the Tauranga Aero Club in the days before sealed runways and control towers, Rhys Jones started flying the Eagle this month and is progressing extremely well.  Grey power is alive and well!

From New Plymouth Simon Buick came for a day of intense training before he is into forced rehabilitation by an operation to a troublesome leg.  Sounds like a good time to get stuck into the books and clear up the exams! 

Last weekend a plethora of flying events clashed in this area, Tokaroa, Collins  Road Hamilton and Whitianga all staged events.  I was on domestic duty on the Saturday dispatching Rosie and Fred back to the UK but on Sunday I met up with Sid Lane at Matamata and we flew into Collins Road for the Waikato Microlight Club gathering.  Glorious hot sunshine and a hoard of Bantams are the lasting impressions for me however the very rough strip made significant impressions on the aircraft!  It was good to meet up with Richard Main and his wife who flew their Bantam in from his farm location.  Richard is well advanced with the build of a single-seat Sportcopter and I am looking forward to finishing his conversion training on that aircraft.  Bruce Watson put in a brief appearance by road as he was unable to get across to Tauranga to pick up his Eagle.  I took the opportunity to do a training detail with another new student, Hub Hall, who lives in the area and then he went home to readjust deer fences to establish his own airstrip in preparation for a gyroplane arrival.  This sport is addictive!

Well Easter arrived and training continued however so did the 47th National Jazz Festival which turned out to be the biggest event Tauranga has ever held, some 60,000 people are said to have attended.  The talent that we saw was awesome, on Friday we were entertained by the Wizard & Oz.  This duo from Australia are just brilliant with a repertoire ranging from R&B to  Gershwin with the odd classical piano concerto thrown in for good measure.  I came away with 3 CDs!  Sunday I checked out the Strand from the air but by the time we could make it on foot things were closing down.  Monday was meant to be a free day but somehow an introductory flight slipped in, however the afternoon was spent at Tauranga’s historic village which was swinging with music on stage and in cafe bars not to mention every street corner, brilliant.

I have heard a rumour of an attempt at an altitude record which led me to an interesting website,  http://www.ThirtyThousandFeet.com, this is a collection of links to almost everything to do with aviation.  The web site is worth a visit but do avoid the altitude, last time I was there it was minus fifty degrees Celsius, watch out Sid.