The attached picture shows the Metvue forecast for today, well I didn’t fly but as you will see from the third picture it would have been possible.  The Bay is exceptional in that the worst of the weather normally leaves this area to enjoy a micro-climate so much better than we should expect.  The Kaimai hills protect us from the Westerly winds and when the Easterly gales come in off the ocean the moisture mainly falls when the orographic lift of the Kaimais cools the air and the  precipitation falls inland.  Having said that this tropical depression will no doubt dump a fair bucket load on us tonight!  The weekend past was very damp also and with misty clouds and low temperatures I have taken some time to catch up on domestic duties and administration which is missing Sue’s steady hand.

I will be taking a short winter break and flying to Europe on the 10th July and returning on the 10th September when the days will be noticeably longer and hopefully warmer.  The trip will include an extended visit to the Auto-Gyro factory in Germany to test fly the enclosed spin-off from the MTO3 Eagle design and to attend the annual gathering of owners and agents.  The blog will continue to be active and photographs will abound!

The Sport Copter Lightning aircraft seen here is a first for New Zealand and has just been built by Richard Main and passed inspection by Colin Alexander of  Solo Wings.  I am told that an earlier look alike Vancraft was operated at Fielding some years ago.  It was about 12 years ago that I visited the factory in Origan USA where Sportcopters are produced and was very impressed with the quality of product and the years of experience that has passed from father to son in the family business.  Any doubters should watch the video of this machine being looped!!

I have been asked to test fly the aircraft for Richard Main and then complete his transition training onto the machine.  Richard has many hours on Bantam Microlights and became comfortable with gyroplanes some two years ago when he flew the school Eagle to solo standard.  I anticipate that we will both enjoy his new aircraft which has many sound design features to commend it.

I have been working on a project to franchise the Gyrate product around New Zealand and have already moved positivly in that direction.  The sharing of a common website and advertising will be the first step to create a ‘win win’ situation. Today I inaugreated the 0800 FLY A GYRO freephone number which will be a common facility shared across the franchise network.  Clubs or instructors interested in this concept are welcome to discuss the way ahead.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 29th, 2009 at 11:01 pm and is filed under Gyrate Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.