Despite the weather bomb and the Southerly winds straight from Antarctica flight training is progressing well, the picture shows our octogenarian Rhys Jones complete with ski suit enjoying the challenge.

 While we are dealing with everyday flying events Mark Humbke left us to return to the Yemen travelling via Frankfurt.  This coincided with one of Europe’s major trade showcases for aviation held at Friedrichshafen and so under the influence of jet lag he hired a car and sent back some pictures of the gyro section, state of the art or what!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So back in the real world last week end saw the Northern Microlight club organise a fly in to North Shore Airfield which as the name suggests is just North of Auckland.  To demonstrate that gyros should not be left out we took a Xenon(ZK- XEN Tony Unwin and Hub Hall) and an Eagle (ZK-RGG Bruce Watson) from Tauranga on what turned out to be a superb day weather wise and excellent socially.  We planned an early start to make sure we didn’t miss out on the sausage sizzle and so the early morning Waikato mist and fog was still hanging about as we approached the Waihi Gap.  Fortunately by the time we reached it breaks were appearing and we continued ‘clear of cloud and in sight of the ground’.  We transited over Waiheke Island Airfield in crystal clear air, Bruce Watson in the Eagle declared it to be ‘ice crystal clear’ as even his thermals were struggling to keep the chill out.

How about buying that nice heated jacket that we have in stock Bruce? Right on schedule after 101nm North Shore showed up, an unusual runway with grass to each side of a narrow concrete strip.  Gyro formation reported overhead and did a standard join to be greeted warmly by the assembled microlighters, thanks guys it feels so good to be accepted as ‘normal’ aviators these days.  After lunch and a look around some interesting projects and unique aircraft we set off towards Matamata to meet up with to other gyronaughts, Steve Holmes and Sibie Haakma who had been flying their single seat Dominators locally.  To enhance the party we found Stephen Chub with his Magni M16 also flying around at Matamata.  A few yarns over a brew and we headed back over the Kaimai Hills with a brisk 30knot tailwind carrying us back to base.   Next weekend its off to Tokaroa for the Queens Birthday when New Zealand takes the Monday off as well.

Has Your Airplane Been Drinking?

We surely hope not. While the cost-savings of using autogas in your aircraft may be enticing, it is important to ensure it doesn’t contain ethanol, a mix that can be extremely dangerous inside your engine. Among the primary concerns for using ethanol in airplanes not designed for its use are vapor lock, incompatibility with certain engine parts, and its tendency to absorb water. To learn more about the dangers of using ethanol in GA aircraft, see Peter Rouse’s article “Why Does My Airplane Smell Like It Has Been Drinking?” in the May/June 2009 issue of FAA Aviation News. For a live presentation on this important topic, you can catch Rouse at the Virginia Regional Festival of Flight in Suffolk, Virginia, May 30 and 31. The important thing to remember:  The aircraft owner is ultimately responsible for determining autogas does not contain ethanol. 

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 10:38 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.