Yes the blog report is late again! But we have not been idle, either in Hangar 16 or at SoloWings.  The new owners of Eagles and Xenons have been clocking in some serious flying and we have also enjoyed visits from European Gyro pilots as well as completing a steady flow of introductory flights.   Hub Hall has opened his own farm strip which is well prepared, including the repositioning of a power pole.  We took two Eagles in recently and had an interesting departure as the wind was less than helpful.  A choice of towards obstacles and rising ground with a slight head wind or obstacle free with a slight tail wind.  Anxiety led to over rotation followed by more anxiety as the fence approached!  Mark Humbke has now completed his advanced national certificate and passenger rating and is fast approaching 100hrs flight time.  How nice it is to be able to give full-time to progressing your hobby.

Hub is now flying solo on MTO, his Christmas present to himself, consolidation is difficult as it is peak time in the Deer industry for taking velvet from growing antlers.  I only found out recently that in a past life he was also a champion sheep shearer, talent indeed.  We were disappointed to learn that a routine check by German customs resulted in our container of gyros missing the scheduled boat and will not now be here in time for the Tauranga Airshow on the 7th February.  The CAA have promised to do all it can to expedite the approval of Calidus so that it can be flown in the Flying NZ Safari in March.  We are pleased to have Otmar Birkner, owner of AutoGyro Germany, coming here to fly the event with us.  From the same airfield at Hildesheim we had Bernhard Pausebuck visit this week, he works as an instructor at the ‘factory school’ and he amassed 700 hours instructing on the MTO3 in just nine months last year.  No wonder he is here relaxing before the next European summer season!  Only two weeks before I accompanied Dr Angelo Troedheim on a tour of the Coromandel for four hours, another interesting pilot whose day job is facial surgery.  Anybody want a nose job?  How nice it is to have experienced pilots fly you around reminding you what a wonderful environment we are privileged to enjoy.  We are assured that both these guys will be back to do it again, Bernhard is even hinting about instructing with us in his ‘off season’!

While all this aviation has been happening Colin Alexander has been been preparing the last off our stock Eagles for service.  This will be the machine that I will fly on the around NZ Safari and then use as the school training aircraft.  Some special mods have been incorporated including a constant speed propeller from Airmaster.  This is an amazing unit normally found pulling fast microlight aircraft through the sky while sipping fuel.  On the Eagle it is easy to use and very efficient, well proven warpdrive blades have been implanted into a high quality piece of precision engineering that is made in New Zealand.   I have only flown a few hours but can already see some 20mph increase for the same power setting as a fixed pitched prop!

The final amazing item is a smoke generator that feeds a diesel mix into the exhaust and should put new interest into our display routine.  I have yet to try this item but I hope to have it available for the Danevirke fly-in at the end of the month.  I think a good cleaning agent will be required for the tail unit!

Last week-end I was flown to Taupo in the Xenon by Jared Thomas.  This is where Jared has a company called Tongarero Expeditions which assists those wishing to undertake the six or seven hour Togarero Crossing trek.  We were able to conduct flight training in the environment in which Jared will be operating his Xenon and look at the complications of mixing a busy skydiving centre with commercial aircraft movements and all sorts of general aviation.  Although there is no formal control good situational awareness, sensible use of the radio and consideration for others can produce a very smooth operation.  It was interesting to note the change in aircraft performance at a higher altitude combined with high temperatures.  Having enjoyed a brilliant stop-over with the Thomas family we returned to Tauranga via Whakatane, here we were met by fellow gyronaught Bret Oswald and Willie (permanent resident of the microlight club room).  Phil Charmers had been seen departing for the high hills in his Eagle earlier in the day, welcome home Phil.  This week has been standard with Brian Murphy flying his Dominator and David Church his Xenon, I must find time to flightplan for the Safari, continue Elton Haakma’s instructor training and produce the flight manual for the Calidus.  Who ever said retirement was boring!

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