August and nearly spring.
It’s still as wet around the place as I’ve seen for many years and the notam on the field is still in force. “02 threshold displaced by 300 metres” The northern extension is also wet between the main road and the tyres marking the permanent displaced threshold.
We have our usual in-lamb hoggets grazing on the airfield until mid September. We will try to take them off over the weekend but during the week they have to be negotiated. They are slowly getting educated by the Crescoes but part of the problem is that the southern end that didn’t get mown and baled for silage is a bit rank and so they don’t tend to stay down there as they have done in previous years. They are a real hazard so don’t take any chances with them.
Talking about hazards, the committee is in the process of writing a safety management system for the airfield. Unfortunately, it’s the way of the world and we have to comply. It will be relatively simple system whereby users of the field and also people carrying out their day to day jobs on the property will be made aware of potential hazards and the whereabouts of emergency equipment. There will also be a facility for reporting any incident or concerns. The key is to have a paper trail in the event that something occurs so that we can be seen to be addressing it and reducing likelihood of future repeats. We must make mention of Bruce Brownlie from Feilding Airfield who is allowing us to use the template that he has set up for Tainui and adapt to our needs. There is of course a cost involved but the end figure will be considerably reduced thanks to Bruce’s generosity. Ross St George is setting it up for us and he may ring or email some of you for some input. Pre warned is pre armed.
We welcome the following new members:
Russell & Grace Twentyman . A father and daughter team. Russell has a PPL and is the owner a Piper Arrow. Grace is a high school student and is looking forward to learning to fly.
Gary Mitchelmore Many will know Gary as the Dannevirke Flying club secretary and flying member. Gary has recently completed a 172 rating with me and is enjoying the Cessna experience.
John Kersten . John works at Cervus in Waipukurau and is the son of Jane Clouston. John is keen to learn to fly and joins as a flying member.
Brian Salisbury: Brian owns a C206 which now resides in Lindsay McNichol’s hangar with the Cropmaster. Brian is a very experienced 206 pilot with several thousand hours on type and joins us as an associate member.
Andrew Watts : Many of you will know my weekday boss, Andrew. It is through his generosity that we have had the use of his telehandler loader on many occasions over the years and also for his allowing me time off work to carry out weekday duties at and for the club. Andrew has always had a close link with the club as his grandfather was the Club’s founding benefactor, JR Franklin. Andrew joined us on the SI trip earlier this year with his son Fergus. Andrew joins us as an associate member although he had a few flying lessons with us quite a number of years ago.
The following from president Rick Gunson.
Greetings
The club AGM was well attended by about 30 members with 4 new committee members being elected on from 6 that stood. The new additions being, Peter Harris, Rueben Hansen, Hamish Ross and Phil Gray. Thank you to the other members who stood for the committee.
The retiring members being Russell Greville, John Marshall, Frank Minton and Graeme Rees.
Consideration has been given to some queries raised at the AGM. In response to the Dawn Raid income in the accounts there was found to be funds incorrectly attributed to the YP Dawn Raid. The difference in subscriptions from 2016 is attributed to changing membership numbers although no exact figures have been studied as yet. A query about the charge out rate for CHB in particular prompted the committee to review all flying rates and consequently reduce the rate for CHB by $15 ph to $120, and ETJ by $10 ph to $155. It was felt that CHBs rate was expensive in comparison to other clubs and yet is a relatively cheap aircraft to maintain, we hope it will now be more attractive. ETJ looks to be headed for a busy year so with more hours likely along with a substantial reduction in insurances and a decent drop in current fuel prices a rate decrease was considered to be in order.
The committee has moved to put the BEF up for tender. Feedback at the AGM was supportive of this suggestion with the longer term intention to consider a replacement.
Thank you Rick.
As there were no nominations for Club Captain at the AGM, this job will be shared around. Anyone who would like to suggest or organise a social event or club trip, please contact us and we’ll fall over backwards to help . On that note, We have a planned overnight to Raglan planned in October. Wendy is keen to organise this. I’ve never been there although we have had at least 2 planned trips in the past that have fallen through due to bad weather. Third time lucky. At this stage the weekend before Labour Weekend is the plan A with the weekend after Labour weekend the plan B. Please let us know if you are interested.
Club Competitions also come to mind in this regard. These have been pretty much a non event recently and I would love to see them revived.
On that subject, the last round of the Frogley Cup was held after the Hastings Dawn Raid a couple of weeks ago. Dannevirke are now the proud and deserving holders of the Cup. Hastings were 2nd and we were last!. I can’t remember the last time we were last. On a brighter note, one of the 3 scoring team members for us was student Rueben Hansen. Well done Rueben.
The Hawera Dawn Raid is next on the fly away calendar. Ross Hatfull has offered to organise seating arrangements for this trip on Sunday Aug 20th. There is a list on the board at the clubhouse or contact Ross if you want a seat or if a private owner and have spare seats. This is always a good dawn visit with great breakfast and to a region not many people get to. I’ll be heading over there again within the next month as the CFI at Hawera, Wayne Harrison, does my annual instructors check. Wayne is also the examiner we use for PPL issues so any students who come along can meet the guy who will be taking you for your flight test.
The following from John Hamilton:
Last week I was wandering down to Christchurch as a passenger on a Mt Cook ATR. The inland Kaikoura mountains had a good coating of snow but even though cloud obscured the valleys, I could not help but remember the fun we used to have flying RNZAF helicopters in that area on mountain flying training during the winter. For these exercises we were based at Molesworth Station using the Department of Electricity building used for maintaining the Benmore-Haywards line which runs through Molesworth. Two parts of the mountain flying training come to mind.
The first was the challenge to land on Mt Tapuaenuku at 9450 feet AMSL: not that you could land on it anyway as it comes to a rocky peak with snow and ice and does not have the room to put the skids on fully. Mountain flying training teaches you to respect the weather and to always have an appreciation of where the wind was coming from, as well as the effect of altitude on aircraft performance. At the height of Mt Tap the prevailing westerly can be very strong and the north-south alignment of the ridge which ends at the summit results in tremendous updraughts on the western side and correspondingly frightening down draughts in the lee. If you kept the all-up-weight down there could be sufficient power available to hover out of ground effect at that altitude and in the cold temperatures. The traditional approach to trying to land on the peak would have seen a slow descending approach into wind while remaining above the demarcation line, the invisible line that marks where the air coming up the western face starts to become the descending air tumbling down the leeward side. Get below that line and you find turbulence and even with full power in, everything showing down. In the usual strong winds the angle of descent while staying above the demarcation line can be very steep and the view of the pad is through the chin windows. But if you understood the up draughts and flew carefully you could also gain some extra performance. An alternative was to approach the peak at an angle to the wind, staying in the up draught and preferably with the wind on the right so that as power is increased to terminate in a hover, the helicopter’s natural torque effect brings the nose to the right and you end with the nose into wind and often just upwind of the peak in smooth air. From there, the crewman could talk you back over the peak and manoeuvre the helicopter so as to get the heels on the snow and without stabbing the belly of the helicopter with the survey waratah standard that sticks up to mark the summit.
The second exercise we used in mountain flying was intended to test crews’ Search and Rescue abilities. It involved one crew dropping Yeti, a helpless, over-weight manikin with a gorilla mask dressed in orange overalls, at a remote spot, making a report of his approximate location and a second crew going out to search for him and winch him aboard before placing him in a new spot for the next crew. Not surprisingly, this exercise grew into a competition to put Yeti in the most difficult place. Mountain flying training usually covers the psychological effects and the challenge of flying without adequate horizons, aircraft performance and the risk of reducing airspeed and flying up blind valleys. In this respect helicopter flying is the same as fixed wing. In my case Yeti had been dropped off (they said!) on a ridge but we found him halfway down a small and steep scree covered bowl. The only way to get Yeti out was to fly into the bowl on an arc to the right (wind on the right again to help performance) to try and winch him up. As we entered the bowl, the real horizon disappeared and was replaced by what seemed to be descending vertical lines as bits of shingle were dislodged and rolled down the slope. There was an awful feeling that we were pitching nose down toward the slope and the cyclic was too far back, even though the attitude indicator looked normal. Overcoming the illusion required the head to be on a swivel to find other reference points and to take in the instruments all the while listening to the reassurance from the crewman and the co-pilot. Once Yeti was near the top of the winch we were able to trickle forward and round to the right to escape out into the valley and settle.
Mountain flying is great fun when the weather is good and everything is working in your favour. But there are also many stories that end poorly when the basics of mountain flying are not applied or ignored as conditions deteriorate. There but the grace of God….etc but those are other stories for another time perhaps.
Many thanks for that John. Ideal newsletter fodder. There must be more of you out there who would like to share some memories and/or anecdotes.
Last week I attended a biennial, 2 day, instructor’s seminar organised by CAA in Wellington. As always, it was very worthwhile and the theme for this year was “The instructor as a professional” While we are very aware that being an instructor is a professional and responsible occupation, it doesn’t hurt to be reminded of same every so often. I attend most of these seminars and because instructor turnover is relatively common due to young pilots using instructing as a stepping stone to bigger and better things in the aviation industry, many of the topics are repeated over the years. As in the past, a large emphasis is on adequate supervision of junior instructors. It is a great responsibility on senior instructors to maintain a watch so that less experienced instructors are mentored and monitored to ensure that standards do not slip. This year, one of the presenters was Ritchie McCaw who I won’t have to identify to you. His topic was leadership and was a very worthwhile and interesting presentation. There was a high school group at the hotel where the seminar was being held and it was a hoot as the realisation that Ritchie was in the building spread. Just before we got started on the first day these guys appeared at the door and like penguins on the edge of a cliff, one eventually got fired through the swinging doors followed by his mates. Ritchie was amazing as he posed for selfies and signed autographs. As an aside, he’s a big bugger. Much taller than he looks on TV which I guess is a testament to the size of his All Black team mates.
The week just gone, both Cessna have been in Hastings having maintenance. 100 hr inspections, ARAs and calendar propeller checks all falling due at the same time. We have worked hard to have ETJ back in Waipuk by this weekend but alas FGJ won’t be back until next week. Many thanks to those who have worked on them this week.
Duty Pilots:
Aug 13Th :C. Powell.
Aug 20th P Steers
Aug 27th M Durham
Sep 3rd R King
Sep 10th B Knight
Sep 17th T Morgans
Sep 24th V Donald
Oct 1st A Sowry
Oct 8th R Day
Oct 15th E Orr
The duty pilots of late have been very good and I thank you. We have many new students at the moment and if it’s a fine Sunday, things can be quite busy and it’s great to have someone to meet greet and entertain people who come and go. Usually the duty pilots bring some nice home made cooking and a couple of weeks ago Rueben came along with some very nice cheese scones with the steam still rising off them. Of course he took all credit but I suspect his mum may have had more than a small part to play.
The annual Club dinner will be coming up sometime over the next month or so. Watch the emails for this notice.
Also, on the subject of safety, you will notice that each aircraft now has a couple of hi-viz vests in the back. It is now a requirement when on the manoeuvring area of a controlled airport that hi-viz is worn by those walking around. Other airfields have also adopted this requirement. Hastings for instance require you to wear hi-viz when refuelling aircraft.
That will do me for this month.
Keep a watch on those starry winter evenings. There’s some spectacular sights up there.
Take The Spoon Out Of The Sink.
Ross Macdonald