Sunday, March 30, 2008

Waikato Microlight Club Open Day

One of the two local microlight clubs which has a lovely *long* airstrip and hangar very very close to the city had it's open day yesterday. There were dozens of microlights, helicopters and light sport aircraft, things like Zeniths and Aerosports, the latter being a very sexy machine I didn't get a photo of :-(
A lot of the machines were giving rides, I missed out on a ride in my chosen machine because I'm too tall apparently, but the rest of them were coming and going nonstop, and most of them beating up the strip after takeoff. Cool!

Phil Hooker turned up as well, with his Bell 47 and one of his C152's, in which he did an awesome display that had the crowd gasping at times - he went up a few thousand feet and did an aerobatic display complete with loops, rolls, stall turns, etc, and as he did so he got lower and lower until he was at 500 ft or so, and proceeded to fly down the strip just about sideways - cool stuff! He then climbed to the circuit (500ft) and did his circuit and landed with the engine completely stopped. He then had to restart in order to taxi back :)

Good stuff, I'll be going back next year for sure.



















5 comments:

Evan said...

Hi Chris

I saw your car in the carpark at Collins Rd. I was only there for a short spell because I had the kids with me.
If you want some shots of the "Sexy" SportsCruiser, there is one based at Te Kowhai. It has the chameleon paint job that changes colour depending on the angle you view it.
Max is planning on having an open day @ NZTE soon to celebrate the commissioning of the BP fuel tank, and I'm sure Andy will have it out and about then.

Chris Nielsen said...

Hi Evan

Thanks for that, I didn't realise he was going to have an open day, must keep an eye out for that one...

Rodney said...

Hi Chris,

Awesome photos [as usual!].

Rodney

Chris Nielsen said...

Thanks Rodney!

Flyinkiwi said...

There is also a Sportscruiser that lives at Whitianga as well. I got some photos of it the last time I was over there. The owner was about to put it back in its hangar but he was kind enough to wait a few moments to let me take some snaps. It sure is an impressive machine, one of those planes that look fast standing still.