Runway opening display

At Hamilton Intl (NZHN), the new runway has just been unveiled, or at least the partial sealing of one of the grass strips. Along with the 1000th locally built aircraft being delivered, this called for lots of boring speeches by boring politicians and a nice little flying display. Note it was *not* an airshow, but we don't mind if we have planes flying round. The 750XL and the Fletcher were just awesome - the 750XL taking off in about 2 plane lengths and demonstrating a *very* short landing and ability to reverse on the ground. The Fletcher was an awesome 8 cyl powered beast! Both aircraft did some pretty hard core displays.
Our Alphas did a 3 ship formation then one split off to do solo aeros, not sure if I got any photos of that, but it was the standard awesome Noel Kruse aerobatics display. Here's some photos of the show for you:

CT/4:


Some Bantams:





Some Alphas:



A Fletcher 400:




750XL:



And after the display the aircraft were parked up at a nearby cafe:






A few people turned out...



The view from above...


Our mayor doing the talkytalk...

Small announcement

Hi all

I've been tinkering with writing a logbook program, and I'm just letting you know that the first version is ready to go. It's open source (free) and I encourage everyone to download it, have a look and if you like it let me know. It's not version 1.0 yet but it's stable and should just be missing the odd feature. Please tell me what features you think it's missing!!!!

Main download page is here. Windows XP/Vista version is up now, the Mac version should be up there shortly

Thanks all...

From wired magazine: Ancient Jet Keeps the U.S. Air War Flying

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/08/the-eisenhower-era-jet-that-keeps-the-air-force-aloft/

"Fly Better" part 1 released

Hi all

I'm here to tell you all that Noel Kruse, our club's advanced aerobatic instructor, ex-RAAF wing commander and all round good guy (plus one of the world's highest time Robin/Alpha pilots) has released book one of his "Fly Better" series.

It's available for FREE on the web at: www.flybetter.co.nz

Just thought you would all like to know about this

D-Day in Tauranga

Hi all

Went to D-Day in Tauranga with one of the lads last weekend, highly enjoyed myself! Similar to last year's effort, they had recreations on the ground and in the air, plus "handling displays" from the various choppers that were just awesome! Yaks and Harvards did excellent aerial displays, the only issues were the Yak that had an engine failure the day before and landed in the golf course, and the ME108 which caught fire once it landed and parked up. Nothing major, thankfully.

Here's some snaps for you, random order as per usual

(photo geek details: taken with either a Nikon F5 + 300 f/4 + 1.4 TC, or a Nikon F80 + 80-200 f/2.8, both with Fuji Superia 400, using manual exposure metered off the grass, not that anyone cares :)

Suffice to say, I'm extremely pleased with how these images have come out. Please click on them and view them large!

Up close with a Pitts

I spent some time up close with Noel Kruse's Pitts S2-S and took a few photos for the club newsletter, here for your viewing pleasure. This aircraft was originally one of a three ship aerobatic team, the Royal Jordanian Falcons. After a midair collision which destroyed two of he three, the remaining aircraft was sold, eventually to Noel. He brought it with him from Australia when he emigrated a year or two back.

Some random shots from the airport

Hi all

Some images here from a roll of Astia I shot with my Rolleicord that's been hanging around for ages waiting to be developed. First are a couple of 152's I found parked at the aero club, next a photo of the 170 that was online for a while. Last photo is a motorbike owned by one of the club members