Download Jan 2017 Newsletter here

Happy New Year to everyone.
I hope your wishes, dreams and resolutions for 2017 come true.
The year has started off pretty much as the old one ended.
Bloody wind.
The annual xmas party was very well attended and a very enjoyable evening. Many thanks to
Josh Calder who flew in santa in the distinctive pink sleigh. Of particular note was the 18
children who were in attendance. Very pleasing to see. Just like old times.
As I emailed earlier, a silver bracelet/bangle was lost that day. It was a very special present
from a grandmother to a grand daughter. If you see it or have already found it, please let me
know.
The New Years day fly in to Athbey Farm at Woodville went ahead in spite of the wind.
A few intrepid souls flew in and many drove to make it a very successful day. As usual, a
wonderful lunch was presented by Betty and Athol and their helpers from the microlight club
at Fielding.
I flew in with Wendy in her Rans , JDP. There was little wind at Waipuk when we left but it
steadily increased as we neared Woodville. The 2 or 3 planes that came through from the
Manawatu would have been like corks shot out of a bottle as they came through the
Manawatu Gorge gap.
Among the flying attendees were 2 of the rarest Ag aircraft in the world.
Lindsay McNichol’s Yoeman Cropmaster and the newly returned to NZ, Auster Agricola of
Hallett Griffin. It was a rare treat to see both these aircraft sitting on a farm airstrip at
Woodville NZ. I put a couple of photos on Facebook and the interest generated was huge.
One contact I received was from a guy in Australia who is married to the daughter of Dickie
Bird, the designer of the Agricola. I put him onto Hallett as he had some photos and articles
of the early Agricola days.
Talking about Facebook. Last Saturday, we had a fly out to the beach in the evening and had
a BBQ on the beach. 5 aircraft and 11 people. I put a few photos on Facebook as I usually do
and as I go to print, there have been just over 2800, yes that’s two thousand eight hundred,
views of the posting. Mind boggling. There has to be a message there somewhere but I’m not
sure what it is.
Athol has confirmed that this year was the last one that he will host the New Years day Flyin. 12 years is an admirable effort. The future plan is that the fly in may be shared between 2
or 3 Clubs. We have put up our hand, as have the Fielding Club. I think it’s very important
that we keep going what Athol and Betty have started.
On the beach subject, Wendy has a new BBQ which we trialled successfully the other day.
There is left over steak from the Xmas party in the freezer which needs to be eaten. We will
try to plan a BBQ fly out whenever the tides suit. Lunchtime or evening. Sat or Sun. give me
some feedback on what you prefer. These are great trips. Short flying times so no huge costs.
A bit of steak, some onions tomatoes and buns and for a few $ a nice feed.
Great experience for pilots. Last weekend we had 2 students who hadn’t been before and the
pilot who flew the 172 in with 3 people on board completed his first beach landing. He did it
with style and is I’m sure still fizzing over it.
There has been little club flying over the last month due to wx.
Tony Jefferd went to Matamata in FGJ and completed a type rating in a C206. Jamie Gunson
and Josh Calder went with him and also did ratings. We may see a 206 on the field sometime
in the future.
Jonty is still awaiting the nice conditions which will see him complete a first solo.
Ross Kent is well on the way to completing his Citabria rating he started some years ago.
Some glider towing in the future may be?
Last Monday I flew to Taupo and picked up the engineer who then fitted The Tiger Club’s
spare prop to BEF, then I flew him back. Each of the 4 legs to Taupo and back was windier
and rougher than the previous. 3 ½ hrs of that and I was glad to be back on the ground. Half
an hr of Xwind circuits with Pete McHenry when I got back topped off the day nicely.
Good to have BEF back in the air. The new prop is a finer pitch than we are used to, so have
a chat with me before you fly her as she needs to handled a little differently.
There are a couple of props for sale in the SI. We’ll check these out and hopefully soon have
our own one back on. The Tiger Club prop is a “Get Home” prop meaning that if someone
has a mishap away from base, we may have to give it up to get them home.
You may notice some earth works beside the tractor shed. This will be the site of Clem
Powell’s new hangar. Great to see some development on the field.
Today, Thursday, I flew to Napier with Pete McHenry in ETJ. Pete has a granddaughter who
needs some direction and a trial flight with her ensued. It was very windy. 310/30 was the
wind on the ground at Napier. She handled it with style and we flew along the coast, almost
to Waimarama and back. Like most girls, she had a very gentle touch on the controls and was
totally unfazed by the occasional turbulence. I think we may have found something to spin
her wheels. Very satisfying.
Of interest was that the GA gate under the tower has been removed. I called into Air Napier
and asked what the story was. I was told that Napier is now a “Secure” airport and as such,
security checks are required before entering or leaving the apron area. They wouldn’t even let
me through the Air Napier building but directed me to the Fire Station. There we were told
that they would let us out but that ID in the form of a Pilot’s licence or ID card would be
required before they would let us back onto the apron. Luckily Pete had his licence with him.
Store this away for future use.
Also, I have in the past taken students up to the tower on cross countries so that they can see
that the controller doesn’t have 2 heads or a forked tongue. Today, Pete went up to the tower
while waiting for me. He was told that a booking now has to be made to visit the tower. Who
can argue against these new rules when safety and security are quoted to you. It does make
one wonder where it is all headed though.
As we flew into the NR CTR (Napier Control Zone) I explained to Pete that giving the
controller the POB (persons on board) was required in the contact so that they knew how
many bodies to retrieve out of the wreckage in the event of the unthinkable. Pete mentioned
this to the controller and was told that the POB is no longer required as competing airlines
were using the POB info to gauge the success of their rival’s flights. When asked about the
information being useful in the event of a mishap, Pete was told that the POB could be passed
to the relevant recipient in the Mayday msg. Mind boggling!!!!!
Upcoming events are; the RNZAF 80th celebrations at Ohakea on the 25-26 Feb. I thought
we may be able to take a bus. Anyone who is keen let me know asap. They will have to sort
out the road logistics as apparently the last one was a traffic nightmare with gridlock
preventing a lot of people getting to the venue on time to see anything.
The RAANZ annual National fly- in is at Rangiora this year on the last weekend of
March/first weekend of April. As usual Wendy and I intend to attend, wx permitting of
course.
The following gems from Clem Powell.
1 My goal for 2016 was to lose just 10 lbs. only 15 lbs to go.
2 Ate salad for dinner. Mostly croutons and tomatoes. Actually one big round crouton
covered with tomato sauce. And cheese. FINE. It was a pizza. Ok. I ate a pizza.
3 How to prepare Tofu. Throw it in the trash. Grill some meat
4 I just did a weeks worth of cardio after walking into a spider’s web
5 I don’t mean to brag but I finished my 14day diet in 3 hrs 14 minutes.
6 A recent study has found that women who carry a little extra weight live longer than men
who mention it.
7 Kids now days don’t know how easy they have it. In my day we had to walk 5 metres
through shagpile carpet to change the tv channel.
8 I may not be as good looking or athletic or smart or talented. I forgot where I was going
with this.
9 I love being over 50. I learn something new every day and forget 5 other things.
10 I think I’ll just put an “Out of order “ sticker on my forehead and call it a day.
11 Senility has been a smooth transition for me.
Thanks Clem. Some bell ringers there.
The following from Richard Bradley:
“Basic Med is the best thing to happen to General Aviation in decades”. Those are the words
of the USA AOPA president on hearing the announcement on Jan 10th that starting on May
1st 2017 US pilots will not have to continue to go through the process of renewing their
medicals through the conventional cumbersome and expensive way. This is for the FAA
equivalent of our Class 2 medical. Obviously there is a lot of details to go through yet but
this is something that has been a major project by AOPA and EAA in the States over the last
few years. The FAA was demonstrating considerable inertia in progressing this matter but a
huge campaign to congress by thousands of flyers persuaded congress to pass legislation to
force the FAA to deal with it. This announcement is the very successful end of that process..
My understanding of it at this early stage is that if you have held a medical in the last ten
years and have not had a medical declined or cancelled you will be eligible to fly under the
new BasicMed conditions. It appears that you will still have to undertake one full medical in
your life and then will be able to use Basic Med from then on. Basic Med requires an online
application every two years and a visit to your GP every four years and a current drivers
license. Various organisations, including some from NZ having been watching this
development very closely and have asked the International Civil Aviation Org. to consider
requiring their member states to introduce similar measures. The NZ CAA is very well aware
of what is going on and has undertaken to investigate. We are very fortunate as aviation
medical certificate holders here in NZ to have some incredibly energetic and devoted people
and organisations working to keep us up with the latest developments world wide and to have
our local CAA consider introducing such measures here.
Specs for BasicMed in the USA are:
6000lb MAUW
no limit on HP, gear type or number of engines
max 5 pax
day or night VFR and IFR
up to 18,000 ft
up to 250 kts
no hire or reward.
Hearty congratulations to USA pilot and aviation organisations and we hope we can see
some of this sensible reform in some other parts of the world.
Thanks Richard. Valuable info. As you say, we have been fortunate that our own CAA have
lately been very conducive to accepting and adopting these overseas initiatives.
That’ll just about do me for this month although there is some star and planet info that is
exciting this month.
Brilliant Venus is the 'evening star', appearing due west after sunset. It sets around 11:30 at
the beginning of the month, 10:30 by the end. Nearby, but much fainter, is reddish Mars. It is
right of Venus and a bit higher in the sky at the beginning of the month. The gap closes so
Mars is just above Venus by the 31st. In a telescope Venus looks like a tiny first-quarter
Moon. It is 100 million km away at mid-month, catching up on Earth. Mars is 260 million km
away, on the far side of the Sun; a tiny disk in a telescope. The Moon is near Venus on the
2nd and 31st, and Mars on the 3rd.
Mars passes the faint blue planet Neptune on New Year's Day but one needs a telescope to
see it. Neptune is about 1/10th of a full-moon width (4') below and left of Mars. Neptune is
4.6 billion km from us. Mars moves on quickly. The Mars-Neptune gap is 1½ moon-widths
(48') on the 2nd.
Sirius, the brightest true star, appears high in the east at dusk. Called 'the Dog Star' it marks
the head of Canis Major the big dog. A group of stars to the right of it make the dog's
hindquarters and tail, upside down just now. Sirius is the brightest star in the sky both
because it is relatively close, nine light years away, and 23 times brighter than the sun.
Procyon, in the northeast below Sirius, marks the smaller of the two dogs that follow Orion
the hunter across the sky.
Left of Sirius as the sky darkens are Rigel and Betelgeuse, the brightest stars in Orion the
hunter.
Between them, but fainter, is a line of three stars making Orion's belt. Rigel is a bluish
supergiant star, 70 000 times brighter than the sun and much hotter. It is 800 light years
away. Orange Betelgeuse, below Orion's belt, is a red-giant star, cooler than the sun but
hundreds of times bigger: a ball of extremely thin hot gas. To southern hemisphere star
watchers, Orion's belt makes the bottom of 'The Pot' or 'The Saucepan'. A faint line of stars
above and right of the belt is the pot's handle or Orion's sword. It has a glowing cloud at its
centre: the Orion Nebula.
Left of Orion is the V-shaped pattern of stars making the face of Taurus the Bull. The Vshaped group is called the Hyades cluster. It is 150 light years away. Orange Aldebaran,
Arabic for 'the eye of the bull', is not a member of the cluster but on the line of sight, half the
cluster's distance.
Left again, toward the north and lower, is the Pleiades/Matariki/Seven Sisters/ Subaru star
cluster. Pretty to the eye and impressive in binoculars, it is 440 light years from us. From
northern NZ the bright star Capella is on the north skyline. It is 90,000 times brighter than
the sun and 3300 light years away.
Low in the south are Crux, the Southern Cross, and Beta and Alpha Centauri, often called
'The Pointers'. Alpha Centauri is the closest naked-eye star, 4.3 light years away. Beta
Centauri, like most of the stars in Crux, is a blue-giant star hundreds of light years away.
Canopus is also very luminous and distant: 13 000 times brighter than the sun and 300 light
years away.
The Milky Way is in the eastern sky, brightest in the southeast toward Crux. It can be traced
towards the north but becomes faint below Orion. The Milky Way is our edgewise view of the
galaxy, the pancake of billions of stars of which the sun is just one. Binoculars show many
star clusters and a few glowing gas clouds in the Milky Way, particularly in the Carina
region.
The Clouds of Magellan, LMC(Large Magellan Cloud) and SMC( Samll Magellan Cloud)
are high in the southern sky and easily seen by eye on a dark moonless night. They are two
small galaxies about 160 000 and 200 000 light years away.
Jupiter, rises in the east around 12:30 a.m. mid-month. It is the brightest 'star' in the morning
sky and shines with a steady golden light. Saturn is low in the eastern dawn sky below orange
Antares. Mercury appears lower and right of Saturn but brighter.
We have been having some very clear nights lately. Go outside and have a look before
retiring. Take note of some of the bright ones and refer to my notes. Fascinating.
Well I think it is anyway.
Duty pilot list to finish.
Jan 15th: Tony Jefferd
Jan 22nd: Peter Harris
Jan 29th: Wendy Milne
Feb 5th: Clem Powel
Feb 12th: Peter Steers
Feb 19th: Matt Durham
Feb 26th: Richard King
Take the spoon out of the sink.
Ross Macdonald.