April 2008
Welcome to the April newsletter. This past month we have experienced the highs and lows of being a part of a sports club. We heard during the Easter weekend that one of our club members, Noel Valance, had been killed in a flying accident down south during a flying event that was attended by many of our members. This was a shock to all of us, but to the credit of all involved, the flying events carried on. I am sure that is what Noel would have wanted, even expected. The club extends it’s sympathy to Noel’s family and friends. A thank you to everyone who helped out at the funeral on the Friday. The club has received very favourable reports on the way members conducted themselves. Well done.
The highlight, for me at least, was the flyin at Oxford. There will be more on this later in the newsletter. For photo’s check the gallery on the club web site
Our AGM is coming up Mon 14th April at 7.30pm.
This is a good chance to have an input into the direction that the club should take. You won’t be pushed into a job you don’t want to do as we have plenty of people that are happy to be on the committee. But we are always looking for new blood, so if you are keen to be involved please speak up and let someone know. It is a good chance for new members to meet other members of the club that they might not have seen before.
NEW MEMBERS
We have some new members to welcome this month. Welcome to:-
Grant Loader, Stephen Richardson, and John English.
Some happenings
The rumour is Chris Pennell (aka the mad scientist) has sold JEB and has a share in a Jodel D18.
COLLISION
AVOIDANCE SAFETY
ISSUES AT RANGIORA AIRFIELD All
users of the Rangiora Airfield are invited to a meeting on Monday
28 April 2008 at 7.30pm to
discuss operational safety issues. The
venue is the Canterbury
Aero Club Rooms at the Rangiora
Airfield. Light
refreshments will be served Keith
Vallance Craig Sargison Chair
Manager, Community & Recreation Rangiora
Airfield Advisory Group Waimakariri District Council Murray
Fowler from CAA will be at the meeting.
The Canterbury Aero Club is organising a Rangiora Airfield Open Day on Sunday April 13th (from 9:30am). The headline is that a DC3 will be operating out of Rangiora for joyrides in the afternoon.
Our club will be doing the usual trial flights in JOL and probably fire up the BBQ, and of course it would be good to get some of our members to open up their hangar and drag out their aircraft for the public to oooh and aahh over. We will be keeping it pretty casual from the microlight side, as we don't want to steal the CAC's thunder.
Colin Marshall has indicated that the CAC Robin will be operating out of
Rangiora more often (and will be there on the 13th) and that the CAC is more that happy to accept bookings from our members who want to make themselves queezy with an unusual attitudes flight ;-)
Oxford Flyin
The Oxford flyin was a great success. Planes, caravans, tents started arriving on the Thursday. Gas bottles were hooked up, batteries and generators were started, the Easter flyin was under way. Fog covered the Canterbury plains on the Friday morning. I was away for the afternoon. When I got back around 5.30pm the whole place was completely transformed. There were people, planes and tents everywhere. It looked fantastic.
Two of the Timaru crew had to tie down on the way as the westerly had got up and made it a little bit rough for them. It didn’t seem too bad on the ground so I was quite surprised until I found out they were in a Quicksilver and a Pteredactyl. We are talking first generation microlights here.
On the Saturday competitions started. We had the spot landing, run to stop, carrier deck landing and bombing. I am sorry I don’t have the results, maybe next month. These were interrupted by showers coming through every now and then but it didn’t ruin the day.
Sunday was a perfect flying day. We had the navigation competition which took people up behind Mount Torlese. It was a perfect day for it. I was away for the afternoon but from what people have told me and the photo’s I have seen it was a brilliant afternoon for spectators and pilots alike. There were a lot of visitors to the field to check it out and JOL did a few trial flights.
There are way too many people to thank, but I would like to make special mention of some people. Bob Boyce sorted the water works Stuart Bufton did a brilliant job of organising lighting and power supply. Paul Woodley, Mike Sheffield and Phil Haywood organised the feeding of the troops. James Sleeman looked after the money. Mike Small organised the competions with help from Paul, Phil, James and Brian Van de Veldon. There was lots of help on the weekend from others as well. Thank you to all those who made the whole weekend a great success. There are some great pictures on our CRAC web site. Check it out
Thanks to all those that helped clean up. The site was left clean and tidy which I appreciated.
A message from the CFI
We want to make sure all our licences and paper work is up to date. There will be random checks to make sure everything is up to date. It is better for us to do it “in house” than having the CAA coming in and doing the checks.
Novice pilots. If you have had a novice licence for two years you need to get your exams done and upgrade to an intermediate licence. The instructors will be checking to make sure you are up to speed.
Flight Permits: Make sure you have a copy of your aeroplanes flight permit in the aircraft when you go flying.
DATES TO REMEMBER
Sunday 13th April Canterbury Aero Club Open Day Starting at 9.30am
Monday 14th April CRAC AGM 7.30pm at our club rooms. All welcome
Monday 28th April Rangiora Safety meeting of Rangiora airfield users at the Canterbury Aero Club rooms at 7.30pm