Canterbury Recreational Aircraft Club

Rangiora, New Zealand

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Welcome to the May newsletter.

A lot has happened in the club since the last newsletter.

We had our AGM in April and now have a new committee.

There was a meeting in the aero clubrooms discussing collision avoidance at the Rangiora airfield.

There has been a good month flying. JOL has been in for another service but is back on line again.

Long time club member Graham Fletcher is leaving us to head to warmer climes. Graham is going up to Marlborough. His challenger is still for sale for any one who would like a nice little two seater.

We have a request from Phil Hayward for information on local and not so local airstrips that are friendly to recreational aircraft.

This is quiet a big newsletter so I am sorry there are no photographs. Have a look on the web site for some new photo’s (and videos). There will be some fresh photo’s up on the notice board in the club rooms. Check out the alligator!!!

The FRTO (radio licence) is now available from RAANZ. The dates for the next RAANZ - FRTO training session will be held in the Clubrooms on Tuesday 10th and Thursday 12th June starting at 7pm.At the conclusion of the Thursday night session the FRTO test will be conducted.

Due to rising fuel costs the committee has decided to raise the hourly rate for the club aircraft $2 an hour to $90. We are trying hard to keep the cost of flying to a reasonable rate, so that hopefully this will still be affordable to our members.

New Members

Welcome to new members David Hawkins and Arthur Tyndall

First Solo’s

Phil Turnbull soloed in JOL at the beginning of April. Also Grant Porter soloed in his own aircraft, the avid flyer. Grant supplied fish and chips at the clubrooms after his solo which was greatly appreciated by those that were lucky enough to be there. Also Bruce Norrie has gained his intermediate certificate.

Mikes Magical Mystery Mission

Mike Small is embarking on a mission around the South Island. Departure date is set for Friday 30^th May. Mike is happy for other flyers to join in but you must have an advanced local licence as a minimum. You will need to be prepared to be able to look after yourself with accommodation etc. The plan is to head south. The trip will take as long as it takes. Sounds like a lot of fun. I intend to be a starter if I get my farm sorted out.

SUN’N’FUN 2010

A few club members are starting to plan a trip to Sun’n’Fun Florida USA in 2010. I know it seems like a long way away but if you are like me you will need to save some dosh. So this is preliminary warning to start saving. Sun’n’Fun is focused on homebuilts, microlights, LSA’s and water bourne aircraft. It is held in the USA springtime, in April. You have been warned!!

Presidents Report

Our mew committee is now in action with our first meeting last week. The meeting was lively and some great ideas which have already been actioned.

The first action of the committee was to appoint a CFI, Safety Officer and a Club Captain.

These roles are filled by

MIKE SMALL – CFI

PAUL WOODLEY – SAFETY OFFICER

CLUB CAPTAIN- Shared role at present, Mike Sheffield, Jeff Banister, Phil Hayward and Colin Marshall.

This year will be a busy one for all as membership continues to grow at a steady rate. As membership grows the pressure on our instructors increases. This has resulted in two new positions being created to spread the load of the instructors and especially the CFI.

The CFI role is one of coordination of instructors, rostering, training instructors, planning courses, liaising with committee and generally keeping training of instructors and pilots to a high standard.

Mike has co-opted Dave Mitchell as his deputy. Dave will work closely with Mike in carrying out his tasks and learning the rope of a CFI.

Phil Hayward will be a Training Liaison Officer responsible for first and continuing contact with all pilots in training. He is the first contact when new members join and need to be set up with an instructor. He will look at the members training needs and assign an instructor to the member. He will then monitor progress and handle all aspects of the members administration as his pilot training progresses. He will try to provide consistency for the pilot in planning a suitable training programme for each pilot based on time available and of course budget. He will also tidy up the administration side of the training by introducing a new pilot log book, in addition to the CAA log book, that will be kept at the club and will contain the pilots flying training history, expiry dates and other notable information for instructors only to access. This will be invaluable in making sure everyone is current and are getting the best out of the club and themselves. So if you have any queries regarding your flying training or eligibility to fly see Phil. It will take some time to collate all relevant information. Please send your relevant info to Phil, your medical expiry, your RANZ expiry, your present rating and your ratings expiry and next BFR.

On a lighter note we are also looking to enhance our club catering facilities by installing a high class coffee machine and will have a variety of muffins available. This is not a club funded initiative but a private one. The idea is to upmarket ourselves a little and provide a service to the airfield, our members and to increase our presence and image at the airfield. It will be a little like a small café operating from our clubhouse. It will be a serve yourself system and costs will be affordable. Keep an eye out for this new facility. If you are interested in getting involved in the setting up of the system call Phil, he is looking for a number of debentures to get the ball rolling.

Contact Phil at

03 310 7957 or hayward.phil@gmail.com or 027 486 1052 197 or Marshmans Road, RD 2 Ashley Rangiora 7472

Where to Go......

Winter approaches and the good flying weather, we hope, will come with it. We go to the airfield on a cool, crisp still Saturday morning and get our winged machines out ready to fly....but to fly where? How about Lees Valley? No, done that many times. Around the Peninsular? Did that 2 weeks ago and nowhere to land. Well where then?

These would seem strange thoughts when we live on great flat plains which are just littered with airfields. But where are they I hear you ask. Good point. I know of one or two, and I sure you do as well. In fact I would suggest most members collectively have knowledge of quite a few airfields all within easy flying distance of Rangiora for even the slowest of our aircraft. But this knowledge doesn't seem to be easily accessible to everyone.

Introducing project Airstrip – a database of local airstrips.

I have thought about this for some time and I think now is a good time to start it, with our membership growing, more planes coming on line and a move by our CFI to get pilots qualified to venture further than the local circuit.

Basically what I am proposing is to create a freely distributable database on all of our local airstrips that we have access to. The format of the database, be it on paper, spreadsheet, CD or all or both, hasn't been decided yet, but it will be available to all who want it. What I need from YOU is a list of any airfield you know of within a 100 nm radius of Rangiora (yes scary isn't it, but I have it on good authority that there is perfectly safe flyable airspace further out than 10 nm from the Rangiora circuit). The details I would ideally like are:

Name of Airstrip (if it has a name)

Location (GPS coordinates would be ideal but I will accept anything)

Length of Airstrip

Vectors (where known)

Surface description (grass, dirt, riverbed, stony, asphalt, water)

Notes on Airstrip (power lines on approach, uphill, downhill, shotgun toting farmer at end of strip)

Airstrip owner (or person we need to contact to ask for use of airstrip)

Owners contact details (if you know them)

Basically I would like as much information you can give us so we can locate the strip, have the CFI assess its suitability (novice, intermediate, advanced, club plane, any plane except the club plane, I wouldn't even take yours there) contact the owners to see if we can use it and then gather all of the pertinent details for the database.

This isn't going to happen overnight but hopefully we can get the first cut of it done within a couple of months to try and catch some of the good flying weather. The long term vision is something on our club pages or a CD that we can easily keep updating and adding to as time goes on.

If you want it, we can do it, but it is going to need your input.

Please send me any information that you have on candidate airstrips for the database. You can email me at hayward.phil@gmail.com, Phone me on 027 486-1052, put an envelope addressed to me in the club safe in the hanger or just hand it to me when you see me at the airfield.

Good Flying

Phil Hayward

Collision Avoidance Meeting

held at the Canterbury Aero Club rooms on 28 April 2008

The meeting was attended by over 90 airfield users representing GA aircraft, Helicopters, Microlights, Experimental aircraft, Aircraft Maintenance and Neighbours.

The meeting was convened by the Airfield Advisory Group (A.A.G.) and opened by Keith Vallance chairman of the A.A.G. who outlined the meetings procedure and

emphasized that the meeting was designed to bring the users of the airfield together and make the airfield a safer environment for all.

Pat Scotter started with a well presented Power Point Presentation outlining the problems that can arise at Rangiora in nil wind conditions with aircraft traveling in opposite directions downwind. Also to be mindful of aircraft without radios and the large number of students using the airfield with English as their second language and little experience, he also emphasized the need to keep a lookout by turning your head and not rely on peripheral vision. This presentation can be seen on the Waimakariri Web site www.waimakariri.govt.nz/services/airfield .

Murray Fowler the CAA safety officer backed up Pat’s presentation and talked about accurate position reporting and the need for short radio calls to keep the radio congestion down.

John Dugdale the safety officer for SAAC introduced the other safety members on the airfield; Pat Scotter is the airfield safety officer, Paul Woodley for the Microlights, Jay Peters for CAC. He then spoke about the need for everyone to speak up when they see something that could be potentialy dangerous. There are two sides to any action so bring up your concern with the pilot and listen to his/her side before making a judgment. If you would prefer, contact a safety officer about your concerns and let them deal with it.

Jay Peters spoke about what the CAC had done with safety by dividing the training area west of Rangiora into seven training zones. Each zone has only one training aircraft in it at a time and gives position calls to that zone. It is important that other aircraft in the area give accurate position reports and intentions so that everyone is aware of aircraft movement in the area. As the airfield gets busier it may be necessary to change the way we operate so if there is concern please bring it to his attention.

Craig Sargison, the council Representative spoke briefly on the need to keep children under supervision on the airfield and that a bylaw requiring dogs to be kept on a leash at all times was in place. The landing T/O area on 07 was to be repaired and asked that aircraft avoid this area over the winter. The Council’s airfield web site www.waimakariri.govt.nz is available for airfield information and please make a comment on collision avoidance and airfield improvements on the survey form which will be discussed by the A.A.G. www.waimakariri.govt.nz/services/airfield/survey.htm

The meeting finished with all attendees happy with the outcomes discussed and the need to move forward. Tea and coffee with sandwiches where supplied by the council to end the evening.

Colin Marshall

Complying with the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms (HSNO) Act 1996

If we ignore Compliance, OSH has no MERCY

I have been concerned for some time about the way we store and transport Petrol. I have been trying for some time to be able to buy mogas on the field so that we did not have to transport it or store it but could not get anyone to supply at a reasonable rate. There are risks involved in storing petrol. Not so long ago the Canterbury Aero Club was fined over $50000 for not having sufficient safety measures in place. They thought that all bases were covered but OSH found a way to prosecute, we all need to cover our ARS so this is what I have found. If you can add to this please contact Colin Marshall 0274125402

All Hanger owners that store over 50 liters of petrol (Class 3) in their hanger are required to Complying with the HSNO Act

This is a simple process of having your hanger certified by a local compliance inspector and making your hanger compliant. This should not be too difficult for most hangers.

This will enable you to store 200 liters and maybe more in certain circumstances.

There will be an annual compliance cost but if we get all hanger owners that want to comply, this could keep the cost down.

Your Insurance Company will need to be informed of your compliance certificate if you are storing more than 50 liters.

Transporting Mogas (Class 3) over 250 liters will need a special license. Transporting less than 250 liters, no license in required.

This is a work in progress so watch this space.

Colin Marshall

THINGS I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN (or I learned from that experience)

The sun was shining, Metflight was good and I had a day off, so what else could I think of but go flying. Horarata seemed to be just the right distance for a coffee at midday, so off I went after the usual pre-flight checks. Uneventful and pleasant journey, so overhead at Hororata, pre landing checks o.k. Noticed something I had not seen before, sheep on the runway, o.k. I thought, do a low pass to get them to one end and then land. Something didn`t seem sheep like about where they were, all nicely grouped at one end of the runway, o.k. I thought they`re at least out of my way, so on finals, touched down, rolling out nicely and oh s*** where did that fence come from?

I now realised why the sheep were so well grouped at the other end of the runway, a temporary electric fence was keeping them there!! Not the one that I hit but one of a few. Fortunately there was no damage to the plane, me or the fence (well, not after I had re- erected it). So what did I learn? If there are sheep and they are in one area, there is usually a fence to look out for, not necessarily where the sheep are!.

Happy Flying, and keep a look out.

Jeff Bannister (FMY)

Training Update

Our Club continues to grow, we will have JOR back on line very soon, more members are buying their own planes and consequently the demand for training grows. Further to this there are more requests coming from students for training during the week and on Sundays. Currently we have only eight instructors, two of whom also have dual roles as our Area Training Officers. It is therefore apparent that we need to train and appoint further instructors. This we intend to do and hopefully we will have three new instructors by the end of the year, two of whom will be Trike instructors.

Training problems solved? Not quite. In our effort to bring the new instructors on line a great deal of time of the Chief Flying Instructor and the Area Training Officers will be needed. To add further to our problems, a series of small incidents throughout this last year have highlighted to me the need to have a better overview of Licences, medicals, BFR's, Pilot Log books and generally ensure a smooth training process continues between pupils and instructors. In order to archive all this we have created two new positions to assist in our training. These are Deputy Chief Flying Instructor (nominally accepted by Dave Mitchell, to be confirmed on his return from Australia) and Training Co-ordinator (accepted by Phil Hayward)

The roles are as follows.

Deputy CFI:

1. Understudy the CFI.

2. Assist the CFI where required.

3. Take over all roles and responsibilities of the CFI in his absence.

Training Co-ordinator:

1. Assist CFI and Deputy CFI in the co-ordination and planning of training between instructors and students to ensure a smooth and efficient continuity of instruction for the student.

2. Ensure training records are kept and maintained.

3. Ensure adequate training materials are kept available for both instructors and students.

4. Keep informed of student concerns and convey relevant matters to the CFI.

5. Liaise with other training organisations outside of the club at the CFI's direction.

6. Ensure training statistics are maintained and reported on to the CFI monthly.

7. Keep and maintain a list of members medical due dates and BFR dates and keep CFI updated on a monthly basis.

8. Keep and maintain a list of members currently rated in club aircraft. Keep this list available in the club and draw to the CFI's attention any discrepancies.

9. Any other duties or tasks from time to time assigned by the CFI or his Deputy.

With these two new roles the CFI and instructors will be relieved of a lot of the administrative burden associated with any good training process and be able to spend more time in aircraft instructing.

In the coming months you will all get to see both the Deputy CFI and Training Co-ordinator as they start the process of collecting and collating our training achievements. In general this will allow us to provide a more professional and co-ordinated training process to our current and future members. It will also allow us to present a more comprehensive picture of our achievements and our overall service and value to the community when we make applications for funding and grants. I ask you to join me in welcoming both Dave and Phil to their new positions and offer them all your assistance when required.

Mike Small

Chief Flying Instructor.

Hanger Etiquette

Looking up the word etiquette in the Collins dictionary one of the definitions it gives is “a conventional code of practice followed in certain groups”. And why do we have these codes of practice? It enables each member of the group to understand the behaviours and boundaries required to be a member of that group. Where is he going with this I hear you ask. Let me relate to you some instances that have been happening in our hangers of late.

Three weeks ago the fuel cap of my plane was undone by someone while it was parked in the hanger. Bit disconcerting when someone as been playing with your fuel cap. Has someone wanted to see how it works? Has fuel been removed from the tank or more worrying has something been put in the tank? Not the most comforting thoughts to have at the beginning of a days flying. Week before last I came into the hanger to find the door of my plane wide open and the master switch on. Battery was completely flat. Really disconcerting. Now just before this turns into scare mongering I concede Paul Woodley had been doing work on my plane and had put it back into the hanger. I approached Paul on this and he is adamant that he would have turned the master off and closed the door. To support this he wouldn't have been able back the plane into the hanger with the door unlatched as it immediately flies wide open when the plane is moved backwards. To add to this I have had at least two other incidents in the past when I know people have opened the door of my plane. How do I know? Because it takes some skill and knowledge to close it properly and I have found it with the top seal unlatched.

So getting back to etiquette and a code of behaviour within our hangers. At times I think we need to revisit them so we all understand what is expected. Basically I think they are rather simple.

4. You don't touch anyone's plane without their consent (apart from shifting planes to get yours in or out). You wouldn't touch or get into someone's $60,000 car without their permission, or their $5000 car for that matter. So shouldn't this apply to planes?

5. If you have visitors or children with you it is your responsibility to ensure they also don't touch other peoples planes. No?

6. If you are the last to leave a hanger you ensure it is locked up, even if you are just going to go and do circuits. You can't see who is wandering through the hanger when you are in the circuit, and it is your responsibility, you left it unlocked.

7. Remain vigilant about who is in and around our hangers. You may not even own a plane but by the same token you are a member of the club and these planes belong to fellow members. Chances are you will fly in one of these planes. Would you feel happy about flying in it if you thought it had been unlawfully interfered with?

These are my simple views on what Hanger Etiquette should be. Am I being unreasonable? If you think so please let me know so we can work something out acceptable to all.

Phil Hayward

Cafe de Association du Aeronautics

Coffee as a product and a pastime has developed a huge following and culture all of its own in New Zealand within the last 10 years. I can remember 15 years ago in Wellington, having just returned from overseas, trying to get a coffee on a Sunday morning. We were lucky to find an open Cafe let alone find a real coffee. And now it seems to be everywhere, on every street corner and just part of life and an everyday activity, except that is, on Rangiora Airfield.

Now while the lack of coffee on the field has a sense of nostalgia of what rural life in Canterbury was like 20 years ago it will not last forever against the ever pervading creep of the Coffee Culture. I firmly believe that within 3 – 5 years there will be a cafe on Rangiora airfield. Now I don't see this as a bad thing either. With coffee will come the public. With the public comes new interest, new members and new dollars. We will also be better appreciated when we invite our good partners out for coffee and we can offer them something better than that well known local brand, 'NesCafe Instante et La Airfield'. So, while the airfield isn't big enough to support a cafe at this time, why not at least introduce real coffee to add to the ambiance of the 'day at the airfield', perhaps attract some more members of the public and dare I suggest it, be on the right footing to launch a cafe as a future fund generating venture when the airfield is large enough to support it. The well known words from the film Fields of Dreams, “If you build it, they will come”, applies equally to coffee I believe. “If you brew it, they will come”

How would I propose to do this? I have been investigating cafe vending machines capable of making genuine cups of real ground coffee. Not the type that you are now seeing appear at the local service station but something a little more up market. I have found one in particular, the Saeco Royal Espresso, which promises to fit our needs. It makes genuine coffees, it grinds the beans for each cup, it automatically froths and adds the milk and does all this at the press of a button. It can be programmed to deliver Cappuccino, Flat White, Lattes and espresso coffee. Maintenance is equally easy. Apart from an automated cleaning cycle that must be run on the machine each week we must ensure that there are coffee beans in the coffee hopper, there is water in the water tank, milk in the small milk fridge (comes with the machine) and the coffee grinds cassette is emptied after every 30 cups. To make it even easier the machine has an LCD screen that prompts when any of these areas need attention. Apart from that one just puts the cup under the tap and presses a button and voilà, a real cup of coffee.

So what do we have to do to make this happen I hear you ask eagerly? All that we require is 5 or 6 other business minded individuals to join with me and invest $500 for a 1 to 2 year term at a annual rate of return of 10%. To expand on this a little, we can purchase a suitable machine for $3000 to $3500 depending on our final choice. The machine produces a cup of coffee at the cost of approximately 38 cents for the coffee beans plus the cost of the milk that is used. If we sell each cup of coffee at $1.50 a cup (try getting it that cheap in town) we stand to make, I believe, a minimum of 62 cents a cup to pay back our investors plus their interest. Depending on the demand for the coffee on the airfield I believe it could realistically pay for itself in 1 to 2 years. Is there risk involved? Of course there is, but then again there is risk in getting out of bed in the morning. It is only when we venture nothing that we can guarantee our outcomes – nothing. So lets 'Wake up and Smell the Coffee'. If you are interested in joining with me and others in this venture please contact me.

Ph (03)424-1223 Mobile 027 486-1052

Phil Hayward

Well that’s it for the month. I hope that you have been able to digest it all. Next month I hope I will be able to tell about Mike’s trip around the South Island.

Safe Flying

Dave McPherson