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Welcome to the Canterbury Recreational Aircraft Club’s newsletter for July 2009. We’re through the solstice (can’t you feel the nights drawing out), the daffs will soon be nodding in the spring nor’westers, and the grass will soon again be the colour of Dave Mitchell’s aeroplane.

In the meantime however, for those of us with good carburettor heaters and warm clothing, winter is here. When its fine, what a stunning time of the year to fly - predominantly glassy smooth air, wonderful winter scenery, and great club aeroplanes to fly.

Not to mention a great club to fly with. All members of CRAC sincerely wish to welcome the following new members: Steve Stone, Callum McIntosh, Dean Waller, Tristan Parrett, Jason Anderson, and Dave Paull.

Safe and happy flying always, guys. Make yourselves known around the place - you’ll find a very encouraging group of members. We hope you enjoy our club as much as the rest of us do. Remember, like any club, its what you make it. We’ll look forward to your positive input.

THE REALLY IMPORTANT BITS:

Rangiora Airfield has changed noticeably in the last few months. Since Wigram closed Rangiora is a lot busier and I cant think of a time in recent months when I have found myself alone in the circuit.

Our CFI, Mike Small wants to make the following points -

Because the airfield is so much more busy, be vigilant especially in the circuit. Be aware that not all aircraft using Rangiora fly circuits of the same dimensions we have been trained to do. Understand that the Cherokee calling “downwind” may be well over towards North Loburn. Make sure you can see him.

Even if you are flying “micro light circuits” at 800 ft agl downwind, try not to cut off other aircraft. Look thoroughly before you turn base.

When there are helicopters in the circuit, practising auto rotations, make sure you LOOK HIGH when checking the approach before you taxi out onto the runway.

Make space for yourself in the circuit - being legally in the right with a broken aeroplane (and worse) is tedious, silly and very unnecessary. Be prepared to go round - plan for it.

NORDO aircraft - if you’re rejoining the circuit, make sure you join down wind behind the last aircraft you can see in the circuit. This not only avoids confusion - its also the rules.

Presidents Report July 2009

Well the weather continues to be dull but still the flying continues. With JOL out of the air at the moment you need to ensure you book ahead to secure your flight.

The new committee is working hard to move the club forward over the next year. We have major projects on the go which include the new club area where up to 12 new hangars will be built, new doors for the new club hangar and the possibility of a new clubhouse. Committee members have been assigned tasks and a working bee arranged for this weekend. You should notice work progressing on tidying up No1 hangar, the gardens, the BBQ area, the aircraft fuelling system is under review and we are being more active on the club promotional front.

We are reintroducing club nights every month on the first Friday of the month at the clubhouse. This will take the form of a pot luck dinner( probably takeaways ordered from Rangiora) followed by a moving, a chat and a beer. Please get behind this night as fellowship is a large part of our club. Keep an eye on the web page for up coming events.

We will also start a club day once a month, the first being a time trial flight to the pier. You designate your time out and return and the winner is the closest to their designated time. These events will go ahead depending on weather but will not be rescheduled if the weather is bad. We will move onto next months event.

On the new hangar area, interested parties are gathering information on hangar prices and a resource consent has been applied for by the council. Once the consent is through and building plans approved by the club and council, building can commence.

The committee has also been researching the possibility of selling our No1 hangar and clubhouse. The thoughts behind this are to centralize our to the new area and generate funds to complete our new hangar, develop the new area and build a new clubhouse. This project is seen as most important in establishing our club at Rangiora Airfield in the future. The airfield operations are going to grow and we want to be in the forefront of the development as we have been to date. The existing facilities have served the club well but we need to move on and establish ourselves for the future of the club.

We need your support to make it happen, so get behind your committee and support the future.

Mike Sheffield

President CRAC.

CLUB EVENTS DEPARTMENT

1^st Friday in each month is a social night at the club. Pot luck dinner, a beer and a DVD, 7-00 pm starting Friday 3^rd July and every 1^st Friday there after.

19^th July - time trials to all types of aircraft from Rangiora along river to river mouth then to pier and back. Each pilot to estimate his/her time and the winner is the closest to this. A small prize will be awarded. Start at 10am.

16 August - poker run to local airfields - details to come. Pick up cards at 5 airfields and play your hand back at base. $2 bets!

Pencil them in.

GROUND SCHOOL DEPARTMENT

The club will soon be holding ground lectures for new/student pilots. Subjects and tutors are:

Aircraft Tech - Dave Mitchell

Meteorology - Peter Parkinson

Navigation - Mike Small

Law - Peter Small

FRTO (radio stuff) - Ross Marfell

Human Factors - Terry Salmon

Dates for these lectures are still TBA., but please register your interest/attendance with your instructors - either Mike, Dave, Ross or Tony.

If there is sufficient interest, the Instructors Committee are also planning to hold refresher courses for more experienced club pilots later in the year. Please register your interest for these with our CFI., Mike Small. Mike has also asked me to advise that he is available to provide specific instruction for flying in controlled airspace (in and out of Chch International for example). So, if you want to make like an airline pilot, go see Mike. He provides the instruction, all you’ll need to supply is the attitude, the sunglasses and the crooked smile. You’ll probably be amazed at how easy it is.

Mike also wants to see more cross-country flying. We recently had one of our club aircraft flown to the North Island by Phil Richards (refer the last edition of this publication). Its there to do, and its good fun.

Onto the neat bits...

THE CONGRATULATIONS DEPARTMENT

FIRST SOLO’S - Congratulations to Blair Harris who recently soloed JOR. And congratulations also to Bill de Friez who recently soloed his Aeronca. Well done guys.

Troy Glover (the cover boy for our club), who was recently photographed, while seated in an exotic aeroplane, being kissed by an as yet un-named attractive brunette, is well on the way to his passenger rating, plus his advanced national certificate. This is a seriously good effort Troy. And I’m sure you wouldn’t mind it being mentioned mentioning the encouragement and support that Ross Marfell has provided.

Wonderful to see the latest RANZ magazine. About 60% of the content is about members of our club, from Carolyn’s magnificent effort flying her Thruster all the way to Motueka, to Phil Richards flying JOL all the way up to the North Island. Its satisfying to report they both returned safely, enthused about the flights they had done.

Then there’s Bob’s trip to Woodberry with someone called Terry - and of course there’s Dave Mitchell winning the constructors ward for DYM (a.k.a. Kermit). I guess this aeroplane is a culmination of a career spent in aircraft engineering - it’s a magnificent machine and a credit to its builder. Take a good look the next time your see it parked up in front of Ross’s hanger. Its bright green, it glistens in the sun and its spot-on.

Congratulations also to El Presidente Mike Sheffield on the occasion of his Pober Pixie levitating for the first time. What a pretty little aeroplane and again, another absolute credit to its builder.

For pickies and the story of its construction, read on. How will this aeroplane do in next years “constructors award“? Watch this space. I’d love to have ago in it myself - any chance of swapping the Pixie for the Corby for an hour or two? Gis a yell Mike.

Right then. Over to Mike Sheffield and the birth of the “Pathfinder” -

The journey to flying my own aeroplane.

Mike Sheffield

I started flying Micro lights in 2001 and soon purchased my own little aeroplane. I pulled it apart, checked it out, modified it and made it mine. I flew it for around 50 hours but after a series (eight) of emergency landing caused by engine failures, I thought it time to get rid of it before it got rid of me.

I decided, after sometime, to build a new plane. Some people in our club were doing it and I had built a lot of model planes so it couldn’t be too hard. I found a picture of one that looked good and sent to the USA for a set of plans. These duly arrived and I started to gather materials. Soon after starting this process a friend of mine spotted a plane for sale on Trademe that was the same as mine.

After some discussions with my wife and some coaxing of her by my mates the plane was purchased. I travelled to the Bay of Island in December 2004 and arranged for it to be bought back.

I set it up in my garage then set to work to finish it . I had the bare frame of the plane and a set of wheels to start with.

Four and a half years later it was finished. By birthday was last week and I was determined to fly it on that day. But the day turned out to be too rough, so the next day I decided to go for it.

Usually a test pilot will do the honour of the first flight but I decided to do the initial lift off . I started her up and taxied to the end of the runway and gave it full throttle, pushed the stick forward to get the tail up, wait for speed to build then pull back,- I was flying ! Now don’t get too carried away, I closed the throttle and did a beautiful landing. In all I was up for 30 seconds, a bit more than the Wright Brothers, but I had done it and it flew beautifully. I had to do it again, so I turned around ,went back to the beginning of the runway and repeated the event – 3 times.

Satisfied I put it away and waited for the test pilot to turn up the next day. This he did (but only after I had another couple of hops) and after some through checking of the plane he took off for a twenty minute flight which went very well. The longer flight showed up a few things that need to be corrected but generally it was very successful.

Now I will get those few things fixed and build up some happy flying hours. TROUBLE FREE I HOPE!

TRIKE DEPARTMENT

The club has its own trike - JOZ - which lives with JOL and JOR in No1 Hanger. This machine is available to all club members.

There are many who maintain that dangling is good fun, and some of these people can speak quite authoritatively (and for quite a long time) on the subject. Contact either Doug Anderson (3265928 or Dean MacDonald (3287747) for details. And yes Dean, you can take me for a fly as soon as summer is here. This doesn’t mean you can borrow the Corby however.

Sadly, Doug (and Dean) have essentially left this bit to me. Despite promises of paragraphs of wit and erudition, despite promises of the sort of verbosity we have all come to expect from danglers, alas and alack, they thought I wouldn‘t mind doing their bit for them. They may regret this.

It seems there has not been a lot of dangling going on due to weather and presumably temperatures. Despite this, Brian Tufnell flew all the way to Nelson Lakes recently, then back to Hanmer Springs where he alighted, thawed out and over-nighted (as you would). Brian will be called upon in the next edition of this news letter to provide an account of the adventure. Its either that or I’ll print several pages all about flying the Corby, so its over to you son - all club members are gratefully anticipating your contribution.

Doug (via Dean) reported that he has sold JHU to an ex Bulgarian fighter pilot called “Alex the Bulgarian”, who is likely to be seen floating about (as Dean put it) in the next few weeks. Look, I just report what they tell me - I don’t make this stuff up. We hope that we can all meet Alex in the near future. Learning his surname would also be useful.

We keenly anticipate a more comprehensive reporting of events and near misses from the Trike Department in the next edition.

Call For Articles

Finally, if any of you want to contribute to this newsletter - don’t hold back. Unburden yourselves - it’ll stay within the club. Mostly. All and any contributions are more than welcome.

Inundate me at cushandterry@hotmail.com. If you don’t, it’ll end up all about Corby’s, so its up to you.

Terry Salmon

Editor