Black Sands Fly In - Raglan NZ

[Bruce]

Hi Guys, just letting all you NZ aviator-types know to keep the following dates free:
November 4th and 5th 2006
The Waikato Thames Valley chapter of the Sport Aircraft Association NZ are holding a "Grass Roots" social fly in at Raglan (by-the-Sea) NZ (I know there is a Raglan fly in in Australia...) which will include some activities to raise funds for our hangar project. Raglan is a great place at all times, with safe swimming beaches, cafes, icecream shops and a host of other great activities within walking distance of the airfield. We hope to add to this with great BBQ food, flying, socialising, flying, spot prizes, flying etc. Ideas at this stage include a Beach landing training session and "fly away" (very low afternoon tides this weekend) and an informal air rally. All types of aircraft are encouraged to attend, but the fly in is not "open to the public" for safety and control reasons. Enthusiasts may slip in and mingle.....
accomodation and fly in HQ at Raglan Kopua Holiday Park.
Will advise more details as they come to hand, but keep this weekend free.....

[Bruce]

For those unfamiliar with the delights of Raglan-by-the-Sea, here are some pics from our informal fly in last summer:

[Bruce]

Details are firming up for the Raglan Fly - In. Weather permitting, these are some of the things on offer (confirmed to date)
„« Beach Landing Workshops Saturday afternoon
„« Air Rally Sunday morning
„« Spot Prizes
„« Raffles
„« Fishing competition!
„« BBQ Lunch Both days
„« Lots of nearby shops, Cafes, Beaches and other Family entertainment
„« Accommodation onsite at Raglan Kopua Holiday Camp
„« Entertainment in Raglan township Saturday night

This is shaping up to be an awesome weekend, put the word around your fellow aviators. CAA requirements mean that there will not be a formal flying display, but there should be a good mix of machines of all types. CAA have been extremely good though as they have donated a number of prizes.
Registration and other details will be posted on the SAA web page in early September (I will remind everyone then). Registered participants get first pick at the accomodation plus a goodie bag!
We are publicising this to the Warbirds, vintage, microlight, rotorcraft, model aircraft and paragliding / hang gliding groups, so should be very interesting!
PM me if you want more details.

[Bruce]

Registration and information packs have just been posted on the SAA web page www.saa.org.nz (just see the links off the news item on the homepage). If you are planning on coming (and I hope some of you are) please read the info sheets as there are some important notes in there. There is also some info on the photo competition run on this forum. There are lots of goodies up for offer over the weekend, and it should be a lot of fun - see you there!

[corsair67]

That sounds great, Bruce.

I hope you get a good turnout for it.

[Bruce]

Latest news release for the fly In:

there will be a raffle running over the course of the weekend, Tickets $10.00. The prize package contains the following aviation goodies:
Two Person Survival kit and pilots cap from Marinair, Wellington
$100.00 worth of SuperFlite Aircraft fabric products from East Canterbury Aviation.
1x Baltic Constant Wear Aviation lifejacket from Aviation Safety Supplies Ltd
book " Wings over New Zealand" courtesy of Civil Aviation Authority
Aviators urinal "Pee bottle" c/w Female adaptor plus Trifold Kneeboard from Flight Acessories Ltd
SportAvex 2006 DVD from SAA


In addition we will add other items of local flavour to the package before the event. The package is worth nearly $1000.00 and as you can see includes some really good stuff. Tickets will only be sold at the fly - in, however you dont have to be present at the draw on Sunday afternoon (although that would be better) We thank the Sponsors for thier support and trust that we can support them in turn.

We have booked the weather, the Beach is all set for beach flying and there will be lots of stuff happening. I went flying with the Air Rally co-ordinator last week (in a lovely Jodel D18) and test flew some of the Air Rally - this will be very cool, but it is worth filling your aircraft up with observers for some of the questions! I'll be around somewhere looking very busy (ask at the rego desk)- if anyone comes along, make sure you track me down and introduce yourselves! Any Warbird / Classic machines planning on coming along?

[Peter Lewis]

Did have the Airtourer WBW booked to come down just for the Saturday arvo, but it's now out of the air having been sold into Australia.
Will now be reduced to either sitting at home sulking or attending in a plebian C172 (the Raglan strip is too short for the Tobago - I know, I've tried it).

[novicepilot]

Hi Bruce

I have just moved into the Hamilton area from the UK with the family. I have a UK PPL (approx 70hrs Cessna 152 and 140) but not done any flying this end yet. Can I drive over and have a look this weekend?

[Bruce]

absolutely, although not advertised to the general public, enthusiasts are more than welcome. Drive - in registrations are $10.00 per carload.

hope to see you there!

[Bruce]

flyernz, a C172 will be fine, that definitely fits into Raglan (whats the group category on the Tobago? I'm surprised it had problems fitting into "Rags", which is a group 5 strip, still it is a hot machine.) Would you want to go beach flying? (I'm trying to scrounge an extra seat to get there myself and take some pictures!)
When we took the Jodel in there last week we had 25kts on the nose we were fully stalled with the tailwheel on the ground and power off, but the mainwheels floated 6" off the ground for quite a while before they actually came down! (we WILL have better weather on the day...) Ground run about 30- 50 meters!

[Bruce]

Looks like the weather is going to be fine - no excuses!.....

[corsair67]

Bruce, if you get any photos, could you post them please?

I hope it all goes really well with the weather and the event, and that there's a good turn out.

[Peter Lewis]

Bruce, the Tobago is (supposed to be) Group 5. We were two up, no luggage, and I had stopped at Hamilton and just fuelled up with 36.873 litres of fuel as a bare minimum to legally get us home. Checked on short final that the grass at Raglan had been recently cut (which it had) so went ahead and landed.
Did all the short-field take-off stuff, and was still reduced to trying to pick which was the likely to be the weakest fencepost at the far end before she just scraped off. Sure wouldn't like to try it at MAUW.

I have 172 DXQ booked to come down for Saturday afternoon. I have checked today, and beach landings in that are out. Graeme (the owner) is not too keen on me at the moment, as this 172 developed a leak in the port tank on the way back from Taumarunui last weekend. As well as splattering the side of the fuselage with green stain, I only just got home before the fuel critical stage. Not my fault, but he's still a bit humpty about it.

If we do meet up, we could do a flyover if that is any use.

[Peter Lewis]

Weather at Saturday a bit overcast, and the winds light and shifty. No one seems to have had problems getting there, as the crowd exceeded my expectations.

A good variety of aircraft, ranging from the new:



the whacky:





and the not-so-new:



The one that really caught my eye, having been recently reading up on the life of Steve Wittman was NZ's only Tailwind:

[Bruce]

Glad you enjoyed the weekend, in most ways it exceeded our expectations. I went and paid the landing fees for 74 aircraft that were processed through the rego desk, but I suspect there may have been a few "extras" that slipped through! The runway at Raglan is approx 650m long, and the entire length, threshold to threshold was full of aircraft parked wingtip to wingtip, plus another dozen or so on the southern side overflow. Here are a few pictures that I managed to get in the course of the running around getting sunburnt.... (remember the photo competition on another thread...)


Panorama down the runway (northern side)


The eastern end of the runway, from just abeam my perch in the comms caravan


The sort of thing that you do at an SAA fly in, Graeme and Britta Weck enjoy the shade beside thier Murphy rebel, whilst other owner / builders examine each other's aircraft!


On Saturday afternoon we held the beach flying workshop, and I caught a lift to Gibsons Beach (8NM north of Raglan) with Noel Bailey in the lead aircraft ZK-JAC following are some photos of that great afternoon:

















19 aircraft went from Raglan and for a few hours "Gibsons Beach" would have been one of the busiest "airfields" in the country. 2 Bantams were passing down the coast, saw us and dropped in as well. A number of the pilots had never tried landing on a beach before, and the amazingly smooth firm surface was a pleasant surprise. some of the aircraft spent some time doing circuits, and with the calm conditions, landings and takeoffs were made in any direction along the beach. The Scale of the location is not aparent from the air, but once down, you realise the available space is absolutely enormous.

After dropping me off, noel went back to Raglan to pick up Jack Godfrey, JAC's builder, and fly him to the beach. After a while Noel and Jack flew back, and one by one the other aircraft also departed (at least one took a bag of fresh mussels back home) leaving me alone on the deserted beach (with no road access) waiting for Noel to come back - a slightly odd feeling! Whn Noel did arrive, he couldnt see me at first as I was amongst the rocks, and he was about to head back thinking I had caught a ride with someone else! (fortunately I had the handheld airband radio! - would have been a long walk back...)

[Peter Lewis]

That beach looks great Bruce. Unfortunately, I was not 'allowed' to take DXQ in there. I did attend the briefing, and when I flew overhead on the way home I was tempted. However the thought of the uproar from both the Owner and the Insurance Company if anything did go amiss was enough to keep me on the straight and narrow. Someone was bound to take a photo on the beach with DXQ in the background and if interested parties saw that I would be in real trouble. Interesting to see that the Tomahawk made it in (and out). Anything a PA38 can do . . .
There was enough drama back at Whenuapai with DXH's forcedlanding that day without me causing additional problems.

[Simonjg]

fantastic photos on the beach; only in NZ eh! Very cool

[xr6turbo1]

Yip those photos on the beach are great.
The Tailwind used to fly out of Omaka, great sounding aircraft and I believe it has a Rover V8 engine

[Bruce]

Cliff Bellingham has recently re-engined the Tailwind with a Lycoming 320, so it has lost some of the distintive sound - I understand C of G issues with the Rover restricted its usefulness.

[Bruce]

Noel Bailey has just sent me some pictures he took from the Jodel D18 during his many sorties over the weekend:


Raglan airfield from overhead, taken late morning on Saturday (Judging by the tide level and the number of aircraft - more came later) Note the aircraft hiding under the row of acacia trees down the right side of runway 23. behind the tress the complex with the coloured shade sails is where we had the BBQ, accomodation and briefing area. Originally the airfield had a second runway extending ahead off the top of the picture, but this was converted in the 1960s into the infamous Raglan Golf course - subsequently returned to the local Iwi to be converted into what appears to be a gorse plantation.




Aircraft on Gibsons Beach - once again not the full compliment of aircraft, but illustrating the spectacular location.

Finally a couple more of my photos, especially for classic aircraft enthusiasts:


Beautiful chipmunk ZK-UAS not only made an immaculate sideslipping approach to land, but also got a great parking spot beside the harbour.


Alan Falconers HiMax wants to be a Cessna 180 when it grows up!