Cecil Peak - Fly in

Saturday was another brilliant day for flying. And Alexandra was a refuelling stop for the Otago Aero Club’s Fly in to Cecil Peak. By 10.00am there were seven aircraft parked outside the terminal building.

Most of the planes were in the Microlight, or the Light Sports Aircraft (LSA) catalogue. It’s great to see the enthusiasm shown by their pilots. This type of aircraft is becoming extremely popular in New Zealand. They are new and affordable, have a good safety record, low on maintenance, and a lot of fun to fly.

Among the line up was ZK-WET, owned by Craig Buist. This is a Aerodyne Sea Rey, float plane. It has made several flights into Central and was on display recently at the Wanaka Airshow.

Another plane that caught my attention was ZK-ETC. It was an all metal low wing LSA aircraft produced by Alpi Aviation. Called a Pioneer 200, it was owned by Geoff Laing. There was also a couple of Rans, a S-6S owned by Corran Munro, and a S-20 Raven. All the aircraft were very tidy and well maintained.

After a short break and a chat, the pilots were given a final briefing on the transit through the Queenstown airspace and some landing instructions for the Cecil Peak strip.

Thanks to Nigel for opening up the club room and making our visitors feel welcome.

ZK-WET  Progressive Aerodyne Sea Rey

A Light Sports Aircraft (LSA) by Alpi Aviation - Pioneer 200

One of three RANS 6

Final Briefing before flying through QN airspace

Building Progress

Great to see the number of hangars being completed, or well under construction. The transformation over the last two years is enormous. It’s also great to see that ERW is being kept busy. Our Scholarship winners have now started their flight training. It would be great if we could get them integrated into our club, perhaps through the Young Eagles programme. Another idea may be for pilots to adopt a student and to share our interest by taking them with us on some flights. If you have any thoughts on this, let Nick or myself know.

New Hangar under Construction