Just Plane Crazy

Canada's Adventure Couple

2011-03-27T14:06:00.000-07:00

We had Dave and Deb visit with Flying Kiwi Tours. They travel the world doing as much adventure stuff that the can get at, and write an excellent blog. What a life!!! Anyway, this one is about Deb flying with us, and we like it :)

The photo was taken by Sam, whilst standing on a local mountain top.. will write more about that in a day or two.

Editing!!!

2011-03-19T13:09:00.000-07:00

We've (actually, mostly Ali) learnt a bit about video editing in the last few years, so it's quite fun to see what other people do, like Steve Kamb's version of his flight. So we thought you might be interested to see another "take" by someone who flew with us recently. So check this out. Pity the dude in green couldn't get the timing right!!!!!

Who is Steve Kamb????

2011-03-06T17:45:00.000-08:00

ok, so this is not entirely a trick question!! because we are going to give you the answer!!!

He's a Nerd, travelling the world on a "Quest" !!!!!!!! and he flew with us last week! and THIS is worth checking out.. and for all those "Top Gun" fans, the video is also worth a look :)

And yes, the photo has absolutely NOTHING to do with Steve Kamb, but thought some of you might like to see some of those responsible for the creative genius behind this ever so interesting blog!!!!! :)

Me, OB, and Martin having just had lunch at this wonderful establishment on the West Coast. Look it up on Google map.. it's a great place for a lunch if you don't mind a 5 hour drive from Motueka.. or.. contact us, and we can fly you there through some amazing scenery, and land about 20 minutes walk from the Pub. No beer for the pilot! :(

2011-02-27T13:11:00.000-08:00

Being that the really crazy season is almost behind us, and knowing how much you all want to know how the "new" plane is going (and looking).. I've finally got motivated to change the BLOG!! about bloody time I can hear you (both) say!!!

So.. actually, UFX does not perfrom that much better than ELI, in fact, I think ELI climbs at least as fast.. and oddly, possibly even faster than UFX. For those not sure why I would have expected UFX to out perfrom ELI.. UFX has another 20 horse power and a high tech 3 blade moving propeller, that is meant to get some serious extra performance out of the available horse power. Other than on takeoff, and maybe going straight up, it really isn't noticeable. Of course it uses more fuel, and will be more expensive to maintain.. good old Murphy!

UFX is quieter however, and I even notice this from the cockpit, and the 3 blade prop makes for a mostly smoother ride, although while doing aerobatics (which is quite often) I can actually feel the blade changing pitch, as it is a little harsh at times..

So we are still getting used to UFX, and I have to admit that it does seem easier to operate, although exactly why, I haven't really figured out yet. I think that the lower noise level is most likely the biggest factor. So, what you all need to do is come and try it out for yourselves.. :)

Talented visitors.

2010-12-30T12:17:00.000-08:00

This picture was drawn/painted by a New Plymouth man passing through on holiday. He is clearly quite talented, and showed us a few of the drawings he had done in the area. The media is a type of water colour paintbrush/felt tip marker pen.

And now there are 2!!!!!!

2010-12-19T15:42:00.000-08:00

This is definitely way overdue, but if I regaled you with all the bs that we have had to wade through, you would understand. Anyhow, the "Next Pitts" is now finally here, and today was the first day of operations with her. (hmm.. "her"... ok.. that just occurred naturally, so it must be a "she")

So the pictures show a little bit of the process from container to office. Talk about drama.!

So UFX is slightly faster than ELI, and most definitely quicker to accelerate due to that 3 bladed German propeller. She also seems to roll a bit quicker, but oddly, is a little harder to loop. As for her pedigree, she was built by Aerotek (the Pitts people) in 1978 in Afton Wyoming and has flown a little over 1000hrs. Her engine is a brand new factory overhauled Lycoming AEIO 360 rated at 200hp at 2700rpm, spinning the MT 3 bladed variable pitch prop.

The best way for you to really understand all this, is to come and fly her (and possibly ELI) yourself.

MOL SPARKLE

2010-11-22T05:06:00.000-08:00

If you haven't already guessed, this is the ship finally bringing the container (yes, the nice grey one) with the "Next Pitts" into Lyttleton, and as I write (about 2:30am Tuesday 23rd Nov) the "Sparkel" is doing about 20knots, and heading out of Auckland. Wow, .. this whole process (getting the "Next Pitts" ) has taken so long, and been such an endless series of dramas, that at this stage, it all seems a bit surreal.

I guess that once the container makes it through all the paperwork, and is being opened up in Nelson, maybe it will turn out to be real, and not something happening somewhere else, like some news bulletin that you read, see or hear about. Watch this space!

Rainy day in Motueka

2010-11-19T20:55:00.000-08:00

Whew, Martin would have been proud, as he was always keen to get another flight done before the rain "really" sets in! and this morning was one of those days..

We pulled the Pitts Special ZK- ELI out twice, only to quickly push it back into the hangar as the rain came down again. But, the third time, we got airborne just as it decided to set in once more!!! Always adds an interesting dimension to flying an "open cockpit" style aircraft. You don't get wet once you are flying, but taxing around the airfield, you can get really wet, really quick! The upside is that any squashed bugs get pressure washed off again! handy that :)

So we had two very happy folk head off after doing a 20 minute flight each, and completeing rolls, loops, inverted flight, and Cuban 8's.

And the last word is feedback by Aaron from Ireland.

I had the time of my life! The great benefit over other extreme activities is that the thrill lasts a lot longer - you are in the sky and in control of the plane for a good 15 minutes, compared to an 8 second free fall with bungee and then it's all over. Allison and Vincent couldn't have been nicer and really made me feel at home. Top class - Lonely Planet, get on it! Thanks guys

Rhonda's Blog.. love it :)

2010-10-27T13:05:00.000-07:00

Some of the people we get to fly are also excellent writers, photographers etc.. and it just so happens that Rhonda, who flew in Jan this year, is a bit of a writer, and keeps a blog..

so.. CHECK THIS OUT

Snow!!!

2010-10-21T12:15:00.000-07:00

Had a quick trip down to the "shaky" city of Christchurch last weekend. We were there for just two nights, and oddly, never felt any earthquake. Within a few hours of our leaving a force 5 rattled everything and everyone, and apparently it felt more like a 7!!!! YUK.

On the drive down we had stopped a the Maruia Springs and met Akira and Takako who run a very lovely hotel/spa there with massage, hot pools (of course) excellent food and great coffee!

Akira has a very nice helicopter there that they both can fly, so we got to have a look inside his hangar, and even made it on to their daily blog.

The trip home included the snow which the photos feature. We had chains, and not much more than 1 hour prior to our getting to the Lewis Pass, we would have needed them!

A "U Fly Extreme" update

2010-10-20T14:39:00.000-07:00

So about now (Thursday 21 Oct) the container with the "Next Pitts" is likely approaching Asia on board the NYK TERRA. Bit of an uninspiring name for a ship! Probably had the name chosen by some dull paperpusher accountant type who was having another in a long line of bad days!!!

So, once the container has had a look around Singapore's port area for a couple of day,, its back on board, and off to Lyttleton, with an ETA of the 17th Nov. Of course, at that stage, the aforementioned dull accountant type, again gets involved (although not with any "naming rights") and we have a ton of paperwork to get through to have the Pitts transported to Nelson, decontainered, debugged, deseeded, reassembled, tested, recertified, renamed (yep.. we have a name :) and rehoused! The end of that process could well see us popping open a bottle of bubbly. Invites will be sent. !!!

I am aware that one of the photos is a duplicate!!!! but haven't figured out how to remove it!!! the other is of the rear cockpit with the handycam installed. nice job too :)

For some light relief ( we need some about now!!) check out this Cold Play video.. its really good! well at least it made us grin :)

We're leaving Kansas!!!

2010-09-17T14:04:00.001-07:00

Can't think who it was that coined the phrase "we have lift off" but that almost seems appropriate.. finally the "next Pitts" is actually in a container (isn't that a fantastic looking grey one???) and starting its long journey to Motueka. It won't be lonely on its trip as there is another aircraft of class, snuggled in there with it. an Aviat Husky, with tundra tyres no less!

For the less technically inclined, the nose and 3 bladed prop is the Pitts, the wing visible to its right belongs to the Husky. Not sure exactly what's in the big box, but I hope it doesn't move!

So here's to a safe and speedy trip.. we'll keep you posted as we get updates.

Christchurch.. Daughter #1 and Hubby

2010-09-08T18:59:00.000-07:00

Thought that I should share this... and open another link and watch this video as well.

Earth Quake september 4 2010

by Jess on Thursday, September 9, 2010 at 1:52pm

This is a recap of my experience inthe earthquake for friends and family outside of christchurch - everyone in christchurch has a similar story to tell - it isn't my story alone.

I was home alone when the earthquake struck saturday morning, as Saul was working a sleep over shift. I'm not sure wether it was the noise or the shaking that woke me to begin with, but I knew it was an earthquake instantly and rolled out of bed into the doorway. It got really big, really fast, and I quickly realised it wasn't a normal earthquake. I think I started shouting or crying or both - but the noise was overwhelming. I could see the walls bending around me, and I could hear things smashihng and falling. I was sure the house was going to come down around me and the fear was completely indescribable. I wasn't able to stand and ended up half sitting, bracing myself in the door frame. Although it was only 40 seconds, it was the longest most terrifying 40 seconds of my life. When the first shock ended, the first thing I did was turn on my light and get dressed. My head was running in another gear, and all I could think about was getting into clothes I could survive in if I had to run. I grabbed my wallet and phone and somehow got outside. Every alarm on the street was going. The first people I called were my parents - I wanted to ring saul but I had no money on my phone. It was 4.40 in the morning, but my parents still answered the phone, at first the didn't answer with anything - there was just silence (although now they tell me it as barely half a second and they couldn't get a word in edgewise) and I was crying into the phone, half stumbling through the words, they couldn't tell wether I was laughing or crying and it took a while for them to understand what I was actually saying. All I could say was 'Please tell me you felt that. Oh my God that was the biggest fricken earth quake I've ever felt in my life. what do I do."

I was imagining that there would have to be a tsunami - surely you can't possibly have an earthquake that big and not get one. and all I could think was how would I get away, I didn't have the car, how was I going to get on the roof. I could barely breathe for fear and then saul rang on the home line.

He was ok, also shaken, but he had to stay at work and so he would keep in touch on the phone. He told me to go inside and turn on the radio - I had already turned on the TV but it was still playing BBC. I was shaking so much I couldn't make the radio find the right function or station - and then the first aftershock hit. I managed to get to the doorway of the lounge and had to brace again, but this time, the power went out and I lost the connection with saul. I can honeslty say I have never felt that alone.

Needless to say I instantly rang my parents again, who by now were up and on the internet watching feeds from Twitter and geonet and were able to tell me what was happening as I sat outside in the dark.

I ended up going to my neighbours house and sitting in the dark with her on her couch.I fell into shock pretty quickly and she found me a Duvet to wrap up in, but the aftershocks kept coming, and each time was just a new burst of adrenalin fuelled fear as we waited to see if it would get any bigger.

from saul and my parents I began to get news of the damage to the city, and as the neighbour and I waited for the sun to rise and give us some light we began to realise just how big it had actually been. I sent saul and I love you text, as I wasn't sure when we would see eachother again - indeed there had just been a very real possibility that we might never see eachother again.

Luckily, Saul was eventualy able to come and get me and take me to where he was working. They had power so I was able to see the news. Somehow seeing all the pictures of the damage made it even worse, and I fell further into shock. Every after shock had me runing for the doors, and I was on the verge of tears all day, at one point I got so scared I thought I was about to be sick. I even said to saul - I'd rather just not be here than have to deal with fear like this.

But we managed to get through the day, the following night we were kept awake by aftershocks and the same thing the night after that - when three big ones hit. Luckily I had gone to work with saul for his sleepover this time - not wanting to be left home alone again. We were together, and we were lucky.

Somehow though, our house survived, and driving around our area, you wouldn't even think anything had happened. We managed to escape lightly from this earthquke - I have many friends who were not so lucky. One friend has lost her house - and I'm sure as I reconnect with people many more will have also.

I simply cannot believe no-one died, I thought my house was going to collapse and some houses have.

There hasn't been a big aftershock for nearly 24 hours now - we even slept through the 4.5 one last night. First full nights sleep we've had since saturday.

Everyone is still on edge here, schools are still closed till monday. We can drink tap water again in the city which is a blessing. The aftershocks keep happening, and with each one we are taken back to the first big one. But as I said, we got off lightly, and there are many people much worse of than us right now.

So for all of you outside of christchurch - what you are seeing on the news is not an overstatement. We were lucky, but we are still scared.

take care of yourself and your loved ones.

We're still not out of Kansas!!!

2010-08-19T21:42:00.000-07:00

Just like the "cheese" ads on TV, "All good things take time".. crikey, this has gotta be more than good then! The "Next Pitts" that is. It is finally being taken apart and readied for shipping. Still got paper work hassles, and a couple of modifications to work through, but at least the major hurdles with the engine are past history. Funny thing was though, as soon as the engine got sorted, the propellor started to malfunction! Of course on good old ZK-ELI, the prop is a solid piece of alloy, so not prone to have any malfunctions!

But hey, if we are to believe those who know better, then this next Pitts MUST be a safer plane than ELI! If you are familiar with an ad campaign run here in NZ by a brewery, they would add to that last statement (the one about the "better" plane) "YEAH RIGHT!!"

So we keep making progress, and ELI still works without a problem. Had a few flights today. Including flying with a recently retired "Naval Aviator".. Interesting pilot, had flown off a couple of well know carriers, in some pretty interesting planes. He loved the Pitts though.. Uses a LOT less sky than a military jet doing a loop!

Anway, watch this space for more progress reports, and various random "musings". Feel free to come and check us out, meet the plane, pilot and even go for a fly :)

Oh, and this link should take you to an interesting blog by a lady from New York who flew with us recently. Enjoy :)

we're back on air.. as such!

2010-07-15T19:16:00.000-07:00

I Know, I know.. shoulda updated this ages ago.. My only excuse is that we've been away for a few weeks break. Drove all around the southern South Island. The weather was great, crazy being that its winter.

Did a couple of aerobatic training flights with the guy who bought our good old Acrosport off us. It is a wonderful plane to fly, although a little more difficult to do aerobatics in than the Pitts.

Anyway, we spent a bit of time getting him comfortable with simple rolls and then the Cuban Eight.

If you don't know, a Cuban 8 is done by starting into a loop, and as you pass through inverted, at the top, you stop the aircraft pitching down past 45 degrees (so now you are inverted, diving at 45 degrees) then you roll upright, and pull up into another loop. From the ground, it should look like a figure 8 lying on its side. Flying it is quite simple, and very safe, as the aircraft is never pointing straight at the ground. You will often see these performed very low at airshows for that reason.

We ended up all the way down at Stewart Island, which was a highlight of the trip. We got the local charter operator at Invercargil to fly us over to a beach on the Islands western side. The weather was calm, blue sky. Really not what you expect that far South. We spent one night there in a hut, with a number of hours wandering around after dark, looking for a kiwi.. The bird kind! Saw one, which was quite a thrill, but it wasn't keen to stick around and let us watch it. We did, however, have a lovely meeting with one on another beach with a local guy who takes people out at night to a beach not far from the only settlement on the Island, just to to see kiwis. Definitely worth doing.

Another flight that we did was a little less planned. While in Franz Josef, one of the local pilots recognised us, and managed to organise a couple of seats on a Squirrel he was flying up and down the glacier, just for old times sake. Even got to land on a snow field and then be left on the glacier for a few minutes while he ferried a bunch of hikers back to the town. Would have been a long cold walk if he'd forgotten about us. The temperature just plummeted as the sun disappeared.

So we are back in the office now, and its time I went and did a bit of inverted spinning. This may sound crazy (check the name of the blog!!) but actually, its just something I have to do every now and then as even though I've done quite a bit of it, I am still not the most comfortable with it. Last time, I think I had Izzy, from the local paper come with me.. she laughed the whole time!!! watch this space.

Disorientation?? who me??

2010-06-02T00:43:00.000-07:00

Always interesting to go through letting people fly aerobatics for the first time.

Of course for most of the people who fly the Pitts Special with us, it is the first experience of flying a plane. We think this is a great thing.. first time flying a plane, AND its a Pitts Special. The stuff of dreams.

Anyway, one of the responses we see quite regularly, is that of being a bit disorientated.

What most people won't be aware of, is that the group of people who suffer more from this than any other, are those who have some flying experience. We have no real idea of why this might be, but it does seem to be the case.

Myself, I do remember clearly, the first time I ever rolled an aircraft, as it didn't go that well! At the time, I had a Private Pilots Licence and probably about 150 hrs flight time. (Not Much!!)

I was in a relatively high performance training aircraft with a very experienced aerobatic pilot, who let me take control and move the stick such that we should have done a nice smooth roll. What we did, however, was roll quickly inverted and then stop. I don't mean stop moving, or stop flying, we just stopped rolling, so we were inverted. I had just stopped making the aircraft roll, as I was so completely disorientated.

My memory is that the disorientation was instantaneous I had no idea, which way up I was, or what to do about it. My response, which in hindsight is completely typical of someone who has done some flying, was to pull on the joystick.

For those of you who understand flying, and aerobatics, this is NOT a good thing to do when one is in a plane, inverted, and disorientated. It IS however, exactly what I have since watched happen with almost every person I have flown aerobatics with, who has some flying experience, but no aerobatic training.

Again, often, those with no previous flying time, just go ahead and complete a really nice roll.

Some do let me know later that they found it quite disorientating, but they NEVER react the way a pilot does.

Anyway, so if you have never flown a plane, and would like to try, and maybe even see what looping and rolling is like, don't worry about being disorientated, as even though you might get a little unsure of which way is up, it doesn't really matter, as aircraft are designed to operate in 3 dimensions. If you are a pilot, and would like to get to grips with aerobatics, don't be surprised if you find that you have no idea what happened on the first aerobatic lesson, as that seems to be quite normal.

Of course, there is no general rule that applies to all, so maybe you will be in the small percentage of people who just end up having so much fun they can't help but laugh and yell as they tumble an aircraft around the sky!

Go try, we think you'll enjoy it regardless.

A New Experience!!

2010-05-08T16:20:00.000-07:00

Its good to experience new things.. and we are all meant to learn something each day. Clearly taking your first flight is one of those things, and adding aerobatics to that "first" seems to be almost on the side of being ridiculous

So this week, one of those first's for me was being interviewed on the national radio.. and doing it LIVE!! whew.. the pressure! anyway.. shortish blog.. but if you are interested to hear the interview, you can click here. Unless you want to hear the whole 1 hour programme, you can zip through to about 14.5 minutes, and you will hear the bit with me doing a lot of the talking!!! if you've flown with us, you will recognize the voice :) Enjoy. !

The photo is of the office with the first obvious sign that we aim to have a garden out the front! All good things take time. :))) and the "New Pitts" which is still in Kansas, and is yet to have an engine bolted on the front.. or at least.. one we are happy to use! again.. time, and good things!!!!!

an"I learnt about flying" moment

2010-04-27T15:08:00.000-07:00

When you are learning about flying there are one or two lessons that even if you have an understanding of the aerodynamics, still can be cause for some anxiety prior to the actual flight lesson. Stalling, is one of those. We aren't going to go into that here, but most people have the idea that "stalling" an aeroplane must be right up there on the list of "things not to do in an aeroplane". Oddly, it actually is very benign, and if demonstrated well, a passenger hardly knows it has happened.

Another that is cause for some preflight nerves is "spinning" and I still recall the first time I did this, being pretty wound up (no pun intended!) prior to the lesson. Very simply, the aeroplane is not flying as such, but more like a sycamore seed, it is just rotating in a very tight spiral and losing a lot of height very quickly. So not something you do intentionally at low altitude.

The specific flight and spin I am recalling was one in a lovely little biplane, much like the Pitts Special, called an Acrosport. The pictures are of the plane.. Love the colour scheme, and actually I still think it is a better looking aircraft than the Pitts. Anyhow, the flight was an instructional one where the student was actually another instructor who I was teaching aerobatics.

The loop is one of the basic manoeuvres that you need to be comfortable with, and is pretty straight forward as long as you do not enter it timidly, as this can result in being either at the top, or nearly there, but completely out of airspeed, which is a little exciting, as the aircraft will fall for a while before you can control it again. No real drama, but pretty hair raising the first time you do it!

When you pull up at the start, you are going quite fast, and with simple engines/propellors you have to reduce power as you dive to stop the engine overspeeding, and then add power as the aircraft slows down during the rapid climb. So it is a mistake to not add power, as the first problem (no airspeed) is likely to result. I don't mind when students do this, as it is important to be comfortable with the mistakes people make, and to let them do so, as otherwise they don't always understand from just talking about it.

However, what made this particular loop entry very memorable was that the pilot (I am just there to talk and do the odd demo) realised very late into the entry to add power, but did so when the aircraft was almost stopped, or at least going very slowly, and about to start falling. The result of going to full power at that precise moment was quite surprising, or at least it was at the time!

From the ground; we were later told; it looked very spectacular as the aircraft sort of tumbled all over the place for a few seconds in what seemed like some complex controlled manner. From inside the cockpit, however, I could not really tell what was happening other than it felt and looked pretty extreme, and from which I could not seem to get it to stop! Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and even though I still don't know exactly what it did, the unusual rotations in every direction were partly due to our efforts to get it to stop. Pilots are control freaks! We think we should be able to make the aircraft do whatever we want, and to stop doing so when we want as well!!!!.

After yelling "I have control" I spent a few seconds wrestling with the aircraft trying to stop it doing this awful movement, until I remembered that " if all hell brakes loose, LET GO" and so I did. WOW!!!! so it stopped tumbling, and now it was spinning and doing so upside down at a rotation speed like you would not believe. It was going around so fast, that I could not even tell which way it was spinning. Talk about exciting!!! ..... NOT! scary though.... as I knew how high we were when we started, and how fast we now must be falling! yikes.. or words to that effect!

At this point, an article on spinning that I had read recently came to mind (handy that!!) the main point of which was that: If spinning, and unsure as to how or why, the first thing to do is shut the throttle... OK.. do that.. whew.. the rotation speed dropped, and the nose went down, still spinning, and still inverted, and still no idea which way we were rotating, which in spin recovery is VERY IMPORTANT!!! ok.. next step.... LET GO.. already done that!!!! now.. third step.. push on the heaviest rudder pedal.. rrriiighttt!!!!! I HAVE NO IDEA WHICH IS HEAVIER!!!!! keep in mind we are losing height (I calculated later) at about 10 000 ft per minute, and we were only at about 4500ft when we started...... and the really useful bit at the end.. "push one rudder, count to three, if nothing happens, TRY THE OTHER ONE!!! again..WOW!!!.. the rotation stopped so fast it almost made me dizzy. (there is a good reason for the inverted spin stopping so quick, but we won't get into it here.)

So now, its a simple upside down, gentle dive, and all we need do is a simple half roll to upright, and now we can breath again.. I would guess that the whole thing took less than 15 seconds, but I remember looking at the altimeter and noting that as we pulled out of the dive and started climbing we had got below 1500 ft.. way tooo close for comfort..

Just to show how cool I was, we climbed back to 4500ft and did a few rolls and loops (properly now) before heading back to land..

After this, I spent a couple of hours on my own playing with inverted spinning.! I still don't like it, but it isn't scary anymore!

Communing with Nature!

2010-04-21T14:19:00.000-07:00

Okay, so if you are anti hunting, or extremely squeamish, there is at least one photo here that could upset you.. so you've been warned!

I'm not particularly keen on getting up really early, but once in awhile I set the alarm for not much after 4am (actually its Ali's alarm, and she wakes me.. sort of!!) and after a good breakfast of porridge, I head over the hill in our trusty little Suzuki 4WD and go way up a farm track to get there before the sun comes up.

Yesterday was one of those days.

The weather was just amazing,,,... no wind, clear sky, and even though I took extra clothing, I never needed it...

By the time I had parked, and got the gear ready, bullets loaded into my trusty ol Winchester 30 30 and small pack on my back, it was almost light enough to see where I was going. Now I have done a lot of walking huge distances to see if I can find a deer or pig, but I prefer, if at all possible to hunt from just about where I park. I don't mind walking for an hour, but shorter is better.

Not far from where I'd parked I came across some dark animal shapes ahead grazing on the side of the track, and as they hadn't seen me, I was all quite excited as they looked to be nice big pigs. Too dark to tell without a scope (the 30-30 doesn't have one) so I carefully got the little binoculars out, and got focussed on them. If it had been any darker, I may not have been able to positively identify them.. which would have meant I'd sit there until the light got better, however, with the 10 power binoculars, I could just make out that much to my disappointment, they were just a couple of black bullocks standing in a ditch, which had given them the right sorta look to be pigs! I could just imagine the farmers being a little titchy if I bowled over one of their beef herd!

So I carefully backed up, and climbed the hill above them as I didn't really want them to rush off in front of me making all sorts of noise and frightening the pigs I was hoping to see.

Well that was the plan! the crazy animals had some mates up the hill, who did see me and took off like out of control bulldozers through the scrub! closely followed by about a dozen more! bugger! talk about wrecking the peace and quiet!!!

OK.. plan B.. actually I didn't really have one.. so I waited about 5 minutes until the crashing had diminished into the distance, and headed slowly up the hill where I was relieved to see the herd had taken a different track, leaving me alone again to quietly thread my way through the scrub towards a clearing where I hoped a few pigs would be getting a feed in, before the sun came up, and they all went bush to get a bit of sleep.

Just so you don't get the wrong picture,, this clearing is only about 1km from where the Suzuki was, so even though it may sound like I was going a long way.. I wasn't, it's just that I did it slowly.. cos I need to be quiet and hear whats happening around me.. pigs can make a lot of noise when they are feeding, so it is handy hear them before they know you are there.

Didn't hear anything.. other than the bloody cows!!! so I didn't really expect to see anything either, .. and actually the deer was looking at me when I saw it.. darn.. and it was still not very light, so I thought I was looking at a dark coloured goat, looking at me... about 60 metres away.. this thought lasted about 3 seconds, and then I realised.. "shit.. a deer!!!!" and about a second later I had shattered the quiet .. or at least the Winchester did... unlucky for the deer, lucky for us.. as this meat is really excellent!

So the long (!!!not really) walk back to the car was a little tedious, as my recently empty pack now weighed a little over 45lbs..

At this stage it was only about 9am, and far too nice a day to head home so back at the Suzuki, I made a coffee, dumped the meat into a bin, changed rifles to a little BRNO .22 Hornet, and headed off to see if I could find a hare or two.. This rifle is very accurate, and has a twin trigger system, with an extremely fine hair trigger setup. and a scope.. so as long as they aren't moving, they are in big trouble! as was a goat that I came across!!!! the BRNO dropped it very cleanly, and so now I had some excellent meat for our French friends who make a really mean Morrocon goat curry... once that was in the pack, the sun was really warming up, so not much point looking for hares, .. they're all sleeping in some very hard to see spot.. except that one over there!!! and it wasn't moving... felt a little mean, as it actually may have been asleep.. anyway... even if it wasn't, I doubt it would have heard the shot. .. so,....quite a morning.. and only 3 shots! thats how we like it.. especially as the last time I stalked up to a pig (and it was a good sized one) I missed it from about 20 metres, and it didn't even know I was there!!! next time!

Just Plain Lazy Day Off

2010-04-03T17:46:00.000-07:00

So the airfield is closed because the b*****y drag race club are better at playing politics than the aircraft operators!! This means it is a day off for us. Now being that we are in the office soo much over the summer, we aren't that good at organising ourselves when we do get time off. However, as I'd managed to get half of Good Friday off as well, and even got motivated to get the old motorbike out of the shed for a ride, I'd ended up at Kaiteriteri (google it!!) talking with the boat operators and managed to organise a day out in the Abel Tasman National Park for FREE! I do like that word.. I guess however, that being as we're going to take them for a flight.. it is not exactly free.. feels like it though, when you turn up, and the ticket has $0 as the price.

Excellent ride up the coast with Sea Shuttle to Anchorage beach, where the 3 of us (Martin was having a day off scrub cuttint!!) got dropped off, and took the long (20min) walk over the huge (not really) hill to Te Pukatea bay.. refer photos.. this bay is what I refer to as the "designers beach" as it is the MOST spectacular symmetrical crescent shaped beach in the whole of the Abel Tasman.. so we found a place among the crowd (all of 15 people!!) sat there, opened our bottle of Siefreids Gewurztraminer, and had a picnic with crackers, cheese, ham, bread rolls, and jelly jet planes (the last supplied by Martin).. we've lived here for almost 15 years, and that was the first time we'd been to that beach.. we were not dissappointed... it really is beautiful and even the photos will not do it justice... should have taken more! next time :)

Walked off the lunch over the hill back to Anchorage where we met Tim who was the skipper of the lovely little catamaran from Abel Tasman Sailing Adventures... I've not done much sailing at all, so he may well have got sick of me asking questions about what was going on.. but it was a most enjoyable 3 hour trip back to Kaiteriteri. We had to motor out to pick up some wind, but we ended up going about 15knots and it was great fun... Amazing to be in 10 to 15 knots wind and then with almost no warning sail out of it into almost dead calm! I see these wind lines on the water all the time from 4 or 5000ft, but to be on the water and experience it was really interesting. The little cat has quite a bit of sail, and Tim assured me it was capable of going quite a bit faster, but there were about a dozen or so people of board, and apparently that does slow it down some. So having done it, we are now looking forward to spending more time especially at Te Pukatea bay.. and a big thanks to the Sea Shuttle and Abel Tasman Sailing Adventures.

oh.. and we noticed that there was no sign of that pesky little biplane doing aerobatics overhead!!!!

Quick trip North and back

2010-03-22T16:41:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I guess we all wonder why we don't go and get another job.. yep, even happens to us.. then you have a day like last Thursday.. I had to help some friends get a light plane to Auckland in time for the start of an Around New Zealand Flying Safari.. none of them had flown there before, so we all loaded into the 4 seat Cessna, and by 8:50am, we were heading straight across the South Taranaki Bight (thats a bit of the Tasman Sea) direct from Motueka to New Plymouth on the West coast of the North Island... its a flight I do a few times a year to visit family, and is really easy.. Just point North, and generally by about 3000ft you can see Mt Egmont (click here for a google map of a spot we flew over, and sent a message to the base to show our position) almost dead ahead. If not, I have at times had to turn East, and head for the Wellington coastline, but that takes almost double the time, so I prefer not to. Anyway.. as you can see from the photos, Egmont was completely clear, and a little over 1 hour later, we were having a coffeee in the airport cafe in NP. Filled up the fuel tanks, and then off up the stunning coast North of Taranaki under a cloudless blue sky. Makes navigatiing really easy.. Just keep New Zealand on your right, and Auckland will arrive in about 1 hour. Zipped over the lovely little town of Raglan on the way to show the crew where the airfield was. Brilliant spot, as there is a campground over the fence from the little grass airstrip, and a 5 minute walk in to the excellent little township.

Approaching Auckland, we got all serious about not busting into some over anxious air traffic controllers bit of controlled airspace, and then negotiated the bit of air traffic around the Ardmore airfield to a nice landing in time for lunch. Beats the hell out of driving.. (unless the weather is yuk, then I'd prefer to be in a nice warm car!) Once the plane was all tied down, they dropped me at the Auckland airport, and by 6pm, I was back in Nelson . sure beats working for a living.. well.. sometimes! now if only there weren't so many desk bound idiots who live for nothing more than making an aviators life complicated!

The People We Fly

2010-03-03T11:59:00.000-08:00

Over the years of operating ZK ELI and letting people fly her, there are always going to be some who for one reason or another we remember. Some funny, some not quite so, others because they told us how scared they were of flying and one or two because they flew some well known high performance aircraft with one airforce or another. One lady I remember well because as we taxied out she told me how scared she was, and that the only reason she was doing this was that all the family had, and were pressuring her to have a go. I distinctly recall that as we taxied in, she was quite overcome with the excitement of the flight, and the fact that she'd been actually flying the plane, and her comment along the lines of "this has completely changed my mind about flying".

Another younger woman we ALL remember due to the fact that she is one of only two people who ahve ever made any real mess in the cockpit at all. The video is quite dramatic, with the cockpit screen in front of her face just going instantly opaque!!! you get the picture! that wrecked my day!

Yesterday, we had the pleasure of taking Marty Dickerson for a short flight. Marty is 83, from the USA, and sort of motorcycle royalty. Last year on the Bonniville Salt Flats, he went over 150mph on a Vincent engine powered motorbike! We only do that in the Pitts when we go downhill a bit!

A week or so back we flew Diane Covington who is a freelance journalist from the USA. We'll remember her becuase of the coverage we got thanks to her. You can check out her radio interview here... and her blog is a great read complete with video.. excellent!! :))

Murphy's Law and Connecting with Mother Earth

2010-02-12T20:00:00.000-08:00

Ok.. so we've been a little distracted with having a day or two off, organising some routine maintenance and then Murphy got involved!!

Firstly; day off. Actually I managed to get two nights in the mountains nearby at a wonderful old wooden hut. It was built, not that long ago, by the family who own the farm. They kindly let me use it once in awhile, and it is a great place to escape all the normal hassles that go with running a business. I get to drive our little Suzuki 4 wheel drive over the farm track to within about a half hour walk from the hut. Luxury. This is helpful if you (like me) decide that it might be fun to have a rifle and even a spotlight and battery.. just in case! Along with that, all you need is some food, extra clothes, sleeping bag and maybe a gas cooker. The hut has everything else. Even had some surprise company this time, in the form a rat, that kept me awake a bit as I tried to evict it! Also had a family of our little owls outside each night. I got to watch them from the bath! Two very recently fledged young with Mum and Dad frantically trying to keep up with their feeding demands. Interesting to watch, as they let you get very close, seemingly quite unafraid. Always amazing to have a bird fly within arms length of you and not be able to hear it moving the air around, it seems quite impossible. I did manage to stalk up to within probably 15 meters of a nice sized wild pig, and thats when Murphy got involved (the first time!) and I clean missed it! darn! still, I'm guessing the pig was quite pleased :)

So then the other event was a fluctuating oil pressure while getting ready to fly in the Pitts. This is VERY disconcerting, as although there are lots of instruments in a little plane, there are really only one or two that I just cannot happily fly without, and of course oil pressure is one of those. Long story (and it really was) short, after expending quite some time and $$$ trying to get to the bottom of the fault, it came down to Mother Earth again!!!! For those of you unfamiliar with electrical systems, (and the oil pressure gauge is electric) it is CRITICAL to have really good electrical earthing. Never have I had an earthing fault manifest in such a manner. WHEW!!! at least we got it, and of course never had a real problem with oil pressure, just a bad indication!!! So quite a week, and thankfully ended with a happy outcome, and the oil pressure is once again doing exactly what it should.. Makes for one happy pilot person!

writers block!!

2010-01-30T21:10:00.000-08:00

actually we aren't really suffering from "writers block" its just that we have had a pretty busy week and have been a little slow to get a "blog" written.. I bet that there are hundreds of you out there who are relieved to see we're back "on!"

We did one of those "roundtoit" things today,(round of appluase) that all of us have and hardly anyone ever does anything about!.. it was to paint two white lines on the concrete where we push the Pitts in and out of the shed (its tooo small to call a hangar,,, the shed that is!) and as there is only about 300mm clearance on each side, we have to be pretty careful. Quite some time ago, (after Ali let her side hit the wall!!!! bugger) we came to the conclusion that lines on the concrete would be a good idea.. so.. today, we got it done.. they look good too! if anyone wants us to add a photo.. send us a comment and we'll oblige.. they really do look the part, we even used masking tape and a tape measure to get them straight!

On the flying front.. we've completed the annual "duck count" for the local fish and game people.. This involves quite a bit of low flying around all sorts of farm ponds, and some lakes all the way South to Springs Junction, and includes Lake Matiri, just North of Murchison.. Google Earth those, and you'll get the idea.. took about 3.8 hrs flying, and is quite physical, add a hot day, and we were well and truly ready to get out of the plane when we got back. We use the Beechcraft 4 seater for this.. NOT the Pitts. actually, doing some of it in the Pitts would be fun... anyone for inverted low level duck counting??? the two phots are just of the view from where I'm typing away on the computer! my office outlook could be worse.. :)

The Next Pitts!!

2010-01-24T13:18:00.000-08:00

the Next Pitts... things are moving along.. and one day we will likely reveal ALL the background as to why we are changing aircraft. Rest assured, it has absolutely NOTHING to do with the condition of the one we operate now, and in fact, if it weren't for "forces" beyond our control, we would not be going through this lengthy and expensive process.. anyway.. here's some photo's of the "progress". Thats a Lycoming AEIO 360 fresh from overhaul by Performance Engines. They have balanced it to well beyond the factory spec, and the intake's have been polished and its a great colour! I know, thats kinda silly,.. but I do like a good looking engine! will be interesting to experience how it performs. The horse power output is quite a bit more than our current one, and the empty weight is almost the same. Also, this Pitts has a latest generation propellor... should be interesting!

Weddings... one down! 3 to go! possibly!!!!

2010-01-18T17:14:00.000-08:00

Well that went ok, and we've insisted on a no return policy!!! hmmm.. was a really well organised day, and everyone had a great time.. I even managed to get through my "only just wrote it" speech... The Bride was decidedly composed and looked wonderful, and the groom gave a "hardly a dry eye in the place" speech.. who'd have thought! so I can recommend an excellent wedding planner if you or someone you know needs one! On the flying front, we've had quite a few people come and try their hand at stunt plane flying, and have some excellent video evidence to prove it. In fact I think we are about to upload our 100th video to Facebook and Youtube. On two flights a couple of days ago, we even had the rare event of a very thin layer of cloud that from the ground was not really visible. Airborne and climbing past it we actually could leave a trail through it, so of course we had to try and do that a few times, as it looks amazing, and tried to get it on video.. sadly, it didn't show up.. was pretty cool from the air. such is my office! oh.. and the engine for the "Next Pitts" is finally heading back from San Diego to Kansas.. hope it doesn't get tooo cold!

Wedding????

2010-01-14T12:17:00.000-08:00

okay, so weddings don't have anything (or not that I can figure) to do with flying a stunt plane!!! however, if you wanted to fly our stunt plane on the 16th of Jan, you would likely have to get permission from our oldest daughter who IS getting married that day, and who has told me (and others) that under no circumstances am I allowed to fly that day!!! what the hell??!!! I mean what is she implying?? from a safety point of view it will be way more hazardous to drive over to Nelson for the wedding than it would be to go and do some nice social aerobatics around the sky in the Pitts .. AND.. she (the daughter.. not the Pitts) has never even been up with me in the Pitts.. actually on that count alone, I probably have grounds to boycott the whole afffair! that, however would in all probability result in myself sleeping on the couch for some months, and a daughter divorce! hmmm the latter I could probably handle!

Todays picture is one we got while doing a shoot along the Abel Tasman National Park.. nice one.. :) will report back as to how the wedding speech, (and I guess the wedding!) went..

Progress!

2010-01-09T14:14:00.000-08:00

Funny to look back what seems a long time, but actually we have only been in the new building since about May 2009.. the photos show the foundation concrete slab being poured, and then Ali hard at work in the far corner of that concrete slab! that's got to be progress, and even the video editing has gone a long way from where we started.. that was with Elly doing the editing, but she was fired for being way toooo slow to produce them (sounds bad, but she's youngest daughter!!) so Ali has been producing them and now tells me that she can understand everything I'm saying on the video at double speed.. you know.. sounds like the cartoon chipmunks talking to eachother!!!! crikey.. I've tried and it doesn't make sense to me! (listening.. that is, not speaking!)

Then we are slowly getting the NEXT Pitts organised.. the holiday season has of course slowed things down, but we are still on track to have it operational by April.. should be interesting.. and it's the feature of the 3rd phot.. :)

2010 is here

2010-01-01T14:29:00.000-08:00

A quiet start to the new year... and then 2nd Jan.. rain! oh well.. we still live in wonderful place.. and the weather looks good for the next weekend. New Years eve we spent with some friends at the "French Quarter" of motueka,, set off some timex smoke flares, eat some locally gathered oysters drank some wine, cheese and bread, chocolate etc.. lovely evening with a full moon rising over the estuary .. should be a photo here somewhere.

Had an excellent few flights as well on the 31st.. with the last being a Brit (Andy) who'd run in to and Irish guy (Ross) in Peru and been told (by Ross) that when he got to NZ he MUST come and fly with us.. how cool is that!?? Andy was a great student as well, and completed pretty much every aerobatic manouver available other than tumbling or the hammerhead turn.. a bit of a

natural really. and the photo with the mountain, is taken just crossing the coast south of Mt Egmont in the Norht Island on a trip to see my folks in New Plymouth.. beats walking.. and driving!

here comes 2010!!!

2009-12-27T13:33:00.000-08:00

so there goes another Christmas.. first time in years we've not done any flights.. when we were busy flying people in and out of the Abel Tasman (and the lodge was going well) we often had to fly someone there on 25th Dec.. but NOT THIS YEAR!!! yipppeeee.. well sort of! mixed emotions there.

photo.. not Pitts Special wheel marks.. nice beach.. never anyone on it.. and a great runway.. about 30 minutes flight from here..

anywhooo.. had some crazy flights since Christmas with some excellent youtube video action as a result.. watch out for "Mandy" who is VERY vocal..., and we even had time to see "Avatar" in 3D.. cheapskate Nelson cinema made us pay $3 each for the glasses after selling us tickets to a 3D movie!!!!!.. BOOOOOOO!!!! big thumbs down to them :( great movie though.. wonder how long it will be before the helicopter type flying machines will not just be fictional!

and heres a great clip for the aviation minded people..

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=nKU0uQki5Dc

Christmas Eve

2009-12-23T18:11:00.001-08:00

The silly season is well and truly upon us. Motueka township is madness with everyone arriving for a Christmas in the sun. We're staying well clear of it and sending our daughters into town to do the grocery shopping for us. Wonderful. I knew they'd be useful for something one day. The airfield, by comparison, is a haven of serenity now that the Aviation College is on it's 4 week summer holiday. No students flying circuits, no helicopters buzzing around, Just lots of happy people flying the Pitts , or skydiving, or just chilling out. It's a great place for breakfast at 6am!! Come and join us.. the kettle's always on

It must be Christmas.. the strawberries are ready... Have a great one.

holy smoke we are getting good

2009-12-18T20:08:00.000-08:00

ok.. so we are blowing our own trumpet.. but we like this layout.. and clearly we have figured out how to change things, and we aren't even teenagers! or even computer geeks. not only that, but the feedback that is appearing on the rankers website is pretty impressive. so we think EVERYONE should have a go at this.. it really is crazy fun to roll and loop a plane, especially over such stunning scenery, and with an open cockpit.

Back to earth.. no flights today, we're in that "just before Christmas" quiet time.. happens every year, and we always wonder if anyone will ever fly again. this year, we're almost used to it, only took something like 10 years to learn that we should expect it.. so we've been getting adventurous with the computer. and as a consequence, we've only "locked" it up once in the process. not bad for people who were born before the Beatles were big.

Uploaded a couple more video clips to youtube and to our facebook page, and Ali changed a whole heap of stuff on our Abel Tasman Air site as well. clealry one of those days when we get to catch up on housework . to check out a couple of latest clips.. and then there was Charles for his 14th Birthday..

both of them are worth a few minutes to watch. Charles was really not happy about going straight down, and his response was quite fun. for a 14 yr old he did really well, and got quite confident rolling the plane...and thats him in the photo and the "G" meter after his flight.

is there anybody out there?????

2009-12-14T17:19:00.001-08:00

ok.. so it seems likely that I write this stuff just for fun, and that I may be the only one who reads it.... hmmmm or maybe OB and Martin are "out there" but all on their own!!! hi guys,, Merry Christmas.. but wait, we are not "doing" Christmas this year, we'e decided to be "grinchy".. maybe we(see photo if you don't know who "we" is!!) will strap our selves into the Pitts, fire up the Lycoming (photo of included, but thats of the "new" one still in Kansas)

and go and wave the flag over all the holidaying folks around the area. Better in the air than on a crowded beach.. of course if we manage that, it will be only the 3rd (yep, just 1 more than 2) flights in the Pitts Ali has EVER done.. probably letting a cat out of bag with that.. as some will know they get quite a briefing from her about the flight, and how it will go, and what its like.. but actually a lot of what Ali tells you before your flight is based on what she sees in the video as she performs her editing magic. .. pretty sure she has experienced about 3 rolls and possibly a loop!.. speaking of loops... watch out for a cool video of Lisa from the www.tsbookshop.co.nz going around the sky... hehehe.. we possibly will be doing a "contra" deal with her for the flight.. hmmmmmm! ok.. enough of that.. half price day at the video shop, so we are going to go home early and watch a "latest release".. oh.. and check out Youtube for some of our "recent releases" as there a quite a number.. search for Pitts Special, Abel Tasman National PArk, New Zealand.. and don't forget to give them a rating.. ta.. oh.. and Merry Christmas!!!

15 Sleeps to Christmas!! Bar Humbug!

2009-12-09T12:49:00.000-08:00

If you happen to be one of the people who should be getting a Christmas card from us, and it hasn't arrived, don't feel bad, cos we haven't sent any!!! I know, thats terrible, but at least its consistent!

The weather however has been a little less consistent, but luckily we have almost always managed to get a break sufficient to get any flights in for people who have turned up.

Had a really nice flight up through a broken cloudscape a couple of days ago. Not long after airborne we were approaching the cloudbase which was broken, so we weaved around a little to avoid it, still climbibg, and as we crossed seaward of the coast, popped out into almost completely clear sky... not a breath of wind, so completely smooth, and the sea was almost a mirror... with the cloud giving a wonderful contrast to the blue sky and all of it reflecting in the sea. wow!!

I do like my office .. most days.. the opposite was a VERY bumpy flight a week or two back which luckily was not aerobatic, .. took until we past through 6500ft before we got out of the turbulence, the view was great, Mt Egmont visible about 180kms away, Farewell Spit with the tide out, all the Kahurangi mountains, the Kaikoura ranges.. and of course the beaches of the Abe Tasman looking like they are "backlit" they glow so brightly... so other than getting a bit thrown around, it was still better than working in the gas industry (another life!)

To see a recent flight.. check this out...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzm6NhHKql0&feature=related

Holy Smoke its December!!!!

2009-12-04T15:32:00.000-08:00

So how is it that time is somehow adjusted that without noticing, it is December again.. seems like that happened last only about 3 months ago. Anywho (as a good friend "Bob" says) here we are heading into another summer (Southern Hemisphere rules!) and Ali is already getting a small backlog of videos to edit and send out as DVD records of people flying the Pitts Special. It really is fun letting people fly this plane. Despite some people saying that they don't think the Pitts makes a good ab initio trainer, we've plenty of evidence that actually, as long as you accept the performance considerations, it is fine as a trainer, and certainly fantastic as an aircraft to experience for the first time, actual "hands on" flying for yourself. Had a really fun flight with Mira from Germany a couple of days ago.. thats her in the photo beside the plane. She had a real ball, and was so excited she was bouncing up and down i the seat as she flew. Considering you are strapped in REALLY tight, that shows reall effort!! 10 out of 10. Then the crazy South American guys.. Ari and Alex.. the photo is obvious as to which one they are in! Ari flew first and was really great, and just to really finish the flight with style, delivered his "only too recent lunch" back in to the bag!!! Not such a good idea to have a BIG lunch of noodles just minutes before doing some aerobatics, unless you are used to it! Clearly, Ari wasn't.. Still had a great time, and the video is excellent too!

Progressing slowly on the "New Pitts" of course it is still in Kansas, but it seems the engine might be soon heading back from Performance Engines in San Diego, so maybe by mid January, it could be heading for NZ in a container. Watch this space!

Sunday 29th Nov.. Sunshine and a gentle breeze

2009-11-28T17:41:00.000-08:00

loud applause, mexican wave, singing etc.. cos the wind has stopped and today was LOVELY.. had Dave come in for his birthday flight.. a half hour of zipping around in the Pitts. Great fun, and stunnningly lovely scenery as well as some gentle aerobatics. nice way to celebrate a birthday. This afternoon, Harmony Aquarian came up and we did a bit of videoing and aerobatics as well so Harmony can go and play with his editing programme to put a bit of music to his flight. The colours over the Marahua area have to be seen to appreciate. Looks artificial as it is SO bright.

check out our facebook page at

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pilot-a-Stunt-Plane-U-Fly-Extreme/341133705556

Piloting a Stunt Plane video clips

2009-11-27T17:27:00.000-08:00

A couple of recent photos, .. some of the Connections 27th Nov crew.. Laura, Scott and Xuan and the other photo is Mike from the Kaiteriteri Lodge who came in for a flight on his day off. Jackie, (partner) was lying on Breaker bay beach at Kaiteriteri, so Mike insisted on doing aerobatics just off the beach so his lady could watch!! :) bet she was impressed!

We are working on having a few more video clips of people flying the Pitts Special with us, and today we are posting Ivor from the UK who was really LOUD during his flight, and the full length DVD is a good watch! Its in the mail back to his UK address, and the little clip gives an example of the things people get to do who have never flown a plane before. For a first flying lesson, we think its pretty hard to beat. If some independent feedback is of interest, have a look at

http://www.rankers.co.nz/experiences/1836-U_Fly_Extreme_Pilot_a_Stunt_Plane

and of course we are going to be itroducing a new model of the Pitts later this season. We are looking for ideas on a three letter registration mark. We would have loved to get OMG or WOW or UFL or FLP but none of them are available in the NZ Civi Avaition scheme.. so any bright ideas are welcome.. if you come up with the winner, we'll give you a free flight.. :)

Our facebook page is up and running now, and there are a lot more video clips and photos of people who ahve flown with us recently. check out..

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pilot-a-Stunt-Plane-U-Fly-Extreme/341133705556?ref=ts

Germans, Aussies, Brits, Canadian and Irish!!!

2009-11-26T14:47:00.000-08:00

Busy few Days, and had to cancel flying yesterday due to crazy high wind.. very unusual for Motueka.. so we went to Nelson, and saw a movie.. 2012.. great fun, and seriously unbelieveable, especially some of th flying scenes, but quite easy to watch, and provided some mindless entertainment!! So we had Joanne from Ireland who didn't swear on video then Rolf from Germany who completed all sorts of manouvers, Ivor and Natalie from the UK, Chi from Calgary, and Ryan from Australia. Always interesting to see that with very little instruction at all, people with no previous flying experience can quite capably fly the Pitts Special through rolls, loops, 4 point rolls and even combinations like a Cuban Eight. Excellent fun and delighted people.

Today, thank heavens, the wind has stopped, and the flying is smooth. Lots of smoke from a pine forest south of here that caught fire some time yesterday.. looks like its under control now, would have been hell if the wind hadn't stopped.. anyway.. we've 3 more people flying this afternoon, so gotta go get ready..

Who has been Piloting the Stunt Plane ??

2009-11-22T19:33:00.000-08:00

Had a few people through in the last week, so we've added a few photos, and we are working on a facebook page as well which we are learning about as we go. So far we've managed to put some photos on to it, and even a short clip of video. Took way too long to upload, so the next one will be lower quality, and shorter. Its a beautiful day here now, late afternoon, and it seems that maybe we aren't flyiong any more for today.. so check out the photos, and see if you can find us on Facebook.

The photos from the top down are (I've yet to learn how to label the photos!!!) Simon and Victoria,, James,, David..with the family on his birthday,, then Andy, Katie and Asbjorn (Ossy!!) and the bottom shot is David, who really had a ball, and just wanted to keep flying!!

Pilot a Stunt Plane with U FLY EXTREME

2009-11-15T12:26:00.001-08:00

OK.. so this is the first day of the Pilot a Stunt Plane, with U FLY EXTREME.. blog. can't promise it will be the most professional blog out there.. but its OURS, so be nice, and give us time to add stuff, and photos, video etc.