Monday 29 April 2019

At Last! Some Aircraft at Ruawai 27-4-2019

I have driven past Ruawai airfield many times on my way to and from Dargaville, but it has invariably been dead quiet.  Ruawai is the base for the Otamatea Aero Club and there are a couple of aircraft in their hangar, but I have never seen them out in the daylight.

However on Saturday a couple of aircraft were there, after having been at the Dargaville Saturday lunch and then having done some beach landings up the coast.

Dave Banks' Maule Lunar Rocket ZK-SLS is Ardmore based and Graham Reynolds' Cessna 185F ZK-EFB is based at North Shore.  They reckoned that they would have do do a bit of cleaning when they got home.  The Otamatea Aero Club hangar and clubrooms are in the background.

Graham told me his aircraft arrived in New Zealand as an Ag Carryall model with spray bars, but it was only used in this configuration for demonstration hours.  It also has a STOL kit with cuffs on the leading edges of the wings and both aircraft have vortex generators.  A couple of well utilised aircraft.

Then they were off, using the very narrow crushed limestone strip.

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