The Northern Aviators Club introduced a new flyout event this flying season by having a BYO picnic at Kaikohe yesterday. I had prepped my Jodel D9 Honey Bebe ZK-KMM during the week and I planned to fly to Kaikohe with a fuel stop at Dargaville.
When I got to the airfield on Saturday morning, around 7 45 it was foggy. But it cleared and I was able to
take off around 8.50am and head up the Kaipara for Dargaville.
All looked good at first but as I flew up the inner channel past Tinopai
I was confronted by a wall of fog and low cloud. However there was a gap out to the West
through which I flew through to get out into the main harbour, but I was met
with another wall of fog and low cloud where the Northern Wairoa River flows
into the Kaipara. However there was
another gap out to the West which I flew through out to the coast. This was a bit better but still very murky up
ahead and I was not confident of being able to find my way to Dargaville from
the coast. I also had to consider my
fuel situation, so I made the decision to return to Kaipara Flats. I am sure I made the right decision for me
although from the radio other pilots were making their way North (but by then
it was more than an hour later than I had encountered the fog and low cloud). I eventually landed back at Kaipara Flats at
10,20am, one and a half hours after I left!
Then a very neat thing happened. Arjen Visser was just starting his Sling 4 TSi ZK-DBV2 as I landed, to fly to Kaikohe with Anne Helliwell for the picnic. He taxied across to the Aero Club and asked if I would like a ride with him in the back of the Sling! I surely would!
So I quickly put Honey Bebe back in the hangar and got my BYO picnic and
hopped the back of the lovely Sling and we flew to Kaikohe over the clouds and
in some style! It only took around 40
minutes to get there.
This is the way to travel! Over
the top of the clouds at 7,500 feet and around 120 knots!When we arrived there were maybe a dozen aircraft on the ground and over
the next little while quite a few more arrived.
Maurice Honey and his wife had graciously opened up the airfield gate
and what used to be the old terminal building (when Kaikohe had a NAC DC 3
service up to 1970), and provided water for tea and coffee, and Steve Moor had
pushed the aircraft out of his hangar so picnics could be held in the shade as
it was pretty hot!
Kaikohe Aerodrome has an interesting history as it was built by US Marines in 1942 as a heavy bomber base but it was never used as such. That is why it has such a long and wide main grass runway (1540 metres X 140 metres) which makes it the largest grass airstrip in the Southern Hemisphere.
Looking Down on Kaikohe Aerodrome – the old terminal building is at the end of the long drive with the hangar where we had our picnics is just to the right.
