I went up to Paul Hopper's airstrip at Silverdale this morning to check out the aircraft that were participating in the Northland Microlight Club's Poker Run for 2014 that was organised by Paul and Rex Swenson. For this event, cards in sealed envelopes are placed at 7 airstrips in the area, and the teams have to land at each airstrip, collect a card and then onto the next airstrip and repeat the process. At the end you have 7 cards with which to make a poker hand and the winner takes all the entry money.
This year 8 aircraft competed on a lovely day for flying, as can be seen in the above view of Paul Hoppers airstrip prior to take off.
Nooky Robinson and Grant Corlett came from Thames in Nooky's Technam P 2002 Sierra RG ZK-SJS.
TL 3000 Sirius ZK-SPR arrived from nearby North Shore Airfield crewed by Phil Southerden and Bruce Reynolds. Phil is one of the agents for TL Aircraft and he told me that ZK-SPR will be departing for Australia soon, and also that they will be bringing in a TL 2000 Sting and another TL 3000 Sirius later in the year.
Harvey Lockie flew his Dyn Aero MCR-01 Club ZK-WIK in from Parakai. It has a new 3 bladed constant speed propellor fitted which Harvey said he was very pleased with, and that it can enable rapid descents when in fine pitch. Although I only went up to photo the planes, Harvey had a spare seat and would I like to fly along? Of course that was a no brainer so soon we were off!
Rex Swenson flew in in his Alpi Pioneer 300 ZK-LPX with Brian Millett as co-pilot.
And Bruce Legg and John Isott competed in the Parakai Flying School's Technam P 92 Echo ZK-CDL.
The first leg was from Silverdale to Parakai which should have been a very quick hop but we were delayed by parachutists dropping onto the airfield. But this gave me great views of the Kaipara Harbour. The above view is from the Southern end of the harbour and you can see the Kaipara River flowing to the harbour just behind the wing. Way in the distance you can just about see our final destination of Dargaville.
Parachuting is the lifeblood of Parakai Airfield. The resident XL 750 was ZK-SDF of Skydive Auckland, the same aircraft I posted about from Taupo earlier in March.
Rex Swenson's airstrip at Makarau was our next destination. As we were the first aircraft to arrive it was quite difficult to find, but Harvey did a good job. I bet the designers of the Dyn Aero MCR-01 would not have envisioned their aircraft operating on such a rural strip!
Above, Brian Leach and crew member Sandy Eglinton arrive in Brian's Avid Flyer ZK-PCL.
Followed by Paul Hopper with Grant Corlett in Pauls Climate Climate 100 ZK-EZY, which is a modified Foxcon Terrier.
Next it was on to Omaha where you can see there are several temporary hangars. However I didn't get a chance to see what was in them.
After a quick turnaround at Omaha we followed Willie and Lorraine Morton on takeoff, and soon overhauled them. They had flown their Aeroprakt A 22 ZK-VAW down from Kaikohe.
Next was Springhill where this Quad City Challenger II ZK-TPL is based. It was nicely positioned for a photo. There were also some quite impressive model aircraft at Springhill.
Another quick turnaround and on over the Kirikiri Inlet of the Kaipara Harbour to Ruawai - the scenery around here is lovely.
Harvey pushes us back at Ruawai.
And then a final short hop up the main highway to Dargaville where there were lots of other sport aircraft in attendance. The attraction was the Saturday lunch that is put on by the Dargaville Aero Club on the last Saturday of every month. It was a palatial spread.
We then all had our 7 cards with which to make a poker hand. Our hand did not include even one pair! so we were not in the running. Brian Leach was the winner with a King high straight, which apparently beat Brian Corlett's 3 Aces after a check with the rule book!
I had a really great day and I offer a big thank you to Harvey Lockie and also the other guys from the microlight club, who made me most welcome.
Harvey dropped me back to Paul Hopper's airstrip and then sped off back to Parakai as photo'd above.
We then all had our 7 cards with which to make a poker hand. Our hand did not include even one pair! so we were not in the running. Brian Leach was the winner with a King high straight, which apparently beat Brian Corlett's 3 Aces after a check with the rule book!
Harvey dropped me back to Paul Hopper's airstrip and then sped off back to Parakai as photo'd above.
Lunch at Dargaville is every Saturday, every month, every year.
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