Brett Emeny RIP

We have received the sad news that a stalwart of the New Zealand aviation community, Brett Emeny has died following complications after heart surgery at Waikato hospital.

I was privileged to have Brett show us around his and others interesting aircraft at New Plymouth on 25 March with a group from the North Shore Aero Club.  He was incredibly generous with his time as he told us about the Vampire, Trojans and Yak 52s in Peter Vause's hangar.  The above photo of Brett with his Vampire is by Markus Kavermann, taken during our visit.

Then we carried on to Brett's own hangar where he proudly told us about the Catalina that he and others spent many thousands of hours maintaining to an excellent standard.  You could tell how proud Brett was of the aircraft, and after telling us all about it he invited us to crawl all over the inside of the interesting old amphibian while he sat comfortably in the pilot's seat and told us about his adventures flying it all around New Zealand.

Then in the afternoon Brett led the New Plymouth wing of the Yak 52 aerobatic team in a polished routine.  He most recently flew with the whole 9 member team at Classic Fighters 2023, where he also flew a display with Peter Vause in their pair of Trojans.

Over many years Brett has owned many many aircraft, either under the name of his helicopter spraying company Fine Particle Application Ltd, or personally.  These have included a Hughes 300, AS 350 Squirrels, Bell Jet Rangers, a Sikorsky S 55 and a Bell Garlick UH 1B, and most recently an Agusta A 109 helicopter(s).

When I was at New Plymouth Brett showed us pretty much all his aircraft including his two Yak 52s ZK-YAK2 and YKA, his DH 115 Vampire T 55 ZK-RVM,  and his North American Trojan T 28C ZK-JGS.  In his hangar were his Stemme S 10 motorglider ZK-GDC2,   his Auster J 5A Autocrat ZK-BDW, his Cessna 320E Skynight ZK-EGN2 and his Piper Commanche ZK-CYT.

Brett will be sorely missed by everyone in the New Zealand aviation community and our condolences go out to his family.  RIP Brett.