Newsletter #47 - There are things in life better

Makarora
April 2014
CESSNA
180/185
GROUP
Skywagon
EEJ in the beautiful Okuru
valley
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Makarora
April 2014
G'day group
I hope everyone is well and has enjoyed the
amazing spell of weather, we have had
some days recently where my ever lively
windsock has not even flickered all day, I
have photos to prove it!
We are blessed in this country with the
options available to us, I recently took an
English visitor down south, shot a couple of
deer and caught a couple of big brown trout,
he was in shock I think! (Probably from the
landing)
RBPA
We have signed the concession and are putting
together membership packs, I thought it might be an idea to put a
registration type holder (like in your car) on the inside of the windscreen of
our aircraft, that way you could put a membership card inside, we would
have a different card for each years renewed membership. Please email
The very talented
Frank Prouting,
always a pleasure to
watch.
me your thoughts on this if you like, but I
think it is better than a sticker that has to be
The forecast
should have put
more people off
than it did!
scraped off each year.
Makarora
The forecast should have put more people
off than it did! We had a perfect trip to
Hokitika (Maule central) where we stopped
for lunch and to meet some other 180/185s. After lunch we headed off
with EEJ, DPE and SIA with Ken giving his son Tim some handy pointers
and headed off to Okarito for a coffee (there is great coffee here now
about 50 meters from your aircraft) Here we were joined by BDD with
Frank and crew. Next stop was the strip at Ben Monks near Lake Paringa,
this is a good strip for 180/185s not to long not to wide but just right. Next
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Makarora
April 2014
was up the okuru River to the Franklin for one of my 5 minute guided walks these commonly
take up to an hour and involve river crossings and swamps! We eventually arrived at Nobby
Norris's old venison hut, it was dead still and well into the evening, with the mountains towering
over us and the sun setting, well I hope you get the idea.
Makarora was on fine form with worthy judges lined up in the usual spot. As we only had one
night available to us due weather it seemed there were not enough hours in the evening.
Saturday dawned with perfect weather, so a short briefing was in order, but first we had a vote
on funding from the group to the RBPA, the vote was unanimous in favor of gifting the money to
RBPA, this will give a 50% discount for group members when joining RBPA.
AOPA have had a similar vote and are paying approximately the same amount towards the
concession costs so their members will have a 50% discount as well.
I just want to say thank you all for giving myself and the committee of RBPA all your support.
So off we went, typical Makarora really, bloody awesome, a pile of aircraft out having a ball in
the backcountry. We ended up landing on a couple of very cool airstrips down at the Poolburn
Reservoir, these are just newly built strips right beside the water. They were put in by a guy from
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Makarora
April 2014
Taieri for his amphibian, he can also land on the lake and taxi straight up beside his “crib", one is
particularly cool with a fairly good slope up to the middle and then a similar slope down the
other side, about 320 meters from memory. The strip starts at the water line so you can’t
approach from below and it has quite a significant transition on to the slope, especially with 5
POB! We gratefully accepted a coffee with the owners Craig and Samantha and were on our
way home but of course we didn’t get there! two days stuck in CH caped off the weekend.
It was a funny feeling not going back to Makarora for the Saturday evening, I always
enjoy looking around at all the faces so full of smiles after a days adventure. But by all
accounts everyone had a great day. Those in attendance on Friday were
BDD,BJU,BJY,BKG,CBH,CES,DJM,DKJ,DPE,DWE,DYH,EEJ,EFB,FMA,JHS,JMH,PKD,S
IA,TUA,VKE
Hawkes bay flyin
This is shaping up to be a great event, with lots of interest by members.
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Makarora
April 2014
The plan is to meet midday at the Boyd airstrip on Anzac day, then fly down to Tikokino hotel for
the evening. Saturday would entail about 300 airstrips by the sound of things with lunch at
Richard Coop’s on Mahia Peninsular. Please contact Bruce Coulter 0274981527 or Rob Wilson
06 8566868 for accommodation, the pub is full and the B&Bs are filling fast.
A list of coordinates will be out soon.
Please let me know by reply mail if you are coming to Hawkes bay and how many people are
with you, we need to know numbers for catering.
Hokitika flyin
Yes folks, after years of persuasion the local Maule club have
invited us to a group flyin in Hokitika. This is to be our winter flyin
on the weekend of June 6-7 & 8 th. Murray Bowes and Brian Doig
are the organisers. For accommodation contact the Hokitika info
centre 03-7556166, and they will give you the options, mention that you are part of the Cessna
180 group. There will be transport available at the airport to take you to your accommodation.
The airport manager has given us a one off landing fee of $20 for the weekend. Please email
Brian with numbers attending.
Brian 027-6822093
[email protected]
Murray 0274-224342
Happy Easter!
Nige
Skywagon
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