April 2018 Vol No. 45 THE M.A.C. FLYER After a 14 year wait Victoria finally got to go in the Fleet with Graham at MAC Open Day OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE MARLBOROUGH AERO CLUB INC. P.O. Box 73, Blenheim, 7240 Tel: (03) 578 5073 Email: [email protected] www.marlboroughaeroclub.co.nz M.A.C. Marlborough Aero Club PATRON PRESIDENT VICE PRESIDENT John Sinclair Alistair Matthews Scott Madsen Ph: 03 578 7110 Ph: 027 428 7863 Ph: 027 453 9348 HON. TREASURER SECRETARY Tim McKendry Raylene Wadsworth Ph: 021 104 0721 Ph: 03 578 5073 COMMITTEE Mike Rutherford, Grant Jolley, Marty Nicoll, Victoria Lewis, John Hutchison, Jonathon Large CHIEF FLYING INSTRUCTOR CLUB CAPTAIN Sharn Davies Ben Morris Ph: 03 578 5073 Ph: 027 940 3235 Check out our new website – www.jemaviation.co.nz Annual Inspections, ARA / BRA’s, repairs, modifications and rebuilds – we can handle it all! Ph. (03) 578 3063 Mob. 021 504 048 Email [email protected] Hangar 22b, Aviation Heritage Centre Airpark, Omaka Aerodrome, Blenheim, NZ 2 EVENTS COMING UP 3 4 UPCOMING EVENTS MAC Club Day 3rd Sunday of every month The next one is Sunday 20th May 2018—11.30 am onwards ALL members welcome Competitions— Bombing / Life Raft Dropping $2 for a sausage or bring a plate of finger food to share Club Day—last Sunday of every month The next one is Sunday 29th April 11.00 am onwards—$5 for lunch (See the next page for a competition being held) MAC Accommodation Find us on Facebook Pilot / RNZAC Member M.A.C Marlborough Aero Club $120 / night Email: [email protected] 5 6 7 PRESIDENT’S REPORT Greetings all. A quick pen to paper before flying off today. We are approaching AGM time again so please think about if you would like to serve the club on committee in any shape or form. If you choose to join the committee there is definitely some commitment required and it does take up some of your time, so be prepared. Having said that the current committee has set areas of responsibility so you are not expected to do everything. However you are part of the team in authorising the business of the club. All positions are open for nomination so have a think and ask questions if required. The AGM has bee set for Wednesday 27th June and nominations must be in 14 days prior. Notices and forms will be forwarded shortly. Please note that any formal Notice of Motion must be received by the secretary 21 days prior to the AGM. I encourage all members to note the date and attend. Supper is provided together with the bar opening. WEDNESDAY 27TH JUNE The Bristol Freighter looks good sitting out on the field and people comment “is it about to fly”. Unfortunately no, but it will be there for a bit while Gordy our Builder works on a moveable fence at the club house so we can push it back on its original site. We still need a couple more “minders” for the Bristol so call me if you can. While mentioning Gordy we thank him for all the jobs and advise that he freely gives on those building type jobs. Many thanks. 8 Presidents Report Continued…. A well know identity of the club, Trevor Gatehouse, passed away recently. A nice funeral was held at the Nativity Church and a good contingent of aviators were there to remember him. See elsewhere for his life’s achievements. Terrific work from the staff in organising and running the public ‘Open day’, with a little help from others. I believe we easily picked up 2 or 3 new members and a good number came out to learn more. Sunday nights at the bar have been well supported recently, allowing for events and/or time of year, which is great, be it alcoholic or non alcoholic beverages. There is always a good mix of members there. Come and join us, the log fire is now roaring away. I know John could do with a hand re bar duty on Saturday and supper duty on Sunday. Step up if you can. It can be a matter of finding your niche to help the club and every club works on volunteers. An interesting find on the field during the bombing practise was a Tussock Grass. Well done Phil for spotting and then grubbing it up. It is a noxious weed and we are in the watch zone with council. If you see any more ensure you let us know. 9 Presidents Report Continued…. Car parking. This can be at a premium sometimes and to alleviate the main car park we put in the ‘sealed’ area by the private hangers. If you are away for more than the day please park there, access code available on request. A reminder to the permanent parkers that you need to register with the office providing Rego number and $100 for the year. (these are members who live away but fly in and have a vehicle for their convenience). Thank you. Talking of cars, the club had an offer it could not refuse and has purchased a wee Mitsubishi Mirage, coloured blue, which will be offered to visitors and available for club use. We have for some time been using a private car (see above) and it has worked well so we anticipate no hassles. We will get logo’s and web site on the doors to do some advertising . To do with cars, a heads up that the car park is due for resealing later this month. Well past due so it will be great. As usual there are the myriad of things going on. We are doing well as a club thanks to everyone so keep it up. Cheerio until 1st June. Alistair 10 Aerodrome The Office is for Staff Only. Please only come in when getting the keys for the aircraft and filling in the intention log. Please drive slowly between hangars—help keep the dust down Just a friendly reminder that dogs are not permitted ON the airfield OR at the MAC Club House. (this includes the club house grounds) CLASSIFIEDS For Sale: MAC ties $25 each. Available in MAC Office Yoga at MAC Did you know that we have over 12 MAC members who have attended yoga with Nancy at the MAC clubhouse? Due to demand we are going to be adding a morning class to the Tuesday and Thursday 5:30 evening classes currently offered. The new class will be on Thursday morning at 9:30 am at the MAC clubhouse. Space is limited, so please email Nancy at [email protected] or send her a text on 027 563 9218 if you would like to attend. Individual classes are available at $15 drop in rate (subject to space availability), or you can purchase 10 classes for $100. 11 CFI REPORT It has been steady as she goes since the last newsletter. The club held a public open day which was very successful despite being an overcast day. The instructors were kept busy doing trial flights all day and a couple are coming back for their first official lessons. It was a good turn out from the public and a great opportunity for the club to show the public what we are all about and how friendly we are. This is going to be important moving forward with housing developments getting closer and closer to the airfield boundaries. We need to raise our public profile and keep the lines of communication open to our neighbours. See pictures of the Open Day elsewhere in the newsletter. The staff roster has changed around to meet the demands of the students. Bianca is on Monday to Fridays and Vince is part time Friday to Sundays and myself Wednesday to Sunday. This allows us to have two instructors on for the busy weekends and for a few days during the week. We will be starting night flying in the next couple of weeks. We will put out a separate email out with further details. Erin is still working away in the evenings with the theory subjects for our students. She is doing a great job. We are looking at changing the schedule of the theory classes in the future so keep an eye out for more details. The financial year ended on a high with us completing 143 flying hours for March. The total for the year being 1,650. Which makes an average of 137.5hrs per month. This is a substantial increase over the previous year. Let’s hope the trend continues and we can increase the hours further this coming financial year. Happy Flying. Sharn 12 CFI Report Continued…. Aircraft available for training/hire with MAC ZK-COX: Piper Pacer The Pacer is 150hp with Vortex generators and an attitude to boot. It’s a great tail wheel trainer being short coupled between the mains and the tail wheel. It makes for a lively aircraft on the ground but once you have mastered the handling it is a well balanced machine and puts you in good stead for moving onto a larger tail dragger such as a C-180/185. Insurance requirements are 10hrs on type before private hire (in some cases that can be reduced, talk with Sharn). $285 per hour dual $250 private hire ZK-EBH: Cherokee The Warrior is 160hp and very stable. It is a great machine for cross country flying (it has a rudder trim!) and can haul a reasonable load.