Passion for Flight

During a vacation trip covering the South Island of New Zealand, a visitor from Australia told us that he just had been at the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre in Blenheim, in the northern part of the island. He highly recommended that we see that museum. So we did, and were hugely surprised. The museum has sixteen displays covering planes, events, and artifacts of World War I. Everything is housed in one large and stylish building. The hall of exhibits has no overall lighting. Instead, each display is lit by spotlights that make everything stand out. The YouTube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu9Brk0E9P0 gives a good overview of the museum and exhibits. The website of the museum http://www.omaka.org.nz/ has lots of additional information. The famous film director Peter Jackson, multiple Oscar winner and creator of a long list of outstanding movies, among them the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, used his influence to bring in artists of the movie industry fo...

Cathedral Rock of Red Rock State Park It is 6 am at the Grants, NM, airport. The sun is  still hidden east behind the Sandia Mountains. My friend Manfried  from Epernay, France, and I are ready for the main event of this trip with our Zenith HDS 601, N314LB:  The westbound leg  from Grants to Prescott, AZ, via Gallup, Winslow, and Sedona. During the takeoff run, acceleration of the plane at gross weight and 8,500 ft density altitude is impressive. Using much less than half of the runway, the plane leaps into the air and begins a solid climb. This performance is due to the new Sensenich propeller, which  efficiently uses an engine output reduced to 50 hp due to altitude and  temperature. As we pass through 1,000 ft AGL, the sun appears behind us over the horizon and illuminates ahead of us colorful sandstone formations, forests, and hills. We level off at 8,500 ft MSL, which translates to 2,000 ft AGL, our goal for the first part of the leg. Below ...

Windmills southwest of Childress, TX There is no tra ffi c at the small airport in the Texas Panhandle. That’s good, since there is no time to spare for flying the tra ffi c pattern. I bank the Zenith CH601 HDS, N314LB, line up for short final, manage a rather smooth touchdown, turn o ff midfield for the single taxiway, shut down the engine, jump out of the plane, and, right then and there in the tall weeds, find RELIEF.  The adult human body on average consists of 57% water. It seems that more than half of that liquid is now fertilizing the grass. Feeling more relaxed again, it’s time to look for gas for the plane. There are some old hangars, a few rusting hulks of cars in the weeds, and a camper with a pickup truck. Not very promising.  I knock at the door of the camper. After a while, the door cracks open. A man slips out, wearing pants and nothing else. I think, "Probably got him out of bed," and say, "Sorry to bother you." He smiles and responds,...

Looking down at the airport, for a second I am not sure we are where we are supposed to be. The entire area in front of the FBO is taken by US Army helicopters. But two GPS units do not lie, so we fly the pattern and land. Taxiing slowly between the Army helicopters to avoid the blades, we find an open spot for parking. After I have helped my copilot Arie from Tel-Aviv, Israel, get out of the plane, I run to the crews and ask if I can take pictures. The answer is, "Of course." These are three Apache AH-64 and two Black Hawk UH-60 helicopters on a cross country flight returning from the Mojave desert to Ft. Riley, KS. They have stopped for refueling. Apache A-64 and two Black Hawks UH-60 in Raton, NM All this information is provided by CW2 (Chief Warrant O ffi cer) Brett Mathews while I am snapping away with the camera. Where is all this happening? At the small uncontrolled airport in Raton, NM! It gets better. The five birds fire up and, after a lengthy runup with...