We collected our "Britz" van at Christchurch after spending the night
in a motel. The motel was adjacent to the airport and the van
collection point was just around the corner- all very convenient. We
hired a Britz "Elite" model which is set up for two people and is
self-contained (includes toilet and shower). The shower worked well,
and we only used the toilet for pissing so emptying it wasn't an
onerous (or odorous) task. The van was a VW turbocharged diesel. I
forget who it was on here that advised me to go for the diesel, but it
was good advice. Unlike the situation in Oz, the diesel price in NZ is
less than the price of petrol, and while I didn't accurately measure
the fuel consumption, it would have been around 11-12 litres/100k. The
only hassle with the van was that I was continually using the wipers
to indicate, and trying to clear the screen by turning on the
indicatorsÂ…

We motored down to Wanaka on Thursday- about a 5 hour drive from
Christchurch, stopping only to fill up our food supplies at a
supermarket. At Wanaka the Navigator spotted a sign pointing to a
paddock adjacent to the one used for car parking which said we could
park there for $20 per night. All we got for that was a space in a
paddock, but given that it was within about 200 metres of the runway
threshold, and that the entrance was only a five minute walk away, we
thought it was good value. IT was the first time the farmer had done
this, so if you are taking a van to Wanaka next year, keep your eyes
open for this option. We were able to watch some of the WWI machines
on a photo shoot that evening while eating dinner in our van.
Friday came with some low-ish cloud and a cool breeze. We checked out
the gold stand, wandered around the ground displays (which were not
all that interesting) and watched some of the practice for the
following day's displays. One Kittyhawk had been equipped with 0.5"
guns and intended to fire blanks during its display. We all gathered
to watch this inaugural event, but there was a single "pop" from the
machine and nothing more that day. As the commentators said- that's
why they have practice days.

The Yanks arrived with their ski-equipped Hercules and I found some
time to chat to one of the pilots. After explaining to me how the skis
worked (it's quite complex), I asked him if he'd ever had any anxious
moments flying a Herc with skis. He replied that he'd got one sideways
once when landing in Greenland in a crosswind on snow. He said he was
convinced it was going to tumble and had already pulled his legs up
and tucked his head down under his arms in anticipation, but the
machine stayed upright and intact, apart from wrecking the
undercarriage. I asked him how they dealt with the problem of the skis
freezing to the snow after standing for a while. He said they just
lower the wheels to crack the skis off the ice, then retract them
again and moved off before the skis had time to re-freeze.

The F-111 turned up on all 3 days and watching its dump and burn act
framed against the hills in the background was quite impressive. The
C-17 also turned up, but missed one day due to low cloud. The show was
commentated by a couple of chaps who knew their stuff (and admitted
when they didn't), and who were constantly taking the piss out of each
other. This added to the entertainment without dominating the show-
something a few of our local commentators could learn from.

I was a little surprised at the close proximity of the main stand to
the action, and that the displays were permitted to cross the crowd on
occasions. I saw nothing unsafe in this, and it provided an excellent
view of the aircraft both in flight and on the ground (as it was meant
to). I gathered that NZ's equivalent of our own CASA CEO actually
takes part in the show and displays some of the aircraft. The
coordination of the aircraft by the controllers was excellent, and the
show proceeded with rarely a break between events. There was always
something to look at. Given that the aircraft ranged from a
gnome-powered Camel to an F-111 and almost everything in between, the
smoothness of the programming is a tribute to the professionalism of
the controllers and pilots.

There were a couple of minor incidents- on the practice day a
recreational machine reached about 700' on take off when its engine
lost power. He executed a neat modified descending circuit, rolling
out straight when about 20' off the runway and landed. Nice bit of
work, although I thought he could have turned base a little earlier
and saved himself the drama of the very low final turn, but who am I
to criticize- I was sitting safely in the stand, after all. The other
piece of entertainment was when the Catalina developed severe
nose-wheel shimmy on landing. The pilot stood firmly on the anchors,
and while that reduced the shimmy a bit it didn't entirely stop it.
The shaking was promulgated down through the fuselage to the tail
section, probably by virtue of the interconnect to the rudder, I
guess. The Cat chaps said later that they changed the nosewheel
steering damper after that event and that it was quite entertaining
from within the cabinÂ….

In the WWI dogfight re-enactment there were two Gnome rotary powered
aircraft, a Camel and a Nieuport. They sounded quite sick in the air.
I took some time out to chat to the pilot of the Camel. He informed me
that the Camel had a "selecta-mag" which apparently works like this:
Magneto one has a button on the stick which turns that magneto on or
off.
Magneto two operates via a selectable switch which allows the magneto
to fire all the time, or half the time, or a quarter of the time, or
an eighth of the time, depending upon where you put the switch. Set it
to "half" and about four of the cylinders of its 9 cylinder rotary
will fire on each revolution. Because 9 is not integrally divisible by
two, the cylinders that actually fire change each revolution, which
prevents any of the cylinders from becoming oiled up. You'll get about
two cylinders when set to the quarter position, and only one when set
to the eighth position.

With both magnetos operating, you can select one magneto to (say) the
half position, which will have minimal effect until you hit the "blip"
switch on the other magneto, which then reduces the number of firing
cylinders by half. This allows you to control the engine power to some
extent, rather than just all on or all off as was the case with the
Nieuport. These engines cannot be throttled easily by adjustments at
the carburetor as is the case with conventional engines. The Nieuport
represented the original solution; the Camel was a more advanced
method.

I asked about their overhaul times and he indicated that they usually
stripped them down after about 250 hours. He said the engines had a
reputation for very short lives (about 50 hours), but that this wasn't
their experience and probably reflected poor engine handling in the
midst of battle rather than inherent unreliability of the engines
themselves. He said a common problem in WWI was over-revving which
could cause the engine to throw a cylinder or two out through the
cowlings. This had happened to a friend of his, and the cylinder was
promptly followed by fuel-air mixture which then ignited. His friend
was able to force-land safely, but it had been quite an exciting dayÂ…

Another interesting feature of flying these machines is that they
always take-off or land in the three-point attitude. The clearance
between the prop and the ground in the three-point attitude is only
about 6" and if you raise the tail, you will very likely have a prop
strike. The pilot said that the gyroscopic effect of the rotating
engine and the huge props (about 7 or 8 feet long) also had to be
allowed for, which was another reason not to raise the tail during
take-off. And yes, the castor oil does keep you very regularÂ….

Oh, and RT, if you think Dorothy drips a lot of oil, you ain't seen
nothin' until you've seen one of these machines after returning from a
half-hour sortie. It's literally trickling off the cowlingsÂ…

During our exploration of the ground displays we naturally homed in
early on the PBY-Catalina. The rumours that they were taking
passengers proved correct and we booked ourselves in for a ride early
on the Monday morning after the show. We watched it taking off and
landing during the next three days and turned up bright-eyed and eager
to go at 8:30 on Monday. To our horror we were told that one engine
had experienced increased oil temperature and low oil pressure the
previous evening so the first flight had been cancelled until they
could determine the cause. They were pulling the filters and, as the
mechanic said, if they found bright shiny bits of metal in there, they
would all be walking home.

But we were in luck- the filters were clean and the problem turned out
to be a sticking oil-pressure relief valve which was easily fixed. We
were re-scheduled for 1:30pm.

For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of a ride in this
machine, it seats sixteen passengers in two groups of 8 (rows of 4
facing each other) forward and aft of the central pylon and either
side of the centre aisle. Everyone wears a small life jacket secured
at the waist. There are two pilots and two crew members. During the
flight, passengers are directed to swap around so that everyone gets a
chance to sit in the blisters, and everyone gets a chance to peer over
the pilots' shoulders in flight. During the approach to touch down on
the lake, there is no movement, as the pilots want the trim to be
stable at that time. The view from the blisters is spectacular, and
the rear cabin's windows are also large. The forward cabin has small
windows and the view ain't so good, but you can see a little way into
the cockpit so that's a consolation. You also get to watch the forward
crew member lying on his stomach between the pilots after takeoff and
before landing to check that the nosewheel is locked and the doors
are secure.

As you might expect, the noise on takeoff is pretty loud. I was
surprised to learn that the Cat cruises at about 100-110 knots- cripes
we could almost keep up in Dorothy! The undercarriage grinds its way
up into the pockets on the side of the fuse and descends with a
resounding "thump! when lowered- there's no doubt that the wheels are
down! The flight lasted about half an hour, and was worth every bit of
the $250 each we paid for it. The view was awesome- but then, for us
"flatlanders" that was pretty much par for the course wherever we
went.

On the days of the air shows the Kittyhawk's guns performed as
expected and we got to see it strafing the target with flashes from
the wings and a loud "popping" sound which was not as noisy (from the
ground) as we had been lead to believe it would be. I suspect the
noise is much, much louder from the pilot's perspectiveÂ…

The Polikarpov aircraft are a delight to watch. They really do look
like toy fighters, until they open the throttles, at least, whereupon
the 1,000-odd horsepower from their radials makes its presence felt.
The pilot flying the monoplane was quite short, and with the side
flaps up (Its an open cockpit) you could barely see his head. You
could be forgiven for thinking that he was busily pedalling it along
the runway.

My favourite aircraft (Grumman Corsair) put on a spirited display and
outclassed everyone in the dog-fights. The army simulators mounted
determined attacks on their various targets, the pyrotechnics filled
the sky with black and white smoke, and even the Cat got into the act-
depth charging a submarine that had made its way upriver and surfaced
in the middle of the field. The final pyromanic episode finished the
show with an explosion that produced a simulated A-bomb cloud- very
cleverly done, I thought.

After the show was over and most of the traffic was gone we decamped
to Wanaka township and found that the caravan park we had chosen was
directly under the Cat's approach path for its water landings, so we
got to watch the graceful old bird going to and fro that evening and
the following morning.

We spent the next couple of weeks gallivanting around the South island
to places like Milford and Doubtful Sounds, Mannapouri underground
power station, Invercargill, Dunedin (home of the steepest street in
the world- at 1:2.86 it's certainly a gut-buster, and get this- they
raise money by having jaffa races down it!) and back to Christchurch.

En route to Christchurch we encountered a vehicle ahead of us that was
blowing an enormous amount of smoke out of its stacks. I commented to
the Navigator that he either had a seriously deranged engine, or he
was on fire. Turns out I was right- he (or they, actually) were on
fire- two steam traction engines making their way along the highway at
breakneck speed (about 20 kph). Puffing great gobs of black smoke,
stinking of burnt coal, with flywheels whizzing, pistons pulsing,
steam hissing, wheels clanking, and governors governing, with drivers
and firemen clinging onto the footplates in the freezing wind. Now
that's something you don't get to see very often. And do you think
those chaps were having any fun? You betcha!!

From Christchurch we flew back to Auckland (more revolting coffee and
shitty packets of chips, but the flying was good and the landings were
smooth) and visited the Museum of Transport and Technology (or MOTAT
as they call it). This has an aviation section where among other
exhibits they have a Short Solent flying boat, ex-TEAL, restored in
TEAL livery and including all the cutlery and crockery upon which
their fine food was served (my, how standards have declined- still, so
have the prices). This machine made the Catalina look small. They have
displayed it well, with two walkways to allow you to view the
interior, and with the co-pilot's seat removed so you can get a good
look at the panel on the flight deck (which is huge).

Out the back, they had an ex-RNZAF Catalina, which they are currently
working on, and a Mosquito (among other exhibits). They are presently
building a new hangar to get these exhibits under cover.
Another feature at MOTAT was the old pumping house where they were
restoring a Newcomen beam engine. These steam engines are huge (2
stories high) and this one may even now be working- I think they were
intending to have it active by April 22nd, so this will also be on our
itinerary next year.

Yep, we are going back next year- to watch the Classic Fighters
airshow at Marlborough, and to do some more hiking in the rugged
southwest. Might even try doing some flying myself, if I can convince
someone to lend me their AusterÂ….

Coop