By Hayden McIntryre
Flying runs in my family. My late father Colin, brother Jay (author of Approach magazine’s ‘Thoughts from an aviation mechanic’ column) and myself have all contracted the aviation bug.
I started flying at high school and slowly progressed to my PPL. Around 2000 I purchased a poor man’s helicopter (Bantam B22) and subsequently had a blast inspecting our sheep and beef farm in the Wendon Valley, north of Gore. There was hardly a paddock I couldn’t land in, and I learnt a lot from the experience. I sold the Bantam after a few years with the intention of upgrading, however life got in the way for twenty odd years.
After trying a lot of different aircraft, Maule M5 235 DWR came up for sale. I’d always had a soft spot for the A10 of bush planes, and was impressed by my test flight. After some pondering, I became the owner of a Lycoming 540 powered aircraft – someone’s got to keep the oil industry alive! I have a rating in a Cub and Jodel and soon added a Maule. CSUs were new to me and that was probably the biggest thing to get a handle on.
I try to fly her at least once a week and enjoy honing my skills on the strips on the farm and beyond. DWR has also become the farm supplies hauler as the local Mossburn Farmlands is located beside Bob Cleland’s airstrip – it can earn a few funny looks when the forklift comes over to load her up.
I joined AOPA with the intention of going to last year’s mid-winter fly-in at Haast but the weather didn’t play the game and the recent Greenstone Station Back to Basics ended up being my first fly-in. My wife, Claire and daughter, Holly are reluctant flyers at this stage, so I suggested they drive our trailer tent in on the Thursday for a bit of extra time in paradise. Being keen campers they agreed, and a long weekend holiday was organized.
The weather in the south was hot and westerly and I had a rather bumpy flight in. On arrival a stiff nor’wester was blowing straight over the hill across the strip; on joining for downwind there wasn’t much need to power back to loose altitude due to downdrafts from the hill. I did a cautious go around to assess and make a decision.
The bonus of being the first one there was that no one saw my four touch and go’s. The strip looks deceptively short so, note to self, there was plenty of run out for the next landing. I had a snooze under the wing while I waited for Claire and Holly to arrive. Claire had been apprehensive about driving the trailer in and thank goodness we didn’t realise there were some small river crossings. She drove like a champ.
Friday 6am saw steady rain, much needed by Andrew at Greenstone Station, but less than ideal for flying. It began to clear mid-afternoon and eventually aircraft started to arrive, mostly from close by; with the weather worse further afield, many opted for a Saturday morning arrival. Those there enjoyed convivial company and an awesome paella whipped up by Sue Kronfeld’s friends, Emily and Radar.
Saturday morning dawned with some cloud and perfect flying conditions to the south. Briefings were held and two teams formed to go on separate missions. One would track for ‘The Spit’ at Preservation Inlet on the southwest tip of Fiordland while another would try their hands on a variety of strips around the south. As I’d recently been to the Spit, I decided to go on the strip tour.
Shaun Gilbertson and Geoff Rogers took me on as their wingman, and there was no dilly-dallying about with a nice long one-way sloping airstrip at Bullock Creek on the southern end of Mt Nic station. I have a 300m one-way strip on the farm that I regularly practise on, so I felt pretty comfortable and was pleased with how I pulled it off. Shaun grew up just over the hill from my farm and his late father, Hugh, and my father did a lot of flying together in Dad’s Champion 7EC and Hugh’s Cessna 170. I’d always heard a lot about him, so it was great to have him show me the ropes.
We landed on another topdressing strip down the Mararoa, then I got my wires crossed and thought we were heading to Malcom Swanson’s strip while the others went to Te Anau Downs. A search party was almost called before a photo of DWR on deck at Swanson’s was spotted on WhatsApp (whoops!). I think I was hungry and just wanted one of Marilyn’s scones. Malcolm is a micro-lighter and helped me out immensely when I had my Bantam years ago. His strip was formally Bill Black’s and it works very well. He loves having aircraft drop in to visit and has placed a house right alongside the runway with a deck overlooking the action.
After morning tea we departed for Jericho Station’s topdressing strip. A few bumps in the middle caused some issues but it was awesome to see Matt Anderson, who flies in Papua, making it look easy in RV4 RVI.
Jericho Station owner Ed Pickney joined up with the team and we headed off to Derek and Bronnie Chamberlain’s new strip, situated right beside their house. Heaps of room and lamb chops for lunch, very Southland! Then on to inspect a couple of golf course style strips owned by Michael Bloomfield then Russel Brunold. A credit to them both and in way better condition than the average lawn!
Back to Mossburn to visit the oil refinery and grab an ice cream to cool off in the 28 degree heat. Mossburn is a great $1000 hamburger destination if you’re after a change of scenery. It was hard to believe an ‘Apocalypse Now’ weather event was in progress in the north. It made me appreciate the awesome southern summers we quite often have. The day was disappearing and I headed back to Greenstone to cool off with a dip in Lake Wakatipu then to wrap up the day’s events with a ribeye steak from the farm and a couple of cold ones with the rest of the crews. Andrew had invited some of the local Glenorchy community to visit to see the aircraft, and through pilots’ donations, the fly-in raised $800 for the Glenorchy Play Centre.
Thanks to Andrew Green for making the strip available and to AOPA for organising it all. I’m looking forward to the next one – and hoping Claire and Holly may join me in the plane, opting for a 45 minute trip home rather than five hours in the car!
This article first appeared in the Autumn 2023 edition of Approach Magazine, the dedicated magazine of AOPA NZ, which is published quarterly.