‘Seat of the pants flying’
The skies over Ha¯wera were abuzz with vintage biplanes over the weekend.
About 10 Tiger Moths and several other aircraft flew in to the Ha¯wera Aero Club on Friday for the Tiger Moth Club of NZ annual meeting, which was preceded by a safari trip around New Zealand, club member Ken Jones said.
A competition day was held on Saturday, with spot landing contests, ‘‘bombing’’ (where pilots drop an object from 3000 feet aiming for targets on the ground) and another where they looped the loop attempting to make a perfect circle.
Club members were people enchanted by the Tiger Moth and the era it came from, said John Baynes, who flew his 1940 Tiger Moth up from his home in Gore.
Tiger Moths had a proud place in history as the aircraft used for training pilots who went on to fly Spitfires and other aircraft during World War II, and in the years afterwards, he said.
‘‘Tiger Moths are easy to fly badly and hard to fly well so they were ideal for training.’’
The open cockpit meant pilots could smell what was happening on the ground below them.
‘‘You fly over bush when it’s been raining and smell the steaming bush, and if there’s a fire on the ground you smell that,’’ he said. ‘‘We all go home with ruddy complexions from being windblown, there’s nothing like it on a nice day, they’re like a magic carpet.’’
Amanda Rutland from Christchurch and Jeanette Lei from Taumarunui flew a 1941 Tiger Moth.
‘‘It’s seat of the pants flying, it’s the essence of flying, with an open cockpit,’’ Lei said.
‘‘There’s nothing flash, just back to basics flying,’’ Rutland added.