Kaikohe was the spot for the Far North Aerobatics held in April.

All the fliers at Kaikohe !!

If you’ve not been that far north, its worth the drive. Approx 1 hour past Whangarei, the flying site is superb. Home of the Far North Flyers, the Kaikohe Aerodrome is a WWII auxiliary base, with enough runway to put down a small squadron of heavy bombers. Get on the google machine and take a look at the photos, its massive. The modelers have their own slice of the aerodrome paradise, on a runway that runs east west, and setup south facing. Perfect for model flying. They do get the odd “side wind” though. But while we were there the conditions were just perfect.

Myself and Lyndon made the trip up from Hamilton on Friday. Things were going great, but it seems we took the “scenic” route from Whangarei. No cellphone signal for about an hour, left/right, up/down, inside/out. Lyndon keeps asking, are we there yet ? I’ve been before and even I’m thinking, where the bloody hell is it ? Soon we get to the field and the phone goes bing !! Its a message from Baldrick saying “don’t take the No. 15 road”. Too late. We weren’t the only ones to fall for this clever trap set by the locals. Baldrick was about 30 mins ahead of us in the bus.

Les and Judy King. When it was time for Les to Fly, Judy (the Caller) was off to find her sunnies. By the time she came back, he’d landed !!

Lets get flying !!! So we did. What a venue. Plenty of sky up in the Far North. Great for IMAC. We setup for camping at the field. I couldn’t wait to get my brand new, still in box, “3 seconds” popup tent out, to check it over, impress all the onlookers and marvel at the size, and ease of assembly. It really is called a “3 seconds tent” !! Not sure about the 3 seconds bit, but it sure was fast and easy to put up. As for the bigger “Family” size I ordered …. well unless you have a family consisting of “1 Dwarf”, it was a total fail in this department. By now Lyndon starts looking for more mattress supplies so he can sleep in the trailer, cause clearly its not going to work for two. John and Shelly Knox have now arrived in their camper, plus Les King the local Pylon guy arrives with his Caravan too. He was in a hurry to get back to Kerikeri and pickup his new bride, Judy, who was arriving on a late night flight back from 3 weeks away in the south island. We start flying at 9am tomorrow Les, but we’ll see you around midday !! Pretty soon its time to sit back, enjoy the view, and soak up a few beers. Aaron and Ricky show up with their Caravan later in the evening, and the jokes and stories around the camp fire continue into the night. Nobody seems to be in a hurry to go to bed. Especially Shelly Knox “The Enabler”.

Saturday morning, extract myself from the tiny tent, into magic sun shine !! Oh my head hurts. Must have been cause the funny angle I was having to sleep on, in that tiny tent. Bloody thing.

The Knox’s campsite was entertainment central

A good turnout of guys that had travelled up from far and wide, and now a few locals are getting setup. Kim & Tawhai Webby from Whangarei have setup tent, and are ready for action. Berham and Kaden from Auckland arrive. They looking a little frazzled. Where you guys been ? Well we were lost, we had no signal, running late, crazy roads, etc. Oh you didn’t take the 15 road did ya ? Yeah nah don’t go that way, that’s a rookie mistake. Now …. where are all these guys from Kaitaia with their planes ? Peter Matthews “Pancho” told me there were five of them coming down ?

We flew IMAC all Saturday. Soon we had some contenders for the Clubman Chocolate Fish challenge. Getting guys to have a go at doing the basics of loops and rolls in front of a set of judges, is tough work these days, but its paying off. Stick plane to demo the new sequence, lots of guys standing around and taking it all in. Then the “1.3m Extra” foamy goes up for a real live demo of how to do it. Over the course of the weekend we got 6 rounds of Clubman in. Plenty of flying. By the end of the weekend, on Sunday, a local guy called Jeff, after watching the guys fly Clubman finally plucked up enough courage to give it a go. The guy flew great !!! just a shame he had not flown the previous day too when you see the scores.

All you need to fly Clubman !!

Peter Matthews “Pancho” from Kaitaia provided some real entertainment for us on Saturday. Bogan I haven’t flown this thing (its a classic model, a Phoenix, with a 60 on the front) for a few months and I need a test fly. Ok mate you go and test fly it now, and then we will start Clubman, and you can go up last. He takes off … flies around a little. Hey Pancho it looks like its diving a bit. Give it some up trim. I see him reach for the trim lever, gives it a click of up. But the transmitter goes beep beep beep beep …. all the way to full up trim !! Now he’s doing inside loops. Oh shit he says. Give it a click of down trim Pancho. He reaches over again, gives it a click of down …. beep beep beep beep beep … now its got full down trim and the thing is diving like crazy !!! Try some up trim again… one click, all the beeps, now inside looping, and getting miles away too I might add …. I’d love to help you mate, but you’re on mode 2 !! I yell back to the flight line …. We got a Mode 2 emergency here !!!!!  John Knox comes running. Takes over, lands the thing. Phew that was one hell of a problem you had there Pancho, and well done John for getting her home safely. The trim lever was stuck in either full down, or full up. Certainly provided some entertainment there all right … but not as good as watch John Knox run though !!! I don’t think anyone has seen that before. The guy looks like he could do at least one aggy retrieval I reckon. Unforgettable.

Look how far that runway goes !!

The rest of the day goes on business as usual for an aerobatics event. Plenty of flying, lots of judging by the core group. Great weather. Temperature wise, its a bit weird at Kaikohe, one minute its hot, jackets are peeled off. Then its cold, where’s my jacket ? 5 mins later, sweating again.

Saturday night, its BBQ time, more stories, more refreshments, and also night flying !! Tawhai and Aaron were busy with the night flying entertainment until all the batteries are flat. I think everyone’s battery’s needed a recharge after a big day, because by 11pm it was lights out.

Sunday morning. Must have gotten a better angle in the tent this time, head not hurting, however pillow is damp, and feet end of sleeping bag also damp. Hmmm. Drizzling with rain outside. 3 second tent is 3 seconds to assemble cause it doesn’t have a fly !! Touch the inside of the tent, water comes through.

The weather looks like it could be a bit rubbish for a while. Low cloud. Bit of drizzle, and off to the west its not looking too good at all. Behram checks the rain radar and says its going to be raining till lunchtime !! oh shit … we might be packing up and heading home sooner than we thought … but pretty soon the coffee had been guzzled, and the drizzle stopped. The low cloud started to move on, and we were into it by 10am. Pockets of blue sky and sunshine, and by midday … roasting again !! Where is Pancho and all those guys from Kaikohe today ?

Looking at the scores, Les and Behram had a pretty close battle in Clubman both swapping round wins over the weekend. In Basic the two juniors Kaden and Tawhai also had a close contest, and Kim was kept busy on the tools chasing a few motor problems with their setup. Ended up being a fuel leak. In Sportsman Lyndon Perry (needs a nickname !!) managed to edge ahead of Ricky Maitland “Grasshopper”, and Mike Briggs “Baldrick” was third with his new “Stevie Wonder Random Scheme” 70cc Extra NG paint job. Unfortunately Aaron Maitland was on his own in Intermediate, but still flew. John Knox and myself flew Unlimited on Saturday, and both decided seen as the weather was so good, tomorrow was going to be biplane day !! So we flew our Bipes in F3A, and the locals got to see this side of the Aerobatics event. We intended to fly Classic but with the rainy start to Sunday, we sort of ran of ran out of time to fit that in.

The Webby Campsite. Kim was on the tools all weekend keeping young Tawhai “Bones” in the air.

Well pretty soon it was time to wind up the comp, and bring the fun to an end. Pack it all down, and head home. A quick prizegiving, and closing words from the Club Pres Graham Knox. Tell everyone about our place, and please come back he said !!

Conclusion. Kaikohe was awesome. Yes its a bit further than you might want to drive, but the flying field makes up for that ten fold. From Hamilton it was a comfortable 5 hours home on Sunday night. On the road at 3pm, and home by 8pm. Including a stop for a bite on the way through Auckland. So for Waikato / Tauranga based guys, its about the same as going to the Hawkes Bay.  Team up with another keen modeler, jam your models in one trailer, and it makes the driving job easy. Its a bloody long way from Wellington mind you.

We will be back at Kaikohe at a similar time next year. One week earlier to take in the last of Day light savings. And we are expecting so many more people for next time that we’ve ordered a marquee !! That will be an awesome venue for the Saturday night BBQ.

See you there.

Scores and Photos follow.

Clubman

Flight no 1 Flight no 2 Flight no 3 Flight no 4 Flight no 5 Flight no 6
Total Net Norm Net Norm Net Norm Net Norm Net Norm Net Norm
1 BAJAN Behram “The Beer Man”(973) 4845.23 109.5 824.86 152.25 1000 162 1000 153.25 1000 139.25 845.23 174.5 1000
2 KING Les “Sidewinds”(959) 4724.3 132.75 1000 129.5 850.58 139.5 861.12 132.5 864.61 164.75 1000 174.25 998.57
3 AIKEN Jeff “No Data”(983) 1182.7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 162.75 987.86 34 194.84
3 MATHEWS Peter “Pancho” (982) 753.28 8 60.27 51 334.98 58 358.03 0 0 0 0 0 0

Basic IMAC

Competitors Cat Country Total Position Flight 1
Known
Finished
Flight 2
Known
Finished
Flight 3
Known
Finished
Flight 4
Known
Finished
Flight 5
Known
Finished
Flight 6
Known
Finished
Flight 7
Known
Finished
Flight 8
Known
Finished
Flight 9
Known
Finished
Flight 10
Known
Finished
Flight 11
Known
Finished
Flight 12
Known
Finished
Net Norm Net Norm Net Norm Net Norm Net Norm Net Norm Net Norm Net Norm Net Norm Net Norm Net Norm Net Norm
NEWMAN Kaden “Gerbil” Junior  (NZL) 7999.53 1 947.00 1000.00 1018.50 1000.00 967.50 923.19 1004.00 964.69 981.50 884.23 1029.50 997.09 1080.00 1000.00 1055.75 1000.00 1045.00 1000.00 1059.50 1000.00 1059.00 999.53 1100.75 1000.00
WEBBY Tawhai “Bones” Junior  (NZL) 7895.20 2 917.25 968.59 993.50 975.45 1048.00 1000.00 1040.75 1000.00 1110.00 1000.00 1032.50 1000.00 1010.00 935.19 983.00 931.09 977.25 935.17 1007.75 951.16 1059.50 1000.00 1011.75 919.15

Sportsman IMAC

Competitors Cat Country Total Position Flight 1
Known
Finished
Flight 2
Known
Finished
Flight 3
Known
Finished
Flight 4
Known
Finished
Flight 5
Known
Finished
Flight 6
Known
Finished
Flight 7
Known
Finished
Flight 8
Known
Finished
Net Norm Net Norm Net Norm Net Norm Net Norm Net Norm Net Norm Net Norm
PERRY Lyndon Senior  (NZL) 5973.90 1 1586.75 1000.00 1436.50 973.90 1518.75 1000.00 1459.00 894.00 1377.75 871.99 1553.00 1000.00 1699.00 1000.00 1549.00 1000.00
MAITLAND Ricky “Grasshopper” Junior  (NZL) 5773.64 2 1449.50 913.50 1460.25 990.00 1349.25 888.40 1632.00 1000.00 1468.50 929.43 1542.50 993.24 1609.75 947.47 1351.00 872.18
BRIGGS Mike “Baldrick” Senior  (NZL) 5468.34 3 1340.75 844.97 1475.00 1000.00 1396.50 919.51 1344.00 823.53 1580.00 1000.00 1323.00 851.90 1447.50 851.97 1128.25 728.37

Intermediate IMAC

Competitors Cat Country Total Position Flight 1
Known
Finished
Flight 2
Known
Finished
Flight 3
Known
Finished
Flight 4
Known
Finished
Flight 5
Known
Finished
Flight 6
Known
Finished
Net Norm Net Norm Net Norm Net Norm Net Norm Net Norm
MAITLAND Aaron “Sparky” Senior  (NZL) 4000.00 1 2040.25 1000.00 2153.50 1000.00 1960.75 1000.00 1961.00 1000.00 1976.00 1000.00 2022.25 1000.00

Unlimited IMAC

Competitors Cat Country Total Position Flight 1
Known
Finished
Flight 2
Known
Finished
Flight 3
Known
Finished
Flight 4
Known
Finished
Net Norm Net Norm Net Norm Net Norm
BRIGGS Frazer “Bogan” Senior  (NZL) 3000.00 1 4300.75 1000.00 4189.00 1000.00 4385.75 1000.00 4401.25 1000.00
KNOX John “Oil Tycoon” Senior  (NZL) 2799.90 2 3895.75 905.83 3945.50 941.87 4074.75 929.09 4088.50 928.94

 

F3A

Position Competitors Total Flight no 1
Finished
Flight no 2
Finished
Flight no 3
Finished
Net Norm Net Norm Net Norm
1 BRIGGS Frazer (Bogan) (911) Snr  NZL 2000.00 554.75 1000.00 554.25 1000.00 565.50 1000.00
2 KNOX John (917) Snr  NZL 1948.07 522.75 942.32 548.25 989.18 542.25 958.89