On Thursday evening they started to arrive. Modellers from all over NZ and Australia were lobbing into this South Waikato town for this premier event, the 2013 ANZAC jet meeting. Tokoroa only has about 4 or 5 hotels, and every room had been booked out weeks in advance. As we all congregate around a couple of rooms, tell lies and and solve the problems of the world over a few beers, it is also the opportunity to cast an eye over the new machines guys are turning up with. I guess we are seeing the same with most disciplines now, but there is certainly a growing trend towards the ARF type models. The quality of these kits is quite outstanding now and they are getting people into the air quickly.
FRIDAY This is typically our setup and flight testing day. An area we were very particular about was ensuring all models complied with the large model inspection process. Our club inspector, Dave Hodges was kept out of trouble for most of the day helping out with these inspections and certifications. All of the Australian visitors had their aircraft inspected under the Model Aircraft Association of Australia( MAAA) inspection process, which requires every turbine powered model to be inspected regardless of weight, to a program similar to the requirements for large models. In addition to this, we carried out a basic inspection of every aircraft, regardless of weight or size to our NZJMA standard. Apart from the odd locknut or screw needing tightening, the standard was very good.
The facilities at Tokoroa are nothing short of being first class. Our pit area is located within a horseshoe shaped taxiway, which is where we setup our marquees. This works ideally for us giving a dedicated path in and another one out of the pits to the sealed runway and also allows plenty of vantage point viewing for the visiting public. The current drought however was very evident, as there was no shortage of dust around the place where we normally enjoy green grass. This of course also raises our level of alertness due to the risk of starting a grass fire. Something we rarely need to worry about.
It wasn’ t long however before the kero was burning and the skies were getting cut up. Although there was a slight crosswind, it did remain quite steady all day at around 5 to 10 knots. One of the first into the air was Jason Starkey from Sydney with his Jetcat P160 powered BVM Kingcat. Jason also brought this aircraft here last year and won the pilot’ s choice award with it after burning over 80 litres of fuel for the weekend. These larger turbines have fantastic power / weight ratios, but they do drink the fuel at rate of around a litre in 2 minutes with the throttle in the go fast position. Also from Sydney was ex Kiwi, Roger Perrett with his new BVM Super Bandit powered by a Merlin 140. Roger is very particular about his models and flies them well. Two new aircraft test flights were Peter Agnew’ s Aermacchi MB346 and my own MAS Vigilante Sport Jet. Both went very well apart from some minor trimming issues. Peter’ s aircraft is an ARF kit from C & C models Italy and mine was built the old fashioned way from a basic fibreglass fuse and foam cores( and a few hundred hours).
SATURDAY A short delay getting started today due to a nice thick early morning South Waikato fog. But, as usual, the sun burnt it off pretty quickly and returned a splendid day again with slight crosswinds, which didn’ t seem to present too many
Top: Peter Browns Skymaster Phantom on touchdown with drag chute deployed. Above: Jared Mulholland’ s A10 Warthog about to land Below: Rene Redmond’ s Strikemaster with Tony Withey’ s MB339 Macchi