| SportAvex Day 1 - 5th Feb 2010 |
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On Friday Feb 5th 2010, Chris Rarere and I drove down from Auckland to Tauranga to attend the SportAvex SAA fly-in and Tauranga airshow
over the Waitangi Day weekend. SportAvex is a three day event run every two years by the NZ Sport Aviation Association and showcases the SAA
movement in NZ and all that Sport Aviation is about. Each year the SportAvex also hosts an airshow on the Sunday of the weekend with a practice
day on the Saturday which is run in parallel with the SportAvex event. This year SAA passed organisation and control of the airshow component
over to the Tauranga Vintage Aviation Trust and the Tauranga Rotary Club with the result that the SportAvex component of the show was somewhat
overwhelmed and excluded by the airshow component but never the less still provided and excellent weekend of displays, seminars, catching up
with friends and general opporutnity to indulge in our passion for aeroplanes.
Below are the images from day one of the airshow after Chris and I had driven down from Auckland in the morning. I hope you enjoy them.
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After arriving at Tauranga airfield around 11am, Chris and I wandered round the SAA encampment looking at the aircraft
that had already arrived and chatting with the folks that were about. This amazing RV-10 was sitting on the line looking very tidy.
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Turns out the RV-10 was built by Neil and Sarah Colliver who use it to fly their large family (they have 5 kids) around the country.
They are originally from the UK having come out to NZ in 2000. They intend to do a round the world trip in this aircraft starting
in July-August this year. It will be interesting to watch their progress.
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Chris giving scale to an Avid Flyer
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This is a locally designed and built aircraft called a Snark. The rear passenger visiblity must be awesome.
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Another of the many RV aircraft in the aircraft park. This one is a RV-6A and is absolutely immaculate.
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This is the office of the RV-6A. As you can see it is beautifully fitted and finished.
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Given that I am building my Horizontal Stabiliser with balance horns I was very interested to see how the balance weights were fitted
on the RV.
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A Murphy Rebel, again finished immaculately.
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The Rebel's office.
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This Harmon Rocket is flown out of North Shore airfield north of Auckland and I have been on a SAA club visit to the owners hangar and
listened to him speak about the aircraft. It is basically a highly modified RV kit designed for very high performance.
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A very well presented Jodel D19.
I spoke with another Jodel owner recently and he reckoned that owning a Jodel is probably one of the cheapest ways to fly in New Zealand.
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A very tidy Glassiar III.
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A Zenith. I don't know an aweful lot about this aircraft make.
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A JungeMeister.
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Chris checks out the cockpit of MIJ.
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The Europa is a popular make of aircraft in New Zeland. There are at least three of these aircraft that I know of based in NZ.
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An oldy but a goodie. A Corby Starlet.
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This Cessna 182 had been fitted with a 260hp engine and canards. I had never seen anything like it before but Chris had read about the mod
and how it improves the STOL performance of the 182 considerably.
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Another immaculate RV.
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