Lower North Island round trip 16-4-22

 Having seen the weather was looking good, decided on doing a nice trip up to Feilding and down to Masterton.

I had pre-arranged meeting with some of the local aircraft owners, but was nice to see a load of activity at Feilding, here is what I saw:

Visiting Aircraft:
ZK-DSK Piper PA-28-151
ZK-WBL Cessna A185F

Local Aircraft:
ZK-AWH Auster J1B
ZK-BZB Piper PA-28-160
ZK-CBM Cessna 172S
ZK-CPP Mooney M20C
ZK-CWJ Alpi Aviation Pioneer Jay Hawk
ZK-DUQ Piper PA-28-180
ZK-DXL Cessna 172M
ZK-EBR Meteor S.p.A Sky Arrow 480T
ZK-EJV Cessna A152
ZK-EMK Cessna 180K
ZK-ENB North American Harvard 3*
ZK-EOJ Cessna 152
ZK-EYI Ultralight Mirage
ZK-FWB Light Miniature LM-1
ZK-FXG Micro Aviation B22 Bantam
ZK-JBU Cessna 152
ZK-KFA Tecnam P2002 Sierra
ZK-KOS Rans S-9 Chaos
ZK-LJI Piper PA-28-181
ZK-LLY Tecnam P2004 Bravo
ZK-MBI Piper PA-34-220T
ZK-MMC X-Air Hanuman
ZK-PGU Cirrus Design SR22
ZK-PMD SPA Panther
ZK-RVT Vans RV-10
ZK-SKO Meteor S.p.A Sky Arrow 480T
ZK-SLH Jabiru J160
ZK-SLN Sling Aircraft Sling 4 TSi
ZK-SMJ Rand KR-2 (Unregistered)
ZK-SPO Glasair Sportsman 2+2
ZK-STG TL Ultralight TL-2000 Sting
ZK-SVG ICP Savannah
ZK-THK Tim Bygate Tiger Hawk
ZK-TRD Tecnam P.92 Echo
ZK-TRO Cessna T210R
ZK-UDY Zenair Zenith CH-200
ZK-USK Aviat A-1C-180
ZK-XPA Maxair Drifter XP503
ZK-ZOT Zenair Zodiac 601

And a few photos from today:

Recently moved over from Takaka. A very nice looking Auster!

First time getting a proper look at this Light Miniature!

A pleasant surprise to see being moved in to the Flying Club hangar, soon to be flying again!

After a couple of hours of catching up with people, decided to see what was going on at Masterton. Sadly there wasn't anything happening, but did see these local aircraft:

ZK-CJG Bolkow Bo 208 C Junior
ZK-DOY Tecnam P2002 Sierra
ZK-JBX Piper PA-38-112
ZK-LGT Akrotech G200
ZK-LTQ Pacific Aerospace Cresco 08-600
ZK-MBO Piper PA-44-180T
ZK-WRA Tecnam P2002-JF

Last stop was the nearby Glider strip at Papawai, where a bit of activity was happening. Here's the gliders I saw:

ZK-GMB Grob Astir CS 77
ZK-GNB Glaser-Dirks DG-100G ELAN
ZK-GTR Stemme S 10-VT
ZK-GUS Schempp-Hirth Arcus T
ZK-GVA Glaser-Dirks DG-400
ZK-GZY Schempp-Hirth Ventus 2cT

Not too bad a day, no new aircraft for me, but nice to catch up with a few people.

Wairarapa Balloon Festival

 Originally, I was planning on going to Classic Fighters at Omaka over the weekend, sadly those plans fell through.

So, for the last week, I have been keeping an eye on the weather for the Wairarapa to judge if it would be good enough for the Balloon festival to go ahead. It was very on and off, but yesterday it looked promising for today and the organizers announced their intentions to let them fly.

So, I risked it and got up at 4am this morning for the drive over to Martinborough, where they were planning on lifting off at the golf course. At 6:30am the go ahead was given, so everyone got to work inflating the balloons. The first one lifted off just before 7am.

Was nice to see a total of 18 balloons get up and head towards Featherston way.

Here are the ones I saw:

G-OPAW Cameron Z-105
N9129V Aerostar S-52A
ZK-FAA Kubicek BB30Z
ZK-FAI Boland 38-8
ZK-FAN Thunder and Colt AX8-90 Series II
ZK-FBA Kavanagh C-77
ZK-FRE Kavanagh D-84
ZK-KKH Cameron O-65
ZK-LAR Cameron C-80
ZK-LOP Boland 52-12
ZK-OAK Cameron Z-275
ZK-PNG Ultramagic H-77
ZK-PPI Cameron C-70
ZK-RYZ Kavanagh C-77
ZK-SEL Cameron N-90
ZK-UCF Kubicek BB20E
ZK-WBC Cameron Z-90
ZK-ZVE Cameron N-133

The only special shape, buster the dog! G-OPAW, a new one for me!

N9129V, also new for me.

ZK-FAA, new one for me!

ZK-FAN new one for me!

ZK-FRE, remember seeing that registration on a 737! New one for me

ZK-UCF, new one for me!

ZK-WBC, new one for me!

ZK-ZVE, my last new one!

Just had to get this shot, just through the trees, showing 12/18 of the attending balloons!

Was fun chasing them to Featherston, but an incredible sight to see in the sky as I was driving home. I didn't see where they landed, but at a guess it was towards Lake Domain reserve at the top of Lake Wairarapa.

Currently i'm planning on going up to Whanganui on Monday in hopes of catching the Classic Fighters aircraft on their way home. Most of the aircraft dropped in for fuel there on way down to the airshow, so hope they do same on the reverse!