West Auckland Airport Parakai is available for General Aviation, drop-in visitors welcome. Radio 123.5 in MBZ.  Due to frequent skydiving, please join downwind, base or final (not overhead).  Visitor parking by the hangars down taxiway

Tecnam ZK-CDL Overhaul:   CDL is back in the air, having been test flow and released to service.  In addition to the paint, the seat upholstery, cabin linings and carpet of the interior have been redone.  The finishing touches with more decals, logos etc will be done on un-flyable days.   

As always with aircraft, there are considerations that don't apply to ground vehicles...  e.g. the repainted tailplane changed in net weight, so the forward balance arm weight was adjusted to keep the mass inertia within the prescribed limits, to maintain the correct response to turbulence.

This has all taken a while, and fortunately Auckland Flying Training's low wing Tecnam Sierra, ZK-TST, has been available for approved pilots so that the work on ZK-CDL could be done without time pressure.    Now that more pilots are rated on ZK-TST in addition to ZK-CDL, they have two aircraft to choose from, which will make for better availability of an aircraft for them to fly on busy days.

Tecnam Echo ZK-CDL, inspected and ready for its test flight.

West Auckland Airport Parakai, NZPI, Approaches:

The Mandatory Broadcast Zone (MBZ) is only a few miles wide, and obviously it is mandatory to have a radio and make a call to 'Parakai Traffic' before entering that.   Not quite so obvious is that the normal rules of broadcasting intentions within 10 miles of an aerodrome also apply...  so all aircraft should change to 123.5 and make a call at 10 miles, just north of Gibbs Farm at Glorit... or from the South well before the glasshouses.  Approaching from the East change at the power lines near Kaukapakapa.  The only difference of the MBZ circle from the 10 mile circle is that non-radio aircraft can transit through the 10 mile circle.

The Safety Committee has asked us to remind aviators to enter the circuit flat, so as to be able to see other aircraft.   Descending onto the circuit can obscure sight of other aircraft, so get down to circuit height a little before joining rather than joining on a continuous descent.  With the common join of 'right base', this means getting down to 1000ft a mile or two out,  join flat, and only resume the descent once you're properly on base.

As with most airports with heavy skydiving (Taupo, Wanaka etc) never do an overhead join, just in case there are skydivers you're not aware of.

West Auckland Airport NZPI from the SW, non traffic side.

Looking after the Airport's Environment:

Weed Control:   The Airport has been researching and experimenting with non-chemical control of the Alligator weed that has long invaded the ditches on the Kaipara and choked the drains.   Letting in controlled amounts of seawater has proven effective, and is much kinder to the Inanga and juveniles of other fish species that breed in the harbour, compared to spraying weedkiller or using diggers to clear the ditches.    Further work is being done in conjunction with the Council waterways biologists and the method developed is likely to be rolled out by the Council to other properties on the Kaipara Harbour and its rivers.

Bird Control:  Work on this has also been quite effective, and by studying the habits of the birds and making the airport less attractive to them, its been possible to make the birds spend more time elsewhere.   Skydive Auckland runs a bird scaring device on their swooping pond for the same reason... that's what causes the loud 'shotgun' type booms at regular intervals.   The birds are not keen to settle if they think there are shooters in the area.  With our 'Aimm' Movement Monitoring service now used by nearly half the active NZ airports, we use our client newsletters to spread the suggestions for non-lethal bird control to many other airports in NZ and Australia.

Low-emission Aircraft: The Airport's flight training aircraft have been low-emission for a long time, and produce less than half the emissions of a Cessna or Piper training aircraft.    Partly this is due to the lighter weight of the Tecnam aircraft used at West Auckland, but mainly because their 1990s designed Rotax engines are considerably more efficient than the 1950s designed Lycoming and Continental engines traditionally used for training.  The Rotaxes also use unleaded road vehicle fuel ('MoGas') getting a similar Km/Litre to an efficient car,  rather than leaded aviation fuel ('Avgas') so there is a worthwhile benefit there too...   more airports might move to Mogas aircraft if they were exempt from road taxes like those using Avgas :(.    As soon as practical the airport would like to move to zero-emission electric training aircraft and ground vehicles, and is actively investigating these.

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Coming Events:

20th - 21st - 22nd September.   Hood Aerodrome Masterton NZMS:  90th birthday for this active Aero club on an aerodrome that has a wide selection of aircraft.   It is sometimes possible to see Peter Jackson's WW1 replicas, built to the original plans using materials of the time.

COROMANDEL NZCX:  Second Sunday of each month from 12:30. Clubhouse Ph 07 866 2055. Click here for airfield details.

WHANGAREI NZWR: Last Saturday of each month at hangar 10, the Western end of the row of hangars.  Whangarei Flying Club meeting at 10:30 with lunch to follow.  Clubhouse phone 09 436 4053.  Click here for airfield details.

MATAMATA NZMA:   Last Sunday of every month from 12 noon. BBQ flyin.  BYO meat for BBQ + gold coin.  Click here for airfield details.

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Tower and Engineering