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

Masterton Airport (Hood Aerodrome):   On a recent visit to Masterton NZMS in early October, some of the vintage aircraft were out for their firsr run since the winter, taking advantage of a nice day.   At times it was like WW1 with flocks of biplanes and triplanes manouvering overhead, many with a thin trail of fragrant castor oil smell from their total loss lubrication systems.     Note that NZMS is to be the venue this year for the 'First Aviation Event of the year',  planned for 1st Jan 2020 (more details below). 

Masterton NZMS

From 2012:  Two Skydive PAC 750 XL aircraft, the familiar white ZK-SDF being visited by a friend, the silver coloured ZK-KBR.   Other skydive PACs are sometimes seen transitting through as they are swapped around between Kerikeri, West Auckland, Hamilton and Taupo as required for servicing.  With their 750 HP turbine engines and high lift wings, the PACs will sometimes take off with a slight tail wind as their commercial pilots (who have 'done the numbers' on each flight) know exactly what takeoff roll they will need.    Unless you also have 750 HP, don't assume that what works for them will work for you... always takeoff and land into the wind.     The skydive pilots are happy to advise runway currently favoured by the wind. 

PAC 750 XL aircraft, ZK-SDF and ZK-KBR

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.

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

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Coming Events:

Sun Nov 17th 2019;  Turangi Aero Club's (early) Christmas Fly-in:     Turangi is at the southern end of Lake Taupo so not too hard to find... but remember, Lake Taupo might look like the sea, but its surface is around 1200ft altitude, and Turangi NZTN is at 1220ft, so the circuit is at 2200ft and joining overhead 2700ft... big numbers for those accustomed to sea level airfields.  More details at    http://www.saa.org.nz/promoter/promoter/events/view/new-zealand/turangi/turangi-aero-club/turangi-aero-club-xmas-fly-in

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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