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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

MERCER AKRO FEST: An Aerobatic Festival is being held at Mercer, NZME, on the weekend of 10th / 11th October, so keep well away unless joining carefully to watch the action from the ground. Listen to the NZME MBZ on 133.05 and follow instructions there to join.

Both ZK-CDL and ZK-ECL are getting a lot of use, its great to see everyone keen to get back in the air after the lockdown and storms. To help free us the weekends for those with regular jobs, the midweek discount of $10 / hour applies for flights on Tuesday - Wednesday - Thursday.

West Auckland Airport Parakai: Facilities & Services. Visitor facilities with tea / coffee / cold drinks / toilets in Pilot Lounge. Icecreams and more cold drinks are often available at the skydiving base across the road.

Aircraft Engineering, Skydiving, Introductory flights and Flight Training for PPL/CPL, Microlights and Gyrocopters. Aircraft parking, Hangarage, Hangar building sites.

Phone first 09 420 8010 if you will need fuel, as sometimes we're all off flying.

Commercial opportunities exist for new operators at West Auckland.

Refuelling Platform for High Wing aircraft:

The refuelling platform provides a steady base for refuelling ZK-CDL and other high wing planes. It's well padded, but planes are fragile so approach carefully :). The platform is kept at the refuelling point. Those who bring their own fuel in cans are welcome to bring them to the fuel apron and use the platform to put the fuel on board, which is better than refuelling inside a hangar and avoids carrying the cans so far from the carpark.

Pull back on the long handle to raise onto the wheels, release to lower.

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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. All suitable tasks are carried out using an electric ground vehicle, and the Airport is actively investigating moving to electric training aircraft as soon as practical.

Tiger Club Spring Flyin, Taumarunui, 16-18 October. Contact Graeme Wood 027 2932318 or email: ruffchops@gmail.com

Black Sands Flyin at Te Kowhai, 14 November. Contact Bruce Cooke 02 1122364 or email: bmcooke@waikato.ac.nz

NAC Events for the Next Summer Season:

 Saturday 31 October – Pancake Breakfast at Kaipara Flats  Saturday 21 November – Poker Run from Dargaville to North Shore  Saturday 5 December – Christmas BBQ at Springhill  Saturday 12 December – We are being hosted by Kaitaia Aero Club with beach landings  Wednesday December 30 – Whananaki flyin  Saturday 9 January 2021 – Pancake Breakfast at Kaipara Flats  Saturday 13 February 2021 – Mata flyin

We also plan to have a gathering at North Shore sometime to see what is in the various hangars, and we will hold our next AGM at Kaipara Flats sometime in March/April 2021 with a luch BBQ to follow.

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.