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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 on the concrete driveway to the Tower in winter, and on the grass in summer.

Recurring events back on: After a long Covid pause, the regular weekend events in the north are back:

DARGAVILLE NZDA: Every Saturday. Fly in for lunch. Famous throught the north for it's lamb on a spit, and usually draws a good crowd of hungry aviators. Clubhouse Ph 09 439 8024. Click here for airfield details.

WHANGAREI NZWR: On Sundays from 12 midday, 'Penny Burgers' (for $7 per person, not One penny). Click here for airfield details.

Engineers Bryn and James have finished the design and the fabrication of the rack, exit path etc, and will fit this a.s.a.p. ZK-ECL has recently had its 1200h major check, which involves close inspection of all the crtitical components and replacement of time limited parts.

The Tecnam 'Echo' ZK-CDL and the Dynaero ZK-WIK already have whole aircraft chutes. In event of a forced landing its ideal to glide down and land on a hard beach or paddock... but if the only options are water, soft mud, or trees, the airport would rather you used the 'chute so there is no drama... worldwide the 'chutes have a great history of 'walk away', not always the case with a forced landing onto a soft or difficult surface. The 'chutes are there to save the people, not the planes.

Seasprite Helicopter refuelling: The large Seasprite military helicopters need to practice off-site refuelling from a tanker, and seen here is one dropping in at West Auckland for that purpose with quite a substantial ground crew waiting. We're always happy to welcome the AirForce/Navy flyers to use our Pilot Room and other facilities any time they need a different base. These are interesting machines... note the 'aileron' type controls on each of the rotor blades. The wheels retract for in normal flight.

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, and Microlights. 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.

Oskar's Electric Helicopter: A recent issue of 'Kiwi Flyer' magazine has a cover picture of Oskar and many photos of his electric helicopter in the air at West Auckland Airport Parakai as it works through its initial flight testing hours. Its a major achievement to have converted a two-stroke Mosquito Helo to Electric, really the building and certification of a new aircraft using some of the components of the original. This is not a project to attempt in your own hangar unless, like Oskar, you are an Electrical Engineer with design experience on Hybrid battery bus development... to know what problems needed solving, where the solutions might be found, and to be able to demonstrate to 'The Authorities' that its been properly done to aviation industry standards.

ZK-IAB's first very careful lift off, at Tauranga NZTG.

If you're interested in Helicopters, get a copy of 'Kiwi Flyer' Issue 75, #1 of 2021... not only are the building project and engineering considerations covered in detail, but there is also a lot of information on the characteristics of electric flight and the substantial changes it brings to helicopter ops, and modes of failure.

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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. This is due to the lighter weight of the Tecnam aircraft used at West Auckland, and because their 1990s designed Rotax engines are considerably more fuel 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. There is already an Electric Helicopter based at the airport, ZK-IAB, suitable airport maintenance tasks are carried out using an electric ground vehicle, and the Airport is actively investigating moving to electric training aircraft as soon as practical.

Coming Events: ZKCDL and ZKECL are approved to use any AIP listed airfield. They are not approved for beach landings. Landings at non-AIP airfields require approval of an instructor, and insurance may not be valid.

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.