Masterton Air Rally (56k death)

Spin Echo · Post by **Spin Echo** » 2007-08-31 12:27am

Spyder and I took a trip to the Masterton air rally in the Wairarapa last weekend.

Folding wings for convenient storage.

You might recognise this as the plane from King Kong. The oil and dirt on it is actually painted on.

When a fast car just doesn't compensate enough for you, own a P40 kittyhawk. Available for joyrides at the low price of $3000 per hour.

Tiger moth with her cowling down. Also a movie star, appearing in Black Sheep.

Piper Supercub

A Boeing Stearman.

Go west young man! The plane Spyder and I rode in for the air rally, a Cherokee 6

The Chipmunk

Take off and the lovely Wairarapa.

Where they take you out to do your "getting lost" part of pilot training.

More hills. Sometimes the airplane glass does weird things to my photo colours.

500 ft above the ground at all times...

We also took a spin past Peter Jackson's house. Our pilot said Peter doesn't like people taking pictures of his house, so I didn't take any photos of that. Sweet digs, though.

Post by **Broomstick** » 2007-08-31 02:46am

Look! It's Middle Earth!

And, um, drool....

Spin Echo · Post by **Spin Echo** » 2007-08-31 02:52am

Broomstick wrote:Look! It's Middle Earth!

And, um, drool....

The fun thing is, most of those plane are at the Masterton aerodrome all the time (thanks to Saint Peter). So once I get a real job or win the lotto, it'll be fun to take them for a spin.

Spyder · Post by **Spyder** » 2007-08-31 09:27pm

The circuit is going to seem so dull now.

tim31 · Post by **tim31** » 2007-09-01 04:56pm

The RNZAF is looking good, guys

Spin Echo · Post by **Spin Echo** » 2007-09-01 09:58pm

tim31 wrote:The RNZAF is looking good, guys

Don't be silly. The fighter capability of the Old Stick and Rudder Company is vastly superior to that of the RNZAF right now.

aerius · Post by **aerius** » 2007-09-01 10:26pm

Is it just me or do all Boeing Stearman planes have the same colour scheme? The one you photographed, the one Broomstick flew in, and the one I saw at the air show today were all the same blue & yellow.

Spin Echo · Post by **Spin Echo** » 2007-09-01 10:46pm

aerius wrote:Is it just me or do all Boeing Stearman planes have the same colour scheme? The one you photographed, the one Broomstick flew in, and the one I saw at the air show today were all the same blue & yellow.

Not sure. Doing a scan of Gooogle images, most of the Stearman's on there have a blue and yellow paint scheme. There's a couple all yellow ones and a red one on there, so it's not completely uniform, though. I suspect that blue and yellow are probably the original colours the plane was painted, and most people stick to that out of tradition.