By Rod Douglas 

You and I both know just how lucky we are to love flying. We both know that when we step aboard whatever our chosen steed, it’s like stepping into Dr Who’s Tardis. All the rules that bind those earth bound, others are suspended and we fly free, metres giving way to miles, perspectives unlimited and with a freedom to just go where and when you choose.

And being pilots we live with the wonderful bombardment of messages that are about safety. Be free but, whatever you do, be safe. Good messages too. Just occasionally though, I like to imagine myself moving, (in a safe way obviously), to explore more challenging flying. Often that more challenging flying is also dramatically more beautiful flying.

Now Australia has got to be one of the world’s best flying environments. Great wide open spaces with little weather, no really high rocks, uncluttered airways and wonderful, friendly people wherever you land. You can always find somewhere interesting to go and it’s all pretty easy.

Occasionally through I’d like a little more challenge in my flying. Big beautiful mountains; short hops where the constantly changing landscape takes your breath away. Weather that requires real knowledge and real planning. Safety is, of course, simply about making good decisions and staying within your limits. So if you want some adventure, make sure you’re trained right and that you make safe decisions.

I learnt much of this through high country flying in Colorado where very high mountains, stunningly beautiful scenery and incredibly rapidly changing weather conditions require real competence. But the best flying I’ve ever done is much closer than that…just across the pond in New Zealand.

Now New Zealand has best been described as the whole of Europe packed into a postage stamp. The entire country is the size of Colorado and is located about 2,000 km east of Australia. From the northernmost tip to the southern colds of Invercargill is about 1,000 km. With about 268,000 sq km of total land you could pack the dynamic people and their amazing economy onto a couple of Northern Territory stations.

But don’t be fooled, the New Zealanders are no fools. In fact, they are one of my favourite people. Honest, friendly and with a down to earth approach to life that seems to appear wherever people are forced to live in the harsh and cold conditions that a true winter brings, they’ve built a great economy off the back of the lush green lands and inherent resourcefulness of a people living at the bottom of the world.

And the flying…New Zealand has everything. High mountains, with its 20 highest mountains all over 10,000 ft and Aoraki, or Mt Cook as us white fellas know it, stretching its fingers high into the sky at 12,319 ft. Contrast that to the broad open expanse of the Canterbury plains and add in the long pristine beaches of the north island and the types of flying that you can choose become innumerable.

Fancy the challenge of mountain flying with the unpredictable inputs of micro climates, mechanical turbulence and rapidly changing weather? How about 90 miles of low and slow running up the beautiful Waipapakauri Beach that stretches from Apihara to Cape Reinga at the northernmost tip of the North Island? Or back country helicopter flying into gorgeous little spots where the trout bite hard and the nearest human is who knows where.

Australians know wilderness as the vast unknown of miles and miles stretching forever. For the Kiwis it’s the tight and tiny little pocket just over there where, without an aircraft, you could drive for days and days to get where an hour of flight freedom would put you right now.

So what’s the infrastructure like? Put simply, it’s superb. New Zealand has 174 airports and heliports that AIP New Zealand publish charts for. They stretch from Stewart Island in the south to Kaitaia in the North. They’re supplemented by the literally hundreds of private strips that cover the landscape, used and maintained by the farming community in New Zealand. With nearly 3,900 aircraft on the New Zealand register and a thriving aero club community, accessing an aircraft is simple and the flying is generally unrestricted and easy.

New Zealand has generally led Australia in deregulation and privatization and the general attitude to flying in New Zealand is one of expecting the participants to be responsible and cooperative. This results in an open skies approach with towers only servicing high frequency airports. The CAA has a simple license validation process that requires that your Australian license be current with a current medical and BFR…and that they remain current for the whole of your stay. With the paperwork filled out in advance all that is required is a quick check flight.

So, by now you should be salivating at the thought of getting some amazing flying done in this incredibly beautiful country. What are the options?

For the adventurous you can of course fly yourself across the ditch. Not for the faint hearted, I’m certain that every single engine aircraft is built with the specific ability to know when they are over water and to run just that little bit rough. But seriously, it really is doable. I took a couple of minutes to program up the Garmin trainer to have a look at what the flight would look like if I flew out of Archerfield.

The flight to New Zealand is 1234 nm Brisbane Auckland direct. This is outside of the range of most GA aircraft and the accepted route is to fly via Lord Howe Island, then Norfolk Island before finally running south down to Auckland. The leg lengths are all manageable for most high performance aircraft with the Norfolk Island Auckland leg the longest at 552 nm. With no wind, I could make Lord Howe in 2 hours 12 minutes, Norfolk Island in 2 hours 41 minutes and 3 hours 4 minutes for the Auckland leg. Total flight time of 7 hours 57 minutes.

That would be one long day’s flying. Most people seem to break it up with a night on each of the islands and it’s not a silly idea as they are both beautiful places to spend the balance of a pleasant flying day. Of course, for those intrepid adventurers it’s mandatory to be carrying a life raft and life jackets and you’d probably want to add a personal 406 mz locator beacon with a GPS, as well as a satellite phone and hypothermia suits to the packing list.

Obviously it’s a heck of a lot cheaper (but a lot less fun) to buy yourself a cheap airline ticket and spend a few hours shoehorned into an aluminum tube with all the other punters crossing the Tasman. Once in New Zealand there are plenty of opportunities to rent aircraft at reasonable rental costs. So, if adding a little flying to your land based holiday is your intention, then it may not even be worth getting your license endorsed and, do as I regularly do, and just grab an instructor, an aircraft and go fly.

For those of you who really want to see New Zealand, the other very attractive alternative is to go touring. I mean serious touring. A holiday that is built around aviation and can traverse the whole and the best of this amazing country.

I’ll share with you two amazing options.

The first is to join the Flying New Zealand’s Air Safari. An amazing 10 day adventure that starts on 23rd March 2010 and, over 10 days, explores the whole of both islands before finishing in Queenstown on the 1st April ready to experience the amazing ‘War Birds over Wananka’ spectacular. Flying New Zealand is the umbrella organisation for the aero club movement in New Zealand and started life as Royal New Zealand Aero Club.

With 38 member aero clubs it certainly makes the Australia aero club movement look like poor and ineffective cousins.  You can discover more of the amazing world of New Zealand aero clubs at www.flyingnz.co.nz where you will find links to all of the member clubs. As you watch the website you will be amazed to see the quality of the facilities. There is also a vast range within the fleet and there seems to be a real sense of camaraderie around membership. While they all provide some professional training, unlike many of the Australia aero clubs who have given up member service to become not-for-profit professional training organisations.

So… get yourself an aircraft and join the Air Safari. It departs out of Ardmore with a limit of, wait for it, 70 aircraft to trek around the country. I’m told the Air Safari will be full. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen 70 aircraft engaged in something like this in Australia, yet a quarter of our population, the 4.25 million Kiwis, pull it together with seemingly consummate ease.

The safari departs from Auckland Ardmore and heads north up the west coast, around Cape Reinga and back down the east coast to spend the first night on the Coromandel Peninsula. A more spectacular day’s flying you can’t imagine until you get deeper into the safari and start the amazing mountain flying in the South Island. After 10 days of literally winding your way from the northernmost point, to doing a lap around Stewart Island in the far south, you will have literally seen it all. Best of all, you will have done it with a couple of hundred new friends with a truly amazing appreciation for that which you love, aviation.

That’s one type of unique. An alternative, but equally great way to see this amazing country, is with Flyinn New Zealand. This is a completely different approach. Personalised, intimate, in control of your itinerary yet guided by an amazing passionate family committed to showing you the best of New Zealand.

Flyinn is a family owned business run by Matt and Joanne McCaughan and their children Heather and James. You become the personal guest of the McCaughan clan at their beautiful 5,500 acre sheep and cattle farm, Geordie Hill. Matt, a pilot of 20 years’ experience with a specialisation in mountain flying, has developed the Flyinn with the specific purpose of building a great business that is a delight to operate, because his customers are all like him…passionate aviators who delight in and value the incredible experiences provided.

They offer a range of itineraries from the 8 day ‘Fiordland Explorer’ with 12 hours of flying and one nights’ accommodation on Stewart Island which is a real fly out, fly back experience of Georgie Hill through to the 11 day ‘Mountain, Ocean and Island Life’ with 19 hours of flying and a complete experience of the South Island. Finally, you can do the whole of both islands on the ‘Long White Cloud’ tour of 19 days and 28 hours flying.

Their tours are conducted in their own two customised Cessna 172s. Maintained to a high charter standard, these aircraft are both fitted with a Pen Yan conversion. This upgrades them to a Superhawk by the fitting of a 180hp engine and fixed pitch Sensenich propellor. This gives extra performance including a 250lb increase in maximum gross weight. They both have long range tanks, GPS, four place intercom, cellphone wired to intercom, nav comm, ADF, transponder and sheepskin seat covers. They look very sharp in yellow and blue. They are an excellent aircraft, well suited to the mountain flying and touring and, naturally, very easy to fly.

For larger groups they have a Cessna 206 available which allows families or multiple couple to participate in these amazing adventures. I simply can’t imagine a more divine approach to fully enjoying a holiday. You get to live on a beautiful and peaceful working farm where your day will

start with the freshest of fresh air, to be followed by the smell of a home cooked breakfast…and knowing that you’ll soon be going flying to see some of the world’s greatest scenery.

Now if I haven’t tempted you with either of those possibilities and you’d like even more freedom, how about this one for size? For $730 per hour + GST you can wander off all over New Zealand in a 2008 Robinson R44 Raven I with a couple of cargo pods on either side as you begin to discover just how much the land of the long white cloud has to offer. Could this be the ultimate adventure for the grey nomad as they meander from one amazing camping site to another? Surprise and delight your mates as you creep up upon them by flying up the river gorge only to drop into the parking spot next door and pull out the tent.

It’s a remarkable approach to marketing block time usage for a private helicopter and, even more importantly, than that it attracts people who will use it intensely without the risks of putting your precious machine on line to be thrashed by learners looking to discover their own limits.

Of course, for this one you will need the appropriate licenses and the capacity to pay the piper at the end of the trip.

And yet it doesn’t matter how you go about your flying in New Zealand, it is something you really should commit yourself to doing. Whether you’re going to challenge all your demons and take on flying the puddle, or just grab an instructor and an aircraft and play in the skies, or anything in between, it’s great to remember just how much fun it can be to have the freedom and the perspective to go tooling about exploring what might be, or following your nose to see just what that is over there. We all do it when driving cars, so why don’t we do the very same thing at every possible opportunity when an aircraft will give you even more to see and experience, especially in the pristine environment that is New Zealand? Some people wake up and think they have to take a stand and start smelling the roses.

I have a very different view. When out and about, I look for an adventure too and, for me, there is nothing worse than more of the same. So tune your nose fully and, once you’re convinced that an adventure is to be had, then do something about it. Combine your love of aviation with your desire for a great holiday and life starts to become far more interesting.