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  1. cwyckham

    Gimli Glider

    One of the guys I work with at Viking Air was on the Gimli Glider! I just talked to him about it today. He was actually working for Air Canada as a mechanic at the time and was riding back home from a job on the Gimli Glider when it suddenly got very, very quiet. He said the most amazing...
  2. cwyckham

    DHC1 Chipmunk

    I work for the company that now owns the type certificates of all the de Havilland Canada aircraft up to and including the Dash 7. We're currently working on bringing the Twin Otter back into production. People often talk about what other models we might consider bringing back. Usually people...
  3. cwyckham

    60 Year Old Beaver

    Happy Birthday to the de Havilland Canada Beaver (what did you think the thread was about?) which turns 60 today. Viking Air, who now owns the type certificate, is serving cake at 3pm today on our ramp. I'll sneak in any PoA types who can get to YYJ for a peice of cake. Chris
  4. cwyckham

    Twin Otter

    I thought some of you might be interested to know that the de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter is being resurrected by Viking Air in Sidney, BC. We've sold something like 60 of them at about 3.5 million each. Anybody wanna buy an airplane? Some of you will remember that I left New Zealand...
  5. cwyckham

    Wave at Omarama

    Wow, wow, holy cow! I had one heck of a glider flight a couple days ago. For those who are unfamiliar with it, Omarama is a world reknowned gliding location just East (downwind) of the highest part of the Southern Alps on New Zealand's south island. I had allowed 3 days to try to get a...
  6. cwyckham

    PBY Catalina Flight

    I went for a flight on a PBY Catalina today. This particular one was built in Canada during the war and worked the North Atlantic. After the war it spent some time in Canada, Costa Rica, and even flying the Nile in Zimbabwe. It is now privately owned in New Zealand by a syndicate of...
  7. cwyckham

    Flight to an Offshore Volcano

    A few days ago I had my last New Zealand flight before I move back to Canada. I certainly ended on a high note. I had a 3.4 hour flight from Ardmore airport near Auckland to White Island, an active volcano 27 nm off the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. I made the flight solo in a...
  8. cwyckham

    DC-3 Flight

    A couple weeks ago, I went for a flight over Auckland in a DC-3. It's a regular tourist flight used to raise enough money to keep the local DC-3 (actually, a Dakota) flying. For you fellow glider types: This one was reinforced for use as a towplane to tow assault gliders during D-Day...
  9. cwyckham

    [NA] Circumcision and HIV

    Very definitely not aviation related: Ok, this is a really fascinating article saying that circumcision drastically decreases the risk of HIV transmission in heterosexual men (not really new news, just a larger study to confirm what people already knew). However, check out the name of the...
  10. cwyckham

    SR20 Flight

    I had my first flight in an SR20 (never flown an SR22 either) today. 0.9 hours, $250/hr wet (NZD). That is a very sleek, powerful machine. I liked the glass panel a lot, though to learn how to use it well would take many hours. It was fast, and it climbed so well I had to really concentrate...
  11. cwyckham

    NZ Medical

    My US medical runs out in a week, so I had to go and get my first New Zealand medical. It's been three years since my US medical and I can't remember the details that well, but I'm sure they did a lot of extra stuff here. Both were just for a PPL. In NZ they do some things for a new issue and...
  12. cwyckham

    Constant Speed Prop

    I am seriously confused about cruise settings for constant speed props. I've attached three performance charts from a C182, a C421, and a Diamond DA20-A1 Katana. I was always under the impression that one chose the rpm to fly at based on whether you wanted speed or range. High rpm would give...
  13. cwyckham

    Helicopter Pilots

    I went in to do my first NZ medical today (that's a whole 'nother thread), and was talking to the nurse about pilots. They do about 50 medicals per week, and I asked if she got bored of it. She said no, the pilots are all really interesting people and are really "switched on." She then said...
  14. cwyckham

    Good day at Ardmore

    I work at Ardmore airport in Auckland, New Zealand. It's a GA airport and is the busiest airport in NZ! It's a lot busier than Auckland International, but is uncontrolled. I've been on final with five other aircraft, and there's two parallel runways (one grass) with both sharing the same...
  15. cwyckham

    Anybody want to buy a country?

    The actual real live country of Sealand is for sale. http://www.sealandgov.org/history.html http://www.cbc.ca/cp/Oddities/070109/K010902AU.html
  16. cwyckham

    Spin

    Well, I had my first inadvertent spin last week. I was in a PW5 glider and on only my third ever flight in this aircraft type (or in any single seat glider). There's something very interesting about the whole concept of learning to fly a single seat aircraft. The first few seconds of my first...
  17. cwyckham

    Name that airplane

    Here's another fun name that airplane game. This one is parked on my home airfield in New Zealand. Sadly, it's not currently airworthy. Perhaps this one's a bit too obvious, but I wanted the excuse to post pictures of myself in front of a very unique little airplane. You don't see one of...
  18. cwyckham

    Shot out of a cannon.

    I went down to the local glider club today to sign up. I haven't flown a glider in a year. I used to fly a Schweizer 2-33 (an antique) at van Sant in PA using aero tow launches. Here they have all new ships. I was flying in a PW6, and they're getting a duo discus x this month as well. They...
  19. cwyckham

    Hearing protection

    I'm volunteering with St. John Ambulance, and they made me do a hearing test before I started to establish a baseline to see if the sirens are damaging my hearing over time. I was dismayed to find out that I had significant hearing loss consistent with exposure to noisy environments. I haven't...
  20. cwyckham

    Control Tower Visit

    I just went up for my first control tower visit today, and it was great. If you can do it, take advantage of the opportunity. I was at a smallish international airport (NZHN), and I just called them out of the blue and asked if I could come have a look. They invited me right up. I learned a...
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