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AUCKLAND REGIONAL MICROLIGHT AIRCRAFT CLUB. (ARMAC)

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TARMAC's

What is Microlighting

AIRFIELD GENERAL 

• Unfortunately due to Ports of Auckland wanting their land back, so they can turn it into a used car bond store, Pikes Point will be closed indefinitely from the 9th December 2005.
• Fortunately we have been welcomed at Mercer, which is the home of the Auckland Parachute centre. We plan to reistablish ourselves at this site and will be based there for the foreseeable future. A series of working bees will be held to aid with this transition.
• Mercer airfield can be found by road very easily. Take the motorway south until you reach Mercer township, turn Right at the service area, drive behind the complex and then cross the bridge and drive through the village and up the hill, drive along the top for a few ks until you come to the airfield sign, turn right and drive down the gravel road until you reach the strip. Park in the carpark and enjoy the activities.

ARMAC

CLUB NIGHT  
• NEW CLUB NIGHT: 1930 hours TUESDAY 13th November 2007 at the Commercial Travellers Club 27-33 Ohinerau St Remuera at 19:30hrs 
  
  
  
• There is often a guest speaker to talk on aviation matters, general discussions and tea and biscuits and a bar. There is no "secret handshake" required, just turn up for a look see. During and after the tea & biscuits stage we all mill around talking flying and are eager to find some new blood to bore with our magnificently embellished  tales. We can also show you the Club Training Aircraft and give you the paperwork to fill out should you decide to join the Club. NOW NO JOINING FEE!!!!
   



• The club Bantam has been completely restored and is now back on line. Many thanks the Micro Aviation and Chris Todd for the effort put into this project, check it out below.
  
  
• Resident on the field are, (in no particular order), 2 Pelicans, 6 Bantams, 1 Titan Tornado, 1 Trike and a Tractor.

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DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME, JOIN THE CLUB INSTEAD
By Ex President Anton

Most of my flying up until the mid 90’s had been in hang gliders, but if I go back to my first microlight flight it ends up being about 1984.
Trikes had been gaining popularity with hang glider pilots in the early 80’s, but as I didn’t learn to fly hang gliders until 1982 I missed out on the start of the fad. Terry Delore had been for a short time NZ’s most prolific aircraft manufacturer, producing more aircraft per annum than any one else; he had been making Trikes. By 1984 I had become a proficient hang glider pilot and was looking for more challenges. The opportunity to buy a Delore trike-base came along and so I parted with $1000.00 and took it home. The wing of choice was the Vampyre, which had been manufactured by Pacific Kites in Henderson. The company had gone into receivership a few years earlier but there were plenty of wings around, I bought a Vampyre 185 off one of my mates. The wing needed its keel strengthened and extra side wires; this was done and the unit was ready to fly.
It seemed prudent to run the engine up at home first; I pushed the front wheel against the house and started it up. The engine was a single cylinder Robin exactly the same as Bruce Lawson’s, (in-fact the base unit was the same also). It was impossible to start until I found the compression release valve and then it started easily. I had great difficulty in getting the engine to rev up smoothly without adjusting one of the mixture screws on the side of the carburettor. To solve this problem I fitted an extension to this which could be used in flight. The exhaust was a very crude expansion chamber with no after muffler and made a shockingly loud noise; it was no wonder microlights of the time had a bad name.
The next question was where to go to try it out. The logical choices of Pikes Point or the beach seemed to elude me. I was getting keen to try it out when the right day seemed to arrive. It was blowing a light NW so we all went to a now unused hang gliding site in the Kaipara hills known as Masons Rd. It was a lovely site which had a topdressing strip running along the top. The only thing wrong with this site was the hill directly in front was higher than the launch site. When the wind was fresh the turbulence was diabolical, probably why we don’t use it any more. The wind turned out to be too light for hang gliding so we rigged the trike.
At this time I don’t think I had actually seen a trike flying before, anyway I started it up and rolled off down the strip and into the air, climbed to about 2000’ and flew out to State Highway 16 and then back to the strip. I reduced power for the descent and found that I didn’t quite have the glide of a hang glider and so opened the throttle a bit. This is when it started to get interesting - remember the running up problem and the strips on the top of the hill bit. The engine started to miss and was surely going to stop so I closed the throttle and tried to ease it back on but the engine wouldn’t have a bar of it. I couldn’t let the engine stop as in-flight starting was not an option, remember the compression release bit. I had dropped below ridge height and the stockyards were looking likely but not good. I tweaked the mixture screw and the unit spluttered and burst into life and enabled me to climb back over the top. Once over the top I closed the throttle and made an approach. I applied a bit of power to help with the round out but nothing happened. By now I didn’t care - the landing was a bit firm but no damage.
Not long after that I joined ARMAC and had several flights from Pikes Point, but flying the couple of k’s down to Mangere Bridge seemed fairly adventurous with that unit.

That’s how it was done in those days; if you had some sort of flying experience then you were good to go. Of course microlights were a lot slower which made impacts less painful. To attempt such bravado in today’s machines would be nothing short of reckless with death as the only possible outcome.      (i.e. by being shot by the Chief Safety Officer) if you're lucky enough to still be alive.

This website is proudly sponsored by ACOMODATA (residential rental properties and aviation enthusiasts) For additions etc. mailto:webmaster@armac.info Last updated 11/11/05