John King reports from Tauranga
For some time New Zealand has suffered a gap in its flight training. As aeroplane manufacturers have all gone the tricycle way it has become increasingly difficult to find somebody to train pilots in the tailwheel types still to be found among classic aeroplanes and some custombuilts.
True, there are some pockets of tailwheel training in such places as Ardmore, Te Kowhai, Masterton, Omaka and Mandeville, but they are scattered and not widely known. How can the recreational pilot who has gone through the PPL system with an aero club, for example, expand his or her horizons and move into some of the more interesting and challenging types, or earn extra ratings such as aerobatics? Where can one learn engine handling and hand starting with the experts?
The questions have occupied Andrew Gormlie, too, as if he hasn’t had enough to do setting up and running Classic Flyers at Tauranga. With that well established, he has started thinking about some of the broader aspects of flying, and the result is Classic Flight Training, started recently from a hangar just along from the aviation museum.
“We don’t do any ab initio training here,” Andrew is at pains to point out. “We are not competing with the local aero club or flying schools. This is for people who are already GA pilots and want to extend their experience. We specialise in aerobatics, tailwheel ratings, engine handling, including hand starting Gipsy Majors and radial engines, banner towing — many of the unusual things you won’t find at your average aero club.”
CFT can be restrictive, not necessarily sending pilots solo in some of the trickier types, although type conversions are an important part of the organisation. The fact that all the pilots on tap are instructors means every flight is under instruction, and that even extends to the growing tourism factor in this very tourist-oriented part of the country.
It’s devised to attract more people to classic aeroplanes, and part of that is encouraging part-ownership of interesting types. As Andrew says, one-tenth ownership of 10 aeroplanes, for example, costs the same as full ownership of one but offers so much more flexibility and interest.
Aircraft on the Classic Flight Training line are all privately owned and leased by CFT. They include Airtourer T3, Piper Super Cubs, Chipmunk Tiger Moth, Stearman, Cessna 150, Harvard and CT-4B, a collection catering for most tastes.
Pete Ham is CFI, usually found giving tourist joyrides in the resident AgCat, and available at various times are other instructors: Matt Olsen, Keith Skilling, Phill Hooker and Peter Meadows. Between them they bring several lifetimes of experience in interesting aircraft to an organisation that aims to extend the general experience of the GA and recreational pilot.
- John King