I was doing some building with my good mate Adam out at Omaka on Friday night when he mentioned two of the Triplanes were being flown to Masterton and another coming back, and would I like to see them off?
Craig Anderson removes the door from Piper Somethingorother ZK-DOT as Gavin Conroy readies his camera gear
Surely that was a rhetorical question.
6:40am yesterday saw Adam and I at the Aero Club, wheeling out practically every aircraft in the fleet outside to get access to the delightful, but tired, Super Cub ZK-ERB (which Adam was using to fly chase and do radio calls for the Dr.Is).
After a nice hose down and rub, we taxiied her over to the Antique Aeroworks hangar, where the triplanes of Richard Wenzl and "Von Doe" were waiting.
The pilots, Tim Sullivan and Paul "Huggy" Hughan (who'd flown down especially for the ferry flight) pre-flighted and went on their way, having a wee photoshoot with Gavin Conroy and Cherokee ZK-DOT en route. I snapped the accompanying pics myself in the meantime. Tim and Huggy are great mates, which shows in their flying - from startup til departure, they maintained impeccable formation. What a great way to start your weekend!
Lothar's Triplane was due to come back today, but the weather at Masterton may prevent this for a while. It's overcast but still here in Blenheim ATM, so there's still hope!
Enjoy!
BTW - October is "Meet The Fokkers Month" at the Aviation Heritage Centre, with four Triplanes returning for display along with information and displays. There'll be special Fokker merchandise available at great prices as well, so it's going to be the ideal time to visit. See you there!
!
Would've been Huggy in either Weiss (heading north) or Lothar's (coming back home).