Planes

Today while I was down at the airfield Kathryn and I were lucky enough to see a flight of 8 "Yaks" landing and the taking off again. They'd been performing at the big Warbirds over Wanaka airshow that's held every second year. Our airfiled is a convenient place for them to refuel on their way back to their home base. The Yaks did a low pass in formation over the airfield with smoke on before landing, and then after refuelling they took off in formation. It was quite a sight!

I think they are Russian air trainers from the late 1940s or 50s. We also saw a Beaver come in to land and refuel. Earlier in the day Alex from my work had taken me for a flight, he's practicing for his Commercial Pilot's Licence so he did maximum rate turns ( about 60 degrees, feels like you're standing on the wingtip) wingdrop stalls, low flying and a practice forced landing with out power- as well as crosswind circuits. It was so cool! He's really good and should have no trouble passing his flight test next week. It'll be my last flight in a long time, as I need to save up money now to go down and see Phil and Magenta in the South Island. So I'm glad that the flight was something a little different. I wonder just how long I CAN last before the urge to go flying again gets the better of me?