White trash
13th March 2006, 08:35
After much pondering as to what would suit and surprise my lovely woman for an anniversary gift for the weekend, I came up with the brilliant plan of booking a flight on the Catalina flying boat out of Ardmore. Feeling very proud of myself and dropping a few hints and red hearings here and there, Sunday dawned and she was none the wiser as to what was happening.
We got out about 500 meters from the airfield before she clicked as to what was happening and then almost exploded with excitement. We've wandered around and had a look at the Cat' a few times and it's always intrigued us both but to get the chance to fly in this rare warbird is something else. This particular machine first flew on March the 14th, 1944 so was celebrating her 62nd birthday almost at the same time. The earlier Catalinas were built as boats only with no landing gear but with airfields popping up everywhere during WWII, they made later planes amphibious to add to their versatility.
Before climbing aboard, the crew briefed us with a little history and things to expect during our 1/2 hour flight. We boarded through the small hatch in the left hand side and made our way into the rear passenger compartment and were briefed on the safety warnings and escape hatches. Then the huge twin engines were primed and fired into life. And fuck me are they loud! No such thing as insulation in this puppy.
It's a pretty cool experience sitting on the tarmac at Ardmore, in a WWII flying boat, watching Harvards and other WWII planes take off and land right next to you. Pre flight checks completed, the pilots rolls us out onto the runway and gasses her up. Things are getting REAL loud now. As we accelerated to lift off speed, I was quite impressed by the acceleration this old plane showed and it's not long before you're bounced off the ground and getting a wicked view of Papakura as we banked to the right and headed north. At 1000 feet cruising altitude (which is bloody low) we were allowed to get out of our seats and experiance the coolest bits of the trip.
First, we went into the rearmost compartment for a look out of the observation blisters. Sitting right up in there you get a 180 degree viewof the ouside of the plane. It's absolutely stunning and I didn't want to move. You're only alowed 4 passengers at a time back there as it upsets the attitude of the plane so we moved forwards to let others have a look and climbed up behind the pilots to watch over their shoulders. With a forward facing view of Auckland, I was gobsmacked at the amount of instrumentation these things have. I also cracked up at the really nasty looking, 14 inch steel steering wheels they steer with. We also got a chance to climb up the inside of the pylon that mounts the wing and look out the observation windows, which have no glass. You're directly under two 1200hp, aircooled, 14 cylinder orbital engines. This is where the engineer would sit in the old days and it's fucken deafening.
We flew right up and 'round the Sky tower and over the Viaduct, all at 1000 feet and then flew back south. You really notice turbulence in this old thing as it's cruising speed is only 100 knots and a couple of times we got that funny lurching feeling. All bloody good fun.
All too soon it was over and we were perparing to touch down again back at Ardmore, everyone still grinning from ear to ear.
All in all, this was probably the biggest buzz I've had in a long time. The Catalina club own this plane, the only one flying in Australasia, and operate it on donations from Mainfreight and people buying seats as we did. It is without a doubt the best way to see Auckland city and if you're even remotely interested in old planes, you'd be sick not to. It's not even expensive.
Check out www.catalina.org.nz
I'm still buzzing now.
We got out about 500 meters from the airfield before she clicked as to what was happening and then almost exploded with excitement. We've wandered around and had a look at the Cat' a few times and it's always intrigued us both but to get the chance to fly in this rare warbird is something else. This particular machine first flew on March the 14th, 1944 so was celebrating her 62nd birthday almost at the same time. The earlier Catalinas were built as boats only with no landing gear but with airfields popping up everywhere during WWII, they made later planes amphibious to add to their versatility.
Before climbing aboard, the crew briefed us with a little history and things to expect during our 1/2 hour flight. We boarded through the small hatch in the left hand side and made our way into the rear passenger compartment and were briefed on the safety warnings and escape hatches. Then the huge twin engines were primed and fired into life. And fuck me are they loud! No such thing as insulation in this puppy.
It's a pretty cool experience sitting on the tarmac at Ardmore, in a WWII flying boat, watching Harvards and other WWII planes take off and land right next to you. Pre flight checks completed, the pilots rolls us out onto the runway and gasses her up. Things are getting REAL loud now. As we accelerated to lift off speed, I was quite impressed by the acceleration this old plane showed and it's not long before you're bounced off the ground and getting a wicked view of Papakura as we banked to the right and headed north. At 1000 feet cruising altitude (which is bloody low) we were allowed to get out of our seats and experiance the coolest bits of the trip.
First, we went into the rearmost compartment for a look out of the observation blisters. Sitting right up in there you get a 180 degree viewof the ouside of the plane. It's absolutely stunning and I didn't want to move. You're only alowed 4 passengers at a time back there as it upsets the attitude of the plane so we moved forwards to let others have a look and climbed up behind the pilots to watch over their shoulders. With a forward facing view of Auckland, I was gobsmacked at the amount of instrumentation these things have. I also cracked up at the really nasty looking, 14 inch steel steering wheels they steer with. We also got a chance to climb up the inside of the pylon that mounts the wing and look out the observation windows, which have no glass. You're directly under two 1200hp, aircooled, 14 cylinder orbital engines. This is where the engineer would sit in the old days and it's fucken deafening.
We flew right up and 'round the Sky tower and over the Viaduct, all at 1000 feet and then flew back south. You really notice turbulence in this old thing as it's cruising speed is only 100 knots and a couple of times we got that funny lurching feeling. All bloody good fun.
All too soon it was over and we were perparing to touch down again back at Ardmore, everyone still grinning from ear to ear.
All in all, this was probably the biggest buzz I've had in a long time. The Catalina club own this plane, the only one flying in Australasia, and operate it on donations from Mainfreight and people buying seats as we did. It is without a doubt the best way to see Auckland city and if you're even remotely interested in old planes, you'd be sick not to. It's not even expensive.
Check out www.catalina.org.nz
I'm still buzzing now.