High Flyin
Marlborough Express reporter CHERIE HOWIE goes for a spin, literally, with Omaka Real Flying Club syndicate members and their fabulous flying machines.
Can the magic of flight ever be carried by words? I think not.
Aviation writer Michael Parfit had it right when he wrote this line in a tribute to forgotten middle America crop dusters for the Smithsonian magazine eight years ago.
And yet my brief this week is to write about not just flying, but rolling and looping and soaring above the Marlborough Sounds in perfect sunshine on a Saturday afternoon.
Like many spoilt children I've been flying so long I don't even remember the first time I took to the air.
But, and I'm thankful for it, none of the countless commercial flights I've taken over the years have ever soared sharply skyward and then turned back on themselves, in an instant making a mockery of all that seems normal and safe and sane.
And yet that moment, when I saw the world delivered back to me, upside down, will remain etched in me, hopefully, until I am just a memory.
That moment came the Saturday before last when photographer Christine Cornege and I accepted an invitation from Omaka Real Flying Club syndicate member Tony Clarry to fly in the syndicate's Nanchang CJ-6A.
Earlier in the week we had spent an hour in both the Nanchang and the syndicate's other aircraft, a 1944 Tiger Moth, flying south to the Awatere Valley and back up the coast to snap some photographs for this feature.
Donning a traditional hat, goggles and a pilot's scarf given to a teenage Tony by his grandfather, I was soon buzzing as the hot yellow Tiger Moth headed south.
Flying in the open was a completely new experience for me; reel me in, I was hooked.
However, despite the Tiger Moth's charms, nostalgia and better paint job it was the Nanchang - a military green, early 1980s Chinese training plane, a workhorse - that won my heart.
S wapping planes so Christine could get more photos, Tony and I flew towards Cloudy Bay, the Nanchang's hood still removed.
Circling several times to allow the slower Tiger Moth to catch up, I found myself leaning out at each sharp turn we took.
Peering down on the familiar landscape, I watched cars heading south on State Highway 1.
It seemed crazy that normal life was continuing while I was having this amazing experience just 600 feet above.
I asked if we could do some loops but time restrictions and bulky news photography cameras ruled it out.
Tony told us to come back and have another flight and I quickly arranged it, all the while telling myself not to get too excited in case it doesn't happen.
When we pull up to the field on Saturday afternoon, the weather over Blenheim is cloudy.
Tony tells us he might not be able to find a place where he can gain enough height to pull off a few loops.
I tell him we're happy with whatever, which is only half a lie.
I am happy flying over the Marlborough Sounds.
But, I will be even happier rolling and looping over the Marlborough Sounds.
The flight out to Queen Charlotte Sound is bumpy; the sea, disturbed, looks almost tropical. I bet it doesn't feel it.
We pass Port Underwood, leaving the cloud hovering over Blenheim behind.
There is hope!
Soon, Tony is telling me to prepare for a barrel roll, in which the plane turns wing over wing, followed by a loop.
He tells me to clench my stomach muscles if I feel sick.
I know this is going to make me sound like a dork, but I practise.
The thought of being sick, upside down, in someone else's plane, and miles from the airport doesn't bear thinking about.
Tony asks if I'm ready to see the world upside down, I say I am and try my best not to sound nervous.
That nervous excitement builds as Tony does final visual checks for other air traffic; a radio call signalling our intentions has already been completed.
I suppose it is important that we don't collide with another aircraft.
We do a barrel roll and then begin to climb steeply - this is it.
The sun blinds me momentarily before I realise we are almost upside down. I hear myself scream with delight.
Suddenly the world appears, upside down, as promised. I want to say something, but there are no words.
It's a reaction Tony is familiar with.
He has given countless people the same experience I have just had.
"I once took a 72-year-old woman, in England, she'd never been in a small plane. She screamed all the way around and told me she dined out on (the experience) for six months."
Talking to Tony, completing the manoeuvre seems to be no big deal.
The plane knows what to do, with the barrel roll at least, he says.
The loop is a bit harder.
All the same, I'm glad Tony's at the controls.
A former British Airways pilot, he has been flying for 40 years.
He joined the syndicate about six years ago, five years after it started with just a Nanchang.
A Tiger Moth was added four years ago.
Now, the syndicate is hoping to add more members.
New members pay $12,000 to join, returned if they leave, and between $75 and $100 to use the plane for an hour with a pilot.
While all 18 present members are pilots, new ones don't have to be, Tony says.
"You can join the syndicate as someone who likes planes.
"There would be people that would never dream that they could fly in something like this."
Sharing that experience is something the syndicate pilots never get tired of.
"We all love taking people flying because it gives so much pleasure, young or old.
"Marlborough's scenery is so vivid from above.
"This must be the greatest entertainment experience ever."
I have to agree.
I've been to Disneyland in three different countries (what can I say, the mouse has pull) and a giant German theme park that outdid them all.
Now I feel like I've been ripped off.
It was here all the time.
Interested in becoming a member of the syndicate?
Contact Tony on 579 4987, 021 73 1150 or email barnstormers@xtra.co.nz
An open day, with both planes on display, will also be held between 4pm and 6pm this Saturday next to the Bristol Freighter at Omaka Airfield.
- The Marlborough Express
