I had come to Heliflite Pacific at Ardmore to take a look at the R66 Turbine—the latest iteration of Frank Robinson’s evolutionary series of simple, affordable and reliable helicopters. With a stark blue sky as a backdrop, the Ferrari-red R66 looked fantastic as it sat parked on the apron outside Heliflite. It might have been Friday the 13th (of May), ...

By Rob Neil. The Tecnam P2008 is undoubtedly the most attractive single-engined aircraft produced by Tecnam to date. A true “composite” aircraft, the P2008 is Tecnam’s first to utilise carbon-fibre for major construction. The aircraft features a carbon-fibre fuselage and fin, while its wings and control surfaces, and its horizontal tail (stabilator) are all made of metal. The aesthetically pleasing flowing ...

By Donald Harward It just happened to be Memorial Day, but in Afghanistan, it didn’t seem any different from any other day. The flag outside was still flying at half-mast. I wasn’t sure if it was flying that way for the guys who were killed a couple of days earlier, or perhaps someone from the previous night—I didn’t want to ask. Today, ...

By Rob Neil This year’s Australian International Airshow at Avalon was—surprisingly—the first I have been able to attend personally; every other time the show has been held, something has cropped up that has prevented me from attending. So I was extremely interested to compare Avalon with major international shows like Paris, and quality New Zealand shows like Wanaka and Omaka. The 2011 ...

By Donald Harward The nose pitched up gently to around two degrees above the horizon as we started a slow climb to flight level 330. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the air was smooth in the climb. The jet was operating like the finely tuned machine it was designed to be, passing effortlessly through the atmosphere at .80 ...

By Peter Cooper. Britain led the world with the introduction of the V/STOL jet but despite its second-to-none capability, after 41 years of successful operation, the Harrier is now a thing of the past in British service. Peter Cooper looks back at the Harrier’s genealogy and offers images of the final day of Harrier operations at RAF Cottesmore. Back in ...

By Don Harward Those who have read my previous letters will already be familiar with my good friend Matt. This particular Matt story took place in the mid-90s and began back at sunny Fort Campbell, Kentucky, where Matt and I were stationed together. Matt was the company’s safety officer and I was its standardisation instructor pilot—sort of a catch-all flight standards/operations/lead ...

In a state that is around 10 times bigger than the UK, it’s no wonder that fly in, fly out (FIFO) operations are used so widely in Western Australia to ferry workers to and from remote Outback mine sites. Getting up in the early hours of the morning when most city workers are still hours away from catching the bus ...

By Mike Friend. Upon entering the grounds of this year’s EAA Oshkosh AirVenture, I was surprised to come upon an aircraft that I had assumed had long since disappeared into the mists of time. During my young aeroplane-mad childhood, frequent perusals of Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft had led me to believe that this aircraft—the Fletcher FD-25—would have been the perfect ...

If the magic of flight is what drives a person to learn to fly, then there cannot possibly be a better place to fly than Queenstown. The joy that floods an aviator’s heart once he or she leaves the ground is magnified a hundred-fold by the magical grandeur of the area’s scenery. The view of the Remarkables from the balcony of ...