Bob Struthers. 1971

Cross-country from New Plymouth Airport

1971

With the end of summer in sight and my 300km cross country still only two straight lines on a map, I decided one Saturday morning that the sky didn't look too bad and after a prod or two from my crew man Bob Jans, took a tow from New Plymouth airport into 3000ft of blue air over Lepperton. After a small gain in the smoke of a scrub fire, I headed off eastwards towards Everett Park where a few cu's had appeared. Arriving at 1800ft, I climbed quickly in the first thermal to cloudbase at 3500ft and with other cu's in reach, I knew a cross country was possible. I flew south through Kaimata, Ratapiko, Douglas and in due course arrived over Lake Rotokare where I elected to turn onto a safer route close to the coast rather than follow the cu's directly across the tiger country towards Wanganui. This turned out to be a mistake as from then on, gravity prevailed and I landed on a large aerodrome-like paddock a few miles south of Eltham. A telephone call to Bob and a few beers at Tariki on the way home. Not even a silver distance but very enjoyable and after reading of recent attempts in an easterly direction by the Wanganui boys, I know that a 300km to Hawkes Bay or the Wairarapa is a Monty. And this raises another thought, what about a "Wanganaki Cup" to be held by the Club that made the Warrengate/German Hill trip either way, with perhaps, a social function to mark the transfer.

Bob Struthers

1971