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A stunning trip to Kaikoura and back!

I went on my first fly away with the club a few weeks ago and it was an amazing trip! I flew down in one of the tomahawks with our new instructor, Jared. Lawrence, enjoying the fruits of his PPL, bought a tomahawk down by himself, while Iain flew down in MBG with Xingtao and his family. That morning Wellington put on a clear blue sky for us but threw in a nice north-westerly. This presented us with lots of bumps and updrafts as we plodded our way down over Island Bay while trying to stay at...

How to ditch your aircraft

If not, then you should! ASAP....

Pilot Information Evening: Ditching

Captain Sully put this bird in the Hudson. You've heard the tapes, and know that he certainly mastered that old saying "Aviate, Navigate, Communicate"....

Fun events for women interested in aviation!

As part of the Women of Aviation Worldwide Week we are offering a special deal on Trial Flights for women. You will be able to purchase a 20 minute trial flight in one of our two seater training aircraft for just $130! You will take control of the aircraft in a hands on flight above Wellington Harbour. You can purchase a voucher now by contacting the aero club directly either by phone on 04 3888 444 or email at info@flywellington.co.nz. Just quote the code: WOAW2016 to receive the discount. ...

Women of Aviation Worldwide Week!

"Women Of Aviation Worldwide Week is a global outreach initiative that takes place annually during the week of March 8, the anniversary date of the world's first female pilot license since 1910 and International Women's Day since 1914. The week is designed to raise awareness of aviation opportunities available to girls of all ages while celebrating the accomplishments of past and present women of aviation." - Women of Aviation Week website ...

What's up at the Club

We've got some cool stuff planned for our members over the next few months, hopefully there's something for everyone and we'll be seeing a bit more of you all. One date you really need to lock in now is Friday 4 December for our Christmas party and end of year prizegiving. Always a laugh! Our events calendar has a flyaway scheduled almost every month until April 2016, you can check out the plan here. Of course, if there's something missing from the list that you really want to do, just let u...

The fine print

Let's see a show of hands....who has ever read Terms and Conditions (for anything).....from start to finish....without skim reading....? If we are to be completely honest, we are all guilty of agreeing to Ts & Cs (at least once!) without actually reading them, generally because non-acceptance of them means we can't do what it is we want to do! If you haven't already, now is your opportunity to familiarise yourself with the WAC Ts & Cs, it's one page of fairly easy reading. In all ser...

President's Report - 2014-2015

One of the biggest challenges for any small aero club is that they neither have the scale or resources to easily overcome the major changes that come up. We started the year without a full time CFI. The extensive recruitment process that we conducted to find a permanent CFI resulted in several good candidates, and during this process we were also presented with an option to outsource the flight and training operations to an independent operator. Going through the recruitment process made us real...

WAC Annual General Meeting

The 86th Annual General Meeting of the Wellington Aero Club will be held on Wednesday 29 July 2015. The meeting will be held at the Spruce Goose restaurant and bar (the former Wellington Aero Club clubrooms) on the corner of Moa Point Rd and Cochrane St in Lyall Bay. We are planning to precede the AGM with light refreshments, including bar facilities. The order of events for the evening will be as follows: 18:30 Venue opens for pre-meeting refreshments 19:30 AGM commences At the conclusion of ...

President's Patter

Hello Wow, how quickly a year flies by with just under two months until the AGM! Formal notification will be sent out shortly, however at this stage we have tentatively scheduled this for Wednesday 29 th July 2015, so mark this in your calendars. It was an exciting year for my family with our second son born on the 16 th March 2015 which has kept us fairly busy! Unfortunately this has meant it has slowed progress on the update to the WAC strategy which we started earlier this year. We will m...

Pearl Harbor and the Pacific Aviation Museum

We all know the story of how the Japanese caught the US off guard at Pearl Habor in 1941. If you ever have the opportunity to visit the historic site, do, it's well worth the time. I went just last week and although I'm not particularly a war buff, it was educational and enjoyable. The Yanks know how to tell a good story and are very proud of their history. Pearl Harbor is a slick set up, you can pre-book online a spot for the USS Arizona which involves a short boat ride out to the sunken v...

Club Captain Update

There continues to be a great vibe around the club, with quite a buzz on busy flying days! An increasing number of members stick around for a chat after their flight or for a drink at the end of the day on the weekends, which is fantastic to see. The start of the year has seen one out of the two planned club trips go ahead: Day trip to Masterton We had a successful club trip to Masterton in February. Four club aircraft headed up along with the C206, which meant a total of 8 members and 4 inst...

Change in the wind

We are changing the way we present the Windsock newsletter. We will be using the blog right here on our website as the main source of communication with our membership to keep you up-to-date and informed on what's happening at the club and what members are up to in a more timely manner. Every few months we will post reports from our President, Club Captain and CFI, in between all the other amazing blogs we will have from you all! :) First up is the inside word from our club President, Der...

Interested in 5 minutes of fame?

Do you have any exciting adventures to share with your fellow members? Have you learnt something interesting about aviation recently and think others might also might find it interesting? Got some cool photos from your flight to share? We think it'd be pretty cool for you to expand the minds of your fellow Club members, and also save our fingers from the onerous task of typing. If you've got something to share, please, send it in and we'll put it up for others to enjoy!...

PIREP - Pilot reports

Imagine: You're down at the Club on a busy Saturday. The weather is CAVOK but the wind is forecast to pick up around the time of your flight (typical Wellington!). You've done your pre-flight walk around, documentation, planned where you'll be flying and are pretty much ready to go. As you're in the hangar on your way out to the aircraft, a fellow Club member comes in from his flight. Nodding politely to him is one way you could go, but that's simply not how we roll at the Wellington Aero C...

AvKiwi safety seminar - 26 June

Each year the CAA run a safety seminar road show called AvKiwi. This year they are presenting all around the country on weather, here's the brief they've given: "Weather can be a puzzle - you've got all the pieces, but how do you fit them together to create the right picture? Accident investigations suggest that pilots who had weather related accidents didn't understand the weather. This year's seminar can help you navigate your way through the mass of information out there. You'll also hea...

Thanks Jamie and all the best!

This photo was taken at Jamie's farewell at the Spruce Goose. From left to right: Club President, Derrick Westenra, Jamie Dunbar, Club CFI Andrew Sims....

Club trips and flyaways

Our Club is a community of people who just love aviation. The committee, via the Club Captain, organise regular club trips and flyaways for our members. They are a great chance to get together with fellow aviators and head somewhere for the day or weekend. The photo above is of when we flew over to Omaka for a club day with the Marlborough Aero Club - it was beautiful and the hospitality we receive from MAC is always friendly with a pinch of competitiveness. This year, we have flyaways sched...

Windsock - November to January 2015

The Windsock is the newsletter of the Wellington Aero Club. It is published quarterly and discusses what the Club has been up to, some interesting thoughts on aviation and what we've got to look forward to here in Wellington. If you've got any content you'd like to add, please just let the instructors or Amy (our Club Captain) know....

Our new website!

We hope you like our new look website. You're now able to check out everything we're up to in one place; events planned, our aircraft, info about flight training, purchase trial flights online. Woohoo!...