AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2019 - 56

LOCAL PILOTS host international visitors at Nokomai Station (above). Check the "flown over

an active volcano" box with a Husky trip out to White Island in the Bay of Plenty (above
center). Pioneer Aero's Bell P-39 restoration (above right) and AVSpecs de Havilland
Mosquito project (bottom right) showcase some of the amazing warbird projects underway
at Ardmore Airport near Auckland.

you can always rent the DC-3 for an outing with friends. They do
like their airplanes in New Zealand.
Heading back south from Tauranga we tool along the coast past
scads of kiwifruit orchards. They are easily identifiable from the air
because they are inside hedgerows made up of much taller trees to
protect the fruit trees from the wind. And, just so you know, when
New Zealanders are referred to as "Kiwis," it is referencing the bird,
not the fruit. Because it's a flightless bird, the reference doesn't, well,
fly so well with New Zealand pilots.
Later, we team up with Peter Rutledge, a friend of Schulte's
who owns AeroHire, a flight school at Whakatane, for a photo
shoot of Schulte's Husky over White Island, an active volcano
30 miles off the coast in the Bay of Plenty. The island is white
because of all of the sulfur spewed by the volcano. Flying the
Husky, I focus on the Cessna a few feet away as photographer
Chris Rose shoots photos and video out the Skyhawk's window.
I know we're close to the island, though, because of the sulfur smell on the downwind side. I catch a few glimpses of the
volcano, steam still rising from the caldera. It last erupted on
September 26, 2017. What are the chances it will again today?
We ponder that briefly-very briefly-and then head for shore.
A day later we arrive at what seems like Warbird Central for
New Zealand. Ardmore Airport, located just south of Auckland,
is one of the busiest general aviation airports in the county
and is home to four flight schools, a large flying club, a restaurant, several restoration shops, and the New Zealand Warbird
Association. The airport is one of many on the North Island built
by U.S. forces during World War II as fallback positions in case
the Japanese took over Australia. Fortunately that didn't happen, and the Ardmore community had the good sense to protect
their airport and turn it into a thriving GA facility.
56 | AOPA PILOT February 2019

The Warbirds Association is the home to some 35 aircraft,
many of them warbirds and all of them privately owned. The
large hangars housing the collection are jointly owned and the
members share resources and skills to keep the fleet flying. One
newly established hangar houses airplanes built for World War
I and through the 1930s. More modern aircraft are amassed in a
large, brightly lit hangar with a mezzanine for events and educational experiences.
Just down the ramp at AVspecs, Managing Director Warren
Denholm toils away day after day on his latest pride and joy:
the building of a de Havilland Mosquito. There are only a handful of Mosquitos in flying condition in the world, and Denholm
built most of them. Like his previous effort, this one is being
built for an American. Having seen warbirds all over the islands,
by now I'm not surprised at the stunning quality of the work.
The Mosquito is unusual because it is made mostly of wood, a
change necessitated during the war because metal was scarce.
The designers came up with painstaking methods of bending
and shaping plywood to create the airframe. The result is a
remarkably fast and lightweight multi-mission aircraft that was
a favorite among World War II pilots. Two 1,650-horsepower
Rolls-Royce engines propel it along at more than 400 miles per
hour, allowing it to outrun just about anything in the sky during
the war. With just one other crew member-a navigator-the aircraft was efficient and able to deliver medium bomb loads, come
back, and make another run while larger bombers were still just
starting their first bombing runs. Still in pieces when we visited
in April, the Mosquito was scheduled to fly in late 2018.
Across the airport, Paul McSweeny shows us around Pioneer
Aero where he and his craftsmen are at work on an equally
impressive project, a Bell P-39 Airacobra, also for an American

AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2019

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