Sep 2011 Kiwi chapter of Ladies Love Taildraggers!
To the Kiwi chapter girls – you are looking GOOD in those t-shirts!! We all love Neroli, Bill and the girls and want to welcome you all to our fun little group. I have to say, that’s one fine looking line up of taildraggers in your picture and we’re anxious to see more! Be sure and register on LLT so we can get to know you a little better, see what you’re all flying and hear some lady taildragger Down Under adventures.
Thanks Neroli Henwood for your note and pictures!
Judy
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Had to send you this photo of the lady taildragger pilots at the Hastings Taildragger Fly-in in New Zealand. This is an annual event which gets bigger each year. We had a good variety of aircraft including Piper Cubs, Pacer, Stearman, Tigermoth, Bird Dog, 180/185, Helio, Microlights and homebuilts.
Four of the Kiwi lady taildragger pilots- Jan, Wendy, Stephanie and Neroli in front of Cub ZK-BRO. Love those shirts!
This year I thought we would get the girls into your tee shirts and let the boys know that our numbers are growing :). The ladies loved the tee shirts and wore them proudly all weekend (even though it was a bit chilly at times). We were a couple of shirts short though, as there were more ladies there than I had anticipated!
The girls all did well in the competitions. We have a bombing comp which is called Jailbar Bombing. This is an old Ford Jailbar truck which becomes a moving target, the bombs to be dropped onto the back of the truck for a perfect score. It may not come as a surprise that it has only been hit about 3 times in 5 years and the judge stands on the back of the truck as he feels it is the safest spot!
After a wild food lunch we had our version of Valdez STOL competition. This was the first time I have been able to do it without my husband in the back as instructor. What a difference it makes with no weight in the back 🙂 Lots of fun and everyone seems to get better each year.
Thanks again for sending the shirts, they were a hit. Hopefully there will be a few more visitors to the LLT website from down this way too.
Take care,
Neroli
Neroli Henwood
Posted at 14:19h, 20 SeptemberI think we could have a fantastic time!
Plan for around March for our best, settled weather and lovely late summer days. 🙂
Jeanne MacPherson
Posted at 20:47h, 19 SeptemberGood ideas are brewing!
Neroli Henwood
Posted at 13:40h, 19 SeptemberHi Lisa
Maybe we need to organise a New Zealand tour for you ladies. I’m sure we could get some nice planes together and do some great flying. We are so lucky here that our country is small and easy to fly around in short time frames. We are only ever within an hours flying of a coast, and the scenery is so varied. Big mountains in the South, rivers, lakes and of course miles and miles of coast. What fun it would be to have a LLT Kiwi Tour!
Oh it is gliding heaven too! Yes Lisa, you definitely need to come for a visit!!
I am more than happy to organise 🙂
Lisa Martin
Posted at 08:45h, 20 SeptemberOh my gosh. That would be incredible. We might need a year to organize and save money.
Lisa Martin
Posted at 08:12h, 19 SeptemberGood to see you all (in pics). This worldwide connection is so great! I started glider training last weekend, and returned for round 2 this weekend. There was a man there (Brithish glider pilot) visiting from England. It was fun to talk to him about our different life experiences in aviation. The comment he made over and over was, “I’ve never before seen a glider club in which every member flies in in their own personal aircraft.” (We could also qualify as a co-ed tail dragger club). Anyway, the conversation ended up in New Zealand (often seems to here, New Zealand is the place nearly everyone I know drools over). Maybe someday 🙂