The Sky Beckons

Since completing Round the World 2019 and stepping off the wing, down onto Taupo tarmac, the days have morphed into longer segments of time and when assembled in a lineal line, weeks too quickly become months. Like a conga line of ants, time is relentless. It marches on, waits for no one, not even Bazflyer bloggers! 

 

Perhaps it has a lot to do with time that the sky continues to beckon day and night. Somewhere in a recent past Bazflyers harboured a faint thought that perhaps six months on the wing circumnavigating our wonderful planet, might at least for a while, mute the sky’s calling. Alas, their epic on the wing journey has only increased the volume. The sky beckons even louder.

 

Sometimes overcast, sometimes bright, morning, noon, or night, the sky beckons. Look at the sky anytime, any season, to physically see time going by. Then as if to attract attention the sky’s special spectrum of colours, intensity and mood uniquely emboldens that motion of time.

 

Getting up there in the sky is what all aviators love to do. There is nothing like a perfect blue-sky day to ignite that passion. Open the hangar door, roll Comanche ZK-BAZ outside, fire up the lusty Lycoming engine and get some air under those wings. This week Bazflyer1 did just that.

 

It was only a short one hour flight from Taupo (NZAP) south to Masterton (NZMS) but what a magnificent day it was to be in the sky. Not a cloud in sight. There was a purpose for going to Masterton and lunch with a friend was as good as the day was perfect. 

 

Masterton is a rural town, these days surrounded by expanding vineyards and home to many boutique businesses. Vastly changed from when New Zealand’s first official refugees arrived there 75 years ago. A total of 733 Polish children  most of them orphans escaping the atrocities of World War Two. All of them had been evacuated from Poland to places in Siberia and Kazakhstan from where they endured further hardship travelling overland to Iran. Some never made it. In the aftermath of the war and Poland’s redrawn boundaries, home for these children ceased to exist. Most grew up in their adopted land of New Zealand. Now in their eighties hundreds returned to Masterton earlier this month to commemorate their new life that began there 75 years ago…and the sky shone benevolently upon them.  

 

In the absence of imposed limits, time is continuous. Not so for an aviator in the sky. What goes up must eventually come down and for Bazflyer1 that reality bought him back to Taupo…to once again contemplate the beckoning sky.      

 

Wow...a blue-sky day and Masterton is down there to the left of those mountains.

Outside the hangar ready to start.

 

Flight plan via airways 145 NM from Taupo (NZAP) at 8000 feet to Masterton (NZMS).

Hill country farming (sheep & Beef) on the way to Masterton

 

What goes up, must come down. Tandem skydiver landing beside the Baz Base.

 

Evening at the Baz Base contemplating the beckoning sky emboldened by smoke effects from by the devastating bush fires in Australia over 2000 kilometres away.

Achievement

Of the fifty-five landings the Bazflyers made while flying round the world in their Comanche ZK-BAZ, the penultimate touchdown occurred at midday the 19th October on home base Taupo Airport, New Zealand. It was definitely not one of the prettiest arrivals. Showers and gusting cross-wind conditions for landing on Runway 35 weren’t altogether helpful, but be it intuitive control inputs or a modicum of good fortune or a cocktail of both, the final touchdown turned out to be remarkably smooth. 

As the wheels rolled to a stop outside the Taupo Aero Club the simple act of pulling out a red knobbed control shut-off fuel to the engine, an engine that had stoically powered the Bazflyer’s trusty Comanche round the world and with that the 3-bladed propellor came to a halt. The ensuing silence was spontaneously replaced by an applauding assembly of family and friends. This was it, the end. Check…magnetos and switches off…exit the ‘BAZ Office’ then join familiar faces in celebrating an amazing journey. 

A week or more has since passed. Travel accoutrements have been returned to their usual storage places. The trusty Comanche, throughly inspected, serviced and gleaming in its hangar is poised for action. Viewed from the outside it could be construed that Bazflyer life has resumed its familiar purpose..but has it? 

How is one supposed to feel after flying round the world in a small airplane? This question, phrased in a variety of ways, has been a reoccurring inquiry since the Bazflyer’s arrival back at home base as well as an ongoing subject of self examination. Certainly the joy of achievement gives a special type of happiness. There is a feeling in getting something done, getting to the end of a process. A healthy sense of pride might be another way to describe it.

However, there is more, much more to the Bazflyer’s successful journey round the world than simply a series of flights. While not wanting to undermine the physical flying involved, the ultimate big-picture achievement owes much to a palette of creative factors. Planning, program management and personal health to mention just a few. Then there’s the overarching interpersonal relationships along the way. Ever changing and often communicating across different languages. People supplying fuel. Officials at international boarders. Handling agents and many helpful friendly folk. 

From beginning to end, the ‘Ambassadors of Friendship’ journey consumed 217 sky-hours of time in the Baz Office. Were there any scary moments? No, not one. Not even a drama or two. What about highlights…what were the best bits? There were many of these, however, for the Bazflyers nothing surpasses the friendly aviation folk they were privileged to meet. Professionals, enthusiasts and admirers. People of many cultures, young and old, all bonded by a common language called ‘aviation’…!

What started out as a journey with a goal, so wonderfully ended as an epic achievement beautifully framed in gilded creativity. An achievement that was more a feeling of action, than completion. Like a piece of creative fine art, this Bazflyer achievement will forever proudly stand on its own as a beautiful and joyful journey.  

These former Air Force mates were ‘on duty’ at Kerikeri (NZKK) to welcome the Bazflyers back on NewZealand soil.

Comanche ZK-BAZ taxis to a stop at the Taupō Aero Club

Stepping out of the ‘Baz Office’ to hugs all round

Celebrating and obligatory speeches

Waiting for the occasion was the ‘Bronze Lindy’ award from Oshkosh

View from the Baz Base, Taupo Airport (NZAP), New Zealand