June Billings started flying four years ago and gained her full advanced licence last year, in time for her 78th birthday.

 

 

 


Club members June Billings and Heather Rye with the club's microlight.

“Why did I take up flying?” she laughs. “Well I’d done everything else – diving, hunting, snorkeling, waters-skiing. I thought it was time to give flying a try.”

June’s a member of the Whangarei-based Northern Recreational Flying Club and its low cost structure allows her to get into the sky once a week and keep up her flying hours. She’s part of an 85-strong club with 33 active flyers and more than 50 members over the age of 60.

The Club Chief Flying Instructor Bob Foster adds to her story.

“June used to come up here from Auckland for her flying lessons. Then she sold her house in Auckland and bought a place right opposite the airport.”

Club captain and flying instructor Heather Rye says the camaraderie attracts a range of men and women aged from 16 into their 80’s.

“People can come out and have a trial flight for $45. If anybody shows interest in flying they’re quickly commandeered into the pilot seat. Once they’re up in the air the instructor lets them take the controls for a while. They get to climb, descend and just experience the joy of flying.”

That’s often enough to hook new flyers into joining the club, giving them access to high-performance, modern microlights for $90 an hour – half the price of a commercial operation - with the instructor’s time thrown in for free.

“We had one young woman come out recently and as soon as she was in the plane she was smiling,” says Heather, “and that grin kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.”

The volunteer structure allows the club to keep its costs down, with members giving their time for everything from cleaning the planes to reconditioning the instruments and engines.

“Every skill we need is volunteered,” explains club member Bruce MacKenzie. “We have members who have been international airline pilots, helicopter pilots, flown topdressing planes. But down here at the club everyone is equal. You might be an airline pilot during the week, but here you’re just a microlight pilot like everyone else.”

Heather says the training includes all the theory of flying and learning to use the technology each microlight is equipped with – vertical speed indicators, trim, radio, fuel, height and speed instruments – all the facilities found in any modern plane.

At $120,000 each, few people could afford to buy their own microlight, but the club offers access at about the same cost as a golf club membership.

“We aim to make aviation pleasurable across the age spectrum,” says Heather. “Having a woman instructor does encourage more people to fly, it adds an extra dimension, but the joy I get is seeing people flying, seeing the look on their faces when they’re in control.”

  • www.nrfc.org.nz
  • In December 2006 the club waS GRANTED $40,000.