Wings over Wairarapa

2021 Wings Over Wairar

By Steve Cronin

“Lean into life’s happy accidents.” That’s what i was telling myself as i was coaching one of the many students into another hang check on my humble moyes malibu.

I wasn’t really planning on giving countless hang checks when I signed up to be the point person for the Wellington Hang Gliding & Paragliding Club’s display at this years, prodigious Wings Over Wairarapa event. To be honest, I didn’t really know what to expect. I’d not been to any air shows before. Standing outside the Omaka Air Show back in 2015 with my frustrated sister and family, refusing to cut off my leg to pay for a three hour ‘look around’ doesn’t really count, right? And, apart from setting up a glider and standing around trying to look cool at a balloon festival, my resume for ‘displays at air festivals’ was a complete blank too. So be it.

With Kris Ericksen selfishly going off to compete in the 2021 Paragliding Nationals - I hope it was worth it Kris, because boy, did you miss out - there was a spot to fill. Our club had an invite to put on a display as part of the STEM program (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths: think students, lots of students) at this year’s air show, so with little real thought I grabbed the baton, Kris was to so elegantly to pass, and away we went.

This was a total ‘we’ thing too. So, let’s get the thanks out the way now. I volunteered on the Tuesday night, was freaking out through most of Thursday and Friday, wondering what on earth I’d gotten myself in for, but thankfully by Saturday more of the crew from the WHGPC had come on board and we had a game plan. I didn’t feel like so much of a turkey now, just a little turkey that might be able to hide in the flock. So mucho gracious to Marina Adams, Brian Morris, Ian Loveridge, Geoff Williams, Mr Ian Miller and the lovely Bev, and last by now means least, there in spirit, Dave Maule and Grant Firth, our reserve bench for Sunday, which got Covided. This is a new word in western vernacular. It means when your event is cancelled because of a virus. What a shame. What a bummer.

But, make no mistake, no wellmeaning, naive individual could pull off something like this alone and hope to be successful. That’s just crazy talk. But as a club you can. My humble thanks and gratitude to you all for coming on board for what I hope was a great two days, and a chance to promote our sport and our collective passion for free flight to the wider community, especially the students.

Thanks Grant and Kate Tatham, for feeding me and for that early Saturday morning, ‘kick on the door’ so I didn’t sleep in, which looked to be on the cards. Thanks for Kris Ericksen in getting the ball initially rolling. Finally, for your support and enthusiasm, thank you Nick Taber.

So, back to that hang check. If you’ll pardon the pun, I was kind of ‘winging’ it on this one. I know from the casual observer I looked like an ‘old hand’ at this. Not true. I had no clue. But I do know how to set up a hang glider and stand beside it looking cool, to some degree at least. Kind of like I might know what I’m doing. So I just pretended I was standing on Mt Murchison, next to my kite, and talked to anyone who got close enough to listen. This is what happened that Friday morning of this year’s WOW. The Wings organisers have the foresight to open the displays to students the Friday morning, before the main event kicks off at lunch time with general admission.

So there I was, with barely that first coffee seeping into my bones when the first group of students came through. I’d set up the Malibu with a very basic apron harness in place just to demonstrate how ‘low-fi’ you can go with this flying thing when one kid asks me, “...can I have a go in that?” Hmmm, that was a very good question. I couldn’t see why not. I wasn’t really planning on hang checks, just a static display, but it seemed like a good idea at the time,

apa: WHGPC Represent!

Left: Look at that sky!

Right; Hang on Brian!

Photos; SteveCronin

so away we went. The first, of what turned out to be one of many hang checks for the students coming through that Friday morning.

Now even though I wasn’t planning to do countless hang checks, it turns out it’s not a bad way to spend a Friday morning. I, for one was pleasantly surprised, and pretended like this was my idea and intention all along. Those kids where lining up out the door for a go. This was awesome to be a part of. It made me wonder if perhaps I’d just given a hang check to a future NZ champion? That this was the spark that set off a fire inside some young person. That’s a nice thought if it plays out don’t you think? It reminded me of the first time that fire for free flying was lit in me, and not just for flying, but in anything in life you become passionate or obsessed about. What a blessing to be part of that ‘origin story’, even in some small way. Just a thought.

Now this weekend was more than just about compromising the structural integrity of my much-loved Malibu with untold school students swinging, literally swinging, under it! No, there was plenty more to see then that.

After nearly two decades in Wellington, I’d never been to a Wings Over Wairarapa, and it had always been on my to do list. But this weekend’s gathering was truly amazing, even more so considering the year we’d all been through. Covid lock downs, buzz kill, right! From the very inception of flight, and this is what I loved about our display, because of modern aviation’s roots in gliding, just ask Otto Lilienthal.

Thank you, Grant Firth, for your awesome information board pointing this history out to people. But WOW this year had examples of the human pursuit for flight from its inception through to the jet age. Now that is something to see in the one place, and a place as beautiful as the Masterton Aerodrome, on a sunny, summers day.

Peter Jackson and co had what to me was a real stand out of the weekend with a static displays of WWI era aircraft. Then to see those same birds in a mock dog fight, while planes of a more recent, jet and turbo prop era buzzed around, was to put the last hundred years of aviation in stark reference. Look how far we have come in these last hundred years! Where will we be in another hundred? There was such a range of aircraft on display it was truly amazing. There where so many impressive individual and group aerobatics displays, I literally lost count. But when the pilot of one of the most impressive and memorable shows, with his plane doing things that no plane should and still be able to land, steps out of the cockpit and turns out to be a sprightly 80 plus years! Then life is good, right!

Not to be upstaged by hang gliders, it was great to have a few paragliders on hand to do some ground handling. They don’t look so good laying on the ground as a static display granted, but once the wings were in the air they attracted plenty of attention. It was an intriguing test of skill to watch the various pilots keeping their wings aloft, while an interested spectator picked their brains at the same time. Well done folks. It was great advertising for the display too.

The B-52 flying over multiple times was a sight to see for sure, but I couldn’t help but wonder what it must have been like to be on receiving end of its aggression.

But this is my absolute highlight of a weekend I won’t soon forget. On the Friday I gave a young girl, as part of her school group, a hang check. She had bright red hair, and a face full of freckles, much like my Mum’s. She didn’t say a word the entire time she was there with her class. Not that I heard anyway, but with her school mates she got herself a hang check on the mighty Moyes Malibu. That’s a good thing just in of itself. But on the Saturday, when the display was open to the general public and I was slinking off to check out some cool sports cars on a display nearby, I noticed the same bright red haired girl dragging her Dad along to show him the hang gliders set up at our display. So, if you meet a young woman, with bright red hair flying off a hill in about fifteen years or so, or at the Worlds maybe. You never know. It might be the same one. Now that’s worth giving up a weekend for yeah?