What kid (male) in the 50s or 60s didn’t take delight in assembling and flying an Airfix balsa wood Mustang or Hudson plane using heady glue, hard-backed razor blades and a lump of plasticine? Such fun!  As it must be for those in the Warbirds Association of New Zealand who have the pleasure and challenge of assembling, maintaining, displaying and in many cases flying such magnificent machines in order to preserve an important aspect of our past.

Our speaker this week was Gavin Trethewey who has had many years flying experience both in the Royal NZ Air Force and as a commercial pilot.  In an interesting address, illustrated with photos and video clips, he opened up the world of iconic planes dating from the First World War BE2 and Fokker Triplane, through the twenties and thirties (Percival Gull, De Haviland Foxmouth with folding wings and the trusty DC3) through WW2 (Kittyhawk, Mustang, Mosquito and Spitfire - $4000 will get you a spin in this!) to the more recent Catalina, F86 Sabre and BAC 167 Strikemaster.  These a just a few of the planes mentioned.

What a great weekend with three exchange students in Pirongia last weekend though rather tough on my knees crawling through parts of the Ruakuri Cave for black water rafting.

 We look forward to another great youth activity this Sunday at Top Schools.

The Pest Free project with other Rotary Clubs in the Howick ward is now at the interesting stage of building up our trap library