2005 VK Mini Rally Taranaki

Hosted by the Norfolk Road Aviation Sports Club, Labour Weekend 2005 

In times before VK existed, seems a long while back now, the Gliding Club at Norfolk Road in Inglewood, Taranaki, was a well kept secret. Surely we knew of this small club at the foot of the world's number 3 most perfectly round shaped volcano cone of Mt. Taranaki, but they were flying Blaniks - and that's just something you don't do..... or at least that was the word out there..... 
But wait a minute - Ian Dunkley came and shook things up a bit. VK was formed, and surprisingly enough - there was actually an enormous interest for vintage glider, our own gliding heritage and history, and we found quite a few people flying, restoring and owning classic gliders.
That's were we started thinking about maybe bringing these guys at Norfolk Road a visit. Contact was made, and wow they had 5 Blaniks airworthy and ready to fly, there is a Ka-6, A Skylark-4, a bergfalke, a Rhonlerche - all flying or under restoration. A SHK is hidden somewhere, a Spatz, there were plans to restore a T-31. Oh and hey, yes there was a DG-400 and a Mosquito as well...
 
To cut a long story short, a convoy with glider trailers took off from Drury and Matamata - and we had an excellent weekend. We owe a big thank you to the Wisnewski family who with help of all the club members made it all happen for us.

Gliders attending at the Rally: Discus-B (Rae Kerr), Libelle (Roger Brown), Nimbus-2 (Neil Stanford), Sagitta Robert Smits, Ka-8 (Grant Nelson), Dart-17 (Greg Douglas), Rhonlerche (John Schicker), The Blaniks (Norfolk Aviation), Ka-6CR (John Curie) - a total of 13!
There have been a few rallies at Norfolk Road now, and it looks to become a yearly event, at Easter time.

Click here for full photo report in the Photogallery Section