60 degree bank I took the GP One to Manapouri for its final airworthiness inspection before it's exported to Australia. This was done by Jeff Ludemann at Fiordland Aero Maintenance. Jeff and Russell Baker, the owner, have been very helpful over the past 2 years.
Flying into and out of Manapouri was lovely. It was a winter wonderland of snowy peaks, rocky knobs, green valleys and interesting cloud layers.
While i was there I took Rod Hall-Jones for a ride. Rod is one of the Fiordland Aero Club's instructors, having recently retired from 18,000 hours of helicopter flying. He just loved the GP One. It could be controlled right down to the stall and maintain altitude indefinitely when stalled with cruise power (admittedly with a ridiculously high nose-up angle). He cranked out some max rate turns and finished up with a smooth landing. Overall he thought it was a great plane. I was stoked with that kind of feedback. I wish that I'd had a Go-Pro running to capture the manoeuvres..
The only downside was the horrible weather when I arrived back at Invercargill. 20 knots cross-wind with squalls of heavy rain made for an interesting approach and landing.
Flying into and out of Manapouri was lovely. It was a winter wonderland of snowy peaks, rocky knobs, green valleys and interesting cloud layers.
While i was there I took Rod Hall-Jones for a ride. Rod is one of the Fiordland Aero Club's instructors, having recently retired from 18,000 hours of helicopter flying. He just loved the GP One. It could be controlled right down to the stall and maintain altitude indefinitely when stalled with cruise power (admittedly with a ridiculously high nose-up angle). He cranked out some max rate turns and finished up with a smooth landing. Overall he thought it was a great plane. I was stoked with that kind of feedback. I wish that I'd had a Go-Pro running to capture the manoeuvres..
The only downside was the horrible weather when I arrived back at Invercargill. 20 knots cross-wind with squalls of heavy rain made for an interesting approach and landing.
 Takitimu Mountains from the Gorge Hill side. |  Fiordland Aero Maintenance at Manapouri |  Rod Hall-Jones evaluates the GP One |  Eyre Mountains from the Centre Hill area |  White Hill windfarm near Mossburn |
