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.

Next day in even worse weather was Paul Burrows, an ex-RAF engineer who worked on Tornado F3 fighters in Desert Storm (the first Gulf War). Paul's help was invaluable when we were getting our GP One light sport aircraft ready for its initial CAA inspection. During his flight, we had lots more showers to dodge and ​then we were confronted by a long band of rain cloud that we ducked under to get back to Invercargill Airport.

The video is a compilation from both flights.

"Mud, mud, glorious mud. Nothing quite like it for boiling the blood" to mis-quote a famous hippopotamus song.

It was time to move the Skyleader GP One down to Invercargill Airport. But I left it a week too long. The cattle had made a muddy mess during last weekend's severe storm. The plywood duckboards were too flexible and sank deep into the mud, so it was a frustrating task to continually arrange them in front of the wheels and heave the plane forward. It took an hour to get the GP One out to the paddock only 50 m away. During this exhausting process, I didn't find that a 325kg 'light sport aircraft' or 'microlight' was very light at all.

Now our GP One  is in an open hangar at Invercargill Airport.

I've just been on a four-day trip to South Canterbury, visiting Ashburton, Rangitata Island and Timaru.

The weather was amazing for a weekend in May. I enjoyed a very smooth two-hour flight across the Maniototo basin, Danseys Pass and Hunter Hills to Ashburton Airport. An afternoon of demo flights and discussions with local pilots and aero club people, then off to Timaru Airport before dusk. Sunday was another fantastic weather day with more flights for aero club instructors and pilots.

Late afternoon I flew north to Rangitata Island airfield, home of instructor/aircraft builder Russell Brodie and base for the Geraldine Flying Group. Unfortunately Monday's weather was horrible - strong southerly wind, followed by low cloud and rain. Mid-afternoon, after taking Russell for a short flight, I attempted to fly home. Very low cloud and drizzle meant that I couldn't get past Timaru. I even surprised two ducks as I returned along the coast! So I was hosted at Rangitata Island for another night,  Early on Tuesday, the cloudbase had risen to 1200 feet, so I was able to safely fly south before the predicted NW gales arrived.

It was satisfying to get glowing comments about the GP One from experienced flight instructors. Although they had flown in many microlights before, they were full of praise "This is a very smooth plane. I like it a lot" and "This is the best microlight trainer that I've flown".

Skyleader have test-flown their new microlight fan-jet, developed in association with the University of Prague. This is a small replica of the legendary Czech L-39 'Albatross' jet trainer from the 'cold war' era.

Named the UL-39 'Albi', it is powered by a BMW 1000cm3 engine driving an internal ducted-fan. The airframe, fan, Fowler flaps and many other components are made from pre-preg carbon fibre which is autoclaved for maximum strength.  

With a wingspan of 7.2 m (23.7 ft), empty weight of 320 kg (704 lb) and minimum flying speed of 65 km/h (35 kt), the UL-39 can be registered in the European 472.5 kg ultralight category.

I flew our Skyleader GP One light sport aircraft up to Warbirds Over Wanaka 2016 last Wednesday in order to avoid predicted bad weather on Thursday.

An unexpected privilege was to meet the Martin Jetpack guys when they arrived late that night. I got to know some of them over the weekend.

When the weather 'bomb' rumbled in on Thursday, it was very impressive - really dark thunderclouds followed by prolonged torrential rain. Fortunately the large puddles (mini lakes) drained away before the public arrived.

Our GP One demonstrator was parked in the Sport Aircraft line-up. Lots of pilots stopped by and made positive comments about the aircraft's design and performance. Many others appreciated its aerodynamic shape and roominess. I had some great conversations with pilots who were looking seriously at buying a light sport aircraft such as the GP One.

I stayed with the Otago Aero Club microlight bods. One of them, Craig Buist, was delighted to park his little Sea Rey amphibian under the wing of the huge Catalina flying boat.

Today the airport was closed for most of the morning, after a Harvard warbird ran off the runway and collapsed onto its belly. By the time I left in the afternoon, there was NW turbulence. Flying above the windward mountain slopes allowed me to avoid the worst of it. Further east things settled down, so I crossed the Old Man Range and tracked down the Waikaia Valley. I ended up plugging into a cold southerly and dodging showers as I got nearer home. A very satisfying weekend.

Gore Aero Club BBQ lunch today on John Stewart's farm at Redan (just E of Wyndham). John's handheld VHF tells me that it's a gusty 20 knot wind on the ground, so best to land into the wind down a gentle slope.

So here I am approaching over the crest of the hill in the Skyleader GP One, coping with turbulence from a series of tree plantations, aiming for a gap in the trees, veering right, powering up to clear a fence, veering left to line up, then trying to land on the downward sloping ridge. The paddock drops away at the same rate as the GP One's glide angle, so i don't get the wheels on the grass until the slope eases. At that point the strip curves to the left and finishes (just before a steep drop into the next gully). I brake hard and stop as the slope increases again. A gentle slope. Yeah, right. 

Advice to self. "Maybe I should fly a low pass first and assess the strip/conditions, then go around and use the new information to fly a better approach." 

​At least the take-off later in the day was easy. Point the GP One downhill, power on, accelerate fast and climb away.

John  and the Gore AC guys are very friendly and hospitable. The BBQ was a good chance for a relaxed yarn with fellow flyers. The Cessna was there when I arrived. The others left their planes at home and drove to the event, so get to see how they managed the landing. 

Yippee, NZ's biggest airshow. 3 days over Easter. 50,000 people expected thru the gates.

But wait, there's more. The GP One will also be on display.

Our Skyleader GP One light sport aircraft will be in the Sport Aircraft area at Warbirds Over Wanaka.

Come and have a chat with me on Friday or Sunday (sorry, I'm away at a family wedding on the Saturday). See you there.

Wow! The GP One has sold already. It is going to a Kiwi guy who is shifting to a new property in Queensland. He wants a nice plane to make use of the farm's airstrip - there are 6 other aircraft currently hangared at his strip.

I will still have the GP One for another few months, so I can demonstrate it to NZ customers before I pack it into a container for export.

Now we have to choose between importing another GP One for NZ or another of Skyleader's proven models such as the SL-500 or SL-600.