Rodney Aero Club History
The genesis of the Rodney Aero Club can be traced back to a meeting that was held at Wellsford in March 1963 when “thirty people with high hopes and a common interest met in that well known room in Wellsford and venue of many meetings: Culpan’s Basement”. The purpose of the meeting that was chaired by local banker Frank Rogers, assisted by Eycke Zimmerman, was “to listen to proposals for the formation of a local aero club” and as recorded in the minutes of the meeting: “The persuasive powers of Frank and Eycke were such that when the meeting concluded an hour or so later each of those thirty people left 3 pounds lighter in the pocket than when they arrived”!
Things moved on quite rapidly from there: at the inaugural meeting held on 18 July 1963 a committee was formed with L B (Bruce) Jenkins as President, the Rodney Aero Club was registered as an incorporated society, and an airstrip was developed on leased land on Mr and Mrs C O Irvine’s farm beside Kaipara Flats Road. This involved land clearing (including dynamiting trees!), drainage, earthworks, fencing and grassing the airfield, as well as bridging the Kourawhero Stream including roading access that was taken over by the Rodney County Council. An underground fuel tank was also installed with a hand pump, and the aero club was granted a license to retail aviation spirit in February 1965.
Flying instruction from the new Kaipara Flats airfield began with Auckland Aero Club supplying a Piper Cub aircraft to the Rodney Aero Club for a minimum of two hours on Thursdays and Sundays from November 1964, with RAC collecting the flying fees and being billed monthly by AAC.
The first aero club flying day was on Sunday 22 November 1964 when a quite unexpected 18 aircraft arrived at the airfield, and Club Captain Rod Miller said “things went mad” with at times 10 aircraft on the ground and 5 in the air! Club members flew 12 hours that day. This was a great start and a large number of local residents were attracted to the airfield to have a look, and several new aero club memberships resulted.
Another of the reasons for constructing the airfield was that it could be a local base for aerial topdressing operators who until then had to fly their aircraft from Whanagarei or Dargaville in the North, or from Mangere in the South and this incurred extra costs for the farmers in the area. These were the days of fertiliser subsidies and a lot of superphosphate was being applied to farms all over New Zealand. The first company to base a topdressing aircraft at Kaipara Flats was Thames Aerial Topdressing Ltd which based a Fletcher on the airfield from October 1964. They were followed by James Aviation Ltd and Barr Brothers Ltd, and later Marine Helicopters Ltd based agricultural spraying helicopters on the airfield. These commercial activities provided good income for the aero club with ground rent and fuel sales.
By the time of the second Annual General meeting of the aero club, in July 1965, the club had 64 members (and by the time of the third AGM one year later the membership had risen to 120 and it later stabilised at around 100).
The next big step forward was the construction on a hangar and clubrooms on the airfield and this was driven by Laurie Grant who was also the architect, engineer and project manager for the building. The estimated cost was three thousand, five hundred pounds which was raised by an unsecured non-interest bearing loan and many club members took out debentures. The project commenced in September 1965 with the first of many working bees by club members, and by the end of November 1965 the hangar and clubrooms were completely roofed.
The Rodney Aero Club hosted the Northern Region Rally of the Royal New Zealand Aero Club over the weekend of 27th and 28th November 1965 when 25 aircraft attended coming from as far away as Whangarei and Taupo. A social gathering was held in the uncompleted hangar and clubrooms on the Saturday night.
However the aero club had planned a big air pageant for New Years Day, 1 January 1966 which was to be the official opening of the airfield. And in brilliant sunshine the Local Member of Parliament, the Hon W J Scott declared the airfield officially open and congratulated the members of the Rodney Aero Club for the initiative and resourcefulness that they had shown in developing the airfield. More than 2,000 people attended on the day and witnessed aerial displays by many aircraft including a James Aviation topdressing DC 3 on the heavy side to an ultralight VW powered Druine Turbulent on the very light side, as well as gliding and parachuting. The flying display was concluded by a fly over from a ex RNZAF Mustang which flew up from Christchurch.
In March 1966 the aero club entered into a dry-hire arrangement with Mr Rauner of Auckland to operate his Piper Cub, ZK-BKW, with Mrs Penney as acting as part time instructor. And then in November 1966 a similar arrangement was entered into with the Northern Wairoa Aero Club from Dargaville to hire their Piper Cub ZK-BQY.
These arrangements were temporary so on 20 October 1966 the club ordered a new Piper Cherokee 140 aircraft. This was not as simple as it would be today, for an import license was required and this was at first declined. In March 1967 the committee decided to re-apply for an import license. After a meeting in Wellington Department of Civil Aviation fully supported the club’s application and recommended that letters of support from local bodies and organisations to be submitted with the application as soon as possible (!). This lobbying was successful and on 3 May 1967 the club received letters from the local MP the Hon W J Scott and the Minister of Customs stating that an import license had been approved for a Cherokee 140. The cost of the Cherokee was $8,338.
The hangar and clubrooms were completed with the installation of the hangar door on Sunday 13th February 1967 and this was celebrated with an informal dinner in the clubrooms attended by about 30 members and their wives. It was the first of many social occasions including dances and wedding breakfasts to be held in the aero club facilities over the years, and the club held a Public Hall license.
The great day arrived on Saturday 8 July 1967 when Mr L B (Bruce) Jenkins, instructor for the Rodney Aero Club, touched down at Kaipara Flats in the club’s brand new Piper Cherokee 140 ZK-CNZ. The first club member to take it for a flight was Mr R W K (Rod ) Miller who was at this time President of the aero club (and his wife Mrs R G (Rosalie) Miller was the Secretary). It was a very satisfying outcome that the Rodney Aero Club now had their own plane hangared in their own hangar on the airfield. And they also obtained an Air Services license to carry out charter flights to and from Great Barrier Island (details?)
And so the aero club carried on providing flying training and charter services, and flying the Rothman’s Safety Patrol every summer where beach and sea conditions were reported on daily over the local radio station. In 1971 an application was made by the local Farmers Aerial Topdressing Co-operative to base their topdressing aircraft on the airfield and this was approved. In February 1973 long serving instructor Bruce Jenkins asked to be relieved of his instructional duties as he was over committed and this was received with regret. He was made an Honorary Life Member of the club. He was replaced as instructor by Rod Miller.
After ten years of sterling service the Piper Cherokee 140 was traded in on a Cessna 172 ZK-EJR and it was delivered to Kaipara Flats on Saturday 9th July 1977. The cost was $35,146. It was hoped that the new Cessna would generate a renewed interest in flying activities, and with a cruising speed of 120 mph the flight time to Great Barrier Island would be cut to 30 minutes.
Over the years CFI Rod Miller has flown over 2,000 charter flights out to Great Barrier Island carrying many thousands of passengers, all without incident, and he was involved with the Rodney Aero Club for the whole of its existence since 1963, until his retirement in June 2019. On retirement Rod purchased the long serving Cessna 172 ZK-EJR from the club and he and his wife Rosalie are Honorary Life Members of the Rodney Aero Club.
Over the years the club carried out flight training and also held a license to fly passengers to Great Barrier Island, and things were quite busy. But as has happens with many clubs these days, numbers waned until in 2019 there were only a handful of members left.
The 2019/20 AGM was held in September 2020 and this resulted in renewed interest in the Rodney Aero Club and following an enthusiastic response a new committee was formed to revitalise the club. The result is that the club now has around 70 (check this?) members and enthusiasm is high. A major working bee was held to clear out and paint the hangar and plans have been drawn up to carry out overdue remodelling of the clubrooms. However the club still did not have an aeroplane.
Brien O’Brien was elected President of the Rodney Aero Club in June 2021 when the club was still investigating ways of getting a microlight trainer for the club to carry out flying training. Then in October 2021 he bit the bullet and purchased a very nice Pipistrel Alpha microlight trainer which is now on line with the club. The first training flights were carried out on Saturday 18 December 2021 with Rusty Russell as instructor, Rusty is an experienced instructor from Whangarei and he generously volunteered to help get the club up and running. Since then around a dozen pilots have been rated to fly the club’s aircraft and Brien O’Brien and Bruce Stevenson have qualified to be instructors.
And in a nice touch, Grahame Powell who is one of the few remaining original members from the foundation of Rodney Aero Club in 1963 and who is an Honorary Life Member, and who was also instrumental in obtaining the land for the airfield at Kaipara Flats, was elected as Club Patron at the 2022 AGM.
Things are looking up for Kaipara Flats airfield with new hangars that now house around 17 aircraft and a gyrocopter. The land on the Southern side of the airfield has also been developed for hangar housing with eight large lots being subdivided off beside the runway, and as part of this development the access road and bridge have been upgraded. So the future for the airfield is looking bright, more than 59 years after the first aircraft landed there.