Day 5 of the mountain flying course began with a flight south from Wanaka, NZWF, to Mandeville, NZVL.
Mandeville Aerodrome is 980m long and is home to Croydon Aircraft Company, which restores vintage aircraft, mostly from the 1920s and 1930s and mostly de Havillands. They also provide training, scenic, and aerial experience flights in vintage aircraft. The yellow file cabinet holds original plans of every de Havilland aircraft.
Most of the aircraft in the hangar adjacent to the workshop are historic aircraft maintained in flying condition.
The other two pilots took Tiger Moth flights here, which I ended up doing later at Wanaka.
After the Croydon visit, we flew from Mandeville to Taieri/Dunedin (Mosgiel) via the scenic Catlins coastline, along the southeast tip of South Island.
The Catlins:
Taieri Aerodrome/Dunedin (Mosgiel) has two pairs of runways, the longer 853m long. The airport is 2.7km west of Dunedin, where we spent the night after a fantastic seaood dinner with the other pilot couple who were flying the other Cessna and our instructors.
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Last modified 21 February 2025
