It's a hard life out there flying in Africa
Who would have thought the natives have flying clubs?
“It's not the despair, Laura. I can take the despair. It's the hope I can't stand. ~ Brian Stimpson, Clockwise
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But the best bit of her past so called flying career is yet to come.
Our intrepid aviator only had 1400 ppl hours in her log book when she sliced the Robbo helicopter at Goodwood in 2015.
Shortly after her return Tracey migrated to New Zealand and began flying in earnest. She gained her private pilot’s licence, commercial licence and an instructor rating and, unusual for a woman, was trained by military pilots to fly World War II aeroplanes with the New Zealand Warbird Association.
You may well ask who got her flying.
Where does the Taylor in Curtis Taylor come from?
Steve Taylor was the man who married her and got her flying.
They do not come much better than this.
For multiple New Zealand aerobatic champion Steve Taylor it will be a "privilege" to pilot an aerial Ferrari at the Warbirds over Wanaka airshow this weekend.
The car salesman will sit behind the controls of one of only eight known airworthy Hurricanes in the world.
The Hurricane was the workhorse of the Royal Air Force's Fighter Command during 1940's Battle of Britain.
Taylor described the experience of flying one as someone saying "here are the keys to my Enzo Ferrari, take it for a spin down the southern motorway".
"This is probably worth more than an Enzo," Taylor, of Auckland, said of the Hawker Hurricane P3351.
A Warbirds regular, who has been flying since he was 15, Taylor said there was an overwhelming sense of history or of being in a movie while flying a World War 2 fighter such as a Spitfire, Hurricane or Mustang.
"It's such a great privilege. Most people never ever get the chance and I don't even have to write a cheque for $4 million to buy one," he said.
Taylor's borrowed aircraft was rebuilt over six years by Air New Zealand Engineering Services and Britain's Hawker Restorations. It is now part of the Alpine Fighter Collection in Wanaka. "There's a sense of responsibility when you fly these, especially because someone else owns it," Taylor said. "You treat it well -- you don't thrash it.
He is a proper non publicist aviator flying this
