LATEST UPDATES:
17 August 2015
Back from a 7 week sabbatical......now gearing up to undertake flights throughout New Zealand for special kids. These flights will take two forms; firstly we will be operating the small 4 seat aircraft we are well known for and will be able to offer over 100 kids flights before Xmas and secondly we will be using the DC3 (30 seat) for up to 4 flights. Two of the flights will be underatken in Hamilton and two will happen in Kaitaia, giving as many as 120 kids a flight. So all going well we should be able to accommodate up to 220 kids before Xmas.
16 June 2015
Our efforts around the country with Z Energy's Good in the Hood program has paid off. Earlier this year we flew to the South Island to promote Child Flight. We are pleased to report that at least 12 flights will be undertaken in Nelson, Christchurch and Dunedin for special needs kids.
In addition we have support for two flights of the DC3 in Kaitaia as a result of a private backer and Z Kaitaia.
Whangarei was our most successful region, with 3 Z service stations giving us support.
We are also proud to announce that we won in two regions with Good in the Hood, Whakatane and Hamilton.
26 May 2015
The Big Day Out MYBUDDY PROJECT held at Hamilton Airport had a turnout of over 200. Our magician Jonathan Usher (center photo below) was a huge hit with the kids and we are going to have him again.
15 May 2015
These guys are promoting their charity in Whakatane. The one next to theirs is Child Flight's box leading the way!! All our contacts in Whakatane are making it work for us. We are hoping that this will enable us to give 7 flights to the local special school from June onwards. THANK YOU Z ENERGY AND THE GOOD IN THE HOOD PROGRAM!!
12 May 2015
We are being promoted by the local FM radio station THE BREEZE. The community is rallying around the MYBUDDY PROJECT and the radio guys have understood the concept perfectly... PROUD TO BE A HAMILTONIAN!!
24 April 2015
GoBus Hamilton came to the rescue today to save our www.givealittle.co.nz/project/childflightbigdayout
Thanks to the combined efforts of Lynda & Glenn we can breathe a little easier, as we are running out of time. The MYBUDDY PROJECT will take place at Hamilton Airport in the International Lounge on the 24th May starting at midday. We still have tickets available for a ride in the DC3 with your special buddy. Tickets can be purchased for $50/seat by pledging on our givealittle site mentioned above.
12 April 2015
Today we took Travis up for a flight out of Te Kowhai (NZTE).
We haven't done many flights this year as we have put our energies into bringing Child Flight to mainstream schools in the Waikato. However this has not stopped us from raising funds for flights in other parts of New Zealand. We have been successful with 9 applications for the Good in the Hood program which allows us to raise funds with Z service stations in Kaitaia, Whangarei, Hamilton, Whakatane, Nelson, Christchurch & Dunedin. Hopefully we raise enough funding in these areas to give 5 flights to each region through local operators.
1 April 2015
The Big Day Out-MYBUDDY PROJECT pledge page has reached 24% supported. With other pledges not yet received we think we are nearer 30%. Hard work but rewarding...
We have just started Child Flight in Palmerston North and will be giving flights to special kids in this area soon.
Flights out of Ardmore resume in May with Sommerville Special School.
We have a backer for a charter of the DC3 to Kataia. This will happen later this year.
23 March 2015
We are not exactly on track with the Big Day Our-MYBUDDY PROJECT. Mainstream schools in the Waikato proving to be very difficult to get on board. Even though we are guaranteeing to subsidise seats by 50%. Is this a case of special needs not being important enough to warrant the funding? It is very hard to remain enthusiastic.....but we will keep trying.
If you wish to help go to the following link
17 February 2015
We have just started our drive towards achieving the MYBUDDY day to be held on the 24th May 2015. The flyer below descibes the MYBUDDY project:
This project is a lot harder than we had anticipated due to the difficulties uncovered trying to communicate with the Waikato schools. For reasons yet to be properly determined, mainstream schools seem to be reluctant to get involved as over three months we have had no responses to several official emails that were sent out to principals. Having said that we have had a wonderful response from the Te Awamutu Primary School who have started a fund raiser. This school has its own radio station which has broadcast advertisements for us. Hopefully we will have more success with a more direct approach...
26 January 2015
Child Flight completed its South Island trip today and returned to Hamilton from Rangiora, Christchurch. Weather magnificent as were the mountains. Picture below shows the Marlborough Sounds from 9000'.....
22 January 2015
6 hours of flying in the South Island today. Promo flights were done in Rangiora and Taieri with a side-trip arranged to Milford Sound.
21 January 2015
Departed Hamilton for Rangiora via Blenheim on 20th. 3 hours of flying overy the Kaikoura Ranges at 5000' mountains towered over aircraft. In Christchurch promoting CF special needs flights for 2015
15 January 2015
An essay by Elai:
14 January 2015
The Big Day Out planned for the 22nd March 2015 has been postponed until May.
Child Flight will visit as many mainstream schools between now and May as we can to promote the MYBUDDY project.
On the 20th January 2015 we take off in ZK-DQV for our second attempt to visit the South Island. We will be calling in on Nelson, Christchurch, Dunedin & Invercargill.
31 December 2014
Last posting for the year. Child Flight established itself in the South Island this year. The last flight in 2014 was out of Christchurch and was conducted by Canterbury Aero Club with our man Ryan on the right in the photo below:
25 December 2014
On Sunday 21 Dec, Child Flight took Elai & his family for a flight from NZHN to Auckland City and Hauraki Gulf, a flight of 1.5 hours for his Xmas present. We were able to use the PAC750XSTOL, a 10 seat turbine, which is the largest aircraft available to us.
14 December 2014
Pleased to be able to report that we did the inaugural wheelchair Child Flight for a great mate of mine, Callum. Callum and I go back a few years now and he has just left Fraser High and will be attending WINTEC in the NY. All our best wishes go to Callum for taking on an amazing journey as he wants to be a PE trainer. You rock man!!
Callum surrounded by his Dad, brother and pilot of the Cherokee Six.
3 December 2014
Ross McDonald (2nd left in photo) our man in Whakatane rallied a group of 3 aircraft and pilots to take up 18 special passengers today. The pilots gave their time and aircraft to James Street School which caters for special students. We understand that a mainstream school was also involved and this has certainly grabbed our attention as we are now focusing on mainstream schools elsewhere. Good on you Ross, you are leading the way!!
Thank you Jack Schulte, Graeme Lee, CEO of East Bay Aviation, Marcus Goile and George Walker...you guys made this happen.
2 December 2014
OUR 100TH FLIGHT WAS ACHIEVED 2ND DEC. 2015 IN HASTINGS WHEN WE DID TWO FLIGHTS FOR KOWHAI & FAIRHAVEN SPECIAL SCHOOLS
BIG DAY OUT, MARCH 22ND 2015 STARTING MIDDAY AT HAMILTON AIRPORT, 80 SEATS AVAILABLE TO SPECIAL STUDENTS IN MAINSTREAM SCHOOLS. 3 FLIGHTS IN A DC3, 12 FLIGHTS IN SMALL AIRCRAFT. FOR INQUIRIES PLEASE CONTACT OUR CEO BY EMAILING chris@childflight.co.nz
21 November 2014
Mike Newman, CEO Ardmore Flying School, wanted his flying institution to be involved in a social enterprise project. Marc White, CPL at the School, saw an opportunity to involve AFS with Child Flight and through a very interesting collaboration we started today with 5 flights for Parkside and Sommerville Special Schools. Also on board was Joel Holder another CPL at the School. Two Cessna 172's were used which took the special students around the Sky Tower. Thank you to Mike, Marc and Joel.........looking forward to doing this again in the New Year.
Some of the Sommerville students who came out to Ardmore in 3 vans (photo below)
14 November 2014
5 November 2014
Broke all records today by flying 12 flights back to back with 3 aircraft out of Hamilton Airport. The flights were sponsored by Z Energy. We provided 36 seats, took our overall numbers to 208 passengers flown in 92 flights. We are especially grateful to Hamilton Airport who provide their international lounge for our use. The photo below was taken from the lounge windows of the three aircraft used today:
ZK-DQV, ZK-CJW & ZK-XYZ
30 October 2014
Primed to fly 12 flights on the 5th November from Hamilton Airport's Terminal. Long range weather forecast is favourable, but fingers crossed. We have 36 seats available, the biggest undertaking for Child Flight thus far.
On the 11th November our inaugural flights will take place from the Otago Aeroclub in Christchurch.
We are also planning our inaugural flights out of Ardmore Airfield with the help of the Ardmore Flying School. They have offered 5 hours of free flying to CF.
11 October 2014
The next 6 months for Child Flight will be defining. We have 10 flights arranged for the 5th of November sponsored by Z Aviation Retailers who are attending a conference in Hamilton for that week. We will be trying to acquire the Cherokee six which is capable of accommodating kids in wheelchairs. We will be travelling around the North Island in CF's car promoting special needs and flights. Christchurch will become the centre of effort for CF in the South Island. And, if we get the Cherokee, we will be attempting some ground breaking flights.
24th September 2014
While visiting Patricia Avenue School yesterday on BOT duties I ran into David Smith who designed our logo. David is autistic. He is very talented and a wonderful artist. Below David is seen pointing to his clever aircraft design
The trip to the South Island has been cancelled due to strong winds and rain. However we look forward to a long term relationship with the Canterbury Aeroclub who have promised us flights over the next year.
Christchurch hasn't turned out well. We had to cancel 6 flights due to a fast moving weather cell. Trying for 2 flights tomorrow to kickstart the relationship with Canterbury Aeroclub. Meantime Brian is pretty laidback, he's already planning for next year's flight!!
15 September 2014:
Well what a bummer! Loaded the aircraft up yesterday for the flight to Nelson and it wouldn't start. That was that. Had to revert to Air New Zealand to get to Nelson today. What really bugs me is that I left a block of chocolate on the back seat of the aircraft. Nelson Aeroclub and Will provided 3 wonderful flights on a beautiful day for Maitai Special School. Getting ready to fly to Christchurch where I am hoping 6 flights can be flown tomorrow for the 3 special schools in the area. Photos are up on our Facebook page.
29 August 2014:
Itinerary for the South Island:
14 Sept Depart Hamilton for Nelson
15 Sept 3 Flights for Maitai School
15 Sept Depart Nelson for Rangiora
16 Sept 3+ flights for Ferndale, Allenvale & Waitaha Schools
17 Sept Depart Rangiora for Taeri
18 Sept 1+ flights for Sara Cohen School
18 Sept Depart Taeri for Invercargill
19 Sept 1 flight for RuRu Specialist School
19 Sept Depart for Wanaka
20 Sept Milford Sound
21 Sept Depart Wanaka for Hamilton
Brian has joined the team for the South Island trip. He will report in from the towns we visit and will be our official photographer, apparently he is excellent taking selfies wherever he is!!
Praying for some good weather.....
25 August 2014
Our flights out of Tauranga are working well with the second flight arranged through the local aeroclub. This is our 73rd flight to date and we are learning from each experience. The Taurnga model could work well in other centers.
Photo shot of aircraft after students got on board:
3 August 2014:
Hamilton North group at CTC Aviation before everyone had a go on the simulators
2 August 2014:
Thankyou letters from Hamilton North School students we took up on flights during July (see below):
1 August 2014:
Flights are now taking place in the regions by volunteer pilots. We are lucky to have 4 pilots in Whakatane giving up their time to fly our special kids. Now we have two more pilots in Whangarei, 2 in Tauranga and 1 in Hastings. CTC in Hamilton are providing their facilities which includes flights in their aircraft as well as use of a state of the art simulator.
23 July 2014:
Two more flights from NZHN today in the Piper Arrow. Our passengers were transition students from Hamilton North School. Absolutely no wind at the airport, but when we got near the Te Uku windfarm we were greeted with 20 knot SW wind on our nose and a fair amount of buffeting. To their credit the students were great and when we arrived over Raglan, Guy pointed out a familiar place to him from 1000'.....we were pretty impressed.
Image above shows the tracks today with the curves just past the mountain (Pirongia) indicating where the Te Uku windfarm is situated.
30 June 2014:
Great to see our flights into Tauranga and Whangarei have created interest among local pilots who will embark on Child Flights in the next few weeks. Whakatane have already completed two flights and we are now working with a local pilot in Hastings.
20 June 2014:
We managed to get into Hastings after flying controlled VFR over the ranges at 8,500'...We flew two flights for Fairhaven and Kowhai Special Schools. This was a neat experience with about 20 students and teachers at the Hastings Aeroclub to meet us. Four students got flights, we wish more could have shared the experience.....
15 June 2014:
We managed to get the aircraft in the air for the ANZ promo, even though it was raining..
HOWEVER Friday 13th June turned out to be black Friday for us. We got as far as Taupo, couldn't see the ranges and had to turn around. Too late to cancel the schools who had come out in force to greet us. We will try again on the 20th June...weather forecast seems good. Learnt a lot about airspace on this particular trip!!
Flights to date see tracks on the map featured below:
10 June 2014:
The weather is C R A P. We have had to postpone the ANZ Bank video which was set for tomorrow. This video is being produced for the Bank's intranet and will be seen by over 800 staff, promoting Child Flight and their staff foundation which has sponsored us for 25 flights. This Friday we are hoping to get into Hastings where we will do 3 flights for the 3 local special needs schools, fingers crossed the weather will improve!!
The map below shows the intended flights over the next couple of months. We will need a huge high over the Tasman to enable us to get to the South Island, here's putting out positive thoughts....
30 May 2014
Inaugural flight with Blomfield School in Whangarei. Wonderful turnout of students at the airport. We were slightly delayed due to weather conditions in Hamilton, but we eventually got there to rousing cheers from the kids!! Photos soon
23 May 2014
Our flights around NZ began this Friday starting with a revisit to Tauranga and Whakatane. Our main sponsor is the ANZ Bank who are supporting 25 flights for special needs kids with Z Avgas providing 900 liters of fuel. There were two flights in Whakatane and one in Tauranga. We would like to thank Ross Macdonald and George Walker for providing an extra flight in Whakatane.
16 May 2014
Z Aviation has agreed to support Child Flight on its National Initiative with 900 liters of AvGas. We note that Z Aviation is well represented in NZ at many of the airports we are flying into. Thank you. We can now add a photo of the decal for our sponsor, see below
4 May 2014
CTC handover of $5000 sponsorship, what a "shot in the arm" this is.......
22 April 2014
We have been blown away by the ANZ Bank's offer to support Child Flight's national initiative of taking the Trust to as many special needs schools around New Zealand as we are able to visit. We hoping to visit at least 20 regions this year and with the help of the Bank's branches meet and greet people who are willing to join with us in "giving special kids a 3D view of their world".
More pictures from today's flights which took us to 103 special passengers and 50 flights. The poster is a little ambitious as we are only half way to our 100th flight, but we like the sentiments from some of Patricia Avenue passengers we have flown over the past year.
As of the 19 March 2014 (including flights prior to start of year) we are now near our 100th special passenger and 50th flight...
On the 10th March 2014, Child Flight started flying special kids for Hamilton North Special School under the sponsorship of the TICHEMJA Trust which is supporting 6 flights. Flights #43 & #44 below: (Ester, Charlotte, Hamiora and William)
Our national initiative started on the 26 Feb with two flights out of NZTG and NZWK. Map below shows the flights:
Our first flight (#37) for Hamilton North Special Needs School took place today from Hamilton Airport. Photo below shows Chris, Matt & Jack before the flight.
Child Flight's 36th flight took place out of Te Kowhai airfield. Our track for today's flight can be seen on the following LINK
Jonny on the 35th Flight: This was our first flight for Waikids
We took Amelia (2nd from left) and her sister Sinead (5th from the left) for a flight today in Colin's SR20 from Te Kowhai airfield. Amelia has a very special place in Child Flight's heart as she was our inaugural child four years ago when we were just starting.
Our first flight for 2014 (6 Jan 2014) was with Liam who loves cricket. A little surprise for him when he got to meet Jesse Ryder and Corey Anderson!!!! Photo below shows Liam with Jesse and Corey just before Liam went for his Child Flight.....
We visited Patricia Ave's satellite in Te Awamutu today and arranged a photo of the painters with their water colours representing their impressions of flights they were on earlier this year, photo of group below:-
The watercolour (below) of our aircraft ZK-DQV was presented to us today. It was beautifully painted by one of our Te Awamutu students we took up earlier in the year.
We are working with the Make a Wish Foundation by offering a flight to raise money for them. This is being done on the Trademe site. The auction closes on Dec 5.....at the moment it is going for half price...
Our relationship started with Canteen today with two flights out of Te Kowhai.
Today we had confirmation that several Whakatane pilots will provide up to 8 flights free to Child Flight. We have been working to help another charity that could benefit from this opportunity. More news soon....
18 September 2013 Video of today's flight over Raglan and Bar. Get inside the Piper Arrow and fly past at 300 kph and only 1000' above the sea!!
15 September 2013, letters from our little flyers.....absolute gold!!!
19 August 2013, flights 25 & 26 accomplished
17 August 2015
Back from a 7 week sabbatical......now gearing up to undertake flights throughout New Zealand for special kids. These flights will take two forms; firstly we will be operating the small 4 seat aircraft we are well known for and will be able to offer over 100 kids flights before Xmas and secondly we will be using the DC3 (30 seat) for up to 4 flights. Two of the flights will be underatken in Hamilton and two will happen in Kaitaia, giving as many as 120 kids a flight. So all going well we should be able to accommodate up to 220 kids before Xmas.
16 June 2015
Our efforts around the country with Z Energy's Good in the Hood program has paid off. Earlier this year we flew to the South Island to promote Child Flight. We are pleased to report that at least 12 flights will be undertaken in Nelson, Christchurch and Dunedin for special needs kids.
In addition we have support for two flights of the DC3 in Kaitaia as a result of a private backer and Z Kaitaia.
Whangarei was our most successful region, with 3 Z service stations giving us support.
We are also proud to announce that we won in two regions with Good in the Hood, Whakatane and Hamilton.
26 May 2015
The Big Day Out MYBUDDY PROJECT held at Hamilton Airport had a turnout of over 200. Our magician Jonathan Usher (center photo below) was a huge hit with the kids and we are going to have him again.
The Z team who flew Jonathan up from Dunedin, Selwyn Cook (LHS) with Kim and Lisa. Because of the horrendous wind we were not able to get the DC3 down from Ardmore. But this did not stop the show, which was a rip roaring success.
Our Rock 'n Roller Jesse O'Brien was a hit with everyone. The quality of his music is right up there and the adults were suitably entertained while the clown and face painter did cameos amongst the kids.
While all this was going on Brian King (Harcourts & MC) kept the crowd revved up with an auction and a raffle for $1000 worth of house paint and a free flight in a 4 seat aircraft. We managed to get only two flights away before the weather really turned nasty
The ANZ Bank were represented by Jane Rush and her daughter dressed up as an EFTPOS machine and Doug Cassey. Jane and Doug have done heaps for Child Flight and were responsible for us being able to fly our aircraft around NZ to support special needs.
15 May 2015
These guys are promoting their charity in Whakatane. The one next to theirs is Child Flight's box leading the way!! All our contacts in Whakatane are making it work for us. We are hoping that this will enable us to give 7 flights to the local special school from June onwards. THANK YOU Z ENERGY AND THE GOOD IN THE HOOD PROGRAM!!
12 May 2015
We are being promoted by the local FM radio station THE BREEZE. The community is rallying around the MYBUDDY PROJECT and the radio guys have understood the concept perfectly... PROUD TO BE A HAMILTONIAN!!
24 April 2015
GoBus Hamilton came to the rescue today to save our www.givealittle.co.nz/project/childflightbigdayout
Thanks to the combined efforts of Lynda & Glenn we can breathe a little easier, as we are running out of time. The MYBUDDY PROJECT will take place at Hamilton Airport in the International Lounge on the 24th May starting at midday. We still have tickets available for a ride in the DC3 with your special buddy. Tickets can be purchased for $50/seat by pledging on our givealittle site mentioned above.
12 April 2015
Today we took Travis up for a flight out of Te Kowhai (NZTE).
We haven't done many flights this year as we have put our energies into bringing Child Flight to mainstream schools in the Waikato. However this has not stopped us from raising funds for flights in other parts of New Zealand. We have been successful with 9 applications for the Good in the Hood program which allows us to raise funds with Z service stations in Kaitaia, Whangarei, Hamilton, Whakatane, Nelson, Christchurch & Dunedin. Hopefully we raise enough funding in these areas to give 5 flights to each region through local operators.
1 April 2015
The Big Day Out-MYBUDDY PROJECT pledge page has reached 24% supported. With other pledges not yet received we think we are nearer 30%. Hard work but rewarding...
We have just started Child Flight in Palmerston North and will be giving flights to special kids in this area soon.
Flights out of Ardmore resume in May with Sommerville Special School.
We have a backer for a charter of the DC3 to Kataia. This will happen later this year.
23 March 2015
We are not exactly on track with the Big Day Our-MYBUDDY PROJECT. Mainstream schools in the Waikato proving to be very difficult to get on board. Even though we are guaranteeing to subsidise seats by 50%. Is this a case of special needs not being important enough to warrant the funding? It is very hard to remain enthusiastic.....but we will keep trying.
If you wish to help go to the following link
17 February 2015
We have just started our drive towards achieving the MYBUDDY day to be held on the 24th May 2015. The flyer below descibes the MYBUDDY project:
This project is a lot harder than we had anticipated due to the difficulties uncovered trying to communicate with the Waikato schools. For reasons yet to be properly determined, mainstream schools seem to be reluctant to get involved as over three months we have had no responses to several official emails that were sent out to principals. Having said that we have had a wonderful response from the Te Awamutu Primary School who have started a fund raiser. This school has its own radio station which has broadcast advertisements for us. Hopefully we will have more success with a more direct approach...
26 January 2015
Child Flight completed its South Island trip today and returned to Hamilton from Rangiora, Christchurch. Weather magnificent as were the mountains. Picture below shows the Marlborough Sounds from 9000'.....
22 January 2015
6 hours of flying in the South Island today. Promo flights were done in Rangiora and Taieri with a side-trip arranged to Milford Sound.
21 January 2015
Departed Hamilton for Rangiora via Blenheim on 20th. 3 hours of flying overy the Kaikoura Ranges at 5000' mountains towered over aircraft. In Christchurch promoting CF special needs flights for 2015
15 January 2015
An essay by Elai:
I’m in the car with mum, Hamish and Kyla eagerly waiting to get to the Hamilton airport, well it’s a smaller airport right next to the Hamilton one called the Hamilton aero club. As soon as we turn into our destination I spot my mate Scott and his sister Lucy who are going on the flight and their mum and dad Trevor and Meagan who aren’t going on the flight. Once we are all out of the car we grouped up and Chris comes over holding his white tablet, so everyone got introduced to each other and just before we walk over to the plane Chris gave me his tablet and told me it had the map on it and then told me how it worked to track our flight which I thought was cool.
We all start to walk over to the plane and we all get some photos taken which took about 10 minutes. Then I got introduced to the pilot and his name was Roger. We all start to board the plane and I got on last, you know what they say best for last, anyway now that we are all on the plane Roger drives the plane into take off position and we stall up power then all of a sudden we start to boost up the runway going faster and faster until we are going ludicrously fast and the aircraft starts to rise into the wonderful blue sky until we are about 1500 feet in the air.
The first place we fly over is the west coast up to Auckland. But first we travel over some farmland and the animals look like tiny dots. Then we travel over Raglan and looking at the beach from what I would call a bird’s eye view or a planes eye view and I thought that looked wonderfully amazing. When we passed over Raglan we continued to fly over farmland now I live on a farm but flying over one at 1500ft is a different story I thought it looked amazing like nothing I’ve ever seen and all the tiny little animals looked so cute to. After about 20 minutes we reach Auckland and I thought it looked spectacular then I spot the Sky Tower and then Roger flew us up real close to the tower and we looped around it about 5 times and that made me feel amazing. After that we flew over the Auckland harbour then after that we flew down the east coast back to the Hamilton aero club. Once we landed I said thank you so much that was amazing to Chris and Roger and then we walked back over to our car and I got some wine out and went over to Chris and thanked him again for arranging the amazing once in a life time flight and gave him the wine and said goodbye and hoped in the car and drove off.
Thank You so much Chris that flight was so much fun it was awesome, I am so incredibly lucky to have had the opportunity to experience this.
14 January 2015
The Big Day Out planned for the 22nd March 2015 has been postponed until May.
Child Flight will visit as many mainstream schools between now and May as we can to promote the MYBUDDY project.
On the 20th January 2015 we take off in ZK-DQV for our second attempt to visit the South Island. We will be calling in on Nelson, Christchurch, Dunedin & Invercargill.
31 December 2014
Last posting for the year. Child Flight established itself in the South Island this year. The last flight in 2014 was out of Christchurch and was conducted by Canterbury Aero Club with our man Ryan on the right in the photo below:
25 December 2014
On Sunday 21 Dec, Child Flight took Elai & his family for a flight from NZHN to Auckland City and Hauraki Gulf, a flight of 1.5 hours for his Xmas present. We were able to use the PAC750XSTOL, a 10 seat turbine, which is the largest aircraft available to us.
14 December 2014
Pleased to be able to report that we did the inaugural wheelchair Child Flight for a great mate of mine, Callum. Callum and I go back a few years now and he has just left Fraser High and will be attending WINTEC in the NY. All our best wishes go to Callum for taking on an amazing journey as he wants to be a PE trainer. You rock man!!
3 December 2014
Ross McDonald (2nd left in photo) our man in Whakatane rallied a group of 3 aircraft and pilots to take up 18 special passengers today. The pilots gave their time and aircraft to James Street School which caters for special students. We understand that a mainstream school was also involved and this has certainly grabbed our attention as we are now focusing on mainstream schools elsewhere. Good on you Ross, you are leading the way!!
2 December 2014
OUR 100TH FLIGHT WAS ACHIEVED 2ND DEC. 2015 IN HASTINGS WHEN WE DID TWO FLIGHTS FOR KOWHAI & FAIRHAVEN SPECIAL SCHOOLS
BIG DAY OUT, MARCH 22ND 2015 STARTING MIDDAY AT HAMILTON AIRPORT, 80 SEATS AVAILABLE TO SPECIAL STUDENTS IN MAINSTREAM SCHOOLS. 3 FLIGHTS IN A DC3, 12 FLIGHTS IN SMALL AIRCRAFT. FOR INQUIRIES PLEASE CONTACT OUR CEO BY EMAILING chris@childflight.co.nz
21 November 2014
Mike Newman, CEO Ardmore Flying School, wanted his flying institution to be involved in a social enterprise project. Marc White, CPL at the School, saw an opportunity to involve AFS with Child Flight and through a very interesting collaboration we started today with 5 flights for Parkside and Sommerville Special Schools. Also on board was Joel Holder another CPL at the School. Two Cessna 172's were used which took the special students around the Sky Tower. Thank you to Mike, Marc and Joel.........looking forward to doing this again in the New Year.
Some of the Sommerville students who came out to Ardmore in 3 vans (photo below)
 |
14 November 2014
5 November 2014
Broke all records today by flying 12 flights back to back with 3 aircraft out of Hamilton Airport. The flights were sponsored by Z Energy. We provided 36 seats, took our overall numbers to 208 passengers flown in 92 flights. We are especially grateful to Hamilton Airport who provide their international lounge for our use. The photo below was taken from the lounge windows of the three aircraft used today:
30 October 2014
Primed to fly 12 flights on the 5th November from Hamilton Airport's Terminal. Long range weather forecast is favourable, but fingers crossed. We have 36 seats available, the biggest undertaking for Child Flight thus far.
On the 11th November our inaugural flights will take place from the Otago Aeroclub in Christchurch.
We are also planning our inaugural flights out of Ardmore Airfield with the help of the Ardmore Flying School. They have offered 5 hours of free flying to CF.
11 October 2014
The next 6 months for Child Flight will be defining. We have 10 flights arranged for the 5th of November sponsored by Z Aviation Retailers who are attending a conference in Hamilton for that week. We will be trying to acquire the Cherokee six which is capable of accommodating kids in wheelchairs. We will be travelling around the North Island in CF's car promoting special needs and flights. Christchurch will become the centre of effort for CF in the South Island. And, if we get the Cherokee, we will be attempting some ground breaking flights.
24th September 2014
While visiting Patricia Avenue School yesterday on BOT duties I ran into David Smith who designed our logo. David is autistic. He is very talented and a wonderful artist. Below David is seen pointing to his clever aircraft design
The trip to the South Island has been cancelled due to strong winds and rain. However we look forward to a long term relationship with the Canterbury Aeroclub who have promised us flights over the next year.
Christchurch hasn't turned out well. We had to cancel 6 flights due to a fast moving weather cell. Trying for 2 flights tomorrow to kickstart the relationship with Canterbury Aeroclub. Meantime Brian is pretty laidback, he's already planning for next year's flight!!
15 September 2014:
Well what a bummer! Loaded the aircraft up yesterday for the flight to Nelson and it wouldn't start. That was that. Had to revert to Air New Zealand to get to Nelson today. What really bugs me is that I left a block of chocolate on the back seat of the aircraft. Nelson Aeroclub and Will provided 3 wonderful flights on a beautiful day for Maitai Special School. Getting ready to fly to Christchurch where I am hoping 6 flights can be flown tomorrow for the 3 special schools in the area. Photos are up on our Facebook page.
29 August 2014:
Itinerary for the South Island:
14 Sept Depart Hamilton for Nelson
15 Sept 3 Flights for Maitai School
15 Sept Depart Nelson for Rangiora
16 Sept 3+ flights for Ferndale, Allenvale & Waitaha Schools
17 Sept Depart Rangiora for Taeri
18 Sept 1+ flights for Sara Cohen School
18 Sept Depart Taeri for Invercargill
19 Sept 1 flight for RuRu Specialist School
19 Sept Depart for Wanaka
20 Sept Milford Sound
21 Sept Depart Wanaka for Hamilton
Brian has joined the team for the South Island trip. He will report in from the towns we visit and will be our official photographer, apparently he is excellent taking selfies wherever he is!!
Praying for some good weather.....
Managed two more flights today for Patricia Avenue School, we are now half way to achieving our goal of 150 flights by March 2015.
Our flights out of Tauranga are working well with the second flight arranged through the local aeroclub. This is our 73rd flight to date and we are learning from each experience. The Taurnga model could work well in other centers.
Photo shot of aircraft after students got on board:
3 August 2014:
Hamilton North group at CTC Aviation before everyone had a go on the simulators
2 August 2014:
Thankyou letters from Hamilton North School students we took up on flights during July (see below):
1 August 2014:
Flights are now taking place in the regions by volunteer pilots. We are lucky to have 4 pilots in Whakatane giving up their time to fly our special kids. Now we have two more pilots in Whangarei, 2 in Tauranga and 1 in Hastings. CTC in Hamilton are providing their facilities which includes flights in their aircraft as well as use of a state of the art simulator.
23 July 2014:
Two more flights from NZHN today in the Piper Arrow. Our passengers were transition students from Hamilton North School. Absolutely no wind at the airport, but when we got near the Te Uku windfarm we were greeted with 20 knot SW wind on our nose and a fair amount of buffeting. To their credit the students were great and when we arrived over Raglan, Guy pointed out a familiar place to him from 1000'.....we were pretty impressed.
Image above shows the tracks today with the curves just past the mountain (Pirongia) indicating where the Te Uku windfarm is situated.
30 June 2014:
Great to see our flights into Tauranga and Whangarei have created interest among local pilots who will embark on Child Flights in the next few weeks. Whakatane have already completed two flights and we are now working with a local pilot in Hastings.
20 June 2014:
We managed to get into Hastings after flying controlled VFR over the ranges at 8,500'...We flew two flights for Fairhaven and Kowhai Special Schools. This was a neat experience with about 20 students and teachers at the Hastings Aeroclub to meet us. Four students got flights, we wish more could have shared the experience.....
15 June 2014:
We managed to get the aircraft in the air for the ANZ promo, even though it was raining..
HOWEVER Friday 13th June turned out to be black Friday for us. We got as far as Taupo, couldn't see the ranges and had to turn around. Too late to cancel the schools who had come out in force to greet us. We will try again on the 20th June...weather forecast seems good. Learnt a lot about airspace on this particular trip!!
Flights to date see tracks on the map featured below:
10 June 2014:
The weather is C R A P. We have had to postpone the ANZ Bank video which was set for tomorrow. This video is being produced for the Bank's intranet and will be seen by over 800 staff, promoting Child Flight and their staff foundation which has sponsored us for 25 flights. This Friday we are hoping to get into Hastings where we will do 3 flights for the 3 local special needs schools, fingers crossed the weather will improve!!
The map below shows the intended flights over the next couple of months. We will need a huge high over the Tasman to enable us to get to the South Island, here's putting out positive thoughts....
30 May 2014
Inaugural flight with Blomfield School in Whangarei. Wonderful turnout of students at the airport. We were slightly delayed due to weather conditions in Hamilton, but we eventually got there to rousing cheers from the kids!! Photos soon
23 May 2014
Our flights around NZ began this Friday starting with a revisit to Tauranga and Whakatane. Our main sponsor is the ANZ Bank who are supporting 25 flights for special needs kids with Z Avgas providing 900 liters of fuel. There were two flights in Whakatane and one in Tauranga. We would like to thank Ross Macdonald and George Walker for providing an extra flight in Whakatane.
16 May 2014
Z Aviation has agreed to support Child Flight on its National Initiative with 900 liters of AvGas. We note that Z Aviation is well represented in NZ at many of the airports we are flying into. Thank you. We can now add a photo of the decal for our sponsor, see below
4 May 2014
CTC handover of $5000 sponsorship, what a "shot in the arm" this is.......
22 April 2014
We have been blown away by the ANZ Bank's offer to support Child Flight's national initiative of taking the Trust to as many special needs schools around New Zealand as we are able to visit. We hoping to visit at least 20 regions this year and with the help of the Bank's branches meet and greet people who are willing to join with us in "giving special kids a 3D view of their world".
More pictures from today's flights which took us to 103 special passengers and 50 flights. The poster is a little ambitious as we are only half way to our 100th flight, but we like the sentiments from some of Patricia Avenue passengers we have flown over the past year.
As of the 19 March 2014 (including flights prior to start of year) we are now near our 100th special passenger and 50th flight...
On the 10th March 2014, Child Flight started flying special kids for Hamilton North Special School under the sponsorship of the TICHEMJA Trust which is supporting 6 flights. Flights #43 & #44 below: (Ester, Charlotte, Hamiora and William)
Our national initiative started on the 26 Feb with two flights out of NZTG and NZWK. Map below shows the flights:
Our first flight (#37) for Hamilton North Special Needs School took place today from Hamilton Airport. Photo below shows Chris, Matt & Jack before the flight.
Child Flight's 36th flight took place out of Te Kowhai airfield. Our track for today's flight can be seen on the following LINK
Jonny on the 35th Flight: This was our first flight for Waikids
We took Amelia (2nd from left) and her sister Sinead (5th from the left) for a flight today in Colin's SR20 from Te Kowhai airfield. Amelia has a very special place in Child Flight's heart as she was our inaugural child four years ago when we were just starting.
Our first flight for 2014 (6 Jan 2014) was with Liam who loves cricket. A little surprise for him when he got to meet Jesse Ryder and Corey Anderson!!!! Photo below shows Liam with Jesse and Corey just before Liam went for his Child Flight.....
 |
| Jesse Ryder (L) with Liam & Corey Anderson |
We visited Patricia Ave's satellite in Te Awamutu today and arranged a photo of the painters with their water colours representing their impressions of flights they were on earlier this year, photo of group below:-
The watercolour (below) of our aircraft ZK-DQV was presented to us today. It was beautifully painted by one of our Te Awamutu students we took up earlier in the year.
We are working with the Make a Wish Foundation by offering a flight to raise money for them. This is being done on the Trademe site. The auction closes on Dec 5.....at the moment it is going for half price...
Our relationship started with Canteen today with two flights out of Te Kowhai.
Today we had confirmation that several Whakatane pilots will provide up to 8 flights free to Child Flight. We have been working to help another charity that could benefit from this opportunity. More news soon....
18 September 2013 Video of today's flight over Raglan and Bar. Get inside the Piper Arrow and fly past at 300 kph and only 1000' above the sea!!
15 September 2013, letters from our little flyers.....absolute gold!!!
19 August 2013, flights 25 & 26 accomplished
21 July 2013, Child Flight accomplishes its first flight for Kids in wheelchairs. Photos below:
18 July 2013 our 23rd flight sponsored by the Child Cancer Foundation. Barry and Alexia sitting in the SR20 see photo below:
11 July 2013 the Cirrus SR20-G3 comes on line with Life Community Services, sponsored by Jucy World see photo below
5 July 2013 flights 18 & 19 were accomplished from NZHN. Photo of Brandon negotiating his way into the cabin before the flight (see below):
The SR20-G3 (see photo below) will start flying for Child Flight on the 11th July 2013 from Te Kowhai airfield:
Child Cancer Foundation have committed to 8 more flights making a total of 11 flights this year for the Foundation.
Jucy Group Ltd have funded 3 flights, thank you Tim Alpe (CEO) for organising.
We are proud to say we achieved a milestone today (15/5/13), we are 1/3 of the way to achieving our goal of 50 flights by 31 March 2014. Today we flew our 15th & 16th flights. The photo below shows the families of the two special needs kids walking out to the aircraft:
Flight #14 was achieved today, flying with Andrew from the Waikato Aeroclub in their Cessna 172.
Chad (6) on the left and Jesiah (9) on the right. This was their first flight and they were totally blown away!!
Paige's letter (below) gets 400 hits on our Facebook site...
We have begun collaborations with the Waikato Chamber of Commerce and the Child Cancer Foundation. Objectives include expanding flights to include all special needs kids.
Today, 21 March 2013 we expanded Child Flight to include the Child Cancer Foundation. We undertook 2 flights over the windfarm and then down over Raglan at 330kph, just 500' above the water. Everyone got a thrill including the pilots!! See photos below:
 |
| Maggie with Mom |
 |
| Sharon Robertson CCF & Mareet Carley C of C |
 |
| Paige & Mom |
 |
| Paige & Mom |
Long term goals for Child Flight are to provide kids in wheel chairs with flights as well as mobile kids and to expand our operation throughout New Zealand into other Cities and Towns. The offer of flights is being expanded to include any kids that come within our definition of "special".
Child Flight has another sponsor: Electrical Supply Corp
They have agreed to sponsor two flights in April.
Matt with the pilots:
Two flights took place on the 27 February 2013 see photo below taken from Patricia Avenue School's monthly news report:
Hamilton GoBus have just agreed to sponsor 3 flights. These will take place in March 2013. Thank you to the GoBus Team, especially the new group which provides transport for "special" kids.......looking forward to the GoBus flights!!
Flights will begin again in the third week of February 2013. Trust Waikato and The Brian Perry Charitable Trust have provided the funding for these flights.
We have just learnt that Child Flight will be supported for two more flights by Trust Waikato, thanks to all those who supported us..........
On the 10th December Child Flight completed two more flights sponsored by Harcourts Hamilton and the Brian Perry Charitable Trust. Robert and his Mom were on the Harcourts flight see photo below:
On the second flight, sponsored by the Brian Perry Charitable Trust, were Kristy (click on Kristy to read her letter) and her Mom, see photo below:
Harcourts Hamilton are supporting another flight before Xmas. And yesterday the Brian Perry Charitable Trust agreed to support two. We are now planning to complete these flights before the end of the year. A very big thanks to Harcourts and BPCT for supporting Child Flight.
This says it all
The inaugural flight took place 7 November, 2012 and was supported by John Cook, owner of Stainless Design. A huge thank you from all of us who participated.............see picture below:-
Child Flight has successfully completed the application for accreditation with the Charities Commission. Our official Registration Number is CC48267.
