KEY POINTS:
Wayne Matthews, the pilot who died when his home-built aircraft slammed into the ground at Whenuapai air base yesterday, had a passion for aircraft from a young age.
The former air force navigator and his passenger, Brent Baldwin, 46, died when Mr Matthews' Thorp S-18 aircraft plunged to earth at the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) base at Whenuapai, northwest of Auckland, at 4.30pm.
Mr Matthews, 62, from the Auckland suburb of Greenhithe, was a member of the Whenuapai Aviation Sports Club. He said in a club newsletter he had been interested in aircraft from a young age, when he built models and read all he could about them.
He said his passion led him to join the RNZAF in 1965 as a trainee engine fitter. He qualified but was selected to retrain as a navigator and qualified in 1972.
He was on the team which picked up the RNZAF's Boeing 727 aircraft when they were bought secondhand in 1981. They have since been replaced by the Boeing 757 aircraft.
After three postings overseas, to Australia, Singapore and Washington, he retired from the RNZAF in 1993 and spent five years restoring his old villa in Devonport and restoring a 10m kauri keeler before he learned to fly and began building the Thorp aircraft in the late 1990s.
"I find that one hour's flying gives me as much satisfaction as a whole day out sailing," he said.
Mr Matthews had just completed a non-stop circumnavigation of New Zealand in the crashed plane.
On February 20 he took off from Whenuapai and headed west to Muriwai Beach.
The circumnavigation was all over water and took him around the southern tip of Stewart Island off the South Island and back up the east coast of both islands to North Cape and Cape Reinga before he headed south again.
He landed at Whenuapai nearly 16 hours later on a trip which covered 2097 nautical miles.
He carried 420 litres of fuel in six fuel tanks and had an average speed of 130 knots,, flying at a height of between 600m and 4100m depending on conditions and cloud cover.
A Civil Aviation Authority inspector was at the crash scene today.
- NZPA
