Flyers on world stage

Proud: Mike Briggs with the Spruce Goose, one of the model aircrafts he will fly at Arizona next month in the Tucson Aerobatic Shootout. Photo/supplied

Model aircraft enthusiasts are often perceived as "a bunch of old silly buggers playing with balsa-wood and tissue'' but, as Carmen Hall discovers, the sport is evolving and has produced world-class champions and hobbyists who have learnt hi-tech skills.

Tauranga model aeroplane buff Mike Briggs estimates he has built and flown 50 aircraft in his lifetime but jokingly says: "I'm not allowed them in the house. They will never get past my workshop door, the wife won't have it.''

Sitting on a deckchair with the sun behind his back, the father of Frazer Briggs, one of New Zealand's leading aerobatic radio-controlled aircraft pilots, credits his son for a passion that has spanned decades and led them both into the competitive arena.

A smile emerges when he explains 15-year-old grandson Jarrod is also bitten by the bug and has begun making a big name for himself on the circuit. The three of them were on the podium at the nationals in Matamata last year, after clinching first place in their consecutive categories, "and that was a special moment for me''.

Mike says he tinkered about with model planes as a youngster in Lancashire, however, "rock climbing took over my life until I got married, emigrated to New Zealand and had a son''.

He says Frazer took to model airplanes instantly, "was cutting his fingers with the balsa-wood knife when he was 6,'' and "could out-fly me at 15", going on to win national and international championships.

Next month the duo will pit their skills against rivals from around the world at the Tuscon Aerobatic Shootout in Arizona, an event that Frazer has won - in a sport that Mike describes as similar to ice skating.

"You have got to do a sequence of manoeuvres, like they do on the ice, and there are three judges there that give out scores on the different combinations, which are basically a series of loops and rolls.''

Competitors are given two sets of plans to practise but it becomes problematic when the pilot's abilities are tested with a third plan "which is an unknown one they chuck at you and that is when you really get into it''.

The freestyle event also gives pilots the chance to go "absolutely ballistic'' and is a spectator favourite, with planes completing multi-faceted tricks that often involve flying inches off the ground, Mike says.

Frazer, who has showcased those type of talents at Warbirds Over Wanaka on several occasions, is in the top invitation category at the shootout, while Mike will take his chances four levels below in the sportsman class.

"I'm there to carry the suitcases, he is the star," Mike laughs. You have to take that with a grain of salt when you seen an impressive 42 per cent scale model of the "Extra 260", nicknamed Big Foot, powered by a 150cc two-cylinder, two-stroke engine capable of 18hp sitting on his lawn.

It is the 20th prototype Mike has made out of the same mould. Most people buy their planes but the Briggs prefer to build their own. "I'm lucky, I get two lots of satisfaction. I can say I built that, look at how well it goes and it's winning. We have crashed a few and had our moments, but usually it's a failure of equipment but admittedly I've done some dumb things. But the manoeuvres create high-velocity G-forces, so we have broken off wings and it's like 'oh s***' when that happens."

Valued at about $10,000, Mike prefers not to put a price on the labour of love, although he reckons at least three months of his time is invested into each one.

A member of the Tauranga Model Aircraft Club for 25 years, he is also a warplane enthusiast and his long-term project, a Mosquito is in his workshop. "You know it's bloody well taken me over one week to do this wheel. It's the electrics you see, the wheel has to retract into the plane. Hold on I'll show you ... "