Hood Aerodrome

Hood Aerodrome

IATA: MRO – ICAO: NZMS

MRO
Location of airport in North Island

Summary
Airport type General aviation
Owner Masterton District Council
Operator Masterton District Council
Serves Masterton, Carterton, Martinborough
Location Masterton, New Zealand
Elevation AMSL 111 m / 364 ft
Coordinates 40°58′30″S 175°38′00″E / 40.97500°S 175.63333°E
Website
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
06C/24C 1,250 4,101 Asphalt
06R/24R 1,060 3,478 Grass
06L/24L 450 1,476 Grass
10/28 1,042 3,419 Grass

Hood Aerodrome (IATA: MRO, ICAO: NZMS) is an aerodrome, located in Masterton, New Zealand, it is located 1 NM South West of the town centre in the suburb of Solway. The aerodrome was named after George Hood, a pioneer Masterton aviator who died trying to make the first Trans-Tasman crossing in 1928.[1] The aerodrome is used extensively for general aviation flights, and has also been used for commercial flights, Air New Zealand stopped serving the airport from 5 February 2014. Two new airlines have looked at re-instating a service to Auckland using larger aircraft but the runway will need to be lengthened to 1400m and widened to 30m first before it can start.[2]

History

Historically, Hood Aerodrome has been served by South Pacific Airlines of New Zealand in 1962–1966 and two locally based carriers, Wairarapa Airlines which linked Masterton with Auckland, Hamilton, Rotorua, Nelson and Christchurch from August 1981 to January 1997.[3] Then a new airline Air Wairarapa briefly flew to Auckland via Paraparumu in 2002.[4] Between February 2009 and February 2014, Eagle Airways, a subsidiary of Air New Zealand Link flew to Auckland from Masterton. The flights were operated by 19-seat Beechcraft 1900D aircraft. In September 2013, Air New Zealand announced the airline would withdraw all services to Masterton from 5 February 2014, due to a lack of demand.[5]

Other Uses

The aerodrome is the home of New Zealand's 'Sports and Vintage Aviation Society', which has had a hangar on site since 1978. The Society is also developing the 'George Hood Museum of Aviation' on site, and since 1999 has held a biennial airshow, "Wings over Wairarapa", to support the venture. The museum building was dedicated at the 2003 show.

The aerodrome is also been used as a dragstrip for over ten years and there are plans to build a purpose built dragstrip

See also

References

  1. ↑ Bowling, Kerri (16 August 2003). "Aviator’s family plot restored". Wairarapa Times-Age. Archived from the original on 2009-04-17. Retrieved 2009-04-17.
  2. ↑ Walt Dickson (2013-10-30). "Masterton Runway Extension Needed". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 2013-12-14.
  3. ↑ http://3rdlevelnz.blogspot.co.nz/2010/11/wairarapa-airlines-revisited.html
  4. ↑ Airline has no illusions - Wairarapa Times-Age
  5. ↑ "Air NZ pulling out of Wairarapa". Wairarapa Times Age. 2013-09-04. Retrieved 2013-12-14.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hood Aerodrome.