Remuera Glider

calendar photo

As built by Bucky Walter (double size)

October 16, 2012 update

Hi Bucky, thanks for answering what must seem a strange contact out of the blue. As you know once something is on the internet it is there forever!! I was looking for something the other day when I stumbled on an old post of yours on the Building Board and saw the Remuera Glider. Anyway, I am a long time member of AMAC, the Auckland Model Aero Club here in New Zealand. Our club was formed in 1928. We fly everything except helicopter but we have a particular focus on vintage, free flight scale, control line and indoor. Although NZ is of mainly British heritage, our club swings both ways as it were and we incorporate a SAM chapter (SAM 1928) for those who want to fly to your rules. We do a fair bit of 1/2A and A Texaco and quite a few of us have Jimmie Allen models. W.B. (Bill) Mackley who designed the Remuera Glider was a life member and patron of AMAC until his passing a couple of years back. I have attached some blurb and a photo from the Model Flying NZ website. The model Bill is holding is his 72” gassie the Venus. I have a plan for this beautiful model and will build it for R/C assist one day soon. It is approved for vintage competition. Remuera is one of Auckland’s central suburbs and I guess the model was designed while Bill was living there before the war. Bill flew in the RNZAF during WWII and was an airline pilot afterwards. He was a real gentleman. Please excuse this intrusion on your privacy but I thought you might be interested in the context to your Remuera Glider Regards, Mike Mulholland



 Bill Mackley joined the Auckland Model Aero Club in October 1930 and was soon making a name for himself in both contest flying and club management. His Yellow Bird fuselage rubber design was one of the first really successful Auckland fuselage designs. This was kitted by Modelair. A little later, Modelair also kitted his Red Bird and Hornet designs. He was a New Zealand Wakefield team member in 1936, and represented New Zealand at the 1937 Moffett contest. He also coached the members of the Auckland Grammar School MAC to such good effect that the soundly beat AMAC in a competition! In 1936, Bill set new records in Fuselage Indoor ROW, Spar outdoor ROW, Senior Spar indoor ROW, Scale outdoor ROG, and in 1937 he set a new mark in Senior Spar Indoor ROW. Bill always played an important role in club management. He was a Committee Man in 1933, Secretary for a time in 1935, Club Captain in 1936 and 1937, Vice President in 1938, 1940-41, and 1943 to 1949. He was Club Patron from 1978 to 1984, and again in 1987 to 2002. He was also active in NZMAA matters, being the Public Relations Officer in 1937, a member of the Technical Committee in 1937, and a member of the Board of Management in 1937 and 1938. In 1937 he was co-editor of the NZMAA Notes in Fernleaf, the Official Organ of the Association. He won the NZMAA Silver Badge for June/July 1937.