Look to the skies at dawn on June 25 and you may see an invasion of light aircraft from around the South Island.

North Otago Aero Club is hosting the Dawn Raid this year, an annual competition between local pilots, and those from Waimate, South Canterbury, and Mid Canterbury. 

The Dawn Raid name originates from when a lot of aero clubs formed following World War Two, North Otago Aero Club chief flight instructor Sven Thelning said.

There were a lot of military aircraft back then, and the name had “sort of persisted”.

Pilots are vying for different prizes, and one goes to the first to arrive. 

“So the aircraft will arrive as early as possible in the morning. I know at least some of them are planning to arrive while it’s still dark, to try and win.” 

However those landing in the dark, will miss out on the chance to win the other prizes, such as flour-bombing a target with 500g flour bombs, and landing within a marked grid.

“So there’s prizes for closest to the target, and also the main one is the landing - which is the main event for the dawn raid - which is basically to be as accurate as possible on their landing,” Sven said.

The landing shield, which is a toilet seat trophy, is currently held by another club, but North Otago is keen to reclaim it.

The competitions also have an open category, so aircraft could be flying in from, potentially, all over the South Island, he said.

“So it’s really hard to predict how many we get, because it will entirely depend on what the weather’s doing on different parts of the island.”

After the competitions, everyone gathers for breakfast, catches up, “chats about aeroplanes”, and most head away again mid-morning.

“The public are welcome to come out to the aero club and look at planes, and talk to the pilots and find out more about flying,” he said. 

A “massive range” of different aircraft were expected, including Cessnas, Pipers, New Zealand-built Alphas, and a Carbon Cub, he said. 

“In fact, I suspect we won’t have two planes the same.

“There’ll definitely be a couple of microlights at least, there’ll be a Rans and there'll also be an Alpi Pioneer, so it will be a huge range of aircraft.”