A new competition will be held at next year's Warbirds Over Wanaka airshow, giving pilots skilled in short take-offs and landings (STOL) the opportunity to demonstrate their abilities.
Such manoeuvres are necessary in difficult take-off and landing situations, such as river beds and beaches, using a STOL such as a Carbon Cub, a Wanaka-based aircraft pictured at the 2014 airshow.
Event manager Mandy Deans said take-offs and landings within 30m to 50m were considered to be short manoeuvres, but aircraft had been filmed landing and not rolling forward at all.
''While these aircraft are reasonably common around New Zealand, it's not often that the public gets to see the pilots showing off their skills close up. It's amazing to see just how little runway these aircraft need to stop and take off from.''
Airshow organisers were planning to exhibit more sport aircraft next year and most STOL aircraft fell into this category, Ms Deans said.
