My Account
Speed has been a passion for Chris Toms for as long as he can remember. From racing a Ford Zephyr down Queen Street in his teens, he graduated to racing a Tranzam on raceways around New Zealand. When ground speed became too slow, he decided to take to the skies – first in a Tampico ZK-TBA and then the ultimate machine for a speed fiend, the fastest four-seater kit plane on the market at the time, the Lancair IV ZK-CTL. Now in his 60s, with numerous flying records to his credit, he admits to being ready to slow down. Jannette Thompson spoke to Chris at his home in Warkworth …
There are three types of people in this world – starters, and most of us fall in to that category; runners, who can be relied on to pick the ball up and run with it; and finishers, the people who stick at something until the job’s done. To be successful, you have to be all three. Building the Lancair IV was a huge undertaking and it was probably one of the most demanding times of my life. But I’m proud that I finished it. It was a hugely satisfying and enjoyable project, and it taught me never to be overwhelmed by a task. Even though progress was often slow, we learned to appreciate the small achievements day-to-day.
The Toms are a pioneering family of Otahuhu and I grew up on the family property surrounded by grandparents, and aunties and uncles. Although dad was a signwriter, most of the family worked on the farms, growing everything from poppies and strawberries to lettuces and tomatoes. The property was on the Tamaki River, opposite Pakuranga. It’s now used for housing and a tree nursery, and the family is just about to sell its last connection with the area. David Lange’s father was our doctor and David was head prefect when I attended Otahuhu College. Even then he was a larger than life character – I remember him in the playground firing questions at all us kids with his particular brand of humour. He was a nice guy who I respected, even though I never voted for him.
From the first day I sat behind the wheel of my first car, a Morris 8, I was hooked on speed. These days I work for AA providing roadside assistance on weekends, between Waiwera and Pakiri, so I’m not sure how much I should say about my days as a boy racer! I started off my working career as a motor mechanic, worked as a welder in the car industry for a while and then became a sales representative for Steel & Tube Holdings. I wound-up buying a hamburger bar in Mairangi Bay and through this business, I was introduced to Ridgeway Popular Flavourings. Mr Ridgeway was a nice old man who mixed the milkshake flavours himself in a factory not much bigger than a small kitchen. One day he went for a swim at Takapuna Beach and never returned. I bought the business off the estate and over the next 25 years, it expanded from a small one-man show to a business employing 30 staff with an annual turnover of around $3.5 million. We diversified into packaging, both dry goods and liquids, and in the early 1980s NZ Sugar bought into the company. Eventually they bought the dry goods side of the operation. I kept the liquid factory going for another two years but the scene changed when Progressive bought Three Guys, who were one of our main customers, and I eventually sold to Bin Inn. But by then I was ready for a change anyway.
I have the factories to thank for the fact that I was able to start flying. I had good managers and this allowed me the spare time I needed. In 1978, the North Shore Aero Club used to land a little Cessna on Takapuna Beach, take off its wings and push it along Hurstmere Road to the mall, where they would reassemble it as a static display to promote the club. You were allowed to sit in the pilot’s seat. I took one look at the instrument panel and was hooked. All that technical stuff really made me excited. I think people like to fly for many reasons – for some it’s just the idea of being off the ground. Others like the aerobatics or competition flying, but for me it was definitely the speed. I like to go fast. I bought my first plane in partnership with Harry Hobin, in 1981. The Tampico was built in France, by the same company that made the Concorde, Mirage and the Exocet missile. In 1990, when I was in the maternity ward awaiting the birth of my daughter, Harry flew the Tampico in the largest air race held in NZ and won. We owned the plane together for 14 years and had some great times travelling to events all over NZ.
But eventually I decided I wanted something faster. The Tampico had a top speed of 118 knots (218kmph) and when I looked around for a commercially built plane, nothing on the market went much faster. I decided if I wanted “lots” faster, I would have to build it myself. At that time, there was only one other Lancair IV flying in the world and that was the company prototype. I discovered it had broken a heap of world records, and not by just a few knots. Being a petrol head from way back, I decided “this sounds like me”. I purchased the kit from the US in 1993 for USD$43,500 (about NZ$70,000). Other expenses included the engine, three-blade wooden propeller, avionics and upholstery. All up, the cost came to a tad under NZ$500,000.
The kit was assembled over the next 18 months, which was a bit of a record in itself as most home-built aircraft take about 10 years. I worked on the project five-and-a-half days a week and employed one permanent fulltime worker, with others coming in to do wiring, sanding, finishing and painting. Although I don’t consider myself to be a religious man, I don’t mind admitting that I said a little prayer when I took off on the maiden flight from Whenupai. It was the first Lancair to fly in Australasia and I became the 16th person in the world to fly my own Lancair. We chose Whenuapai because there were plenty of landing options if anything did go wrong. But, as it was, she flew beautifully and I landed her at North Shore where she was stored in a hangar. She was completely finished when she went up that day – even down to the upholstery detail – because I knew that once I got her into the air I wouldn’t want her to go back to the factory.
She was a marvellous little aircraft – she had oxygen available so flying in her was like being in an airliner. When I took her to air shows in Australia, I landed in Maroochydore to find a line-up of 747 pilots keen to come for a fly. I broke 11 *official world flying speed records, two unofficial world records and six unofficial NZ records in her. It was a sad day when it came time to sell, but I needed the money. She went to a guy from Silicon Valley and I still miss her.
Flying has always been an adventure for me but things didn’t always go to plan. Once I was flying at 24,000 ft over Nelson when we realised we were running out of oxygen and didn’t have enough energy to pick up a nectarine off the back seat. We were flying higher to go faster, but we should have been wearing full oxygen masks, not just the cannulas. On another occasion, when I was still flying the Tampico, which didn’t have instruments, I was en route from Auckland to New Plymouth down the west coast when I was caught in heavy cloud. I’d gradually descended to keep below the cloud without noticing how low I’d come until I was just 50ft above the water. It was a very close call.
*To be officially recognised, flying records have to over a certain distance. Shorter distances are recorded as “unofficial”.
