Flying High

6500' to be precise... Although we almost did not make it!

I arrived at the club to open up, and Xavier was waiting with a friend to go on a City Scenic. Unfortunately, ETZ had an issue with the mixture control lever. The real downside to this, was the fact that I was due to be flying ETZ on my High Level Cross Country... doh!

While we were unable to contact the maintenance guys, we were able to play some musical aircraft and shift a couple of bookings to keep everyone happy...

The end result being that I would get to take JFY :)

Went ahead with my flight planning... checking weather, calculating estimated elapsed times etc. Then we filed a VFR flight plan, which we did by FAX as a learning exercise...

The weather forecasts were not looking to bad, the sun was shining and there was little wind. However, it was not looking so good when the booking before us, got back and the instructor told us it was not looking too good, cloudbase-wise, towards the south. Trevor said "We can try (and possibly fail) or we can pull the pin now"... Feeling optimistic as always I opted to try.

We strapped into JFY and taxied out to the holding point at 03... to discover a Thunder Mustang, a Kittyhawk, a Birddog and a 172 taking up all the room. Thankfully, the Mustang, Kittyhawk and Birddog were ready to go, so I just slowed my taxi and by the time I got there they were gone :) Not sure the tecnam behind me was happy about it, but it was better than trying to weave around 3 or 4 aircraft doing run-ups!

We got into the air, called up Christchurch Info to relay my departure and ETA times and then we started assessing whether we would be able to get our planned 6500' cruise altitude. To fulfil the requirements of the high level cross country, you have to get to at least 6000' and VFR cruising altitudes in New Zealand (above 3000') are remembered by the Mnemonic NOSE + 500... North = Odd Thousand + 500', South = Even + 500'... As we were flying in a southerly direction, we needed Even + 500'...

There was a big band of cloud around 3500', but it looked like it ended around the Bombay Hills area and was clear behind that. So we decided to re-assess once we got there... and thankfully there was indeed some clear air.

So we called up Auckland Control, who seemed friendly enough... "JFY Cessna 152, requesting clearance into controlled airspace, Tracking direct to Hamilton at 6500', squawking 0317"... unfortunately, I realised that I had forgotten to give my current position just as I heard "JFY, please report current position"... "JFY is overhead Mercer 2100'"... Thankfully they were feeling kind and I got back "JFY, identified on screen, cleared to climb and maintain 6500', track direct to Hamilton"...

After reading back and then confirming that I was aware that the danger zone by Taupiri was activating (someone was launching rockets, but I didnt see any) soon, I pushed the throttle all the way in and we began the slow climb up to 6500'... at 500'/minute it takes a while to climb 4500'... 9 minutes does not sound like a lot, but it seems like forever!

Once we got there, I could not believe how smooth it was... no bumping about and you really could trim the aircraft and fly hands off... fabulous!

Heading towards Hamilton we were handed over to Christchurch Control who wanted to know if our destination was Hamilton... we advised we were overheading Hamilton, and then on to Te Kuiti... After reaching Hamilton, we were given an unrestricted descent into uncontrolled airspace and as we reached Otorahanga were told "No more requirements from this frequency, have a good day"...

The overhead join at Te Kuiti was a bit messy, not helped by my descent planning being a little off, meaning I was coming into the pattern quite fast and also an aircraft doing a simulated engine failure overhead the field... so I messed up the overhead join a little bit, but it worked out OK in the end.

We topped up with gas and then headed for Raglan. The overhead join into Raglan was much better and I got a good look at the field, the windsocks and worked out the approach. Unfortunately the final execution of the approach was poor.

I was high and should have gone around, but thought I could make it. Unfortunately, there was no wind whatsoever and JFY just floated... I was about to Go-Around when we touched down, so I decided to make it a fullstop instead of a Touch and Go and started to apply brakes... at which point we hit a huge lump in the middle of the strip and we bounced back into the air! Thankfully, we got back down and pulled up well before the end of the strip...

A poor landing as a result of a poor approach and poor decision making... As Trevor said "If you're airbourne and you have power, landing is optional".

We taxied back to the end of the strip, executed a Max Performance Take-off, and headed for home...

We did a couple more groundspeed check exercises on the way back which was a bit challenging, given the lack of decent ground features... back was still good to practice.

Coming in to AR, I terminated my flightplan and was setting up to join wide right base for 03, dodging a couple of gliders out of Drury, when a 182 flew around and across in front of me and declared he was doing the same!!! He then did something really dumb and started flying, at circuit height, the wrong way downwind, before making his turn to base leg.

Not wanting to be anywhere near that sillyness, I just called for the parallel grass strip and setup for a good shortfield landing, which I nailed and then taxied back to the club.

Trevor and I had a debrief, and I acknowledged that my overhead join into Te Kuiti was a bit messy and while my overhead join into Raglan was much better, my decision making on the final approach had been poor... Other than that, a fairly solid cross country and I'm looking forward to doing it solo!

This flight: 2.7 Dual
Total Hours: 109.8 (76.1 Dual Day, 2.8 Dual Night, 28.7 PinC Day, 2.2 PinC Night, 5.1 IFR)