Friday (ANZAC Day) looked like it was going to be the only 'flyable' day given the forecasts, so I headed out to NZAR on a bit of a whim and decided to go and do some 'revision' in a 152...
I am very glad I did, it was so smooth and still that I was running over my own wake doing medium turns!
So I did the basic stuff - medium turns, steep turns (need to work on the right hand turns a bit more!), basic stalls, approach stalls, FLWOP (was very happy with this), Overhead Join, Go-Around (more on this below), Shortfield Landing...
All in all, a relatively relaxing and pleasant flight...
except for the itinerant pilot visiting NZAR who:
1. Had not read the NZAR AIP Plates (had to confirm with UNICOM that circuit direction for 03 was right hand)
2. Had no idea how to join at an uncontrolled aerodrome (got talked through an overhead join by UNICOM and another aircraft)
3. Stopped in the middle of the runway and asked for taxi instructions... while I was on short finals! Hence the Go-Around... spoiled a really good shortfield approach :( Here's an idea, taxi off the runway first and then ask! grrrrr
It seems to me that this pilot (who said he was from Christchurch) has spent a lot of time flying in controlled airspace... and is so used to being told what to do and when to do it, that he is a little lost in an uncontrolled environment... He even asked UNICOM for permission to cross the runway when taxiing.
I guess another way to look at it, is that he was unsure so he did ask for help... as opposed to blindly flying into a busy aerodrome and making it up as he went along. Which should be commended.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying this guy is a crap pilot or bagging him out, if anything I blame his training establishment for not preparing the guy properly. Just as lots of guys from Ardmore struggle when introduced to the controlled environment, eg. flying to Hamilton, it would appear that pilots who have spent most of their time in a controlled environment struggle when they are left to fend for themselves in an uncontrolled environment.
Saturday was a little marginal, but I decided to take JBL for a blat to work some of the 'run in' hours off... the new engine requires 25 hours at high power to bed it in... so you have to fly everywhere at full power... which makes the approach and landing a little interesting :)
jade had taken me out to Karioitahi Beach on Friday morning to show me where she went for her team building last week, so I decided I'd fly out to Port Waikato and then up the coast to Karioitahi for a bit of a look from the air, as I could stay clear of airspace... beautiful place (no cellphone reception! :) I reckon I could live out there quite happily... although it is a bit of a drive to Ardmore! ;)
On the way back I was orbiting over Pukekohe, watching some cars going round the racetrack... and had a laugh as one of them went off the end of the back straight and into the gravel trap!
Heading back I was hoping that no-one else was stupid enough to be flying so I could join straight in so I would not have to come in on low power... thankfully only 2 other aircraft were in the circuit, so I came straight in. Was a fairly messy approach given that I was doing 80 or 90 kts, but I got it on the ground well enough.
Sunday I went to Hamilton with Trevor... I had been hoping to get a ride in a real aircraft, but unfortunately the ADF in the cherokee he is planning on using for his instrument flight test was out of action... that and the weather report mentioned isolated and embedded CB's... not the sort of weather to be out and about in... so we ended up in the Sim again...
This flight: 1.1 PinC (Fri), 1.0 PinC (Sat)
Total Hours: 119.4 (77.5/33.8 Day, 3.9/4.2 Night, 5.1 IFR)
This was an awesome currency check
1 year ago
5 comments:
Hello ZK-JPY. Nice blog, sorry I didn't come across it earlier!
I hear what you are saying about visiting pilots, especially about there being an issue with the some training establishments.
I learned to fly at AR, and flew there for about 8 years. I'm in Wellington now. I had a darn fine instructor, and although never having had more than the "minimum" amount of exposure to controlled airspace, my instructor made sure I knew what I was doing before being let loose solo to HN, RO and TG (part of that was up to date AIP)!
Cheers!
Rodney
I think we've all had unhappy experiences with pilots unfamiliar with "the way things are done at our airfield." In my not so humble opinion a lot of the blame must lie with the training establishments that let these "pilots" loose without proper briefing or prior familiarization. Its just a matter of time before someone gets seriously injured or killed because of these cowboys.
Yeah... to be honest, I actually felt a bit sorry for the guy (after I got over having to pay the extra 0.1 for the go-around ;)... It cannot have been an enjoyable experience for him and I dare say there were some uncomfortable moments in the cockpit.
I've heard several anecdotes regarding commercial domestic flights having to go around (and in one case divert) because of people flying where they shouldn't have been.
Funny you should say that... I was actually visiting the tower in Palmerston North back when I was at Massey (Students were actually encouraged to go for a tower visit so you can see what the other side of the radio is like :)...
Anyway, a 172 had come over from Hawkes Bay and had been sequenced in to land in front of an AirNZ Link ATR72 to avoid wake turbulence... he started taxiing off the runway, but for some reason stopped short of the holding point (ie. on the wrong side of the holding position markings)... so although he was on the taxiway and away from the runway, he was still technically on the runway!
The tower called him 2 or 3 times to move... the final call was... errr, shall we say "rather forceful" ;)... the ATR got to about 3 feet hoping he would move...
End result:
"NZ6882 going around"...
The controller then advised the pilot of the 172 to contact the tower when he had parked up.
Never did see that aircraft back at NZPM ;)
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