Tidying up loose ends

So after my careful calculations (and misreading the requirements!), I had ended up 0.1 short of Night Dual and 0.4 short of the 10 hours total required for a CPL Night endorsement.

I had spoken with Trevor and he said we would wait for a dark night (aren't they all?) and go and do some 'revision' on turns etc. Well tonight was looking good, fine with a high layer of cloud which would hopefully:

a. Block the full moon (thus making it somewhat dark)
b. Help keep the fog away by helping maintain some of the warmth

Turns out it was not so good at part a, but worked well at keeping the fog at bay :)

We started with some circuits to guarantee I would be 152 night current (and to avoid the night circuit fees charged after 8pm NZST. Climbing out, Trevor says "You can make the first one flapless and lightless"...

Was not too bad, perhaps a shade high, but was down comfortably in the end. Next one was a shortfield. I had it configured nice and early, but thought that I may have perhaps been a shade high. I continued the approach and in the end when ended up touching down right by the APAPI lights like we were aiming for. And then, to finish, we did a glide approach. In hindsight, I felt I took the last 10 degrees of flap about 3 or 4 seconds to early and consequently landed a little short of the APAPI lights, but it was still a good landing and I learnt a valuable lesson in the process.

We then departed from the downwind and headed out towards Drury and Pukekohe, climbing up to 2000', for some 'fun'. A rate one turn to the right. A medium turn to the right. A rate one turn to the left, A medium turn to the left. Followed by some steep turns... these are quite tricky at night, as you really have no decent horizon to work with and it really does throw your senses out. But I managed to hold my nomiated altitude really well, which is fairly unusual for me in steep turns, to be honest!

Then back to the field for an overhead join... which I almost messed up, by forgetting that you need to add 200' to all circuit altitudes at night... including overhead join altitudes. Trevor casually asked me what altitude I should be at as we were approaching the field. "DOH!"... luckily I was only 100' short so a quick zoom climb back to 1810' and we were fine.

Trevor decided to make it a flapless, lightless landing to finish which went without too much drama, although in the still air we floated a fair way along the runway.

Another great nights flying... I rediscovered the joys of the 152, I got a great demonstration of how flaps bring the landing point closer on final approach and I got to enjoy some of the great night views again.

I am kinda hoping the weather will hold for the weekend, so I can do some cross country flying up North with Nick (another CPL student), but the forecast is looking a little grim :(


This flight: 1.0 Dual Night
Total Hours: 123.5 (78.1/34.8 Day, 4.9/5.7 Night, 5.1 IFR)