(Hopefully) Two down...

CPL Air Law... *ugh*

Yesterday was not a pleasant experience... needless to say I am not as confident about that exam as I was about Human Factors :(

It was 30 questions... and you need 70% (or 21 questions for those who aren't good at maths)...

I think I knew about 22 or 23... and after the exam, I checked a couple that I had guessed and found I had got them right.

There was also one question that appeared to not have any correct answers!?!?!! It was asking about GAA areas (specifically G277, Lake Waikare) and what the Frequency and ATC requirements were. I think the reason why it was wrong, may have somthing to with the fact that the entry for G277 in the AIP had been updated on 10th April 2008... I am guessing that the exam question had not been updated to match. So, I wrote a critique at the end of the exam explaining why I thought there was no correct answer and why I picked the answer I did.

So, hopefully, I have passed... but it will definitely be a nervous "7 working days" waiting for my results to be posted.

One down...

Five to go!

Had my first CPL exam this morning... at 8am!!!?!!?

But now I know why people say you should start off with Human Factors. It is only 40 multi-guess questions and they give you 1 1/2 hours... I took 25 minutes ;)

I think I did OK, as there were only 3 or 4 that I was unsure of and of those, I checked the study guide after the exam and I know I got 2 of them right! So I am expecting a mark somewhere around 90% (you need 70% to pass). 7 working days until the results are posted...

I have Air Law tomorrow morning... at 8am!!???! Unfortunately, I am not feeling quite as confident about this one, but I have been studying hard which was made a little easier by my decision to start taking the train to/from work again, which 'gifts' me study time that would normally be wasted on road rage! ;) And, I have completed a couple of practice exams and did OK, so hopefully I can keep all this info in my head for 1 more day!

Land of the long white cloud...

So I wake up and find that indeed the weather forecasters had got it right and all the crappy weather had blown through... and we would get to go flying. I had been planning a flight for a couple of weeks, with some NZFF associates to Tauranga to go and meet some of the guys from the Bay of Plenty area and visit the Classic Flyers Museum etc...

But Mother Nature was to have the last say. This pic shows the very nice conditions at Ardmore on departure at 1030 after all the fog had burnt off:



This pic shows the conditions around Paeroa and Te Aroha as we approached the Coromandel/Kaimai's:



:(

One big U-Turn and a city scenic later (Pics available here and here), and we landed back at Ardmore around 1230 a bit bummed that we had not made it to Tauranga.

One of the pax was kind enough to video the landing... thankfully he warned me he was recording, so I made sure it was a good one... note the stall warning light that flashes right on touchdown ;)



And then, to rub salt into the wound, around 1600 while I was hanging around at the clubrooms, I saw a Bayflight 152 (KID) do a Touch and Go at Ardmore... so the cloud had obviously cleared...

Still, not a total loss, I got to go flying (which is always a good thing!), and the guys seemed to have a good time. We, the Auckland based crew, have decided that next time we have a meet, it will either be in summer, or in Auckland!


This flight: 2.0 PinC
Total Hours: 129.9 (78.9/39.7 Day, 4.9/6.4 Night, 5.1 IFR)

Take what you can get...

Was heading out to the club last night, for some going away drinks with Trevor... and thought to myself "Quite nice weather, might just take my kit and do some night flying if anyone is interested"... checked Metflight and the conditions seemed to indicate we would not get fog.

Driving out to the airfield, there did not seem to be any fog forming, and I could see about 5 or 6 aircraft in the circuit... I arrived at the club, walked in the door, and, jokingly, the first thing Trevor said was "Are you going flying?"... not expecting me to say "Well, my stuff is in the car... who is keen?".

Found myself 3 passengers pretty quickly... so I pre-flighted LMA and we blasted off... I had been intending on doing a city scenic, but by the time we were taxiing out the temperature and the dewpoint were almost the same, which is ideal conditions for fog... and some of the other members were wanting Trevor back for drinks, so I decided to blat around the circuit a couple of times instead.

Was good until the children in the back, who shall remain... Trevor and Nathan, decided that playing at white-noise generators over the intercom was a good idea. Unfortunately, the intercom did not have an isolate function... *sigh*...

Anyway, as it turns out, the fog never arrived... Still another 0.7 in the logbook and was good to keep current at night... might have another go tonight if the weather holds.


This flight: 0.7 PinC Night
Total Hours: 127.9 (78.9/37.7 Day, 4.9/6.4 Night, 5.1 IFR)

What do you call...

a day of clear blue skies after 2 days of rain/hail/snow?

MONDAY! Ok, so it was actually 3 days of brutal weather... and it is actually Tuesday, but you get the point!

Despite the abysmal weather, I did get to go flying over the weekend... I just happened to be in Seat 3C, as opposed to 0A ;)

On the saturday we flew from NZAA to NZPM and as you can see from the pics, the weather down below would have been 'interesting'... we had a couple of bumps on the climb out, but nothing too serious once we were up above the weather...


On the way back, we were a little lucky to make the flight... arrived 10 minutes before departure, yay for online check-in and pre-printing boarding passes... to discover the inbound flight had not even arrived... yay for regional air travel :) So thankfully had plenty of time to queue up and pay the $5 departure tax... sorry, "Development Levy"... boo for Palmerston North International Airport :(



I was hoping to get some lovely pics of the central plateau that was all covered in snow... well that is what I heard... what I think I saw was Mt Ngauruhoe poking out from amongst the clouds... the photos are a bit crap, but oh well.




In typical fashion, it cleared up from the Hamilton, but it was still interesting flying along and spotting all the familiar landmarks like Hamilton, Huntly, Lake Waikare, Pukehoke etc..

Oh and if you were wondering, there is more room in a Cessna 152 than row 3 on an Air New Zealand Link ATR72-500 :P

Hopefully this weather will stick around so I can fly over to Tauranga on Sunday... hoping for a scenic flight out to White Island! *crosses fingers*