Staying out late on a school night.

I woke up on Sunday and instead of the expected grotty weather, I was greeted with blue skies and sunshine.

Nick had a booking in the afternoon to go for a "refresher" flight, so I tagged along after he went and got himself current. A nice little bit of sightseeing around (as in, all the way around) Great Barrier and then back down the peninsula to Coromandel before cutting back across the gulf to Ardmore.

Was a nice joyride and it left me wanting to go do some flying of my own. By the time we got back to was around 4:30pm and more than enough light to go for a quick hop (Daylight savings started that morning, so it gets 'officially' dark around 8pm now). But I did not just want to go for another city scenic, and I did not have enough time to re-fuel, plan, pre-flight and execute a decent cross-country and make it back before the club curfew.

So I asked CFI Rob if he was interested in going down to Hamilton for a night cross country and some circuits... "Sorry guys, you're about 10 minutes too late... I've just had a beer, but give Chris a call, he might be interested".

So we called Chris, who said he would be there about 8:30pm... plenty of time to pre-flight, refuel etc...

Unfortunately, by this time, the fuel tankers had packed up for the night, so we taxied LMA around to the pumps to fill up. Which was a bit problematic as the handle on the fuelhose was leaking fuel everywhere!!! I tried calling the 'BP Emergency Response' number and was told "We don't deal with the aviation side of things, you'll need to talk to the maintenance contractors, please hold"... the maintenance contractors come on and say "We don't deal with that anymore, I'll just see if I can find the number you need"... I was waiting for her to give me the original number I called, but after 5 minutes she came back and said she could not find the number, took my details and said they'd arrange to get it fixed.

We used the other pump.

About an hour later, some guy calls me and says "you reported a leaking pump?"... I explained what had happened and he was like "Oh there is another pump? The call centre says the pump needs to be fixed by 10pm tonight, but if there is another pump, we'll leave it until tomorrow"... "errr its leaking fuel"... "That's ok, can you put a sign on it saying out of order?" ?!!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!

Anyway, Chris eventually showed up, and after a briefing and review of the weather and plates for Hamilton, we took off around 9:30pm with Nick taking the first leg. A really nice flight... some excellent landmarks at night (like Huntly and the Prison near Mercer) and visibility was pretty much unlimited.

We made it to Hamilton and the tower was off-watch and everyone else was asleep, except for the fire rescue guys who appeared to be doing drag races on the runway and spraying water everywhere... I think they were "training" :)

Nick did a few circuits, and seemed to struggle a little bit due to the fact that he hasn't flown LMA much (he does not currently have a rating on it)... so he had to consciously look for controls and instruments etc. To be honest, I thought he did fine... and his landings were pretty smooth.

On his last circuit, we taxied to the apron and parked up between a couple of AirNZ Link ATR's... and swapped over. A bit of a mission in a cherokee, as you only have 1 door, so the choreography was a little interesting. :)

Once we were all setlled in, I taxied it out, back-tracked up the runway and did 3 pretty uneventful circuits before departing for Ardmore. Climbing out of the Hamilton zone, I called up Christchurch Control and got cleared for a non-standard 3000' altitude, VFR to Ardmore. No drama's there and we cruised all the way back before dropping out of controlled airspace coming over the Bombay Hills.

The wind had swung around from 230 to 060, so I opted to go straight in for 03... and then proceeded to hit the deck pretty hard... nothing really bad, but definitely not one of my better landings :(

After a debrief and cuppa, I headed home and crawled into bed at around 12:30am... Needless to say, systems are running a little slow this morning! ;)


This flight: 1.1 Dual Night
Total Hours: 140.5 (78.9/47.6 Day, 6.0/8.0 Night, 5.1 IFR)

Three-peat...

Woohoo... 3 days in a row! Sometimes the "4 Seasons in 1 Day" nature of Auckland weather works in your favour...

I woke up on monday morning to the predicted 'gray and horrible'... indeed by the time I got to the train station, I was regretting the lightweight jacket I had decided to wear as the rain was starting to fall.

However, by mid-morning/lunchtime, it was all blue skies and light winds!

So, I decided to see if my mate, who was the unfortunate one who came along for what ended up being my shortest flight ever, wanted to come along for a proper night flight. As luck would have it, he was going to be down in Manukau (near Ardmore) playing Indoor Cricket until about 8pm.

So I headed out to the field after work and pre-flighted and refueled JBL while I still had some daylight, and then blasted off for my 3 take-offs and landings to ensure night currency in the Cessna 152. Despite the circuit being very busy, everyone seemed to be behaving themselves, so I managed to get up and down without too much hassle.

By the time I had done that, it was just after 8pm, so once my my friend arrived and I had triple-checked the weather forecasts and current conditions (I was getting paranoid about fog), we climbed into JBL and taxied out into the darkness.

By this time, there was only one other aircraft operating (none of the AFS guys like paying the night circuit fees, so they are generally back on the ground before 8pm ;) I asked him what the weather was looking like and if there signs of any fog forming. "Nothing much, just a bit of haze" was the reply.

Climbing up off 21, the haze was pretty apparent, with lights in the distance looking a bit fuzzy. We turned downwind and headed out to the rivermouth to fly up the coastline towards Maraetai.

After the usual 'Up the harbour, around the Sky Tower, let's find your house' kind of stuff, I sprung a bit of a surprise on him and called up the tower at Auckland International (NZAA) asking for clearance into the zone to overhead the tower and transit to Ardmore via Karaka. Thankfully, they were fairly quiet, so after 1 orbit overhead Mangere Town Centre, we were cleared over the tower and then onwards to Ardmore.

Needless to say, my friend enjoyed the rather unique view of Auckland Airport from 1500', all lit up in the dark :)

He also had a video camera, so he managed to capture some video... apologies for the camera shake (and the flicking from 'Night Shot' to regular mode)... he was testing it out :)

Having said that... after some careful editing, we have 8mins of video with some pretty stunning shots of the Auckland CBD/SkyTower... I am not a fan of stupid songs on YouTube videos, so you can listen to the lovely droning of the 152 instead :)



In other news, I got 88 for my CPL General Aircraft Technical Knowledge exam :) and I just got a call from a friend who, after enduring the aptitude and psych testing and flight grading and anxious wait, has just been accepted for the Cathay Pacific Cadet Program... BASTARD! Enjoy life as a Second Officer carrying bags! :P Good on ya mate!


This flight: 0.6 + 1.0 PinC Night
Total Hours: 139.4 (78.9/47.6 Day, 4.9/8.0 Night, 5.1 IFR)

Two for Two!

I can not believe it... 2 fine days in a row! I cannot remember the last weekend when both Saturday and Sunday were flyable...

Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, I headed out to Ardmore with no real plan other than wanting to go flying.

I had been thinking about heading down to Hamilton to play in the control zone, or perhaps Tauranga for the same, when Trevor suggested I might like to go over to Great Barrier Island for a look.

Sounded like a great idea, so I pre-flighted the club cherokee 180, LMA, plotted a course for the main airfield at Great Barrier (Claris) and strapped in. Unfortunately, our club has rules about being "checked out" on certain airfields, including Great Barrier. As, the field can be a little tricky depending on which way the wind is blowing, coupled with the fact that it has a fairly narrow seal strip and some rather high terrain at one end, you need to be on your game when going in there. The CFI is determined that Airline Flying Club will remain incident free and prefers students to get a briefing and a check ride when going to some of the more 'interesting' strips. This meant it was just going to be an overhead, but as Trevor said "Landing and taking off again just uses up gas, tyres and time" :)

In any case, it was an absolutely gorgeous day over the gulf. Pretty much clear skies and unlimited visibility and a slight tailwind made for a nice smooth cruise out to Great Barrier. It has some spectacular scenery, and I have already made informal arrangements to get checked out so I can go back and land this time.

The 'slight' tailwind made things a little interesting when flying over the big ridge that runs the length of Great Barrier. The mechanical turbulence was a fun ride :) To be honest, the airfield did not look too threatening... the windsocks showed a fairly steady crosswind across the main strip, so I would have opted for the shorter, grass cross-runway if I had been intending to land.

After a quick orbit overhead the field, I decided to head back to Ardmore as Trevor had a trial flight booked at 1600 and needed to get back to prepare the briefing. A relatively uneventful flight back, cruising at 4500', enjoying the wonderful scenery of the Hauraki Gulf.

I also got a good look at the 'Colville Gap', near the northern tip of the Coromandel Peninsula, that Chris, one of the instructors, had previously suggested as an alternative route around the Coromandel, when the cloud gets low and the Waihi Gap is unsuitable.

A most enjoyable way to spend a sunny Sunday afternoon. I believe Trevor has some video (he was testing the battery in his camera), so I'll post it up when I get a copy of it.


This flight: 1.4 PinC
Total Hours: 137.8 (78.9/47.6 Day, 4.9/6.4 Night, 5.1 IFR)

Old territory

I decided to take advantage of the lovely weather and the fact that I had finished all my chores (read as: taking jade to the Shopping Mall) by lunchtime by going for a quick flight.

As I was seriously lacking in flight time in recent months and what I had done was simply flying in straight lines, I decided some 'basic' revision was the order of the day.

I strapped on JBL and headed out to the training area. Once again, I found the area out towards the coast by Kaiaua and Miranda to be aircraft free. For some reason, everyone else seems to prefer training over the Pokeno paddocks.

Anyway, I warmed up with some medium turns, a basic stall or 2, a couple of approach stalls and then pulled the power to see if I could still do a forced landing. It was not too bad, so I headed back to Ardmore for some circuit practice.

What a huge mistake... every man and his brother seemed to be flying circuits! At one point, I was mid-downwind, with 4 aircraft in front of me, and 2 on final... making me number 7... and there were 2 more behind me!!!

Made for interesting times, with some aircraft going for the grass... some for the seal... and others not really sure what they were doing!

Was a good exercise in spacing... and I managed some decent landings including a couple of nice flapless. To finish, I went for a shortfield landing on the grass and landed right on the threshold. It was pretty much perfect.

All in all, a good afternoon and it felt good to get back in the air.


This flight: 1.1 PinC
Total Hours: 136.4 (78.9/46.2 Day, 4.9/6.4 Night, 5.1 IFR)

Everything's coming up Milhouse...

Ahhh... what a great day! 'Why is that?' you ask...

1. I was not at work
2. The cloudbase was above 1500'
3. Enough wind to make it "interesting"
4. I have a PPL

If you've been following this journal for any period of time, you should have worked out that this means I got to go flying today :)

The added bonus being that today is my birthday... so not only did I skive off work, I got to do it by flying ;)

Trevor called me around 0930 and said "you still interested in going flying?"... does a one legged duck swim in circles? Of course I was interested, I just did not think that we would get anywhere with the weather being as marginal as it was.

Turns out we made it all the way to Hamilton for a $300 coffee. As it turns out, it actually cost a bit more than $300, and they don't have a cafe at the Waikato Aero Club, so we had to settle for a drink from the water cooler! hahahah... (Any suggestions Euan?)

According to Trevor, the weather actually made it a perfect day for cross-country flying. Lot's of weather to avoid, some decision making required, navigation more difficult due reduced vis etc. I have to agree, it was actually really enjoyable... and no-one else was around, so the only traffic I had to contend with was a 172 doing circuits at Ardmore, and a Beech 1900D doing Instrument Training at Hamilton.

Was kind of weird seeing a packed carpark at AFS, and a full flight line... and it is probably the first time I've been to Hamilton and seen the entire CTC fleet on the ground!

LMA, as always, was flying like a dream and now that I know it has a fine pitch prop on it (great for short field take-offs!), I can actually get it to cruise at a decent speed... such a lovely aircraft for cruising in comfort...

All up, not a bad way to spend a bday! ;)


This flight: 1.8 PinC
Total Hours: 135.3 (78.9/45.1 Day, 4.9/6.4 Night, 5.1 IFR)