Look at the pretty lights!

Got off the train after work yesterday and noted that the sky was extremely blue and contained zero cloud. So I called Chris to see if he wanted to head up to Whangarei. As I suspected he would be, he was keen like a keen thing, so I soon found myself at Ardmore pre-flighting LMA.

I put "as much fuel as humanly possible" in it (approx. 186 litres) giving us around 5 1/2 hours of endurance!

We took off and headed out North via Brookby. Approaching Whitford Town, we called up Auckland Tower to request clearance to 5500' for the cruise up to Whangarei. They informed us to contact Auckland Approach, so we did and were duly cleared to our requested altitude.

On the way north, Chris pointed out various landmarks (Orewa, Snell's Beach, Marsden Point etc.) all shining in the dark.

We had been switched over to Christchurch Control during the cruise and they called us up, as we were approaching the edge of controlled airspace, wanting to know what our intentions were at Whangarei and did we still require radar following. So we told them that we did still require it (and also for the return journey to Ardmore) and that we were going to spend around 40 minutes doing circuits once we got to Whangarei before heading back.

They responded that they would lose radar and radio coverage when we descended into Whangarei due to terrain (should I be concerned now??) and that they would establish a SARTIME which would give us just over an hour to get in, do our circuits and climb back out into radar/radio coverage.

So we descended into Whangarei, looking for the runway and the runway 'lead in' lights (PDF showing light setup). Whangarei has curved approaches due to the big hills surrounding it, so they have setup some nice flashing amber lights out in the harbour to indicate a nice safe approach path and some nice red ones along the shore to indicate where NOT to be! ;)

I was expecting really bright flashing lights (something like a lighthouse)... that you could see from miles away... boy was I disappointed!! They were incredibly difficult to see and I am not entirely sure that they were all working as I could not even see all of them... Still, the strobes at each end of the runway made that easy to find, so we flew in, made a left hand turn and set ourselves up for some circuits on 24 (including a really good flapless approach and landing) and then re-positioned for some the other way on 06 (including a couple of real 'greasers' ;).

Then we climbed back out and set course for home. Climbing through about 3000' we re-stablished contact with control and requested 6500' for the flight south. They cleared us up and we sat back and enjoyed the stunning view. Note: I REALLY need to get a video camera! :(

Coming back down, Christchurch Control handed us over to Auckland again and coming up to the Whangaparoa Peninsula we asked for clearance to track direct to Ardmore at 6500', descending overhead Drury if traffic allowed. They kindly let us through and once overhead Drury, we got clearance to descend out of controlled airspace and terminated radar following. Then, I pulled the power back to idle and we spiraled down to 1600' and setup for wide right base for 03.

One nice soft landing and a short taxi later and we were back at the club... 2.6 hours of wallet-lightening bliss! ;)


This flight: 2.6 Dual Night
Total Hours: 154.4 (78.9/56.2 Day, 8.6/10.7 Night, 7.0 IFR)