Monday 29 December 2008

Satisified Customers...

My Mum and Dad arrived in Auckland yesterday to meet up with some old friends who are due to fly in from the UK on Tuesday...

I had been watching the weather all day (in between various "OMG! my parents are coming, I'd better clean up the house"-type activities) and it looked like the nasty weather that was forecast to arrive from the North was going to hold off...

After they had settled in and had had some dinner, I asked them if they were keen to "go and see Auckland by night" ;)

We headed out to the airfield and after I pre-flighted LMA and had taxied to the pumps and back to top up the fuel we headed off into a relatively clear, calm evening at around 2230...

LMA ready to go (I had never noticed the different window tints before?!?)
LMA ready to go


My dad is somewhat of a photography enthusiast (he used to do his own developing back in the day), so he has a slightly better grasp of how to work these fancy pants Digital SLR camera's... hence, instead of his nighttime photography looking like this shot I tried to take of the Marsden Point Oil Refinery a few weeks ago:

jade kindly dubbed it 'Spastic Fireworks'
Photobucket


His shots ended up looking like this:

The North Shore
North Shore


Looking out West...
Urban Sprawl


CBD at Night
CBD at night


Port, CBD and Eastern Suburbs
Port, CBD and Eastern Suburbs


Sea of Lights
Sea of lights


After whizzing about the sky tower a couple of times, we went for some sight-seeing over the rest of the city. LMA has 2 radios and I had been listening out on the NZAA frequencies and noted they were very quiet (as you would expect at 11pm on a Sunday ;)... so I thought I'd chance my arm and see if I could get M+D a treat and requested clearance to overhead the tower and then onwards to Ardmore via Karaka. I was cleared straight in, and as an added bonus, one of the late night Air New Zealand flights was just lining up and departing as we approached.

Approaching NZAA
Approaching NZAA


I think this is the international terminal
International Terminal


A couple of satisfied customers...
Satisfied Customer #1
Satisfied Customer #2


Mum and Dad were still buzzing about it this morning... Dad said to me 'Auckland by Day is pretty spectacular... but at night? Wow! It's something else...'

Awesome! ;)


This flight: 0.7 PinC Night
Total Hours: 170.5 (78.9/69.9 Day, 8.6/13.1 Night, 7.0 IFR)

Friday 26 December 2008

Ho Ho Ho...

What better way to finish Christmas Day than with a nice afternoon scenic flight... Took Trevor and 2 of his kids for a jolly out to Great Barrier and back in LMA.

Decided against landing at NZGB for two reasons. Firstly, I was a wee bit cramped for time as jade was wanting her dinner at a reasonable hour and, secondly, the south-westerlies would have made it awfully bumpy at ground level.

Instead, we climbed up to 5,500' (through an inversion layer at 4,500') and enjoyed the almost unlimited visibility... coped some bumps coming back down through the inversion and approaching the mainland again, but nothing too severe.

LMA, as usual, provided another pleasant flight and silky smooth landing... I am soooo glad the owner did not take her away for xmas :)

I only wish I had remembered to take jade's camera :(

Here's hoping I sneak in another flight or two, before I let the professionals have a go when I blast off for Hong Kong on New Year's Eve.


This flight: 1.3 PinC
Total Hours: 169.8 (78.9/69.9 Day, 8.6/12.4 Night, 7.0 IFR)

Monday 15 December 2008

Easy like Sunday morning

but after lunch ;)

I had been planning on taking a friend flying on Sunday morning, so of course I jumped out of bed first thing (read as: I overslept and was running late!) and headed out to the club to pre-flight and double check the weather. Thankfully I got a txt about 9am requesting we reschedule for around 1pm, so I could stop with the headless chicken impersonation.

I was trying to decide if I should take the Cherokee (LMA) or Cessna 172 (DJU) and decided that when doing scenic flights over the city, it is more important to be able to see straight down when cruising (easier with high wing), rather than when turning (easier with low wing), so I went for the 172.

My passengers duly arrived and after a quick brief about what we were going to do and getting everyone on-board and strapped in we taxied out.

It was a little windy, which made it a bit bumpy initially, but once we got out over the coast by the Wairoa River Mouth, it was relatively smooth. We headed over Maraetai and Beachlands and then tracked towards the harbour and the city centre. It was quite busy for a change with a Great Barrier Air Tri-Lander transiting to Auckland International, and a couple of rescue helicopters heading for the Hospital.

We played the 'Where is my house?' game and then as it was starting to get really choppy, I decided to head back out towards Rangitoto and Waiheke to find some smooth air. We found it on the northern side of Rangitoto and along the north coast of Waiheke before heading back to Ardmore.

As is usually the case, I was an aircraft magnet... complete silence on the radio and no aircraft in the vicinity until I called up joining downwind for 03 at Clevedon. Suddenly, no less than 5 aircraft appeared. One taking off and turning crosswind ahead of me, one coming in from the Hunua Valley, and 3 others on short final, medium final and quote: "very long final" ie. he had joined wide right base in front of me... *sigh*.

The thing that really surprised me was how smooth it was in the circuit, just a little bit of windshear on short final and a nice smooth landing to finish.

I secured the aircraft and my passengers left with big smiles and then I spent the rest of the day hanging out at the club, doing some odd admin jobs and avoiding mowing my lawns ;)


This flight: 1.1 PinC
Total Hours: 168.5 (78.9/68.6 Day, 8.6/12.4 Night, 7.0 IFR)

Sunday 14 December 2008

Meteors, Parties and Fires

After a day of shopping malls, seafood risotto and gnocchi and a 6km walk, I figured I had done enough for a mallowpuff and was thinking about some night flying. Jade asked why? Because I can... duh!

Anyway, as I was staring at the twilight sky debating whether or not the weather was going to be suitable, Trevor sent me a text message asking if I was keen for some night cross country action...

We headed out to the club, pre-flighted JBL and gassed her up and then Trevor did 3 circuits for his night currency (before curfew kicked in) and then I jumped in. He told me the weather looked a bit suspect for a cross-country. After we got airbourne, I could see that the cloud build-up looked pretty bad in pretty much every direction except out over the Tasman Sea. While I am sure I would have enjoyed a 15 hour flight across the Tasman, the lack of long range tanks on the 152 and the fact we had no life-jackets on board made the idea a bit of a non-starter ;)

We decided for a quick jolly over the city instead and our assumption about the weather seemed to have been confirmed when the clouds to the south were light up by what we thought was lightening... I heard on the radio this morning that it was actually part of a meteor shower! Either way, it was an impressive, and somewhat un-nerving sight.

We headed out towards the city, and overflew the domain and saw the remnants of the 'Christmas in the Park' show... Heading over towards Ponsonby we saw some flashing lights and long queues of traffic at what we initially thought was a police breathtesting checkpoint. Turned out to be a huge fire in a laundry. A little disconcerting as we smelled the smoke from 1500' and Trevor said "I hope that is not us!"

We hooked around the SkyTower looking very 'Christmassy' in its green and red lights and then we decided to call it a night and headed back to Ardmore.


This flight: 0.6 PinC Night
Total Hours: 167.4 (78.9/67.5 Day, 8.6/12.4 Night, 7.0 IFR)

Friday 12 December 2008

Proper Preparation...

prevents piss-poor performance... or so the saying goes.

After passing my Principles of Flight exam a couple of weeks ago, I had been studying for my CPL Nav, hoping to squeeze it in before Christmas. Things had been going fairly well so on the closing date for applications, I had booked my exam. According to the timetable, it would be next Tuesday (16th December), or so I thought!

The exam acceptance slip and practice paper duly arrived, via CourierPost, about a week after booking (like it always does). After checking the bag to make sure everything was there (but not actually reading any of it), I put it all to one side, intending on doing the practice exam over the weekend (most probably the night before the exam!)

Thankfully, I went to check the practice exam on Wednesday afternoon this week, as I wanted to see what 'area' the planned flight was in, to see if I had the appropriate chart(s). That is when I just happened to notice that the exam date was listed as 12/12/2008.

Me: "WTF?!!?!? The 12th?? That's this Friday... not next Tuesday... something must be wrong, I'd better call ASL to double check."

Then I noticed the little box that said in somewhat small writing, 'Dear Mr Yates, please note change in date due to heavy bookings'

Me: "OH SH*T!"

That only gave me 1 day to finish all my study... instead of the 5 that I had budgeted for! Thankfully my boss was very understanding and let me take the day off at short notice, so yesterday was filled with revision and practice exams... I finally went to bed around 1am, satisfied that if anything CPL Nav related was not already in my head, it:

A. Wouldn't get it in, in my half awake state
and
B. Wouldn't fit anyway


Woke up late this morning as my alarm didn't go off, despite the fact I checked it twice before I went to bed! Got ready and headed off to find the exam venue which was different from the usual location. Was a bit of a mission trying to find it... somehow I missed the building with 'Taha Wahia Woodside' emblasoned in big letters on the front... twice! :)

Apparently, several other people seem to have fallen into the same trap. There were supposed to be around 18 people sitting various exams this morning, but only 5 of us showed up! I imagine there are going to be some unhappy campers making phone calls to ASL...

Despite everything, the actual exam went surprisingly well!! There were only 1 or 2 questions that caused me to pause and scratch my head, so I am fairly confident that I have passed (famous last words ;). This, of course, means one of two things... I have either passed comfortably or failed spectacularly.

I always considered Nav to be one of the easier subjects. As it is essentially learning processes, and then applying them to the situation given... which I find relatively easy. It is the exams that rely on you remembering obscure 'facts' (ie. Air Law and P of F) that cause me the most problems.

Now I get to play the excruciating 'Wait for your Results' game... However, we were told today that ASL are shutting down for the holidays next Friday (19th December), which is why they have moved everything around, so it should be marked before then. Yay!


Fingers Crossed...

Monday 8 December 2008

Mr. Yates goes to Pauanui

Saturday dawned a nice clear blue... so it looked like my day trip to Pauanui (NZUN) would be a go. The plan was for me to help fly some of Joseph's friends over to Pauanui for a 'Hens Day' around 10am and then we'd head back around 3pm-ish... He had already reserved LMA (grrr! ;), so I was to be using DJU.

Everything was looking good, pre-flight OK, weather looking great etc... Right up until I went to take DJU for a couple of quick circuits before my passengers arrived.

I had wanted to warm up the aircraft and get the run-up's done, so when I had the passengers on board, we would not be sitting on the ground in the sun for too long, as it was already pushing 22 degrees at 9am!

Anyway, during pre-start I went to prime the engine and the little ring on the front of the panel, that the primer locks into, popped out and the entire primer barrel came loose :(

I called our maintenance controller and he arranged for one of the engineers to pop over and have a look. It turns out that the locking nut on the back of the panel had come loose, so after the assembly was all screwed back together tightly and double-checked I was good to go. Phew!

By the time I got back, Joseph was finishing the pre-flight safety briefing... so we loaded the girls and their baggage into the 2 aircraft and taxiied out to 21. It was a little bumpy until we cleared the coast and headed for the Coromandel and then it was a nice smooth ride. I saw the warbirds DC3 doing some 'interesting' maneuvers out over the firth... Definitely not a standard scenic flight! :P

We cruised overhead Coromandel in 'semi-formation' and then tracked down the eastern side of the peninsula to Pauanui... I joined overhead as I wanted to scope the place out as I had never been before and just wanted to double-check the windsocks at either end of the strip as I have heard they can often indicate completely different things! Thankfully they were not, and I setup for a nice right-hand circuit for 23 and landed without too much incident, although there was some nice thermal activity as we crossed over the beach.

The girls headed off to the beach to get their fill of sun and sand while we secured the aircraft and headed off to the local shops to get something to eat (Pro Tip #1: Pork and Apple pie from the Pauanui Bakery = WIN!).

After filling up (Pro Tip #2: Yo-Yo's from the Pauanui Bakery = DOUBLE WIN!) we wandered along beach to the surf life saving club and found a nice spot in the shade to relax... Joseph attempted to do some study for his Met exam and I did my best to distract him with aimless chat about flying, Pauanui, life in general etc. as we chilled out waiting for the girls to get bored...

About the time we first started walking along the beach, the sea-breezes I had been expecting had started. Indeed, the windsocks at either end of the strip were pointing in different directions! We saw a couple of aircraft come in with what must have been 10-15kt tailwinds... and, somewhat belatedly in one case, execute missed approaches. There really is something to be said for joining overhead at unattended aerodromes and checking out conditions before attempting to land!

On this trip I was a bit busy flying the aircraft to play shutterbug, so all I got was some snaps of the bay while relaxing in the shade after lunch. The quality is pretty crappy as it was taken using a cellphone, but I managed to photoshop them into a pretty reasonable panorama (as long as you don't zoom in too much!)



Late afternoon we headed back to Auckland and took the girls on a quick city scenic over Waiheke, Rangitoto, around Sky Tower and then out over One Tree Hill so they could find their house!

It really was a great start to the weekend... another new aerodrome to add to my list. I think I am in love with Pauanui... It was so peaceful and quiet, I will definitely be heading back there again before the summer is over and a 30 to 40 minute flight has to be better than a 3 hour drive right? ;)


This flight: 0.5 PinC + 1.7 PinC
Total Hours: 166.8 (78.9/67.5 Day, 8.6/11.8 Night, 7.0 IFR)

Wednesday 3 December 2008

New cure for the flu...

"Take 2.6 hours of flying and call me in the morning"...



After spending last Thursday and Friday in bed feeling crap, I was happy to see some lovely sunny weather for the weekend... Saturday, I was still feeling a little under the weather, so did not bother with the flying.

Sunday, I had arranged to take some friends for a city scenic. I woke up feeling good and the weather was just stunning. As you can see from the video, it was clear blue skies and light winds... Perfect!

My friend has improved his camera skills somewhat, I am getting better at video editing and I think the results speak for themselves!

Later that afternoon, I went joy riding again... three times! 3 quick scenic flights out over the gulf islands in LMA as a favour for a friend. The sea breezes were getting quite strong, so it was getting a little bumpy but the beautiful weather and spectacular views more than made up for it ;)

Lovely jubbly!


This flight: 1.0 PinC + 0.5 PinC + 0.5 PinC + 0.6 PinC
Total Hours: 164.6 (78.9/65.3 Day, 8.6/11.8 Night, 7.0 IFR)