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)