To cut a long story short, I'm now "flying solo"... so after selling the house, finding a place to live, dividing up assests and re-arranging my personal life, all while trying to pass a CPL, I figured I was due up for some time off.
I managed a sneaky club trip down to Nelson (was supposed to be Queenstown, but was the weekend back at the beginning of May when Queenstown was underwater) in the 182... We visited Nelson Lakes Station & Omaka (and had an unscheduled pitstop in Motueka due to some rather high engine temps) and generally had an awesome time. ps. Controlled VFR at 10,500' is the way to fly! ;)
I also figured it was a good time to go cross some things of my "Bucket List", see some friends overseas and see some more of our fair Earth... So after 3 weeks in the US/Canada followed by 3 Weeks in UK/Europe through May/June and 3 Weeks in China for a friend's wedding Aug/Sep, I can safely say that I've seen a fair bit, met some awesome people, made some new friends, had bucketloads of fun and have generally been enjoying life. :)
Of course, eventually, "Real Life"™ will catch up with you, and in my case, that is the need to get a Multi-Engine Instrument Rating, to which end I have been perusing the IR study guides and booking exams while this last load of crappy weather was ravaging the country (even went and did a 1hour famil in the Redbird FMX 1000 full motion sim ;)...
To celebrate the arrival of some decent weather and reward myself for such commitment to study (I mean, I have even been getting out of bed before lunchtime!)... and to really get back in the swing of things after doing some "currency circuits" on the weekend, I decided to go for an impromptu cross-country today...
So I pre-flighted DJU, checked weather all over the North Island looking for some interesting places to go, decided on Rotorua and White Island, put in a flightplan, chucked in a couple of pax I found hanging out at the Flying Club (1 CPL Student and 1 shiny new C-Cat), double checked we had life-jackets onboard, plugged in the SpiderTracks (oooo new toys for the club!) and headed off for Rotorua...
Was a pretty decent day, relatively smooth. Some cloud over the Kaimai's meant a slight detour through the Tauranga Control Zone, but no real drama's...
Stopped in Rotorua to refuel ourselves and the aircraft, got "Ramp Checked" by AvSec (I knew I carried my licence with me when flying for reason!) before heading off to White Island.
Neither of my pax had ever been out there, so they got a bit of a treat as we circled the volcano and then headed back west... We skipped up the east coast of the peninsula at 3000', checking out all the airfields along the Coromandal before heading back to Ardmore.
Another 3.5 hours in the book... Was a great day to be flying and was nice to have some company along :)
Hopefully, posts should become a bit more regular again (assuming the weather co-operates) as I embark on my MEIR journey... should be fun ;)
