Needles and Racetracks...

This week has been an interesting aviation week... I was "Re-educated" in the use of an E6B by a very knowledgeable instructor... I also learned more about Automatic Direction Finders (ADF's) in 20 minutes in a briefing room with this instructor than from all of the reading I have been doing of instrument rating study guides.

I then proceeded to spend over $1000 flying around in circles... and I didn't even get to enjoy the view!! :P

Yesterday was basic ADF tracking... or "How to make a needle point where it should" ;)

This involved taking off from Ardmore and flying out towards the Surrey and Miranda NDB's (Non-Directional Beacon's) and flying to and from the beacons on various headings as instructed by Instructor Phil... By learning a couple of basic principles, the "smoke and mirrors" of ADF tracking suddenly became a reality...

1. You're not on track if the needle is pointing at the wrong heading


2. The head of the needle "falls" to the tail of the aircraft


3. When tracking "TO" an NDB, to make the needle rotate right, you rotate the aircraft left (and vice versa)


4. When tracking "FROM" an NDB, to make the tail of the needle rotate right, you rotate the aircraft right (and vice versa)


5. If the head of the needle rises, you haven't made enough allowance for wind

Today was ADF holds... or "How to fly nice racetrack patterns in the sky". This lesson built on the basics from yesterday, but threw in some added fun bits, like holding pattern entry procedures (Parallel, Offset and Direct entries)...

I had another student tagging along, who brought along his Garmin 296 GPS, so when we got back I could have a look at my flight path, and while the first couple of holds were a little "wobbly", the steadily got better and better, until I was flying very nice racetracks indeed :)

A very solid 2 hour workout!

Then in prep for our club trip to Taumarunui on Sunday, I went and go current in the 152 this afternoon... with 3 quick circuits in JFY in an almost empty circuit... BLISS!


These Flights: 1.5 Dual (1.2 IFR) + 2.0 Dual (1.6 IFR) + 0.4 PinC
Total Hours: 305.6 (143.4/136.2 Day, 8.6/17.4 Night, 14.7 IFR)

300

No, not a post about Sparta...

I have managed another mini-milestone... 300 Hours Total Time :)

After another weekend of pretty awesome weather, I racked up another 8.1 hours while flying about the countryside which has pushed me to 301.7 Hours...

Saturday was a nice early start and a short hop across the city, over to "Vanilla Pie" (aka Whenuapai) before their airspace got too busy with gliders... at which point we headed for Swanson/Henderson and Waitakere, getting a little too close to the Auckland Control Zone/Area for my liking... I really need to invest in a Garmin 296 so I don't have to rely on guesstimating where the airspace really starts ;)

Sunday was a little less stressful... a nice cruise up north for a looksee around Mangawhai Heads and then onto Whangarei. A quick "recce" around the area before stopping to refuel both aircraft and occupants. As always, the little cafe in the Whangarei Airport Terminal provided some really good food... Choc Fudge Brownies FTW!! ;)

Then it was back into it, covering the area north of the city, around the airfield and along the coast east of the airport.

I would also like to give a big shout out to the Eagle Air pilot's who flew into NZWR on Sunday afternoon, they're very accomodating to us folk in the lighties... despite me offering to hold early downwind so as not to get in her way, the pleasant voice on the radio told me to go ahead and she'd slow down her approach :) And later, when we were flying around north of the city, I heard another approaching Eagle Air Beech 1900D pilot let a 172 from Ardmore Flying School in ahead of him...

Then it was home for "Tea, Buns and Medals" as Mel says... personally, I had a beer ;)

In other news, I finally got around to rewarding myself for getting the CPL. I purchased a Lightspeed Zulu headset... OMG, this thing is simply the best headset I have ever worn.

It wasn't exactly cheap, but after my 4 hour flight on Saturday, I barely even knew I had a headset on it was so comfortable... Lightweight, ANR (Active Noise Reduction) and with an auxiliary input jack for piping music from my phone (which automatically cuts out when getting radio/intercom transmissions)...

There is nothing quite like cruising around in the sunny blue skies listening to some nice chillaxing sounds ;)

My only regret is not buying one sooner!!


These Flights: 3.9 + 4.2 PinC
Total Hours: 301.7 (139.9/135.8 Day, 8.6/17.4 Night, 11.9 IFR)

Crap... I'm dead?!!!

So, I received a phone call approaching Huntly... a somewhat difficult task given the excessive noise of the rather modest powerplant of the Cessna 152... I shouted "We're still flying" into the microphone of my mobile, pressed the "End Call" button and then sent a text to the caller saying "What's up?"... the reply?

"You're dead, according to SpiderTracks"

Rewind 1hr and 39mins... and Irene and I are taxiing out to runway 03 after ECT (Evening Civil Twilight aka. night time) preparing for a night cross-country down to Hamilton for some circuits.

Unfortunately, my "point and click" digital camera is less than useless at night photography, so I have no pics to show, but it was one of those nights that reminds you why you wait patiently for the sun to descend below the horizon to go flying... we could see the lights of Hamilton as we departed via the downwind from Ardmore... the long yellowish snake of State Highway 1 stretching out into the darkness before us. I was there as pax, with Irene wanting to rack up some PinC/Night flying time...

Following a relatively uneventful flight down, we arrived overhead Hamilton to join a (surprisingly) busy circuit... with 3 or 4 CTC aircraft doing the rounds. 5 or 6 (rather large!!) circuits later and Irene decided it was time to head home, so she called departing and we headed back north...

Despite SpiderTracks indicating that our flight had ended somewhat abruptly somewhere between Ngaruawahia and Huntly, we made it back to Ardmore safe and sound... at which point several phone calls were made to allay the concerns of the parties receiving emergency alerts.

No (real) harm done, but a story about a young man and his fascination with "canis lupus" comes to mind :-/