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)