Showing posts with label DJU. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DJU. Show all posts

Sunday, 27 February 2011

Success, Postponement & Commercial Reality

So I successfully completed my Multi-Rating... spending a small fortune along the way, desperately trying to maintain control of a twin with the benefit of only one engine in all sorts of situations (during take-off roll, after take-off, in the cruise, in the circuit, on approach, on short final below DA (Decision Altitude) but having some of the most fun I've ever had whilst flying!

The emergency gear extension was interesting... opening a little hatch in the floor and using a little metal bar to turn a small value that just drops the gear down using gravity. Was somewhat re-assuring to know that in the event of the electric hydraulic pump failing, it might still be possible to get the wheels down...

An engine shutdown... and a (thankfully successful) mid-air restart... I have to say, despite the smile on my face (see below), flying around with the prop completely stopped was a little unnerving... especially after having spent 300+ hours in single engine aircraft where a stopped prop = BAD! :P

Look Ma, No Engine!



Then came the realisation that I was not going to be able to continue with my Instrument Rating... I had hoped to do it in the Duchess, but unfortunately, several critical pieces of avionics decided to release "The Magic Smoke™" rendering it unuseable for IFR flight :(

So I decided that I could just switch to the Partenavia P68 and do my Multi Instrument rating in that... but was unable to secure a test date at a suitable time that would leave me enough time to train, complete the test and make it to the UK in a timely manner (more on this later)...

So the decision was made, very reluctantly, to shelve the Instrument Rating until I return from my Northern Hemisphere adventure... As it turns out, due to several other factors, such as the Christchurch Earthquake and navigation equipment maintenance, there is pretty much no instrument training occurring at present so the decision was most definitely the right one.

So I was wondering what I was going to do to keep busy... at which point I was then asked to go and do some more aerial photography, only this time, away from "Home"... So I packed some clothes in a bag, put some spare oil in the back of DJU, made sure I had the fuel cards onboard and headed south.

"Jules" looking awesome in front of Mt Egmont (NZSD)



12 days & 41.3 hours "down country" later... I've seen a fair bit of the Taranaki & Manawatu... Managed to operate in and around the airforce base at Ohakea without annoying anyone, chatted with Police and Airforce crew at Foxpine (NZFP) who were out "doing some gardening" in an Airforce Iroquois helicopter ;), met some real characters like John the Pom, all the while "enjoying" some of the realities of commercial flying, and having a total blast...

"Jules" tucked up ready for bed at Foxpine (NZFP)



Now I mentioned the UK earlier... well this is one of the reasons I'm delaying the Instrument Flying... I've been offered the opportunity to head to the UK to do some flying up there for 6 months over the northern summer (yay! 4 summers in a row!!) So, as soon as I get back from the current round of flying about the countryside (currently in a Motel room in Masterton!?!?) I'll be packing up my life and heading to Ol' Blighty...

Fun times...

Monday, 8 November 2010

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)

Tuesday, 28 September 2010

6 months later...

It has been a long time between posts, but I have a REALLY good excuse... 2 weeks before my CPL flight test re-sit was scheduled, the Tuesday before Valentines Day to be precise, my wife came home from work and delivered some rather life changing news...

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.

SpiderTracks - Big Brother is watching you!



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 ;)

Friday, 3 April 2009

Under pressure...

1033 hectopascals to be precise ;)

A (very) high pressure system has been sitting on the country for the last couple of days... and as they pointed out during "Principles of Flight and Performance", High Pressure + Low Temperature = Awesome Performance. So, I figured I was in for a little fun last evening.

I was somewhat un-current at night, so I decided I would take the 152, 172 and Cherokee and do my 3 take-offs and landings. I pre-flighted DJU (the 172) and LMA (the Cherokee) and double checked I had enough gas... which I did. Chris and CFI Rob were taking JBL (the 152) for a quick jolly, so the plan was to go 172, 152 and finish with LMA.

I was under a little time pressure, as the night circuits curfew kicks in at 2230hrs local, but thankfully the circuit was pretty much empty, so I didn't have to worry too much about other aircraft. With the conditions the way they were, DJU leapt off the ground and I struggled to keep the airspeed below 80kts and was still climbing at over 1000' per minute!

I was feeling a little rusty... and the GPS track (yay, the GPS on my new phone + OziExplorer works really well!) kind of bears witness to this.

What a mess...


After taxiing back in, I pre-flighted JBL as Rob and Chris had returned, double-checked I had enough gas, had a quick pitstop and taxied out. I was feeling more comfortable for the 2nd lot of circuits, as the GPS track for that flight shows... Not too shabby if I do say so myself ;)

The way it should be...


And then it was time to take LMA... I was really pushing the curfew cut-off, taking out at 2210, but I snuck in 2 circuits before 2230 and vacated to the city for a quick scenic cruise. After flying up the harbour, I rounded SkyTower, headed out to One Tree Hill and requested (and was given) permission to enter the control zone to overfly NZAA and take a shortcut back to Ardmore.

And then things got interesting as the tower informed me I might have a bit of a hold at Mangere Town due to some departures... unless I wanted to turn left, head east until I crossed the southern motorway and then direct to Ardmore. I was more than happy with that, as I didn't really want to overfly NZAA, I just wanted the shortcut ;)

So I turned east, and enjoyed the slightly different scenery... before realising that I was heading towards my house :) Unfortunately, just as I was nearing the motorway and before I got too close to home, I was advised I could track direct, and as I didn't want to overstay my welcome, I set heading for Ardmore and watched my house slip by the port wing.

Looks like a giant sock puppet!


A most enjoyable evenings flying... and I am now current like a current thing ;)


This flight: 0.5 + 0.5 + 0.8 PinC Night
Total Hours: 179.0 (78.9/76.6 Day, 8.6/14.9 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)

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)

Monday, 17 November 2008

Jared and the Volcano

After the disappointment of Friday night, the weekend weather turned out to be awesome... and I had cunningly done all my chores (read as: shopping with jade) on Saturday, so Sunday I headed out to Ardmore expecting a greay day, and I was not disappointed.

I had booked the 172 (DJU) despite the A/H being a bit wobbly during my city scenic the day before. Not a big deal, as they're not required for VFR flight.

I planned for Ardmore to Whakatane, a quick side trip out to White Island, then back to Opotiki, then onwards to Taupo and finally back to Ardmore. The weather reports for cloud from Opotiki to Taupo were looking a little marginal, but I always had the option of diverting back to Tauranga or Rotorua.

One of the other club members, Tony, was kicking about the club and had not been flying for a while, so Nick and I invited him to come along for a joyride, which he duly accepted.

As you can see from the flightpath, things didn't go quite to plan...

Managed to climb up to 3500' once clear of the Auckland Control Areas that stretch out to Orere Point and then cruised across the Firth of Thames heading for the Waihi Gap. I tried to contact Christchurch Control over Waihi Beach, to get clearance into controlled airspace, so that I could just cruise over the top of Tauranga, but they either forgot about me, or were just busy with 'real' traffic, so after an orbit or two, I gave up, descended to 2500' and called up Tauranga Tower.

A new trainee ATC was on watch, but thankfully it was pretty quiet, so I was cleared into the zone and flew along the coast without too much bother and popped out the other side at Maketu. Then on towards Whakatane where I executed a missed approach and then departed to White Island.

Just passing Whale Island... the camera man was a bit slow ;)

Approaching the volcanic island, you can see the way the warm air rising from the crater condenses

The view from up high

Not the most hospitable looking place in the world!

You can see the full album over at photobucket.

Unfortunately, Nick had forgotten to charge his camera, so the batteries ran dry soon after White Island, so no pics of Opotiki, Tauranga or the flight home :(

After a couple of laps around the island, we headed back towards the coast looking for Opotiki. Descending down to circuit altitude at Opotiki and with the prevailing crosswind, it got very bumpy which made for a messy approach. So I went around and setup again. The second approach was a lot more stable and was looking good except for the last few feet. Quite a bit of float and then we just dropped. Not my best landing ever thats for sure!

We climbed out and headed back towards Whakatane while I decided whether or not to push for Taupo. I could see that Mt. Edgecumbe was bumping the bottom of the clouds, which would mean around 2000'. I figured, we would be able to maintain 1000' AGL through the low ground to Taupo, but given how 'lumpy' the flying conditions were inland from the coast, I decided I could do without the concrete mixer action and diverted to Tauranga. I called up Christchurch Information and amended my flight plan and then set course back along the coast.

We were cleared in and joined downwind for 07 Grass. As we came abeam of the threshold, I got cleared for a short approach and landing. So, Carb Heat hot, throttle to idle, and turned in. Bled the speed off, dropped the flaps and dropped it in on the threshold.

After gassing up and watching a couple of Q300's land and drop off their passengers, we strapped in and got clearance to depart back to Ardmore. I had been expecting the standard 'Matakana One' VFR departure clearance, but was simply cleared "2500' or below, on track Ardmore". Sweet, climb out, turn left, point the aircraft back to Ardmore :)

A great day's flying and 4.0 hours for the logbook.


This flight: 4.0 PinC
Total Hours: 160.9 (78.9/62.7 Day, 8.6/10.7 Night, 7.0 IFR)

Saturday, 15 November 2008

Must be the full moon...

I don't recall breaking any mirrors, walking under any ladders or seeing any black cats recently... but I just defected my 3rd aircraft in under 24 hours.

WTF?!?!?!?!

I was out at the aeroclub, hoping to run into one of the instructors who specialises in 'Principles of Flight' as I have my exam on Monday and just wanted to pick his brain on one or two things. Unfortunately, he was not sticking around after his flight, so that will have to wait until tomorrow.

Seeing as how it was another sunny, blue sky day, I decided to take the 172 (DJU) for a bit of a jolly. There were a couple of young guys hanging around the club, both new members of the club who are planning on beginning their PPL's soon. Unfortunately, they've both recently injured themselves so are unable to fly 'hands-on'. Knowing how much that would annoy me and seeing as I had a couple of spare seats, I offered them a ride. Being aviation enthusiasts, they naturally jumped at the chance.

Anyway, everything was going well... DJU is a nice smooth aircraft and the conditions today were simply stunning. We went up the harbour, around the SkyTower and then I was heading back out towards Rangitoto Island and Waiheke and noticed the AH was showing 30 degrees of bank while I was straight and level!?!?!?

I knew it had been working, as I had (triple) checked it during taxi and run-up... and it was working fine climbing out of Ardmore, as I had checked my climb angle on take-off.

I checked the suction gauge and it was reading OK... so another AH has toppled on me! arrrrgggghhhh!

Thankfully, an AH is not required for Day[1] VFR flights, I had almost unlimited visibility and the weather was near perfect, so I just continued on and defected the aircraft once we got back to base.

I am planning on going flying with Nick tomorrow... He has told me, I am not allowed to Pre-flight and/or "Drive"... in fact, I'm not allowed to touch anything!

Who said pilots were superstitious???? :-/


This flight: 0.9 PinC
Total Hours: 156.9 (78.9/58.7 Day, 8.6/10.7 Night, 7.0 IFR)


[1] Technically, an Artificial Horizon is not required for Night VFR either, but as a club rule the AH must be working for night flights

Monday, 13 October 2008

Money conversion

Given the title and the current state of the global economy, you might be forgiven for thinking that I am trying to take advantage of the good NZ-AU exchange at the moment... But I actually mean the conversion of money into noise + fun :)

4 Hours in total this weekend... beginning with some simulated IFR practice on Saturday afternoon. The last lot I did was back in January leading up to my PPL Flight Test, so I figured a quick refresher was in order.

It was a relatively breezy day (15-20kts), and it took me about 15 to 20 minutes after putting the hood on to get back into the groove and about another 10 until I was no longer 'chasing' the aircraft and had some decent heading and height holding. Nick was acting as 'safety pilot', and managed to play nasty tricks involving up and down drafts that you get in and around the various islands in the Hauraki Gulf when the wind is blowing... it certainly makes you think when you're holding 5 to 10 degrees of down pitch, and the aircraft is climbing at 500' per minute!

Sunday, I had been planning on flying down to Hamilton to play in the sim with Trevor. Unfortunately, he was unwell and decided to postpone. In the end it was rather moot, as all the club aircraft were booked, so we would not have been able to fly anyway :(

Instead, I opted for some more IFR... Only for extra added challenge, I "decided" (read as: only aircraft available) to take DJU, the 172. I had not flown a 172 since May, and had never flown this aircraft... fun times!

Trevor decided he was well enough to come along as Safety Pilot, so I went and did my 3 take-off/landings to get current and then we blasted off for an hour or so. He put me through my paces, after about 10 minutes of 'normal' IFR, he decided Partial Panel was the way to go, so I spent the next 45 minutes flying around without the use of the Artificial Horizon or the Direction Indicator. I have to say, I was feeling a lot better about my IFR on this flight, having had some practice the day before, but I got the 'Leans' really badly and was having to really concentrate on keeping straight and level.

Then, just to keep things interesting, Trevor tried a little aircraft handling exercise. "I want you to descend at 150'/minute, how are you going to do that?"... I was thinking that was easy, just nudge the nose down and trim it out for the required descent rate... "Ok," he says "Now I want 150'/minute at 90 knots"... As we were doing around 115kts that one required a bit more thought... drop RPM a little bit, raise the nose a little bit... fine tune until we get the required speed and descent rate... "Ok, now I want 350'/minute at 90 knots"... arrrggghhhh!!!

I can see the point of the exercise. It makes you really think about and apply the 'Pitch controls Airspeed, Throttle controls Altitude' mantra and, hopefully, my general aircraft handling skills will benefit as well.

And just to make sure I was a completely burned out, he had me fly an overhead join, a circuit and the approach to land with the foggles on... It is quite nerve-racking watching the altimeter counting down and not being able to see the runway!

Then to cap off a great weekend, Nick and I decided we would 'solo' down to Hamilton in a 152 for some Night Circuits/Cross country time. Was a gorgeous night with a full moon and some really high, thin cloud cover... Crash/Fire had the lights on for us when we arrived and after Nick finished his circuits we taxied to the apron, swapped over and I did a couple of circuits before we vacated back to Ardmore.

All in all, a highly successful weekend of money conversion ;)


This flight: 1.3 PinC (1.1 IFR) + 0.5 PinC + 1.1 PinC (0.9 IFR) + 1.1 PinC Night
Total Hours: 144.5 (78.9/50.5 Day, 6.0/9.1 Night, 7.0 IFR)