Pulling the pin...

One of my shortest flights ever last night :( Not quite as dramatic as Euan's shortest flight, but some valuable lessons learned.

I had been planning on taking a friend night flying, unfortunately the temperature and dew point were a little too close together for my liking... like 1 degree!

This increases the likelihood of fog and with a very still night meant it was almost a certainty. Indeed driving out to the airfield, there were already wisps of fog about.

We decided to play it safe, and just fly in the circuit, but even that would prove to be a lost cause. I checked the ATIS that indicated that we should be using runway 21 (wind was only a couple of knots from 180), however another aircraft was already in the circuit using 03... they had set the runway direction, so we had to follow.

On the the 1st circuit, aside from being ridiculously high (more on this below) there was already a fairly heavy fog rolling up the valley and across the field. So I decided to make the next one a full stop and call it quits. As the saying goes:

There are old pilots... and bold pilots... but no old, bold pilots!

As I mentioned before, I was really high on the first approach. I didn't think the 1 or 2 knots of tailwind would make that much difference and could not figure out why the 172 with full flaps at idle power was refusing to come down. Not having a good view of the illuminated windsock (it's on the wrong side of the aircraft when you're using 03), I figured the wind was stronger than 1 or 2 knots. So I executed a go-around rather than forcing it in and decided to extend the downwind to give myself more time to setup.

Turns out I was correct in my assumption about the wind. Indeed, the other aircraft in the circuit obviously had a GPS, as he called up as I was doing my downwind checks to let me know that it was showing an 8 to 10 knot tailwind!!

I setup a nice long approach and was able to put it down relatively easily. Landed a little deeper than usual of course because of the tailwind, but no real drama's. It was actually a really good landing (flare, stall warning, 2 dogs barking)...

Given the fog that was around after we landed, I am very glad I called it quits when I did. After all, as the instructors have told me several times, it's a long walk back from Auckland International... and then you have to go back to get the aircraft!


This flight: 0.3 PinC Night
Total Hours: 121.3 (78.1/34.8 Day, 3.9/4.5 Night, 5.1 IFR)

Spontaneity

The great thing about having your licence is the ability to just go and fly...

I headed out to the club today, not really intending on flying as the weather looked atrocious. Lots of showers, gray/black clouds floating around everywhere and it was blowing fairly strong, gusting 22 knots. But Auckland being Auckland... well as they say, if you don't like the weather, just wait 10 minutes :)

Around 4:30pm, the sun had come out, the wind had dropped down to around 10knots and I decided it was time to take DXP for a run before the owner takes her offline later this week.

I managed to find some company in the form of another club member who was keen to come along for the ride, and after a quick pre-flight we taxied out to do our run-ups. For an aircraft that had not moved in around 3 weeks, DXP was an absolute dream. Started without any fuss, no hiccups during run-ups and she flew as straight as an arrow.

So we decided to go for a quick city scenic and headed over the city, enjoying the view around the port, Harbour Bridge, Sky Tower, One Tree Hill, Rangitoto etc. before heading back. A most enjoyable flight, and Tony even bought me a beer afterwards!

The only issue I had was that it was really heavy on the elevator... requiring a lot of force to get the nose up on the take-off roll, and a lot to prevent the nose wheel 'shimmy' on landing... other than that, an absolute dream to fly.


This flight: 1.0 PinC
Total Hours: 121.0 (78.1/34.8 Day, 3.9/4.2 Night, 5.1 IFR)