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.
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.
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)
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