Committed

So I have finished up at work... FREEEEEEEEEEDOMMMMM!

And I have dealt with other things that required my attention, such as being best man at my friends wedding. And my bank balance is looking healthy thanks to my severance package and the weather, while less than brilliant has been very flyable.

All of which means I went and got my Class 1 Medical renewed on Monday (no major issues, yay!) and I've spent the last two days being assessed by CFI Rob as to where I currently am flying-wise, and what we'll need to do to get me to CPL Flight Test Standard.

Yesterday was just over an hour of cloud and shower dodging, while trying to demonstrate compass turns, steep turns, stalling in the turn, Forced Landings, Low Flying in the bad weather config, Coastal Reversal Turns and a nice Overhead Join with a shortfield grass landing to finish.

Today looked like it was going to be a washout, but I could almost have got sunburnt this afternoon, as the drizzle and low cloud gave way to blue skies and sunshine! So it was more steep turns, Max Rate Turns, Forced Landings, more low flying and coastal reversal turns, Steep Gliding Turns, a flapless landing and another shortfield landing onto the grass.

The upshot of all this (aside from being about $600 poorer) is that Rob thinks I am around 10 to 15 hours away from a CPL Flight Test. Which is better than I thought, bearing in mind that I had not been in an aircraft for about 2 months and had certainly not done any "proper" flight training for almost 3, I figured I was probably going to be a little underdone.

As expected my forced landings were a little rusty... the flying is not a problem, it is the rest of the procedure (initial actions, trouble checks, mayday call, passenger brief etc) that I get mixed up with. But this is really just a practice thing.

Most other things I am relatively competent at, I just need to polish them up a little to get them to a CPL standard. As Rob is fond of saying "Attention to Detail".

I am under no illusions that the next few weeks/months are going to be a lot of hardwork, but I'm up for it. So, I have more flights booked up for the rest of this week. Fingers crossed the weather holds ;)


These Flights: 1.1 Dual + 1.3 Dual
Total Hours: 219.2 (101.3/93.6 Day, 8.6/15.7 Night, 7.7 IFR)

One step closer...

and another sticker in the log book.

The latest one declares that I have successfully completed the CPL Cross Country Syllabus and passed the cross country flight test. :)

After not being anywhere near an aircraft for almost a month due to weather and prior commitments, I got a call from CFI Rob last wednesday... "Long range forecast looks good for the weekend, let's go flying!"

Saturday was just too good a day not to go flying. Light winds, and visibility forever.

I flight planned Ardmore (NZAR) - Hamilton (NZHN) - Taumarunui (NZTM) - Taupo (NZAP) - Ardmore (NZAR).

Being a cross-country flight test, I knew that out of all of those, I was likely to only visit Hamilton (and Ardmore :P) and everything else would be a combination of lost procedures and diversions!

We started with a simulated engine failure after take-off (yay... lots of sports fields and paddocks off the end of runway 21!) and then headed for Hamilton. We made it in and out of NZHN relatively unscathed... and then we started the various "fun activities" that Rob had planned.

First of all we had the forced landing, cunningly disguised as "a ground speed check". Obviously I was caught a little off-guard, but I did OK. It was not great and I got a little low, but I made my field. Climbing out, Rob handed me the instrument hood. This is where the lack of currency really showed. I got the leans about 3 seconds after putting the hood on and it took me a minute or two to really get on top of the aircraft :(

We flew around for 10 or 12 minutes at which point Rob told me to take the hood off. My first reaction was "How the !@#$@# did I get into this valley?" We were at 1700' and had been holding a steady altitude the entire time I was under the hood, as I was in this bowl shaped valley, completed surround by hills that were higher than we were flying!!

My next reaction was "Where the $##@$^ is this valley?" when Rob said to me "Ok, remain at 1700' and tell me where we are and what that town over there is called."

We circled over the top of the town, while I put my "Lost Procedures" into practise... "Ok, about 10 minutes flying at roughly 90kts, should put us around 15nm from where I put on the hood... we were mainly flying headings from 090 to 130 magnetic... so that should put us in this general area on the map..."

"How can you confirm that?" asked Rob.

"Ok, we have a railway line over there... some transmission lines... and the road following the railway line and then curving away through the valley while the railway goes through a tunnel. That would match up with these features on the map... so we are here and that town is XXXXXXXX." (removed to keep it secret for future victims... errr I mean students -ed.)

"Excellent" said Rob, "Spot on!"

I must at this point give a big shout out to Trevor for giving me the low down on lost procedures. Despite knowing where this spot is, he had refused to tell me... no matter how much bourbon I offered! ;)

But his advice of noting the time when entering IFR, so I could calculate the time spent in IFR conditions, plus keeping tabs on the general direction of flight so as to be able to narrow down the area on the map was spot on.

Rob then instructed me to set course for Tokoroa, work out how far it was and how long it was going to take to get there. So out came the map, a rough course hand drawn and heading worked out. Distance calculated using fingers (2 of my fingers = 10nm ;) 30 nautical miles at roughly 90kts will take us around 20 minutes. I called up Christchurch Information to amend our flight plan, give them our rough ETA at Tokoroa[1] and amend my SARTIME.

After Tokoroa, it was VFR nav back to Ardmore, doing ground speed checks and amending my ETA at Ardmore[2] all while avoiding controlled airspace around Hamilton and trying really hard to ignore the cramp that was developing in my bum from being stuck in a 152 for 3 hours!!!

After landing, we debriefed over a cup of tea at which point Rob said somewhat matter of factly "oh.. by the way... you passed" and shook my hand ;)


This Flight: 3.0 Dual (0.2 IFR)
Total Hours: 212.0 (94.9/92.8 Day, 8.6/15.7 Night, 7.4 IFR)

[1] - My mental arithmetic was actually not too bad... I was only off by about 1 minute ;)
[2] - You get +/- 2 minutes for your ETA's at CPL level... I was bang on ;)

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)

All quiet on the western front?

Despite the mostly good weather[1] we have been fortunate enough to enjoy over January and February, I have managed about 3 hours worth of flying.

This is not to say that I haven't been flying, I just have not been doing the actual flying.

Went with one of the other club members up to Whangarei as safety pilot so he could rack up some instrument time under the hood. I commented it was the first time I had been to Whangarei in the daytime... I got that same "WTF?!?!?!" look I usually get when I tell people I like flying around doing cross countries in the dark ;)

And the past few weekends I have been down in the Tron picking up tips on an instrument rating again as Trevor has been preparing for his Instrument Rating Flight Test. I did actually fly us down one trip. Just to help with the currency.

Also, I have been told to consider doing an IR before I do my CPL... as a bonus I can use the IR hours towards the 200hr minimum requirements for a CPL, so in a way, the hours are 'free'. Plus it also teaches you about precise flying.

One stumbling block however will be the 50 hours PinC Cross-country time as I currently have around 35. So I would need a couple of decent 4 hour trips to top it up to the minimums. Maybe a weekend down to see my folks near Palmerston North.

And of course, the exams required... *sigh*... I am currently struggling through the study book for my last CPL exam, which is meteorology. If only it were as simple as the weather rock ;)

Something to think about anyway...

In other news, I received a new mobile phone from work as we recently moved from Vodafone to Telecom... not really news, except for the fact that my new phone (a Nokia 6275i) has built-in GPS. And a really shitty built-in GPS application which does little more than give you your co-ordinates. Which got me thinking[2]... I wonder if anyone has written any cool little GPS apps for these phones???

I found a couple of things... MGMaps, which was relatively easy to install and setup and I even found a complete copy of the GoogleMaps street maps for New Zealand that someone had thoughtfully compiled for this application, so you could put it on a memory card and not get horrendous data charges for downloading maps on the go.

I thought it would be useful to get a 'rough' idea of where I was while flying around the countryside, as a handy little backup device. I even tested it when I was safety pilot for Joseph on the trip to Whangarei and it worked really well. I even had the crazy idea of scanning in my aeronautical charts and using them instead of googlemaps, and had some initial success, except the application kept crashing if you scrolled around and zoomed in or out too much.

Aside from the odd crash, this program had one serious flaw. It did not do 'tracking'. So, at the end of the journey, you cannot see the path you took. It has an online service so you can see live updates of where you are, and people have written scripts that simply poll the server every 30 seconds and log all the individual points as you move about... but that was a bit clumsy and too much like hard work[3]...

So I went looking for a better solution. Which is when I discovered TrackMyJourney. At first it looked like a service similar to the live update feature of MGMaps... but it turns out that is just part of it. This application is pretty much a full-featured GPS system for your Java capable phone/pda etc...

It did not suffer from the same application crashes when scrolling about or zooming in and out... it offers all sorts of views, options, waypoints, routes and most importantly tracking! :)

So then this idea of scanning in my aeronautical maps popped into my head again. TMJ provides a little utility for generating your own maps from picture files. So all that was needed was images of my maps, so I:

• 'Patiently' scanned in all my VNC's for the North Island (thank heavens for the A3 sized colour scanners at work!)...


• Then I stitched them back together using photoshop...


• Then I loaded them into a really nifty tool called 'MapCruncher' by Microsoft Research... essentially you take "your" map and load it into the application which displays it alongside "Virtual Earth". Then by lining up exact locations on each map, you calibrate your map to the 'real world'. In my case, the aeronautical charts have the latitude and longitude graticules printed on them, so I could mark fairly precise locations all over the map giving a decent rendering. I actually had to write a Perl script that would go through and 'edit' the map (or Mashup) config file generated by MapCruncher, as it was just too tedious to edit 50 or 60 points on each of the 6 North Island VNC's...


• Then I rendered out the re-projected map using MapCruncher... which broke it down into little 256x256 pixel tiles, named in 'Quadkey' format... If you're really interested you can read about it here, but be warned it is not exactly riveting!


• As this format is not in nice rows/columns, it was going to be a total mission to stitch these tiles back together to create a nice copy of the map to load into TMJ. So I wrote another Perl script that renamed the files into the format Y_X_zoomlevel.jpg so I could use some handy cut+paste and macro's to generate some commandlines to stitch these back together using the commandline batch processing options of a handy image utility called IrfanView...


• Once I had stitched all the tiles into a big giant map, I could load it into the TMJ image utility, and use it to generate the required map files the program needed... only I need to know the "Top-Left" and "Bottom-Right" 'Real World' Co-ordinates of my image... but I only had QuadKey's and/or X,Y values... so I wrote a third Perl Script that would automatically calculate it for me...


• Once I had those I was able to generate TMJ map files and load them onto the phone... and then repeat the entire process of stitching/aligning/rendering/stitching/re-aligning etc. for the other 5 maps!!!!

Quite simple[4] really! :/

All in all, it has been about 2 weeks of trial, error, head+desk, face+palm, lightbulb moments and extreme elation upon finally getting it all working.

The end result is a fairly useful little backup tool that should come in handy should I ever find myself situationally challenged while out flying.

I have already started 'upgrading' the functionality, as my scanned map is effectively still just a picture, so you cannot search for an aerodrome or anything like you can with a 'normal' aviation GPS. So I have also started messing about with the "waypoint" features of TMJ... I've added in all the North Island Aerodromes listed in the AIP with their co-ordinates and frequencies, so I should be able to pick an aerodrome and generate a direct track to it etc. and even do some basic 'flight planning' if required.

Now I just have to pray they don't update the charts in the near future ;)



[1] I'm choosing to ignore the ridiculous 30+ weather with 98% humidity ;)

[2] Always a dangerous thing

[3] Kind of ironic when you see what I ended up doing :/

[4] See... told you!

Meteors, Parties and Fires

After a day of shopping malls, seafood risotto and gnocchi and a 6km walk, I figured I had done enough for a mallowpuff and was thinking about some night flying. Jade asked why? Because I can... duh!

Anyway, as I was staring at the twilight sky debating whether or not the weather was going to be suitable, Trevor sent me a text message asking if I was keen for some night cross country action...

We headed out to the club, pre-flighted JBL and gassed her up and then Trevor did 3 circuits for his night currency (before curfew kicked in) and then I jumped in. He told me the weather looked a bit suspect for a cross-country. After we got airbourne, I could see that the cloud build-up looked pretty bad in pretty much every direction except out over the Tasman Sea. While I am sure I would have enjoyed a 15 hour flight across the Tasman, the lack of long range tanks on the 152 and the fact we had no life-jackets on board made the idea a bit of a non-starter ;)

We decided for a quick jolly over the city instead and our assumption about the weather seemed to have been confirmed when the clouds to the south were light up by what we thought was lightening... I heard on the radio this morning that it was actually part of a meteor shower! Either way, it was an impressive, and somewhat un-nerving sight.

We headed out towards the city, and overflew the domain and saw the remnants of the 'Christmas in the Park' show... Heading over towards Ponsonby we saw some flashing lights and long queues of traffic at what we initially thought was a police breathtesting checkpoint. Turned out to be a huge fire in a laundry. A little disconcerting as we smelled the smoke from 1500' and Trevor said "I hope that is not us!"

We hooked around the SkyTower looking very 'Christmassy' in its green and red lights and then we decided to call it a night and headed back to Ardmore.


This flight: 0.6 PinC Night
Total Hours: 167.4 (78.9/67.5 Day, 8.6/12.4 Night, 7.0 IFR)

You gotta know when to fold 'em

Two of my shortest 'flights' ever last night... so short, I never got off the ground :-/

We had have clear blue skies all day, and it was looking perfect for night flying... full moon, relatively light winds (only 10-15 knots) and clear skies. Nick and I were planning on flying up to Whangarei so he could check it out after I had already had a go with Chris.

Due to daylight savings and the longer days, ECT was not until just after 8:30pm, so we had plenty of time to prep, pre-flight and gas up JBL. Everything was going fine until we were taxiing from the pumps after gassing up, and noticed that the Artifical Horizon (AH) was looking a little lop-sided... turning a corner and it just flopped over to the other side. Suction looked OK, so figured it must be the AH itself. Shutting down, it just started spinning around and around...

Can't fly at night without and AH, so we filled in the defect log, terminated our flightplan and notified the CFI of the problem. Strike one...

We decided we would take ETZ, so we transferred out gear over, pre-flighted and then taxiied off to the pumps to fill up. Everything looking fine, instruments all working as they should. Run-ups were OK and we lined up. Made my 'rolling' call and applied full power. As we started trundling along the runway I did my usual scan:

• RPM OK


• Temps & Pressures OK


• Airpseed Increasing... ummm... NO?!?! its stuck at 0... ???????

Closed the Throttle... Applied the Brakes... "Ardmore Traffic, Echo Tango Zulu stopping on Zero Three".

Taxiied back to the club, filled in the defect log and terminated our flightplan AGAIN... "Not your night is it?" was the response from Christchurch Information... :-/

I'm looking on the bright side... My training has obviously given me the skills and abilities to:

1. Identify Problems/Issues that may compromise the safety of the flight


2. Make the correct decisions in a timely manner

I'll chalk last night up as another valuable learning experience, and a timely reminder not to get complacent!

The (not so) Far North

Riddle me this batman... How does one get from Auckland to Kaitaia and back again (with side trips to Kerikeri and Kaikohe) in 4.0 hours?

Answer: in a Cessna 152 of course!

Could not believe my luck yesterday when, after getting up anticipating a full day of mall crawling with her, jade says to me around 1100 "It is such a nice day, you should go flying this afternoon".

Not being one to look a gift horse in the mouth, we grabbed some lunch and after dropping jade off at home, I headed out to Ardmore.

I found Nick waiting for me, but having spent the morning dealing with a 'difficult' group getting wedding photos taken with his helicopter he decided that he wouldn't come flying but would play the part of 'annoying' C-Cat instructor and made me plan and pre-flight for a cross-country to Kerikeri, Kaitaia and Kaikohe.

Under CPL cross-country rules, you are supposed to be able to do this in one hour. Due to being a little unprepared for this adventure, I didn't quite make it in the one hour, but was not too far off. I am going to take Nick's suggestion and make up some 'cheat sheets' so I am not running about photocopying flightplan sheets and P-charts and having to hunt throught aircraft flight manuals looking for weight and balance data.

Having finally got everything organised and my flightplan filed, I taxied out in JBL.

A nice long cruise up to Kerikeri, where I had to hold for a few minutes due to parachute activity, a quick touch and go there and then off to Kaitaia. I have to say that some of the scenery up that way is just breathtaking, lots of unspoilt wilderness.

After having a stretch and topping the tanks up at Kaitaia, following a pretty ordinary crosswind landing :(, I had a quick hop to Kaikohe and got out to have a quick look around and drop some money in the honesty box for landing fees.

It was such a picturesque place I thought I'd snap a couple of shots just to test out jades new camera (Canon 450D)

The Hokianga Harbour


Most random shot of the day


A Fletcher looking a little unused... I believe this is ZK-DEQ


Then off for home. I was getting a little anxious climbing out of Kaikohe as my SARTIME was fast approaching and I could not contact Christchurch Info to amend it. Thankfully, once I got some altitude and cleared the surrounding hills I managed to raise them on the radio about 5minutes before my SARTIME expired :)

Heading home I managed to get some nice smooth air, so I decided to try some 'random' photography. This basically consisted of flying with one hand, while holding the camera in the other, pointing it in the general direction of something 'interesting' and pushing the shutter button :)

The results were mixed (lots of blurry shots of nothing etc.) but some of the shots of the Kaipara Harbour and the Auckland CBD came out OK.

Sunset on the Kaipara Harbour



Auckland CBD by Twilight



4.0 hours of flying later I made it back, cutting it a little close to the ECT curfew :)

Conclusion: Flying solo, into airfields you've never been to before is an interesting mix of fear and excitement! Fear that you might not find it ;)


This flight: 4.0 PinC
Total Hours: 151.8 (78.9/56.2 Day, 6.0/10.7 Night, 7.0 IFR)

101 Not Out

Without realising it, I have broken through the 100 post mark... I actually did not think I would do this for more than about 3 or 4 weeks before getting bored with it all!

Anyway, to celebrate this awesome accomplishment, I decided to go flying (what a surprise eh? ;)... Actually, I decided to go flying because it was a really nice night. I had been planning on going to Hamilton with Trevor along for the ride, but Chris suggested we try out Whangarei.

Unfortunately, by the time I managed to get out to the field, Trevor's flu had caught up with him and he decided he didnt feel like sitting in a 152 with a cracking headache. Chris, unfortunatelym had to work early in the morning and Rob, while very keen, needed to be up early as well for one of the other club members C-Cat flight test!

Not wanting to waste such a lovely evening, I decided I would solo down to Hamilton and back. I am hoping to go somewhere else soon, as I am getting a bit bored with Hamilton and I think the Crash-Fire guys are getting sick of me wanting the lights turned on!

As an added bonus, Trevor loaned me his GPS... a Garmin GPSMAP 296.


I definitely have one of these on my 'Aviation Wishlist'... but at around $2000 it could be a while :(

Anyway, after filling up at the pumps and then completing my run-up checks, I switched the unit on and waited for it to find some satellites and then stowed it safely on the seat next to me so I would resist the urge to look at it every 5 seconds instead of flying the aircraft!

Being the geek that I am, the first thing I did when I got back was try to figure out how to get the 'Track' information off the GPS. The Garmin website had the USB drivers but the utility (Flightbook) only extracts flight log data (distance, time etc.)... Google, as always, is your friend and I found a neat (and free) little utility called EasyGPS. It download the track points and saved them out to a '.gpx' (GPS Exchange) file. Google Earth will import these directly and voila... a pretty map of my flight :) (you can click the images for a bigger pic)



It was a pretty uneventful flight down, I just cruised along under the various control zones at 2500', approaching Hamilton I contacted Crash-Fire and confirmed they had the runway lights on for me (I had called up prior to departing Ardmore to give them a heads-up on my planned ETA).

I opted for runway 36 for a change and after joining left-hand downwind I did a couple of circuits and then I headed back to Ardmore. On the last circuit I called 'Touch and Go, departing back to Ardmore via the City'. I was going to call up Crash-Fire and thank them for their services and advise they could switch the lights off if they wanted, but I noticed when I looked behind me to check my centre-line tracking during the climb-out that they had already switched them off!

I think my circuits were pretty good and the GPS track tends to agree...



Going back to Ardmore, I had been planning on climbing up into controlled airspace, but unfortunately a patch of low cloud had developed north of Hamilton at around 2500'. By the time I cleared the edge of the cloud patch I was already at Huntly, so it just wasn't worth the effort to get clearance when I was already halfway home!

As you can see, my approach into Ardmore was a little, errr 'crooked'. I had been admiring the view and left my turn on final a little late. Whoops! Still, it was a nice smooth landing and as I taxied back to the club, I called up Christchurch Information and terminated my flightplan.





This flight: 1.6 PinC Night
Total Hours: 146.1 (78.9/50.5 Day, 6.0/10.7 Night, 7.0 IFR)

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)

Three-peat...

Woohoo... 3 days in a row! Sometimes the "4 Seasons in 1 Day" nature of Auckland weather works in your favour...

I woke up on monday morning to the predicted 'gray and horrible'... indeed by the time I got to the train station, I was regretting the lightweight jacket I had decided to wear as the rain was starting to fall.

However, by mid-morning/lunchtime, it was all blue skies and light winds!

So, I decided to see if my mate, who was the unfortunate one who came along for what ended up being my shortest flight ever, wanted to come along for a proper night flight. As luck would have it, he was going to be down in Manukau (near Ardmore) playing Indoor Cricket until about 8pm.

So I headed out to the field after work and pre-flighted and refueled JBL while I still had some daylight, and then blasted off for my 3 take-offs and landings to ensure night currency in the Cessna 152. Despite the circuit being very busy, everyone seemed to be behaving themselves, so I managed to get up and down without too much hassle.

By the time I had done that, it was just after 8pm, so once my my friend arrived and I had triple-checked the weather forecasts and current conditions (I was getting paranoid about fog), we climbed into JBL and taxied out into the darkness.

By this time, there was only one other aircraft operating (none of the AFS guys like paying the night circuit fees, so they are generally back on the ground before 8pm ;) I asked him what the weather was looking like and if there signs of any fog forming. "Nothing much, just a bit of haze" was the reply.

Climbing up off 21, the haze was pretty apparent, with lights in the distance looking a bit fuzzy. We turned downwind and headed out to the rivermouth to fly up the coastline towards Maraetai.

After the usual 'Up the harbour, around the Sky Tower, let's find your house' kind of stuff, I sprung a bit of a surprise on him and called up the tower at Auckland International (NZAA) asking for clearance into the zone to overhead the tower and transit to Ardmore via Karaka. Thankfully, they were fairly quiet, so after 1 orbit overhead Mangere Town Centre, we were cleared over the tower and then onwards to Ardmore.

Needless to say, my friend enjoyed the rather unique view of Auckland Airport from 1500', all lit up in the dark :)

He also had a video camera, so he managed to capture some video... apologies for the camera shake (and the flicking from 'Night Shot' to regular mode)... he was testing it out :)

Having said that... after some careful editing, we have 8mins of video with some pretty stunning shots of the Auckland CBD/SkyTower... I am not a fan of stupid songs on YouTube videos, so you can listen to the lovely droning of the 152 instead :)



In other news, I got 88 for my CPL General Aircraft Technical Knowledge exam :) and I just got a call from a friend who, after enduring the aptitude and psych testing and flight grading and anxious wait, has just been accepted for the Cathay Pacific Cadet Program... BASTARD! Enjoy life as a Second Officer carrying bags! :P Good on ya mate!


This flight: 0.6 + 1.0 PinC Night
Total Hours: 139.4 (78.9/47.6 Day, 4.9/8.0 Night, 5.1 IFR)

Old territory

I decided to take advantage of the lovely weather and the fact that I had finished all my chores (read as: taking jade to the Shopping Mall) by lunchtime by going for a quick flight.

As I was seriously lacking in flight time in recent months and what I had done was simply flying in straight lines, I decided some 'basic' revision was the order of the day.

I strapped on JBL and headed out to the training area. Once again, I found the area out towards the coast by Kaiaua and Miranda to be aircraft free. For some reason, everyone else seems to prefer training over the Pokeno paddocks.

Anyway, I warmed up with some medium turns, a basic stall or 2, a couple of approach stalls and then pulled the power to see if I could still do a forced landing. It was not too bad, so I headed back to Ardmore for some circuit practice.

What a huge mistake... every man and his brother seemed to be flying circuits! At one point, I was mid-downwind, with 4 aircraft in front of me, and 2 on final... making me number 7... and there were 2 more behind me!!!

Made for interesting times, with some aircraft going for the grass... some for the seal... and others not really sure what they were doing!

Was a good exercise in spacing... and I managed some decent landings including a couple of nice flapless. To finish, I went for a shortfield landing on the grass and landed right on the threshold. It was pretty much perfect.

All in all, a good afternoon and it felt good to get back in the air.


This flight: 1.1 PinC
Total Hours: 136.4 (78.9/46.2 Day, 4.9/6.4 Night, 5.1 IFR)

Diversions and a different perspective

Woke up this morning and figured that flying today could be a bit problematic weather-wise, given that I could barely see my back fence through the fog!

Was hoping that it would burn off while I pre-flighted, had breakfast, did the flight planning etc. It was starting to burn off quite nicely around Ardmore by the time Nick and I had had breakfast at the aeroclub cafe, so the plan was to fly to Taupo (NZAP), Rotorua (NZRO), Thames (NZTH) and back to Ardmore.

I gathered all the weather and did the flight planning. The forecasts at the various locations were all for early morning fog that was due to have disappeared by around 11am.

So we gassed up JBL and headed out. On take-off we discovered the cloud base was only around 1500' through the Hunua Valley but it appeared to clear over the training area. Unfortunately, this only lasted until just north of Hamilton. When the tower asked if we wanted 'Special VFR' when we requested a clearance to transit their zone, we knew it was pretty much over :(

We decided to divert towards Tauranga, as it looked relatively clear over towards Matamata. As we flew up the valley it appeared that the cloudbase was down towards 800'... so we headed back up past Lake Waikare and out into the Firth of Thames. Here the cloudbase was well up over 1000' and we could see all the way across to Thames and the Coromandel. So I called Christchurch Information, amended my flight plan to Thames and then onwards to Ardmore and extended my SARTIME out by a half hour.

I flew over to Thames, made a missed approach and then a Touch and Go and then headed back to Ardmore.

1.7 hours of PinC, a new airfield and some valuable lessons learned... like call the airfields where you are planning on going and get some 'on the spot' weather rather than relying on forecasts.

After debriefing with Trevor and discussing decisions made etc. CFI Rob called wanting to know if I would like to get some paid for flying tomorrow. All I had to do was fly a guy around over by Glenbrook and Waiuku following a steam train so he could video it. I was happy to go, but Rob then realised that I would need to do it from the right hand seat as they wanted video of the left hand side of the train. Flying from the right hand seat is a bit different and Rob was not sure whether or not it would be a good idea. I said that I was more than happy to go and do some flying with Trevor then to prove competency. Rob agreed but noted that I would need to pay for that which I was happy to.

All I can say is that it is a very different experience flying from the right hand seat! Left hand on throttle, right hand on the control yoke is very interesting, as my brain has become used to the opposite... so on a couple of occasions I found that when I was needing to push the throttle in, my right hand was still reacting and pushing the control yoke in!

Also, the parallax error on the instruments like the AH and Turn Co-ordinator have to be taken into account... on the positive side, I was always at the targeted RPM, as that Tacho is right in front of you on that side!

The end result being that, weather permitting, I am going train spotting tomorrow :)


This flight: 1.7 PinC + 0.8 Dual
Total Hours: 126.0 (78.9/36.5 Day, 4.9/5.7 Night, 5.1 IFR)

Animated Sandbag

Got the chance to go along for a ride with Nick (the guy in the picture) while he was doing the first of his solo CPL cross countries. Yes, you can fly 'solo' with passengers :) I though it would be a useful opportunity to get a preview of what a CPL cross country entails while inflight (timing, ground speed checks, ETA's etc.) And I think Nick was happy to have some company... even if I was just an 'Animated Sandbag' as he put it. Rob the CFI was clear that I was not to aid Nick in any way.

As the weather people had been wrong about the weather, the weekend was actually not too bad, so I headed out to Ardmore and got my crap sorted while Nick was working on the flight planning. The plan was to head up to Keri Keri, Kaitaia and Kaikohe. As an exercise you get 1 hour to complete it all, which is not too difficult as long as you follow the 'more speed, less haste' philosophy.


Planning complete and Flight Plan filed, we strapped into JBL and headed out. The engine is still being run in at high power settings, so Nick had planned for slightly faster speeds. It was nice to just observe see how other people do things, but I soon discovered it is a little uncomfortable trying to remain free of the controls in a 152 when you're 6'3" :)


Nick had done most of his planning to/from Musik Point, so after climbing out of Ardmore we headed towards the city getting ready for Nick to start his timings and navigation etc. Nick decided to keep a nice low 1000' and use the Transit lane to get past the Whenuapai Airspace and then climb up to cruising altitude. It was at this point that we could all the weather towards the north, and to be honest it did not look very nice.

As you can see in this pic approaching the Whangaparoa Peninsula, some of the areas up north looked a bit grey. We continued on and I clowned around with my phone (A Blackberry Curve 8310), trying out the GPS on it and taking crappy pictures like the 2nd one above, showing the effects of 'strobing' where the shutter speed of the camera and the prop RPM aren't in sync :)


I also snapped this great pic of yours truly, trying out my homemade, lightweight headset that I built from an old headset and a coat hanger (seriously!) I really love this headset, as it means I can wear sunglasses easily and I don't get a hot sweaty head from the big ear cups and headband of a conventional headset.


Unfortunately, the weather really started to close in as we started to approach Whangarei... the cloudbase was down to around 1700 or 1800' and the MSA for the area was around 2600'!! The rain was starting and the visibility was getting a bit crap. The view to the north was just a big dark gray wall. Nick asked me what I thought and remembering Rob's words, I replied "I'm just sitting here, you're PinC"... To his credit (and my relief) he decided that it was time to turn back.


So we headed back to AR and discovered the airfield had become very very busy. The most annoying thing was, that as we were heading south, we could see how good the weather that way was :( Oh well, as Nick said, it is all PinC time and useful experience. I am hoping to get started on my CPL cross countries at some point, but am still busy studying for the exams... so far I have read the Human Factors book and the first couple of chapters of Air Law. I am getting to know the CAR's, AIPs and AC's pretty well...

Ups and (upside) downs...

Saturday was an interesting day for sure... I had planned on doing some last minute revision to make sure I was up to speed with the more complicated procedures like forced and precautionary landings...

That plan lasted until I got a call from Rob around 10am informing me I had stuffed up the booking as he was not available on the sunday... doh! Luckily he was free, and there was a spare aircraft at lunchtime, so I headed out to NZAR for my mock flight test...

As it was last minute I ended up in JBL... not my favourite aircraft (only because I hate the 4 point harness as it is an aerobat, although I may have changed my mind about this ;)... I also decided to top up the tanks as it only had a little over one hours worth of fuel on board... which proved very interesting with 2 people on board and a nice 25 degree hot sunny day!

We took off (woohoo 100'/minute climb!) and Rob simulated an engine failure after take off... As we had tracked out quite a way due to the low climb rate, I was conveniently located right between the 2 rows of high tension powerlines... grrr! So I did the best I could and headed for something resembling a landing area...

After that we headed out towards the training area via Drury... at which point Rob asked me to point out the training area boundary's... I was not 100% sure and the look on his face told me that was black mark #1 (Actually #2 but more on that later)

We headed up toward Pukekohe, and did some Turns (medium, steep & compass) and some stalls (Basic + Approach Config)... and then Rob told me to head towards the Pokeno paddocks to demonstrate a forced landing... At this point I went to change over to the radio frequency for the Mercer MBZ (Mandatory Broadcast Zone) and Rob suggested I probably should have done that a little earlier (black mark #2)...

I pulled off what I thought was a good forced landing, we hit some massive sink coming off the hunua ranges on the downwind leg, but I made the decision to adjust so thought I had done a good job in the circumstances... Turns out I was in for a surprise in the debrief...

Following this, some simulated bad weather flying and a coastal reversal turn... then back to NZAR for some circuit work.

Whats this?


Something similiar to the view from a C152 when its upside down! :D

On the way home, Rob asked me, with a big grin on his face, if I had ever been upside down in an aircraft... "No, but it sounds like fun!" I said... so he demonstrated what he called a 'Bread Roll'... a combination of an Aileron Roll and a Barrel Roll... not the prettiest aerobatic maneuver when viewed by spectators, but designed for the comfort of the passenger...

I dont really care what it was called or the reason he choose it instead of a loop... it was freaking awesome! So much so, that I have decided I will definitely be getting an aerobatics rating...

And of course, I now have a new appreciation for the 4 point harness in JBL! hahaha

Back to the field for an overhead join and then a normal circuit, a go-around and finally a shortfield landing onto the grass (which Rob reckoned was up to CPL standard!)

Then it was time for a debrief where I got mixed reviews:

1. I forgot to use carb heat on the engine failure after takeoff... DOH! can you say "School boy error"?


2. I did not make a call when vacating the traffic pattern, not technically required as I had advised intentions during the take-off call, but still good airmanship.


3. Training Area boundary knowledge was deficient... thats what happens when you lose your study day... oops!


4. Did not switch over to the Mercer MBZ frequency soon enough... technically I was not in the area, so I was OK, but again, good airmanship (as Rob put it 'Attention to Detail')


5. Was gliding at 70kts, rather than best glide of 65 and mixed up the procedure for the Forced Landing and did trouble checks before I had picked out a landing spot... I actually dispute this a little, as I was taught as part of the initial actions to do a quick check to ensure Fuel Cock is on, Mixture is Rich, Ignition is on Both and Primer is locked... He thought I was doing the full-blown trouble checks... nevermind, as it turns out this slight misunderstanding has had a very positive outcome.

Apart from that, everything else was good...

The verdict: 50/50... if he did not know me and I was just 'some guy' going for a flight test he would be seriously torn as to whether or not he would pass me...

He highlighted 3 main concerns:

1. TA boundary knowledge... a simple thing to fix really, get out the map and learn!


2. Mercer MBZ... just have to remember, and I usually do...


3. Forced Landing... more practice required, although I still thought my procedure was OK

If I had got the TA Boundary right, and had changed frequencies when I usually do he reckons that the verdict would be more like 75/25 to passing... but the little things add up...

So I asked what he suggested I do... which was to go and do some forced landing revision with another instructor and if that proved OK, then I should consider booking a flight test...

So, we found one of the other instructors, Phil, who I had never flown with before who was willing to go up for an hour... before the flight we had a quick briefing and ran through the procedure and I got the feeling Phil was a little unsure of my knowledge...

We took off, EFATO again... I was prepared with the carb heat, but was so concerned finding somewhere to put it down, that I got no-where near the 65knots best glide speed... I got as slow as 60 and as fast as 75...

Then cruising up the Hunua Valley, a simulated engine failure and I just muffed it up completely... could not find a place to land, did not trim correctly... basically I panicked...

Which pretty much set the tone for the next hour, as I just struggled to get it together... I'd like to put it down to being a bit tired (it was after 5pm by now) and I am sure that did not help, but in all honesty, it was just because I was not able to recall the procedure automatically and had to think my way through it, which meant I was not flying the aircraft correctly (struggling to get trimmed at 65kts etc.)...

Then we headed back and I did a nice overhead join and a picture perfect glide approach onto the grass...

During the debrief Phil commented that he thought the issue was the lack of automatic recall. There was nothing wrong with my actual flying and that the glide approach at the end proved that if I was not having to try to think my way through a forced landing, that I could fly the aircraft to a very high standard.

What he then suggested was rather than practicing forced landings in an aircraft at $160/hr, that I get a model plane, picture a wind direction (toss up a card with an arrow) and then walk through the procedure using a landing spot (piece of paper) in the middle of the floor.

Then once I could walk the entire procedure without any umm's or ah's (ie. having to think about the procedure) that I should go for another revision flight with an instructor...

This has turned out to be possibly the best piece of advice I have received since starting flying... I have been driving the wife nuts walking around in circles in my living room with a paper dart going through the forced landing procedure... although she has taken to the idea of 'random' engine failures... I asked her to just randomly call an engine failure (while we're watching tv, driving in the car, doing the dishes etc) and then I have to run through the procedure.

And it has worked like a charm... in just 2 days, I can recite it without having to think about it... and can do it while multitasking...

I have also sat down with my navigation chart and committed the training area boundary to memory ;)

So I think another forced landing revision flight and I should be ready for the flight test...

In case you were wondering the forced landing procedure is something like this:

1. Carb Heat HOT


2. Trim for Best Glide... 65kts in a C152


3. Transponder to 7700... some debate about this, but Rob says do it here


4. Confirm wind direction


5. Pick a paddock using the 7 S's and the Big E:
   • Size... the bigger the better
   • Shape... a circular field is the best as its the same size from all directions!
   • Slope... landing uphill is preferable as it shortens the stopping distance
   • Surface... smooth and flat would be good... bumpy and muddy not so great
   • Surrounds... watch out for trees on the proposed final flight path, power lines etc
   • Sun... if the sun is low in the sky, will we be blinded on final approach
   • Stock... empty paddocks are preferable as hitting a cow at 50kts is going to make a mess
   • Elevation... need to estimate as we make our 1000' point and 1500' area as above ground level


6. Turn towards it... this may just buy us some precious time which equals altitude


7. Plan the Descent:
   • Pick the 1/3 aiming point
   • Choose the 1000' reference point abeam the 'threshold' of our paddock
   • Choose our upwind 1500' reference area


8. Trouble Checks:
   • Carb Heat - Cycle
   • Mixture - Cycle
   • Fuel - Contents?, Cocks - ON, Pumps - ON, Primer - LOCKED
   • Ignition - LEFT, RIGHT, BOTH


9. Check for Partial Power... cycle the throttle


10. Transponder to 7700 and make a mayday call... traditionally this is where the transponder has been in the sequence although some events in recent history have highlighted that in New Zealands mountainous terrain that the sooner you set it, the better chance you have of being picked up on secondary radar


11. Passenger Brief... let them know whats going on and not to panic, what to do after landing and to tighten seat belts and stow loose/sharp objects etc.


12. Secure the aircraft... basically shut everything down to try to minimise the chances of fire etc. if 'Bad Things'(tm) happen on landing

This flight: 1.1 Dual + 0.9 Dual
Total Hours: 82.9 (64.4 Dual, 18.5 Solo, 5.1 IFR)

More Practise

Sunday morning dawned somewhat gray... but fairly calm and the cloudbase looked OK, so I headed out to the field. I was a little concerned as I hit a light shower on the drive out, but it was nothing heavy and it seemed to pass...

Getting to the field, Trevor informed me that I should go and have a look at the Training Area, do some basic revision (stalls + turns etc) and then if it was looking good after that, we could go and do some more forced landing practise.

So I headed up, just as one of the other students was coming back in from his first solo... I imagine I had the same silly look on my face when I did mine too!

I asked his instructor what the cloudbase was looking like while they were doing circuits and was told 'at least 3000 feet'... and that it was 'a little bumpy in the circuit'...

So I fired up JBL and headed off... I'm not sure what work (if any) has been done on JBL, but it did not seem to have the plug fouling/rough running issues... as I throttled up for the Run-up and the Max Performance Take Off it was smooth as silk.

On climb out, I found the bumps as they had indicated at around 700' but passing through around 1500' it was smooth sailing...

Cloudbase was at least 4000' as I was in very clear air at 3500'... so I did a few basic stalls, some medium turns and then started the compass turns... Now I'm not sure if my maths was off or what, but it seemed like every one that I did, I ended up 10 degrees off! I think I may have been rolling out too early... so I will have to try those again on my next solo run...

I headed back to the field, and Trevor suggested we go and do some FLWOP practise as the cloudbase was good and the winds light... I jumped at the chance for more flying... he was still a little hesitant to use JBL given its rough running history so we took ETZ.

We went and did 2 FLWOPs and I nailed both of them... I have figured out what my issues were (spacing) and am now purposely choosing my 1000' and 1500' reference points that are a good distance away from the chosen field so that I do not get too close...

Next week a progress check flight with Chief Instructor Rob and a lesson on the glide approach.

This flight: 1.0 Solo + 1.0 Dual
Total Hours: 67.6 (55.3 Dual, 12.3 Solo, 3.2 IFR)

Take a hint...

Sometimes the world gives you subtle hints... sometimes its about as subtle as a brick wall across a motorway...

First up, a slight issue with one of the tyres looking like it had a flat spot... bit of canvas starting to show through, but getting the ok... as long as we go easy on the landing/brakes... we were planning on using the grass anyway... so not a big deal...

However, I really should have twigged when after taxiing down to the holding point for 03 and finding an AFS plane parked slap bang in the middle of it, that it was going to be an 'interesting' day...

So I just slotted in ahead, ran through my run-up and pre-takeoff checks and then looked around to discover that there were now six.. thats right SIX aircraft parked behind me and another taxiing out of AFS!

So after waiting for around 10-15 minutes for everyone to clear out in between the aircraft already in the circuit and others that were landing we finally got underway...

Lining up, no problems... full power... aircraft coughs a little (another subtle hint that I missed) and starts rumbling along and we climb into the blue... not that I could tell as Trevor handed me the 'Foggles' and said put these on...

And then I got another wicked case of the leans... man I swear that I was leaning left, but we were banking right... it really is the most surreal feeling...

Coupled with the turbulence running off the hills and relatively low cloudbase and I was working overtime...

We finally made it out to the TA, and found ourselves some clear air and attempted a FLWOP... spotted a nice ag-field strip, aligned into the wind and had myself setup nicely... although a touch close again... something I really need to watch...

Anyway, going for the engine warm, just to make sure this exercise stays as an exercise and not the real thing... engine starts coughing, shaking, vibrating.... Trevor and I are looking at each other and come to the same conclusion, we'll go around at 500' just to give ourselves some breathing room...

Last engine warm passing through the 1000' mark and then engine is really protesting... I decided to pull the pin as I'm just not confident the plane is going to play ball... so we head back home and decide a nice overhead join and shortfield grass is the ticket so we can at least get something out of the day...

Hah!

Come cruising into the field, call overhead and being descent to circuit altitude... another aircraft joining from the opposite end of the field calls "joining overhead, traffic (ie. me) in sight"... dont know why he bothered, as he then preceded to turn straight into me... clown... Trevor just said, climb and orbit... hahahahah! I just laughed as I pushed the throttle in and JBL started coughing like an 80 year old, pack a day smoker and I got a climb rate of around 100' minute...

Still, I put in an orbit, wishing I had machine guns or air to air missiles or something... counted to 10 and let it go...

Slotted into the circuit traffic and pulled off a really great shortfield landing.

Lessons learned? Shit Happens, remain calm, don't panic and deal with it...

This flight: 0.9 Dual
Total Hours: 63.3 (52.5 Dual, 10.8 Solo, 3.0 IFR)

Magnets and Circles...

more commonly known as Compass Turns...

So I was sitting in the pre-flight briefing (after having promised myself that I would read up on compass turns during the week... and not) doing the "Nod and Smile"(tm) routine as my new instructor[1], Dan, went through the basics of Compass Turns...

I didnt quite grasp some of the reasonings[2] for why the compass does wierd stuff when you're turning, but was given the old "it'll become clear when we are actually doing it" line... [cue Tui ad]...

BUT, sure enough, once airbourne (and with some more simulated IFR under my belt) and Dan demostrated the various effects of flight on the compass. It is quite interesting how the Direction Indicator (DI) turns at a completely different speed to the compass and hence why you need to make allowances for the compass error... and also how the compass turns differently depending on the aircrafts alignment to the Earth's north/south magnetic fields...

Still good fun, and some more valuable lessons learned... Unfortunately, Dan is away next sunday[3], so I am planning on using the time to brush up on some groundwork like P-Charts, weight and balance and maybe some nav and weather if I can find another instructor at the club on saturday who is bored :)

This flight: 0.9 Hours Dual (0.4 IFR)
Total Hours: 48.9 (45.1 Dual, 3.8 Solo, 1.3 IFR)

[1] Trevor has gone to the Sudan for a couple of months to get some Twin Turboprop time... good on him, i just hope he comes back... and not in a box!
[2] Another reason for reading things BEFORE i get to the airfield!
[3] kind of works out for me coz i'll probably be up late watching the FA Cup Final on saturday night anyway ;)

Houston, we have lift-off!

Gong Hai Fat Choi... and what a way to start the Chinese New Year! After a hiatus of around 3 1/2 years, I finally got back behind the controls of an aircraft today.

Drove out to NZAR around 0830, clear blue skies and hardly a breath of wind. Arrived at Airline Flying Club to find my instructor all good to go. So a pre-flight of JBL (a C-152 aerobat), a flight authorisation and a B-Cat signoff later, and we were in the cabin doing startup checks.

I have pretty much forgotten everything in terms of checklists and radio calls (it does not help that I am in a fairly unfamiliar aircraft, at a fairly unfamiliar airfield), so my instructor Trevor took care of all the finer details, leaving me to concentrate on "getting my groove back". Flying is not like riding a bike, its very easy to lose "The feel"(tm), as I found out later in my flight ;)

We taxiied out from the club apron towards the threshold for 21 seal. I'm not sure what the issue was, probably just out of practice, but I was having some trouble keeping the aircraft on the straight and narrow. We finally pulled up on the old, unused runway for some run-up checks, then lined up behind one of the AFS aircraft. Trevor put in the "Rolling on 21" call, I pushed the throttle all the way in and away we went.

I pretty much nailed the take-off roll and climb-out, right on the white line down the runway and a steady climb at 70kts, which considering my rather ordinary taxiing was quite surprising. Climbed to 500ft AGL and put in a nice climbing turn to get onto downwind at circuit altitude, before departing for the Training Area via WaterWorks.

After flying some lovely "S" turns up the Hunia Valley to avoid some incoming traffic we made it out to the training area, out by the Firth of Thames. Time for some medium turns, one to the left, one to the right. Then some steep turns, one to the left, one to the right. Nailed the second one, getting the tell-tale big bump at the end as I ran into my own wake turbulence.

Then we cruised up the southern side of the training area near Mercer, heading towards Pukekohe, with Trevor pointing out some handy landmarks like the Waikato river, the Mercer Airfield, the Comms Tower on top of one of the hills, Pukekohe etc.

Then a right hander to ensure we stayed outside of controlled airspace and headed up the right hand side of the southern motorway towards Drury to begin out approach back into the NZAR circuit.

Downwind was fine, base leg was fine, was hitting all my speeds. Finals I was a little slow, and a little high, but was under control... until I flared about 5ft to high and dumped it onto the runway. Remember what I said about flying not being like riding a bike? I shudder to think what the G-force meter was reading...

Anyway, as they say, any landing you walk away from is a good one, and it was my first landing in over 3 years so I'm not too worried. Some circuit practice next week will sort that out :)

All in all... a perfect start to the new year.

This flight: 1.0 hours Dual
Total Hours: 36.9 (33.8 Dual, 3.1 Solo)