More acronyms to add to the collection...

SP MEIR - ADF, VOR, GPS...

Or in "actual" words... A Single Pilot, Multi-engine Instrument Rating, endorsed for NDB[1], VOR and GPS approaches :-)

Another sticker for the log book

After a few false starts and delays (as covered in my previous post), and a flight test postponed due to the crap weather in the first week of July, the stars finally came into alignment and I ended up with flyable weather, a serviceable aircraft and a flight examiner... all in the same place at the same time.

So (very) early on Thursday morning, I headed out to the airfield, pre-flighted the Tecnam Twin (only thing of note were the muddy paw prints and cat fur located on the top of one of the engine cowls ;-) and extracted it from the hangar... thankfully, no "musical aeroplanes" required... and then taxied it around to the apron at the flying club.

I checked the weather and NOTAMs for my expected routes and noted that the freezing level was a little on the low side (5,000')... which was a bit of a concern, as the cloud base was forecast around 4000' and the aircraft doesn't have any anti or de-icing equipment :-/

The examiner showed up as scheduled at 0900 and we got down to business... working through the copious amounts of paperwork and red tape before commencing with the actual flying! :-P

So after confirming what I was testing for (Single Pilot, Multi-engine, with NDB, VOR and GPS) he checked that I had:

• A valid licence and medical
• A "Written Exam Credit" for the Instrument Rating Theory Syllabus
• Completed the required remedial work as stated on the Knowledge Deficiency Reports (KDR's) from my exam results
• A ground theory endorsement for the GPS equipment to be used in the test
• Met the various minimum hour requirements necessary to hold an instrument rating
• A type rating for the aircraft to be used in the test
• A flight test acceptance slip

the examiner went over the format of the test and what was going to be required.  He outlined the basic structure of the flight which was:

• Flight plan the route NZAR (Ardmore) - NZHN (Hamilton) - NZTG (Tauranga) - NZAR
• We would depart NZAR via a published instrument departure
• At NZHN, make the VOR/DME approach, via the DME Arc (demonstrating a hold before commencing the approach) for the duty runway, execute the standard missed approach and then head to NZTG
• At NZTG, enter the NDB hold, then make the NDB/DME approach for the duty runway, execute the missed approach and then head to NZAR
• At NZAR, make the RNAV (aka GPS) approach, demonstrating a GPS hold at the waypoint ORERE before commencing the approach, and then make a circling approach for the duty runway for a full stop landing.

I was then left to create a flight plan, fuel log, check weather/NOTAMs, check GPS RAIM predications and lodge my flight plans with ATC.

The only issue I had with this particular flight plan, was the fact that, despite planning on making some instrument approaches at Tauranga several times during my training, I had never made it due weather on the days we had planned to go.

I mentioned this quietly to my instructor while I was at the computer lodging my IFR flight plans, and he told me not to freak out... just remain calm and remember: "You don't fly at a particular place... you fly a 'plate'"

What he meant was that unlike visual flying, where you can use various physical references and landmarks to aid in making an approach so it helps to have been to a place before or at least received a briefing on what to expect... with instrument flying you just follow the instructions spelled out on the approach 'plate' aka chart and as instructed by ATC, as you may not necessarily be able to see out the window anyway!

Thinking back on it now... this was probably the best bit of advice I got before my test ;-)

By the time I had completed the flight planning, the examiner had come up with a list of around 10 questions designed to test my knowledge of Instrument Rating theory and law... covering things like:

• The privileges & limitations of holding an instrument rating?
• The currency requirements to fly IFR and make instrument approaches?
• Various approach speed limitations for category of aircraft that we're using?
• Can you make a visual departure at night?
• What are the requirements for making a visual arrival during the day? at night?
• Requirements for nominating an alternate aerodrome?
• Non published alternate aerodrome minima for non-precision approaches?
• What do we need to sight to continue below MDA?
• Loss of comm procedures (In IMC on departure, on radar vectors)?

Thankfully, I had covered all of this material with my instructors so was able to answer all the questions (or at least reference the appropriate sections of the AIP to find the answers) without too much trouble.

We then went over my flight plan and the weather... noting the issues with the freezing level and what our options were.  He left the decision up to me, and I decided that given the cloud forecasts we should be OK and in the event that we did encounter icing, we had plenty of options to mitigate the issue, as we could descend to lower altitudes due to the Minimum Safe Altitudes (MSA's) being below our flight planned cruise altitudes and the predicted freezing levels... or climb out of the cloud as they were predicted to top out at 6000'.

We headed out to the aircraft, started up, set up the radio and navaid frequencies, requested and received our clearance instructions from Air Traffic Control, entered the initial flight plan in the onboard GPS and then I worked through the various pre-Take Off engine run-ups and equipment checks.  With everything in place, we lined up on 03 and I made my departure call.

We got airbourne, I was instructed to put on my "foggles" to simulate entering cloud once we had reached terrain clearance height on the instrument departure and away we went towards Hamilton.

The first leg was going well... I had remembered the "Twist, Turn, Time, Talk, Tune"... Twist my course selector to the required headings, Turn the aircraft and heading bug to the required heading, Time (not applicable to time anything), Talk to ATC as required, Tune radios and navaids to the new frequencies...  We were cruising in cloud, and the outside air temp was only 2 degrees, but I'd noted that while we had some visible moisture on the leading edge and engine intakes, there was no icing... I was feeling good.

Then 30 seconds later, the examiner says "What is MSA on this route?  We're going to need to descend, we're icing up, check the leading edge"... sure enough, and less than a minute since I had checked, ice was building up at an alarming rate.  We requested a descent to "non-standard 5000' due icing" and were immediately cleared as requested.  We dropped down from 6000' and popped out the bottom of the cloud and into slightly warmer air.  This was my first experience with icing whilst flying... and the sound the ice made as it started to crack and shed from the wings was a little disconcerting... the examiner commented that it was "some pretty impressive icing".

The rest of the leg to Hamilton was relatively uneventful... we were cleared as requested to join the DME arc and enter the TAYLA hold at 5000'.  That went without a hitch and we requested the approach.  They cleared us to descend to 3000' and to commence the approach for runway 18L.  We flew down to 'minimum descent altitude' (MDA) and tracked to the 'missed approach point' (MAP)... As I had no visual reference to the runway at this point (due to the simulated conditions wearing the foggles), I declared a missed approach, powered up and executed the missed approach procedure.

We received our onwards clearance and headed (for the unknown) towards Tauranga.  I started to feel a little nervous, having never done this before... but I just followed the procedures, and we arrived at Tauranga without a problem.  The first attempt at the NDB hold, which would have been almost perfect, was scuppered by the arrival of an Air New Zealand flight... which was given priority by ATC.  This meant that just as I was about to begin the inbound portion of the hold, they started radar vectoring me away from the aerodrome to create a safety zone for the other aircraft.  Unfortunately, I had to demonstrate a complete hold for the purposes of the test, so I had to do another entry and lap of the hold, from a more difficult position... not a huge issue, but it wasn't as tidy as the first attempt...

We then commenced the approach, I got a little high... this was due to my inexperience with the Tauranga approach and failure to recognise that I would require a slightly higher than normal descent rate to maintain the proper approach profile.  Still, I recognised the issue in time, verbalised my intentions and managed to regain the proper profile through some slightly aggressive descent manoeuvring ... not the best way to make an approach, but acceptable.

Again, we reached MDA and the MAP and again I was not "visual" so we executed the missed approach.  This time however, the examiner simulated an engine failure.  So while trying to fly the missed approach procedure and maintain the required rate of climb, I had to deal with an aircraft trying it's best to fly sideways on only one engine!!?!

I ran through the initial actions

• Control Yaw with Rudder, Maintain Airspeed at "Blue Line" speed
• Rich, Pitch Power! - Mixtures Rich, Prop Pitch full fine, Throttles full
• Identify, Verify, Feather - Identify the "dead" engine by identifying my "dead" leg... When an engine fails on a twin, you end up with asymmetric thrust.  The result being that you need to put in a whole lot of rudder on one side to keep the aircraft flying straight.  So one leg is doing a whole lot of work.  The leg that isn't doing anything (ie. "dead") is the one on the side that has the failed engine.  We then verify that we have identified the "dead" engine correctly by closing the throttle on what we suspect the failed engine is... if it is indeed the failed engine, nothing should change, if we've chosen incorrectly, the aircraft will yaw wildly due to the rudder input no longer having to overcome any asymmetric thrust.  We then decide whether or not we're Terrain Critical (ie. Are we in danger of hitting something solid in the very near future?)  If we are, we just feather the failed engine to reduce drag and increase performance flying on one engine while we figure out what we're going to do to not die :-P.  If we aren't (ie. at a reasonable altitude) we can take our time, run some more thorough trouble checks and see if we can get the engine restarted.

At this point, the examiner asked "If this was real, and you were in IMC, what would you do right now?"  Noting that we were unable to maintain a climb rate necessary to ensure terrain clearance by following the missed approach procedure, I told him I'd turn back towards the navaid beacon at the aerodrome, and climb in the hold to the minimum safe altitude, advise ATC and then make an approach to land.

Happy with this plan, he gave me both engines back and we departed Tauranga for Ardmore.  Then something weird happened... I was tracking what I thought was pretty well, the ADF indicating that I was on the 278 course from Tauranga... the examiner says "check your tracking on the GPS"... turns out we were significantly left of track!!?!  Then ATC advised "MTW, confirm ops normal, you appear to be approximately 2 miles south of track".  I pointed out to the examiner that according to the ADF we were tracking correctly... he agreed, and we adjusted course to intercept the GPS track and the ADF still showed we were tracking correctly!!  ADF's are notoriously unreliable... so the examiner seemed willing to accept that I hadn't done anything wrong.

We continued towards Ardmore and, once again, we needed to request a lower than planned cruising level to prevent icing.  We were then cleared to track via the WAIKA and ORERE waypoints to make the RNAV (GPS) approach for Runway 21 at Ardmore.  They were actually using Runway 03, but that was OK, as it gave us an excuse to do the circling approach, where you fly the approach to one runway, achieve visual reference and then circle around to land on another runway.

Up to now, everything had more or less gone OK (aside from the ADF issue), I hadn't been advised that I had failed (which the examiners are required to do so you can cut the flight short to prevent wasting money flying approaches that are unnecessary) and I had always found the GPS approaches to be relatively easy.

So, naturally, I did my best to screw everything up on the GPS approach. :-/

It went wrong near the end of the holding procedure... for some reason, and I'm still not sure why (possibly just fatigue towards the end of a stressful 3 hour flight??) I got a bad case of "fiddle with the GPS"-itis... I naturally, pushed the wrong button, and ended up making a messy approach back to the ORERE waypoint to commence the final approach.

The whole way down the final approach I was cursing my stupidity under my breath, thinking that I had just blown the whole test.  On the final approach, I got another simulated engine failure, which helped me forget about the mistake and focus on flying... I then flew the circling approach and made a full stop landing on only the one engine.  Ironically enough... one of my better landings! :-P

We taxied back to the club, shutdown and as I started to note down flight times for the aircraft flight logs, the examiner said "I'll see you in the briefing room", he collected his stuff and headed into the clubrooms.  My instructor and a couple of others came to help secure the aircraft and refuel asking the usual "How did it go?" type questions... fearing the worst I replied dejectedly "I think I just blew it on the GPS approach".

I headed into the briefing room to receive the "bad news"... I could hear the examiner and my instructor talking outside, and then the examiner went to make a quick phone call to advise his next test candidate that he was running late.  My instructor came in and said "don't panic, I think you're OK"...

The examiner came in and asked me to debrief the flight to my instructor... basically walk him through the flight, saying what went well, what didn't etc...

I was, in my opinion, brutally honest... I started by saying it was far from the perfect flight.  The initial departure was good, the VOR/DME at Hamilton was OK, the initial NDB tracking and hold at Tauranga was OK, I got high on the approach, but recovered OK, tracking out of Tauranga we had the issue with the ADF tracking, the initial GPS tracking and hold entry were OK, then I got trigger happy and screwed up the end of the hold, the final approach was OK, the circling approach and a fairly decent asymmetric landing.  I commented that some of my height holding was a little poor... and while the conditions were fair from perfect (a bit lumpy and bumpy in the clouds), it was not completely to blame.

At this point, (and to my HUGE relief) the examiner commented "Well, it's a pass, a little marginal, but a pass... based on your self-assessment, you obviously have high standards, don't lose them... I'm giving you a licence to learn, so don't rush off and fly to MDA in hard IMC your first time out OK?" and gave me the customary handshake.

3.1 hours... a long flight test

We finished up the paperwork, I thanked him profusely and he headed off to torture his next victim[2] his next flight test appointment.  I think it only really sank in about 5 or 6 hours later, after the obligatory bar shout, that I had actually passed...

Not all 4 letter words are bad!

I'd like to thank my instrument instructors, Phil Welcome and John Ashman for helping me achieve this rating... MTW for being a sweet little aircraft that flies right and (mostly) works OK... various pilot/instructor friends for various tips and tricks with regards to instrument flying...

and last, but by no means least, my awesome GF... for putting up with a very busy (and stressed!) BF and providing lots of support and being very understanding these last few weeks (and months) as I tried to get this damned rating finished!!  Thanks babe... ;-)


[1] No... I don't know why they use the acronym for the cockpit instrument as opposed to the navigational aid??!?
[2] I think it only fair to point out that the examiner was actually very nice and made the whole thing a lot less stressful than I had anticipated ;)

Cloud punching

Instrument Time - Actual: 1.5

Hah! take that clouds... I laugh at your inability to stop me flying where I want :p

My first IFR cross-country... What a ride... AR-HN-AA-AR or Ardmore to Hamilton via the Waiuku NDB, a couple of approaches and holds at Hamilton, then back to Auckland International to make an ILS approach via the Surrey NDB, then home to Ardmore...

Well, that was "The Plan"™... only those tricky controllers are far to wise to make things that easy!

Somewhere between flight planning and getting overhead the Waiuku beacon, the wind at Hamilton changed, so my plan for a "VOR/DME RWY 18L" approach quickly turned into a "VOR/DME RWY 36R" approach...

Not a big deal... join the arc, make the approach, missed approach into the hold... transition to the NDB hold, make the NDB approach, missed approach and onwards to Auckland (via Surrey)...

"Delta Juliet November, be advised, a 15 minute hold for the ILS"... yeah no worries, it's only money :P

At which point Auckland Control had a minor comms failure... eventually they sorted themselves out, turned me back towards the hold at Miranda... I Split the ADF needles on the entry to the hold... (yeah baby!) and was looking at making a perfect parallel entry "Delta Juliet November, Cancel Hold turn left, heading 280" grrrr...

Then vectored into the hold at EMRAG... "Delta Juliet November is entering the hold at EMRAG", "Roger, cancel hold turn right heading 210"... GAAAH!!!!!

Intercepted the ILS for the approach into Auckland International with World+Dog (3 aircraft in front, 2 behind)... was eventually told to slow from 140kts to 120 as we were catching the jet in front :P

Made possibly the worst ILS approach in history (despite Instructor Phil saying that wasn't too bad)... damn that needle is sensitive! and then executed the missed approach, heading back to Ardmore under Visual Flight Rules...

Time for a cup of tea... and just to make my day even better, the nice Cookie Time Girl arrived with my bucket of Christmas Cookies... OM NOM NOM!


This Flight: 3.0 Dual (1.5 Actual IFR, 1.0 Sim IFR)
Total Hours: 313.0 (149.0/138.0 Day, 8.6/17.4 Night, 18.6 IFR)

Crap... I'm dead?!!!

So, I received a phone call approaching Huntly... a somewhat difficult task given the excessive noise of the rather modest powerplant of the Cessna 152... I shouted "We're still flying" into the microphone of my mobile, pressed the "End Call" button and then sent a text to the caller saying "What's up?"... the reply?

"You're dead, according to SpiderTracks"

Rewind 1hr and 39mins... and Irene and I are taxiing out to runway 03 after ECT (Evening Civil Twilight aka. night time) preparing for a night cross-country down to Hamilton for some circuits.

Unfortunately, my "point and click" digital camera is less than useless at night photography, so I have no pics to show, but it was one of those nights that reminds you why you wait patiently for the sun to descend below the horizon to go flying... we could see the lights of Hamilton as we departed via the downwind from Ardmore... the long yellowish snake of State Highway 1 stretching out into the darkness before us. I was there as pax, with Irene wanting to rack up some PinC/Night flying time...

Following a relatively uneventful flight down, we arrived overhead Hamilton to join a (surprisingly) busy circuit... with 3 or 4 CTC aircraft doing the rounds. 5 or 6 (rather large!!) circuits later and Irene decided it was time to head home, so she called departing and we headed back north...

Despite SpiderTracks indicating that our flight had ended somewhat abruptly somewhere between Ngaruawahia and Huntly, we made it back to Ardmore safe and sound... at which point several phone calls were made to allay the concerns of the parties receiving emergency alerts.

No (real) harm done, but a story about a young man and his fascination with "canis lupus" comes to mind :-/

View from the Right Hand Seat...

So I tagged along today with one of our CPL students who was doing some "Pilot in Command" hour building...

The plan was Ardmore - Hamilton (some circuits) - Raglan - Ardmore... The weather at Ardmore was blue skies and sunshine and we were both hoping for some fish 'n chips at Raglan ;)

Unfortunately, Mother Nature decided to interfere... Upon arriving in the Hamilton CTR, things got very grey and very wet... and the PinC decided a full stop landing would be a good idea after the 2nd circuit.

So we taxied over to the Waikato Aero Club... checked the weather, let "mother" know what we were up too and waited for the band of showers to pass...

20mins later and we were back into it, going round in circles dodging CTC Twinstar's doing asymmetric circuits and airline traffic, before being cleared to the west at 2500' or below...

So, off to Raglan we headed... the PinC taking the opportunity to get some Simulated IF time while I played "Safety Pilot"... weeeeeeee!

Unfortunately, we (and by we, I mean me, as PinC was busy flying ;) noticed on the first circuit at Raglan that the fish 'n chip shop near the camp ground appeared to be closed, so we decided to cut our losses and head back to Ardmore... :(

Still... a fun day with low stress for me... I just got to sit there and work radio's and organise charts and aerodrome plates and let the PinC deal with all the really fun stuff like dodging clouds, other aircraft, dealing with controllers etc :P

When you least expect it...

Saturday morning saw me drag my butt out of bed at ridiculous o'clock to drive down to Hamilton for a sim session with Trevor (and the promise of a ride in the back of the Twin Comanche, DOK)...

In typical fashion, the only thing that occurred according to plan was that we drove to Hamilton and back :P

It turned out that the twin was booked most of the day by someone else. So John, Trevor's Instructor, decided we would do a quick session in the Sim and then we would take the nice "new" Archer III, WIT, for a ride so Trevor could familiarise himself with the cockpit instruments as it has the same "glass" instruments as the Twin Comanche.

While we were at it, John decided Trevor would fly us Matamata and they'd play with all the fancy pants equipment like the 3-axis autopilot, dual Garmin 430's and the Aspen Avionics EFD1000, then we'd swap over and I could take him for some circuits and do some stalls and a forced landing etc. on the way back to Hamilton and thus get "checked to line" for Waikato Aero Club purposes.

So my cruisy day of sitting in the sim and the backseat watching proceedings quickly turned into a $200+ mini-checkride :-/

So while Trevor and John finished up in the sim, I went out and pre-flighted WIT.
There are more excellent photo's that Chris has taken over on his blog here and here. Note that these pics were taken before the avionics upgrade. You can see a demo of the Aspen EFD1000 here.

The aircraft is still in pretty good nick... it even has that nice "new car leather" smell... Ooooo Shiny! ;) My only complaints are that there isn't enough room in the back (I couldn't wear my normal headset as I simply didn't have enough headroom!! So I had to resort to my homemade headset that wraps around the back) and because of the auto-pilot, the controls are quite "heavy" as the controls are all run through servo's. Other than that, the machine is a real dream!

The "check-ride" actually went pretty well... although due to an impromptu airshow being conducted at Matamata by a homebuilt scaled-down Fockewolfe FW-190, ZK-FWI our plan for circuits ended up being the stalling and forced landing component of the ride which went pretty well, although I got a little wide on the forced landing due to the longer wing on WIT compared with LMA, so my visual references using the wing-tip to judge spacing was a bit out. To my credit I did pick up on it and corrected it as best I could.

We came back and landed at Matamata to pick up Trevor and then headed back to Hamilton to finish up for the day and head back to Auckland.

So, not quite the day we had planned, but I think it turned out pretty well... and I have finally flown an aircraft that is actually younger than I am! It's a 2004 model with around 420hours TT ;)

Sunday, I came crashing back down to "reality" as I went and did some simulated IFR and forced landing practise in one of Airline Flying Club's C-152's :( Actually, to be fair, they're pretty tidy, and fun, little aircraft... and cheaper too ;)

The IFR was OK and I did a fairly decent job with the Partial Panel work. The forced landings were a little poor, I keep getting fixated on finding a field to land in before actually running through the procedures and checks, the end result being that I get everything mixed up and it just makes things really messy.

I thought I was doing pretty well with the glide approach onto the grass until Trevor suggested I use more flaps than I thought was necessary... the end result being that we came up "a little short", and I got a first-hand lesson on just how much you can steepen an approach using flaps... and why you should never extend downwind when doing glide approaches/forced landings!


These Flights: 0.9 Dual + 1.1 Dual (0.3 IFR)
Total Hours: 216.0 (98.9/92.8 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 ;)

A "Free" prize

I had received a call from Edna at the Waikato Aero Club to tell me that I had won a spot prize after filling in an entry form at the Open Day a few weeks ago.

So I decided that I would claim my "free" prize by flying down and picking it up (and spending about $300 in the process :P)

Weather was looking good, although the forecast was for a front to move up from the south later in the day bringing some rather crappy weather. As it turns out, this front was moving a little faster than forecast! It probably didn't help that we were steaming into a 20 to 25knot headwind all the way to Hamilton.

We ran into a wall of grey just as we were entering the control zone at Hamilton. The rain was quite heavy and the vis dropped pretty rapidly, but I could still see the airport and behind me was clear blue sky, so I was happy to continue with the approach.

Following some interesting vectoring from ATC and a real greaser of a landing (20 knots on the nose always helps ;), I commenced the long taxi to the aeroclub. This was due to the fact that the airport company has decided to dig up the grass 18/36 runway... and pave it! creating what will be NZ's only parallel paved runways (Technically, NZAA has parallel runways, but they're using one as a taxiway)...

I secured the aircraft, ran inside and claimed my prize. Due to the weather I thought it prudent to depart immediately, so I headed back out into the rain.

By this time we were operating Special VFR, as we were at minimums. Nothing too bad, just poor vis. But it was still clear to the north and we had the luxury of radar and ATC, so away we went. By the time we got to Te Rapa, the rain had eased, we easily had 10k vis and By the time we were over Ngaruwahia, we were back in brilliant sunshine with clear blue skies!

The 20 knot tailwind made for a quick trip home, and we were back on the ground at Ardmore in no time.

Trevor commented that it was good experience, flying in marginal weather, and that he was impressed with my decision making and that I had at all times been keeping an eye on my 'escape route'.

The only downer on the whole experience was that the prize, a really nice jacket, didn't bloody fit!!! So jade now has a nice new, warm, waterproof, fleece-lined jacket :P


This Flight: 1.9 PinC
Total Hours: 181.6 (78.9/79.3 Day, 8.6/15.7 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!

Another Year...

another truckload of money converted into noise+fun :)

Looking back over 2008, it certainly was quite eventful. I reached some personal milestones... like getting my PPL ;)

And started knocking off my CPL exams... only Met to do (and I am currently working my way through the study guide)

I managed to get rated in the 172 and the PA-28. I even did some aerobatics in the Warbirds CT-4A.

And I managed to get around a few different locations like Taupo, Rotorua, Whakatane, Opotiki, Pauanui, Whangarei, Keri Keri, Kaitaia, Kaikohe and even a scenic flight out to White Island.

I managed to do the odd bit of night flying and even managed a couple of night cross country's!

Hopefully 2009 will prove just as fruitful in terms of hours in the book... and hopefully might even include a sticker labeled "CPL" ;)


In other news I flew down to Hamilton on the weekend with the aim of joining up at the Waikato Aero Club... this should hopefully provide a couple of benefits (like access to a certified sim, membership in the RNZAC along with reciprocal rights at other RNZAC clubs and access to other training should I need it etc.)

Unfortunately, the usual office administrator was away, so I will need to go back again at some point and complete the paperwork. Although, I did run into Chris while I was chilling out in the Pilots Lounge... although I did not realise until I read his posting about failing to make it to Masterton. Nice to finally put a face to the name.

I also got a good wake-up call... as I finally came face to face with 'Cessna Bounce'. The grass runways at Hamilton have been baked pretty hard in the summer sunshine and it showed when the 172 hit it and bounced like it was on a trampoline. Thankfully, I had read somewhere that the trick is to give it a bit of power just after you reach the peak of the bounce to lessen the descent rate and break the cycle. So after the 2nd bounce (at which point I was starting to picture the aircraft stalling and nosing into the ground), I gave it a quick burst of power.

It worked a treat and the aircraft settled onto the ground nicely.

The landing after the return journey was much better ;)


This flight: 1.5 PinC
Total Hours: 172.0 (78.9/71.4 Day, 8.6/13.1 Night, 7.0 IFR)

Long (wet) weekend indoors

Over Labour Weekend, Trevor was doing some more IFR work down in Hamilton in preparation for his Instrument Rating Flight Test, so I decided to tag along to learn as much as I can while I'm not paying for it ;)

On the Saturday, as you can see from the outdoor pics below, the weather was a bit crap (30knot winds, embedded CB's etc.) so we ended up in the sim instead of flying.

While waiting for Trevor to take care of the paper work and rebooking his flights, I decided I may as well give jade's camera a bit of a work out. I think my photography skills are really coming along :P

Waikato Aero Club Alpha 160's and WAM (C-172)

Sunair Aztec (PA-23 250) ERM looking lonely

A very tidy (inside and out) Cessna 170, OCC

What we were supposed to fly... Piper Archer II (PA-28 181), FWS

What we ended up flying... AT-21 Simulator pretending to be FWS

As is usually the case, I tried to keep up with what was going on and paid attention when John was explaining concepts on the whiteboard. I think I now have just enough IFR knowledge to be dangerous ;) Seriously though, watching the sim sessions has been a bit of an eye opener. IFR flying = Busy and stressful. I'm sure the 30knot winds don't help...

Looks cosy...

All the knobs, switches and levers you would ever want

The sim is able to be configured to simulate a wide range of light aircraft and you can actually unscrew the throttle quadrant and replace it with one that has condition levers to give a bit more realism when simulating turbo props.

It's not FSX, but it does the job

The graphics aren't flash... but considering you spend most of your time flying around in cloud they don't need to be :) The sim even has a builtin intercom system, so if you wanted to be ultra-geeky, you can hook up your headset and talk to the "controllers" (ie. the person sitting at the instructors console) over the radio.

More of the same (weather and sim) on the Sunday, followed by an attempted flight in FWS on Monday as the rain and CB's had moved away. The weather looked nice enough, I flew us down to NZHN in LMA, but unfortunately by the time we got airbourne in FWS, the 30-40 knot high-level winds from the South-West had re-appeared, and they set up lots of mountain wave. Here you can see the effects as we were departing Hamilton below. There were about 6 of these little 'cap' cloud formations in a nice line.


And some real monsters around Tauranga... about the only people enjoying it were the Gliders who were all up around 12,000'!!!


The sink and lift was so outrageous that at one point we had full power and the aircraft at 10 degrees nose-up and we were still sinking at 200' per minute! Christchurch control ended up giving us a 'block' altitude (from 5000' to 6000') as it was impossible to hold a nice steady level. After one attempt at the hold Trevor and John called it quits and headed for Rotorua, hoping it would be a bit nicer there. It was not as bad, although that is kind of like saying that being shot by a 9mm pistol is not as bad as being shot by a .45 pistol!

Then back home to Hamilton and a nice VOR/DME Arc approach and 20 knot cross-wind landing.

So much 'fun' to look forward too! *gulp*

The crosswind was still up around 20knots when we departed back to Ardmore in LMA, so the tower gaves us the crosswind Grass 25R for departure... a nice headwind = a take-off roll of about 300 metres! ;)


This flight: 1.6 PinC
Total Hours: 156.0 (78.9/57.8 Day, 8.6/10.7 Night, 7.0 IFR)

Who called a taxi?

Played at being a "Taxi Driver" today... I flew down to Hamilton with Trevor, to play in the sim... well actually Trevor played in the Sim and I sat there and tried (unsuccessfully) to keep up!

Was an interesting flight down, flying into a 20-25 knot headwind and dodging showers, one lot so heavy that I actually had to make a bit of a detour around it. Then when we were approaching Hamilton, the tower decided to put all the light aircraft onto the crosswind grass runways as the crosswinds were gusting up to 20knots. Luckily for us, they did this before we were anywhere near the traffic pattern, unlike several aircraft who were in the circuit and had to reposition for the new runway.

Was a nice change as I had never landed on the crosswind runways at Hamilton before and it gave you a slightly different perspective of the place.

Going out after the sim session, they gave us the grass again as the wind had not really died down. I was a little nervous, as my last experience taking off on the grass crosswind runway at Hamilton had involved a large flock of birds and a fence that got very close, very quickly! Thankfully this time, I was in LMA, and with the fine-pitch prop it really hauls arse... Rumbling along to 50kts and then popping on 2 stages of flap and it just leaps into the air ;) We were off in less than half the runway length (300 metres or so)!

Heading home with the tailwind made for a quick trip and we were back on the ground at Ardmore in about 35-40 minutes!


This flight: 1.7 PinC
Total Hours: 147.8 (78.9/52.2 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)

Staying out late on a school night.

I woke up on Sunday and instead of the expected grotty weather, I was greeted with blue skies and sunshine.

Nick had a booking in the afternoon to go for a "refresher" flight, so I tagged along after he went and got himself current. A nice little bit of sightseeing around (as in, all the way around) Great Barrier and then back down the peninsula to Coromandel before cutting back across the gulf to Ardmore.

Was a nice joyride and it left me wanting to go do some flying of my own. By the time we got back to was around 4:30pm and more than enough light to go for a quick hop (Daylight savings started that morning, so it gets 'officially' dark around 8pm now). But I did not just want to go for another city scenic, and I did not have enough time to re-fuel, plan, pre-flight and execute a decent cross-country and make it back before the club curfew.

So I asked CFI Rob if he was interested in going down to Hamilton for a night cross country and some circuits... "Sorry guys, you're about 10 minutes too late... I've just had a beer, but give Chris a call, he might be interested".

So we called Chris, who said he would be there about 8:30pm... plenty of time to pre-flight, refuel etc...

Unfortunately, by this time, the fuel tankers had packed up for the night, so we taxied LMA around to the pumps to fill up. Which was a bit problematic as the handle on the fuelhose was leaking fuel everywhere!!! I tried calling the 'BP Emergency Response' number and was told "We don't deal with the aviation side of things, you'll need to talk to the maintenance contractors, please hold"... the maintenance contractors come on and say "We don't deal with that anymore, I'll just see if I can find the number you need"... I was waiting for her to give me the original number I called, but after 5 minutes she came back and said she could not find the number, took my details and said they'd arrange to get it fixed.

We used the other pump.

About an hour later, some guy calls me and says "you reported a leaking pump?"... I explained what had happened and he was like "Oh there is another pump? The call centre says the pump needs to be fixed by 10pm tonight, but if there is another pump, we'll leave it until tomorrow"... "errr its leaking fuel"... "That's ok, can you put a sign on it saying out of order?" ?!!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!

Anyway, Chris eventually showed up, and after a briefing and review of the weather and plates for Hamilton, we took off around 9:30pm with Nick taking the first leg. A really nice flight... some excellent landmarks at night (like Huntly and the Prison near Mercer) and visibility was pretty much unlimited.

We made it to Hamilton and the tower was off-watch and everyone else was asleep, except for the fire rescue guys who appeared to be doing drag races on the runway and spraying water everywhere... I think they were "training" :)

Nick did a few circuits, and seemed to struggle a little bit due to the fact that he hasn't flown LMA much (he does not currently have a rating on it)... so he had to consciously look for controls and instruments etc. To be honest, I thought he did fine... and his landings were pretty smooth.

On his last circuit, we taxied to the apron and parked up between a couple of AirNZ Link ATR's... and swapped over. A bit of a mission in a cherokee, as you only have 1 door, so the choreography was a little interesting. :)

Once we were all setlled in, I taxied it out, back-tracked up the runway and did 3 pretty uneventful circuits before departing for Ardmore. Climbing out of the Hamilton zone, I called up Christchurch Control and got cleared for a non-standard 3000' altitude, VFR to Ardmore. No drama's there and we cruised all the way back before dropping out of controlled airspace coming over the Bombay Hills.

The wind had swung around from 230 to 060, so I opted to go straight in for 03... and then proceeded to hit the deck pretty hard... nothing really bad, but definitely not one of my better landings :(

After a debrief and cuppa, I headed home and crawled into bed at around 12:30am... Needless to say, systems are running a little slow this morning! ;)


This flight: 1.1 Dual Night
Total Hours: 140.5 (78.9/47.6 Day, 6.0/8.0 Night, 5.1 IFR)

Everything's coming up Milhouse...

Ahhh... what a great day! 'Why is that?' you ask...

1. I was not at work
2. The cloudbase was above 1500'
3. Enough wind to make it "interesting"
4. I have a PPL

If you've been following this journal for any period of time, you should have worked out that this means I got to go flying today :)

The added bonus being that today is my birthday... so not only did I skive off work, I got to do it by flying ;)

Trevor called me around 0930 and said "you still interested in going flying?"... does a one legged duck swim in circles? Of course I was interested, I just did not think that we would get anywhere with the weather being as marginal as it was.

Turns out we made it all the way to Hamilton for a $300 coffee. As it turns out, it actually cost a bit more than $300, and they don't have a cafe at the Waikato Aero Club, so we had to settle for a drink from the water cooler! hahahah... (Any suggestions Euan?)

According to Trevor, the weather actually made it a perfect day for cross-country flying. Lot's of weather to avoid, some decision making required, navigation more difficult due reduced vis etc. I have to agree, it was actually really enjoyable... and no-one else was around, so the only traffic I had to contend with was a 172 doing circuits at Ardmore, and a Beech 1900D doing Instrument Training at Hamilton.

Was kind of weird seeing a packed carpark at AFS, and a full flight line... and it is probably the first time I've been to Hamilton and seen the entire CTC fleet on the ground!

LMA, as always, was flying like a dream and now that I know it has a fine pitch prop on it (great for short field take-offs!), I can actually get it to cruise at a decent speed... such a lovely aircraft for cruising in comfort...

All up, not a bad way to spend a bday! ;)


This flight: 1.8 PinC
Total Hours: 135.3 (78.9/45.1 Day, 4.9/6.4 Night, 5.1 IFR)

Nothing to see here, please move along...

*sigh*... I hate winter... Actually that is untrue, I hate bad weather :(

3 weeks and I am starting to get itchy... Have spent the last couple of weekends in Hamilton with Trevor. First one was in the Sim, I am actually picking up a bit of the instrument flying stuff and can follow along quite well.


This weekend just gone, we actually got airbourne in FWS. Massive frontal system was moving in from the North-East, so the planned trip to Tauranga and Rotorua was out, so he decided to just bash the Hamilton approaches. This was the view climbing out from Runway 36.





For someone who, as an instructor, does not actually do a lot of hands-on flying, I thought he did great. Notice the perfect (climbing) Rate-1 turn! Very smooth... I actually thought the auto-pilot was flying... but turns out he did not even use it!




Top Down view of NZHN... looks quite small really, but they put 737's in here. At least, they did, before Air New Zealand shut down Freedom Air. Believe it or not, but the small area on the right is the commercial terminal building. All of the stuff on the left is the Aeroclub, CTC, maintenance hangers etc.





Glad someone can "see"... This, ladies and gentlemen, is the reason people get instrument ratings! Unfortunately, Instrument Meteorological Conditions are not very conducive to photography... and neither is the Blackberry Curve 8310! ;)



I also got a chance to compare my in-ear homemade headset to my normal headset and deduced that it it indeed quieter... not a staggering amount, but once you factor in the comfort value of not having your head in a giant vice and getting hot, sweaty ears, I can definitely see the value in it! :) Now I just need to decide if I want to drop some $$$ on an ANR headset.

Given that I have not been flying for 3 weeks, I can probably afford it now! :P

Free and Clear

It is official. I am now the proud owner of an unrestricted PPL(A)... I completed my solo high level cross country today and as luck would have it, the flight examiner showed up at the club about an hour after I got back, so I was able to get the CFI to certify my logbook as having completed the cross-country syllabus and then the flight examiner removed the cross country restriction from my licence. :)

"Feel free to go fly 1000 miles at night" he said with a smile...

As for the flight today... it started a little shaky... I got all the way out to the airfield and realised I had left the latest lot of AIP amendments behind... rather than fly with an 'outdated' AIP, I elected to return home and get them, which meant I was running around 1/2 hour late... not really the start I was hoping for.

I was starting to get a little concerned by the cloud that seemed to be building up, but once again, when you got out to Bombay it was fine. The top overcast layer being up around 20,000' to 24,000'. Underneath that it was completely clear, at least where I was heading.

So I called up Auckland Control, they instructed to me remain clear of controlled airspace and that they would get back to me shortly... after a couple of minutes they cleared me for a non-standard VFR level of 6000'... enough to qualify as high-level and out of their way I guess.

ETZ really is a fabulous aircraft and without an instructor on board, the cool air and relatively high pressure, it was flying like a dream... I managed to maintain a steady 500'/minute climb, so made 6000' pretty quickly.

Overhead Hamilton and onwards to Te Kuiti, I was expecting to get a descent clearance, but had not by the time I got to my top of descent point, so I asked for clearance and they basically said go for it.

I had timed it pretty much perfectly and arrived over Te Kuiti as I wanted too... at overhead joining height at a good speed. No traffic around, but some smoke was indicated a slight northerly breeze (the windsocks were not showing anything)... so I elected to use 34 and made a really good shortfield landing onto the (very) narrow sealed strip.

I taxied to the pumps to find a helicopter operator filling about 20 jerry cans on the back of his ute... he was kind enough to help pull ETZ closer to the pumps and push it back when I had finished refueling... I dropped my $5 landing fee in the honesty box and then got ready to depart, at which point a Turbine-powered fletcher top dresser arrived... it didnt bother with the runway and just made a very short landing onto the grass area next to the strip! Then taxied round behind me to refuel... man those turbines are LOUD! I was more than happy to put the LightSPEED Zulu on and turn on the ANR :)

Speaking of which, the Zulu was just fantastic today... if I am going to get an ANR headset, it is going to be the Zulu... Now I just have to drum up the courage to part with $1200... yikes!

I headed out to Raglan, made another good overhead, and sequenced in behind (another) fletcher arriving low level... I gave myself plenty of room, not wanting to crowd the strip, and was able to pull off a pretty decent touch and go in the first half of the strip... I'm told if you T+G you dont have to pay a landing fee ;)

Then back home to Ardmore. Was fairly bumpy at 2500'... I'm thinking I'll have to start flying in controlled airspace everywhere... its so much smoother up high. The weather in Auckland had taken a real dive, with a front moving across the area... luckily it had blown through by the time I got close and I was able to join overhead and land without any issues...

I am very relieved to have completed my cross-countries before the nasty winter weather sets in... one of the other students has both his high levels to do, and I reckon he is going to have to make some substantial sacrifices to the weather gods with winter approaching.

As for me... well I still want to do an aerobatics rating and once LMA gets back from the mechanics, I am going to get a cherokee rating. Then onwards to the CPL ;)


This flight: 2.5 PinC
Total Hours: 114.4 (76.1 Dual Day, 31.2 PinC Day, 3.9 Dual Night, 3.2 PinC Night, 5.1 IFR)

Flying High

6500' to be precise... Although we almost did not make it!

I arrived at the club to open up, and Xavier was waiting with a friend to go on a City Scenic. Unfortunately, ETZ had an issue with the mixture control lever. The real downside to this, was the fact that I was due to be flying ETZ on my High Level Cross Country... doh!

While we were unable to contact the maintenance guys, we were able to play some musical aircraft and shift a couple of bookings to keep everyone happy...

The end result being that I would get to take JFY :)

Went ahead with my flight planning... checking weather, calculating estimated elapsed times etc. Then we filed a VFR flight plan, which we did by FAX as a learning exercise...

The weather forecasts were not looking to bad, the sun was shining and there was little wind. However, it was not looking so good when the booking before us, got back and the instructor told us it was not looking too good, cloudbase-wise, towards the south. Trevor said "We can try (and possibly fail) or we can pull the pin now"... Feeling optimistic as always I opted to try.

We strapped into JFY and taxied out to the holding point at 03... to discover a Thunder Mustang, a Kittyhawk, a Birddog and a 172 taking up all the room. Thankfully, the Mustang, Kittyhawk and Birddog were ready to go, so I just slowed my taxi and by the time I got there they were gone :) Not sure the tecnam behind me was happy about it, but it was better than trying to weave around 3 or 4 aircraft doing run-ups!

We got into the air, called up Christchurch Info to relay my departure and ETA times and then we started assessing whether we would be able to get our planned 6500' cruise altitude. To fulfil the requirements of the high level cross country, you have to get to at least 6000' and VFR cruising altitudes in New Zealand (above 3000') are remembered by the Mnemonic NOSE + 500... North = Odd Thousand + 500', South = Even + 500'... As we were flying in a southerly direction, we needed Even + 500'...

There was a big band of cloud around 3500', but it looked like it ended around the Bombay Hills area and was clear behind that. So we decided to re-assess once we got there... and thankfully there was indeed some clear air.

So we called up Auckland Control, who seemed friendly enough... "JFY Cessna 152, requesting clearance into controlled airspace, Tracking direct to Hamilton at 6500', squawking 0317"... unfortunately, I realised that I had forgotten to give my current position just as I heard "JFY, please report current position"... "JFY is overhead Mercer 2100'"... Thankfully they were feeling kind and I got back "JFY, identified on screen, cleared to climb and maintain 6500', track direct to Hamilton"...

After reading back and then confirming that I was aware that the danger zone by Taupiri was activating (someone was launching rockets, but I didnt see any) soon, I pushed the throttle all the way in and we began the slow climb up to 6500'... at 500'/minute it takes a while to climb 4500'... 9 minutes does not sound like a lot, but it seems like forever!

Once we got there, I could not believe how smooth it was... no bumping about and you really could trim the aircraft and fly hands off... fabulous!

Heading towards Hamilton we were handed over to Christchurch Control who wanted to know if our destination was Hamilton... we advised we were overheading Hamilton, and then on to Te Kuiti... After reaching Hamilton, we were given an unrestricted descent into uncontrolled airspace and as we reached Otorahanga were told "No more requirements from this frequency, have a good day"...

The overhead join at Te Kuiti was a bit messy, not helped by my descent planning being a little off, meaning I was coming into the pattern quite fast and also an aircraft doing a simulated engine failure overhead the field... so I messed up the overhead join a little bit, but it worked out OK in the end.

We topped up with gas and then headed for Raglan. The overhead join into Raglan was much better and I got a good look at the field, the windsocks and worked out the approach. Unfortunately the final execution of the approach was poor.

I was high and should have gone around, but thought I could make it. Unfortunately, there was no wind whatsoever and JFY just floated... I was about to Go-Around when we touched down, so I decided to make it a fullstop instead of a Touch and Go and started to apply brakes... at which point we hit a huge lump in the middle of the strip and we bounced back into the air! Thankfully, we got back down and pulled up well before the end of the strip...

A poor landing as a result of a poor approach and poor decision making... As Trevor said "If you're airbourne and you have power, landing is optional".

We taxied back to the end of the strip, executed a Max Performance Take-off, and headed for home...

We did a couple more groundspeed check exercises on the way back which was a bit challenging, given the lack of decent ground features... back was still good to practice.

Coming in to AR, I terminated my flightplan and was setting up to join wide right base for 03, dodging a couple of gliders out of Drury, when a 182 flew around and across in front of me and declared he was doing the same!!! He then did something really dumb and started flying, at circuit height, the wrong way downwind, before making his turn to base leg.

Not wanting to be anywhere near that sillyness, I just called for the parallel grass strip and setup for a good shortfield landing, which I nailed and then taxied back to the club.

Trevor and I had a debrief, and I acknowledged that my overhead join into Te Kuiti was a bit messy and while my overhead join into Raglan was much better, my decision making on the final approach had been poor... Other than that, a fairly solid cross country and I'm looking forward to doing it solo!

This flight: 2.7 Dual
Total Hours: 109.8 (76.1 Dual Day, 2.8 Dual Night, 28.7 PinC Day, 2.2 PinC Night, 5.1 IFR)

Leaving the nest...

The weather finally co-operated for me on Saturday and I got to do my first solo cross country :)

It was the same flight as the Dual (NZAR - NZHN - NZTG - NZWV - NZAR)... but without the safety net of the instructor. Aside from my PPL flight test, it was possibly the only time I have actually felt nervous walking out to the aircraft... It really showed when Trevor strolled up after I had strapped myself in and was starting to go over my checks.

"Ready to go?", he asked. "errr Yep" I replied. "Ok then, I'll take the chock off the nose wheel then shall I?"... DOH!!

I taxied out thinking that it is attention to detail (or lack thereof) that always catches you out... and I was determined not to make any more mistakes. Unfortunately, as Mr. Murphy is alive and well in Aviation, it was by no means a stroll in the park...

To begin with, they were operating both frequencies at Hamilton, not something I was familiar with, but not a huge deal, you just change freq's when they tell you... Unfortunately, one of the controllers was a little hard to understand due to his accent but I got on the ground safely and taxied to the pumps at the aeroclub to top off the tanks, so I would not need to fill up anywhere else.

They have also changed the layout of HN a little due to work being carried out on the runways... so being told to 'taxi to the engine runup area' was a little confusing.

Heading to Tauranga, I was getting a bit concerned that the terrain was around 2000' and the cloudbase was around 2500'... thankfully there was a nice clear patch that I could scoot through. I was a little concerned that I would face the same problems coming the other way, but the weather did look like it was improving and I did have the option of the Waihi Gap on the way home.

I tuned up the ATIS and was a little alarmed to hear "Controller Training in progress"... oh oh... talk about the blind leading the blind! hahaha

So I requested clearance into the zone for a touch and go onwards to Waihi Beach and was given a racecourse 1 arrival... basically fly in by the racecourse at 1500' and report when holding at the hospital... so i did...

Initially, I did not get any response, so I just did an orbit an reported again... I was finally given a straight in approach for 07 grass... sweet!

So while setting up for the grass, I was then cleared for the Touch and Go... and cleared onwards to Waihi Beach with a Matakana Departure... and cleared left turn after take-off...

Trying to listen, remember and readback all that while trying to execute a precision approach was probably the busiest I have ever been in the cockpit... but I dropped JFY right where I wanted at 55kts... back to 10 degrees of flap, and climbed back out, turned left and tracked up the coast to Waihi...

Where I encountered the lovely seabreeze crosswind and curved 31 approach again... but this time I nailed it first time :) I considered stopping for a few minutes, and after getting back to AR I wish I had as my back was really stiff, but the weather was looking good and I did not want to risk it closing in... so I just backtracked, lined up and did a shortfield take-off. I had planned on using the Waihi Gap, due to the earlier weather, but climbing out of Waihi I got up to 3000' and was nowhere near the clouds, so I just cruised back at 3000' all the way to AR.

2.9 hours of flying and I had covered over 160nm's (just over 300km's) and I had successfully flown myself in and out of a couple of controlled aerodromes without the dreaded 'Please call the tower' :)

Now I need some nice clear days so I can get the high level cross countries done to remove the restriction on my license!

This flight: 2.9 Solo
Total Hours: 103.0 (73.4 Dual Day, 0.9 Dual Night, 28.7 PinC, 5.1 IFR)

Making hay while the sun shines

So I am wandering around shopping malls looking at handbags and shoes (curse you Easter Saturday!) wishing Trevor had not gone to Rock2Wellington so we could have gone flying, when I get a phone call from the CFI wanting to know if I wanted to do a cross country flight as they had spare aircraft, a spare instructor and B.E.A. ootiful weather...

I thought about it for a 0.0000000002 seconds and said yes ;)

I headed out to NZAR after arranging some lunch for jade so she would not die of hunger and met the new C-Cat instructor Matt. We went over the flight planning, weather, NOTAMs and covered what to expect in terms of radio calls and approach/departure procedures. I was a little surprised as instead of the standard Ardmore (NZAR)-Hamilton (NZHN)-Tauranga (NZTG)-Thames (NZTH)-Ardmore route, Rob suggested we go to Waihi Beach (NZWV) instead of Thames. I have heard 'interesting' things about Waihi Beach, mostly about the crosswinds and the curved approach... but figured it would be a good challenged. So, we filed a VFR flightplan, strapped on JFY and headed out.

The approach into NZHN was interesting as the tower was on reduced capacity (whats with people wanting holidays on easter?!?!?) so the controller was busier than a one-armed paper hanger... we finally got our clearance and landed on runway 18 and taxied over to the aeroclub to fill up on gas.

Then off to NZTG where we encountered a 'newish' controller who was a bit difficult to understand and a little stressed with several aircraft arriving at once. After some to-ing and fro-ing we finally got cleared for a touch and go on runway 25 and cleared onto NZWV.

It turns out that NZWV IS a very interesting approach. I opted for 31, as while it has the tricky curved approach due to terrain and it was mostly a crosswind at the time, there was some headwind component and I wanted all the help I could get as 31 is only 500metres due to the displaced threshold.

I totally messed up the first approach, and learned a valuable lesson about overhead joins at small strips in the process... basically, give yourself plenty of room rather than trying to fly across the thresholds like you do at larger fields like NZAR. But I had recognised the problem early and just executed a go-around and setup for another approach, giving myself a bit more room and slowing up a little earlier than the first attempt. And I totally nailed it... Matt said he was impressed that I made the (correct) go-around decision early rather than trying to fight the aircraft down onto the strip.

We stopped for a bit of fresh air and a stretch and then headed back to NZAR. The shortfield take-off out of NZWV was not too bad and we cleared the fence quite comfortably. Then climbed up to 3500' for the trip across the Coromandel Ranges and back to NZAR.

It was certainly a learning experience, having to talk to controllers, follow arrival and departure procedures, talking to Christchurch Information to amend my SARTIME (Search and Rescue Time), all while trying to keep ahead of the aircraft while flying into unfamiliar territory!


This flight: 2.7 Dual
Total Hours: 98.0 (73.4 Dual, 24.6 PinC, 5.1 IFR)