Saturday dawned a nice clear blue... so it looked like my day trip to Pauanui (NZUN) would be a go. The plan was for me to help fly some of Joseph's friends over to Pauanui for a 'Hens Day' around 10am and then we'd head back around 3pm-ish... He had already reserved LMA (grrr! ;), so I was to be using DJU.
Everything was looking good, pre-flight OK, weather looking great etc... Right up until I went to take DJU for a couple of quick circuits before my passengers arrived.
I had wanted to warm up the aircraft and get the run-up's done, so when I had the passengers on board, we would not be sitting on the ground in the sun for too long, as it was already pushing 22 degrees at 9am!
Anyway, during pre-start I went to prime the engine and the little ring on the front of the panel, that the primer locks into, popped out and the entire primer barrel came loose :(
I called our maintenance controller and he arranged for one of the engineers to pop over and have a look. It turns out that the locking nut on the back of the panel had come loose, so after the assembly was all screwed back together tightly and double-checked I was good to go. Phew!
By the time I got back, Joseph was finishing the pre-flight safety briefing... so we loaded the girls and their baggage into the 2 aircraft and taxiied out to 21. It was a little bumpy until we cleared the coast and headed for the Coromandel and then it was a nice smooth ride. I saw the warbirds DC3 doing some 'interesting' maneuvers out over the firth... Definitely not a standard scenic flight! :P
We cruised overhead Coromandel in 'semi-formation' and then tracked down the eastern side of the peninsula to Pauanui... I joined overhead as I wanted to scope the place out as I had never been before and just wanted to double-check the windsocks at either end of the strip as I have heard they can often indicate completely different things! Thankfully they were not, and I setup for a nice right-hand circuit for 23 and landed without too much incident, although there was some nice thermal activity as we crossed over the beach.
The girls headed off to the beach to get their fill of sun and sand while we secured the aircraft and headed off to the local shops to get something to eat (Pro Tip #1: Pork and Apple pie from the Pauanui Bakery = WIN!).
After filling up (Pro Tip #2: Yo-Yo's from the Pauanui Bakery = DOUBLE WIN!) we wandered along beach to the surf life saving club and found a nice spot in the shade to relax... Joseph attempted to do some study for his Met exam and I did my best to distract him with aimless chat about flying, Pauanui, life in general etc. as we chilled out waiting for the girls to get bored...
About the time we first started walking along the beach, the sea-breezes I had been expecting had started. Indeed, the windsocks at either end of the strip were pointing in different directions! We saw a couple of aircraft come in with what must have been 10-15kt tailwinds... and, somewhat belatedly in one case, execute missed approaches. There really is something to be said for joining overhead at unattended aerodromes and checking out conditions before attempting to land!
On this trip I was a bit busy flying the aircraft to play shutterbug, so all I got was some snaps of the bay while relaxing in the shade after lunch. The quality is pretty crappy as it was taken using a cellphone, but I managed to photoshop them into a pretty reasonable panorama (as long as you don't zoom in too much!)
Late afternoon we headed back to Auckland and took the girls on a quick city scenic over Waiheke, Rangitoto, around Sky Tower and then out over One Tree Hill so they could find their house!
It really was a great start to the weekend... another new aerodrome to add to my list. I think I am in love with Pauanui... It was so peaceful and quiet, I will definitely be heading back there again before the summer is over and a 30 to 40 minute flight has to be better than a 3 hour drive right? ;)
This flight: 0.5 PinC + 1.7 PinC
Total Hours: 166.8 (78.9/67.5 Day, 8.6/11.8 Night, 7.0 IFR)
