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 rather than fly with an 'outdated' AIP, I elected to return home and get them, which meant I was running around 1/2 hour late...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)

Magic Plastic

I am feeling a little bit conflicted tonight... my body is screaming blue murder as I've just got back from pre-season football training and am hurting like a hurty thing, but my brain is screaming with delight and doing cartwheels with glee...

The magic piece of plastic has finally arrived! That's right boys and girls... my licence arrived in the mail today! Wooooohoooo!



I am so stoked that it has finally arrived, and I am now officially a licensed Pilot. All I need to do now is convince someone to come flying with me :)

My Mum and Dad are coming up this way at Easter... and traditionally my Mum is supposed to be my first passenger... so hopefully I can hold out for 3 more weeks! Hopefully I will finish my 172 Type Rating this weekend, so I will be able to take M+D and jade for a tiki tour around the city or something...

Good things come to those who wait

So the MoJ finally decided to send me my criminal history... they actually received it on January 9th. The letter stating that I had no criminal history was dated February 13th... and I got it on the 15th. So it only took 5 weeks in the end... jade tells me I should be thankful, some of the employees she has hired had to wait like 6 to 8 weeks for theirs! yikes!

So I got all the paperwork sorted with the flight examiner on Sunday, so it should have been sent off on Monday. He has asked me to note how long it takes for the license to be issued and let him know. Apparently, in today's post 11/9 world, the CAA want to talk to Interpol, the FBI, CIA, NSA, SIS, MI-6, KGB, DGSE, GSG-9, ABC and XYZ ;) to make sure that I am not a terrorist hell bent on flying my 152 into the tallest building I can find.

He has told me to expect it to take around 3 weeks. *sigh* I really want to take some friends flying, but until I have the piece of plastic, I am stuck being 'Captain Solo'.

So in preparation, I think I will just get a 172 rating, so that when I finally do get a license I can take 2 or 3 people at once, rather than 1 at a time in the 152. I also found out that DXJ has finished it's engine run-in, so is now available for flight training and is cleared for ab-initio pilots (unlike DXP which is minimum 100hrs PinC) for insurance purposes.

Sunday was not a complete write-off though... one of the other club members was getting current in the 182, and needed a check flight at all up weight. I am very good at being ballast ;) so I jumped at the chance to tag along for the ride. Got to test my headset out at the same time against a different intercom system and 3 other headsets and it was fine.

Then after getting current Nathan decided to go for a city scenic.

I have not flown over the city except in heavy jets making an approach for Auckland International, and it was a nice day so I was more than happy to sit in the back.

We took off, departed from the circuit on the downwind leg and headed towards Musik Point via Brookby.

Once at Musik Point we flew up the harbour, then circled around the Sky Tower before heading out to Waiheke.

Around Waiheke and back to Ardmore. A nice little 40 minute joyride... fabulous!

The longest day...

Waiting... waiting... waiting...

8 years, 5 months, 24 days to be precise. That was the time from my first logged flight (August 11th 1999) to my PPL flight test (3rd February 2008) and in that time I racked up:

• 90 flights...


• in 15 different aircraft...


• totalling 88.8 hours...


• and 284 landings[1]

and what do I have to show for it? A handshake and a 'Congratulations' from the flight examiner :)

Yesterday was quite possibly one of the longest days of my life. After spending most of saturday evening doing my last minute prep and making sure I had all my documents in order, I found I was so excited I could barely sleep. In fact, I did not dose off until after midnight and I awoke around 6:30am.

After tossing and turning for an hour or so, I finally gave up and had a shower, triple-checked that I had everything and then headed out to the airfield.

Of course, no other idiot was stupid enough to be at the flying club at 9am, so it was all locked up. I just sat at one of the outdoor tables watching the early morning circuit bashers and doing some last minute study of the flight manual.

A couple of other people showed up, so I started ringing people to find someone with a key. A keyholder finally arrived around 10am, which meant I got to sit inside and be anxious instead of sitting outside and being anxious ;)

The flight examiner, John, arrived soon after, but had a lot of paperwork and some other business to attend to first. So I waited.

Around 11:15, I commenced the ground work portion (doing flight plan, weight & balance etc.) and thanks to a practice run on Saturday and my paper work prep the night before I had finished in about 25-30 minutes... you get 1 hour. I went to tell John, but he was busy doing an Instructor Renewal so he told me to go and get a coffee. So I waited.

During this time, the cloud turned nasty, it rained... it started to fine up... it started to shower again... you know, typical Auckland "4 seasons in one day" weather.

A couple of flights came back saying "cloud base and weather down to minimums"... so I thought it was over, but John said "we'll wait and see". So I waited.

He went and did the instructor renewal flight and came back and said the weather was not too bad so if we leave it a little bit and work through the paperwork it should be good to go. So I waited.

It rained.

So John decides he'll head back into town to go pick up his father and come back and drop him off at the Warbirds association for a beer... he'll be back in 30 minutes. So I waited.

He arrived back and said "Ready to go?" so I preflighted the aircraft (I had already done this earlier, but he wanted to watch how I did it) and we strapped ourselves and went. I made sure I verbalised everything that I was doing and worked through my checks thoroughly.

We taxied out at 5:30pm... and I was still feeling excited, nervous and amped despite being up for nearly 12 hours.

The next 1.1 hours were a bit of a blur... climb out, head down towards the training area via Drury, steep turn left, steep turn right, basic stall, fully developed stall, power-on stall, compass turns, forced landing, EFATO, bad weather/low flying, medium turn left, medium turn right, steep turn left, steep turn right, head back to the field for some circuits.

Rain showers sweeping across the field made it interesting, as did the light twin behind me doing asymmetric circuits, but it's his responsibility to get his spacing right so I was not too concerned with what he was doing.

So we did a normal circuit (I did a go-around because I was high and not happy with the approach), a flapless (demonstrating crosswind technique for John, not easy when the wind is calm!), another normal (with a go-around at about 10 feet!) and then a shortfield approach to finish (55kts all the way down final and totally nailed it!)

Taxied back to the club, parked up and ran through the shutdown checks at which point John smiled at me, then offered his hand and said 'Congratulations'. I thanked him and we chatted for a minute about a couple of things (my first go-around and my apparent reluctance to use full flaps) and then he asked if I minded securing the aircraft on my own. It was still raining and he obviously didn't want to get soaking wet, but I could have cared less...

Being the "professional" pilot that I am, I waited until he had climbed out and disappeared back into the clubhouse before celebrating my success... but I'm sure everyone inside heard me ;)

So I worked through the paperwork, then got out and secured the aircraft (the rain was actually quite refreshing) and headed inside to a dead quiet clubhouse before everyone burst in applause and congratulations.

My wallet ended up a little lighter after the bar shout and a nice cold Monteiths Summer Ale (in honour of the lovely summery weather), but the nothing could get the stupid grin off my face... It's still there today and probably will be for the next week or three :)

Then I had dinner with the in-laws (which became an impromptu celebratory dinner) and headed home. I had been planning on cracking open a bottle of Wild Turkey that a friend gave me for xmas, but by 10:30pm, I had been up for around 16 hours with about 4 hours of sleep before that... so as you can imagine I crashed pretty hard! ;)

And then irony of irony's... today is beautiful blue skies and bright sunshine... much like the 3 weeks of perfect weather before my flight test... Typical!

Anyway, I still have some paperwork to tidy up (Fit and Proper Person) before CAA will issue my license... and I cannot exercise my PPL privileges before I am in possession of the plastic license, but for all intents and purposes, I am a qualified Private Pilot (Aeroplane).

Now I just need to do my cross countries to lift the restriction... and get a 172 rating... and get a cherokee rating... and get a night rating... and get an aerobatics rating... and get a taildragger rating... and......... ;)


This flight: 1.1 PinC (Pilot in Command)
Total Hours: 88.8 (68.0 Dual, 20.8 PinC, 5.1 IFR)

[1] in case you're wondering how 90 flights ended in 284 landings, when you're doing circuits you do several landings per flight ;)