Things that don't suck...

1. Broken Vacuum Pumps


2. Getting released from Jury Service on the first morning


3. Large High Pressure weather systems covering the country in blue skies and sunshine

On Sunday, I had been planning a dual cross country with Trevor. Everything was looking good until about 1/2 an hour into the flight. We were overhead Lake Waikere, about 5 miles east of Huntly and noticed that the AH had fallen over. Thats when I noticed the Suction Gauge was reading right off the top end of the meter. Just as I said to Trevor "I wonder how long until the DI plays up?", The DI started doing it's best impression of a roulette wheel. Technically, an AH and a DI are not required for VFR flight, but seeing as we were so close to home, I decided to abort the flight and returned to Ardmore.

Monday, was the beginning of Jury Service... I was actually kind of keen (read as: curious) to go along and see what it was all about. So I headed down to the courthouse on Monday and sat in a room with about 100 or so others (most of whom were just interested in when they could go home).

After an hour or so, they did the 'lottery' and called up a whole bunch of people and sent them off to the various courtrooms... The rest of us sat around for another hour or so at which point they did another lottery for a trial that was due to start on Wednesday and then told everyone else they could go...

Seeing as how I had already arranged for most of the week off and the weather for the next couple of days was looking pretty good, I called my boss and asked if I could have Tuesday and Wednesday as annual leave.

So instead of debating guilt or innocence, I spent the week flying :)

Trevor was unable to get Tuesday off work, so I headed off for another Solo cross country. This time, I headed up North, hoping it might be a little warmer up there... I was wrong :(

Cold, frosty start
AR - WR - KK - KT - o/h WP - AR
I had planned for Ardmore (NZAR) - Whangarei (NZWR) - Kerikeri (NZKK) - Kaitaia (NZKT) - Ardmore (NZAR). The winds were a bit shifty at Whangarei, and even with full flap and power at idle, I was only descending at about 100' per minute! The end result was that I ended up high and executed a go-around. The next approach was much better and I got in with no trouble. I taxied back to the holding point and departed for Kerikeri. It was as quiet as always at Kerikeri, so I filled up with avgas, paid my landing fee in the Honesty Box and headed for Kaitaia.

Welcome to the Bay of Islands!
Tiger Country!
I noted on arrival in Kaitaia that the aircraft seemed to be burning a lot more fuel that it should be... I filled up again and made a mental note to check this with Chris when I got back to Ardmore. As it turns out, the dipstick was calibrated incorrectly (it was under-reading by about 5 litres), so I actually had more fuel than I thought.

Kaitaia Airport
Kaipara Harbour at 4500', Nice and smooth but hazy
Following a suggestion that Chris had made before I left, after departing Kaitaia, I amended my flightplan to fly down the Kaipara Harbour and overhead the airforce base at Whenuapai (NZWP) and cut across their control zone back to the city. Some new airspace for me, and a slightly different perspective of the Harbour Bridge and CBD :)

Cleared to overfly the tower, 2500' VFR, Juliet Foxtrot Yankee
Approaching the Harbour Bridge from the west
Overhead the Harbour Bridge - Awesome weather
The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful. Ardmore was actually pretty quiet for a change. Usually about 10 aircraft all arrive at the same time that I do! I secured the aircraft and went to have a well earned beer ;)

The trusty steed - JFY

Flights: 1.0 Dual + 4.3 Solo (295 nm)
Total Hours: 205.3 (88.2/92.8 Day, 8.6/15.7 Night, 7.2 IFR)

Upstairs, Downstairs

The atmosphere is truly a strange and bizarre place...

Take today for instance, downstairs on the ground it was light and variable winds, while upstairs at 2000' it was 30+ knots!!

I was somewhat apprehensive, given some of the forecasts were for 45 to 50knots, and some of the terrain on my planned route was "less than flat" ;) But given that the skies were clear and this is CPL level you cannot let a little bit of wind stop you!

I had flight planned for Ardmore (NZAR) - Tauranga (NZTG) - Taumarunui (NZTM) - Raglan (NZRA) - Ardmore (NZAR), a nice little 265 nautical mile route that was a bit of a mix of new and old.

The flight out to Tauranga was fairly uneventful and relatively smooth until crossing the Coromandel Ranges where, as expected, the southerly winds were generating some turbulence. I met a student from CTC, also on a solo cross country, at the fuel pumps and we traded some small talk about the cold weather and how annoying leaky cabin air vents are when you're trying to keep warm at 3500'! ;)

Clear and smooth
I tanked up just in case there was no fuel at Taumarunui and made ready for departure. Despite there being a quite a few arrivals and departures, everything was flowing pretty well so I didn't have much of a wait and was cleared ontrack to Taumarunui (yay, no complicated departure procedure).

The leg to Taumarunui was a little more interesting than the first one to Tauranga. At one point I swear JFY was moving left, up, right and down all at the same time! The lenticular cloud forming over the central mountains was a fairly good indication that the forecast winds had indeed arrived... as was the concrete mixer like flying conditions! :-/

The terrain was also more 'interesting'... a series of deep gullies with very steep sides and large sections of almost perfectly flat land between. As opposed to the normal 'rough' terrain that appears to be sharp ridges rising up, this looked like large areas of earth had been scooped out.

A great shot, ruined by turbulence dropping a wing
NZ's answer to the Grand Canyon?
After topping off the tanks again, I finally had a chance to pickup a tail wind as I set course for Raglan. While it made the groundspeed faster, it didn't help all that much with the turbulence ;) Still, the views were kinda cool...

There was a small airforce at Raglan... several Cessna 185 tail draggers, a Cherokee 140, a Fletcher, a Cessna 206 Stationair and a Hughes Helicopter. An RV 'homebuilt' and another Cherokee arrived shortly after I landed. I just hoping everyone wandered over to the camp ground office and paid their $5 landing fee like I did!

Busy busy at Raglan
And then back home... in somewhat record time. I had flightplanned 21 minutes flying at something like 135 knots groundspeed. I had landed, taxiied back to the Airline Flying Club apron and shutdown in 20!!! :-o

In other news, I have reached (exactly) 200 hours total time! :D

CPL here I come...


This Flight: 3.8 Dual (265 nm)
Total Hours: 200.0 (87.2/88.5 Day, 8.6/15.7 Night, 7.2 IFR)

On the clock...

I've taken the plunge and commenced my CPL Cross Country training... I have 12 months to finish it off. Tick Tock... Tick Tock.

Rather than wait for the good weather and a weekend to arrive at the same time, I caught myself a bad case of 'Midweek Altitude Sickness'... Twice! ;) 9 hours over 2 days...

Wednesday and Thursday were ideal VFR flying conditions. A big fat high sitting over the country (Pressure was 1033 over the entire country on Wed!), with clear blue skies and temperatures in single digits.

I went flying with CFI Rob on Wednesday, with the route Ardmore (NZAR) - New Plymouth (NZNP) - Taumarunui (NZTM) - Ardmore (NZAR). I was told to expect a diversion in there somewhere. This turned out to be between New Plymouth and Taumarunui... where I was instructed to fly to Ohakune. It is shown on the charts, but not in the AIP. Turns out it is a private strip, owned by CFI Rob's 2nd Cousin, who owns one of the Ski shops in Ohakune.

A very interesting little one-way strip with a curved approach, sitting at 2000' AMSL. Good fun!

I was concentrating on height and heading holding, and over all I think I did a good job. During the debrief Rob said flying-wise there was not too much to be concerned about, but I needed to improve the efficiency of my ground work, as you only get 1 hour once given the route to flight plan and pre-flight. I took about probably about 1hour 10mins... No real drama's, just a little out of practise.

During the flight itself, Rob emphasised the things they were looking for in 'professional' pilots... constantly assessing the situation and always planning ahead. The necessity for this became apparent during the diversion when we flew over some real 'tiger' country. Very rugged with large expanses of forest that would just swallow a light aircraft. Being constantly on the lookout for likely landing spots should an emergency arise, while accurately flying, map-reading, being aware of controlled airspace etc... makes for a very busy pilot ;)

Quite a long day at 4.6 hours of flight time, over 300+nm's distance and a shade over 6 hours of 'real' time (7 if you include the groundwork).

During the debrief, he asked when I would be interested in doing a solo flight. I told him I already had the aircraft booked for the following day!

So on Thursday, I got up and did it all over again... only on my own and without the diversion. I decided on another 300+nm flight, as it is a requirement for a C-Cat, so will help out later on. Rob (and Trevor) suggested Gisborne, and while it sounded like fun, I didn't fancy spending 2+ hrs flying back on a westerly heading directly into the sun. So, I flight planned for Ardmore (NZAR) - Whakatane (NZWK) - Opotiki (NZOP) - Taupo (NZAP) - Raglan (NZRA) - Ardmore (NZAR), which is just over 320nms. I checked the weather, and it looked like I was going to fly a large circle around a huge patch of fog covering most of the Waikato and north of the Central Plateau. Which, as you can see from the pics below, I did!

I ended up delayed a little, due to the severe ice buildup on the aircraft overnight and a minor "technical difficulty" (read as: Engineers taking aircraft for a compass swing), but other than that it was a great day.

Please excuse the photo-quality, I was sure I'd be too busy flying the aircraft to be fluffing about taking photos, so I didn't bother taking a camera. However, the views were just too good not too, so they're off my cellphone. They really don't do do justice to the stunning sights to be had around our country!

Overhead the southern end of the Hunua Valley, looking south towards Lake Waikare and Huntly.

Tauranga and the Mount... looking pleasant as always

Whakatane was it's usual deserted self... and despite the "Variable 5knots" winds, it still managed a nice crosswind :). I soon, after about 5 minutes of looking, discovered that they've moved the landing fee honesty box. It's now tucked away in the airside entrance to the terminal building.

Opotiki was much nicer than my previous visit. And my approach and landing was about a million times better!

The 'Cloud Factories' north of Taupo

Taupo was busy with helicopters in the circuit, about 3 different sky-diving operations running and various transient aircraft. I thought about stopping here for lunch, but parking space was at a bit of a premium, so I decided to head off after a quick snack (mmmm One Square Meal).

Not going anywhere in a hurry

Notice the fog to the left, clear to the right

Picture Postcard Perfect

Raglan was quiet. REALLY quiet. But the locals are very friendly and after paying my landing fee at the camp office, I asked if there was anywhere close by that I could get a bite to eat and a drink as I needed a break after being couped up in a 152 for 4 hours. The office lady suggested the camp store. So I called the National Briefing Office and added an hour to my SARTIME and went for a look.

Pro-tip of the Day: The camp store at Raglan makes great fish and chips ;)

It was perfect afternoon... blue sky, sunshine, great food and a cold drink...

I thanked the ladies at the store and headed back to the airfield before departing for home, once the people walking their dog across the airstrip were safely out of the way! :-/

Glad I decided against that return trip directly into the sun...

All up, 4.4 Hours flight time and 320+nm's... Much better than sitting at my desk :P Must remember to thank my (very understanding) boss!


Flights: 4.6 Dual (334 nm) + 4.4 PinC Night (326 nm)
Total Hours: 192.5 (83.5/84.7 Day, 8.6/15.7 Night, 7.0 IFR)

Under pressure...

1033 hectopascals to be precise ;)

A (very) high pressure system has been sitting on the country for the last couple of days... and as they pointed out during "Principles of Flight and Performance", High Pressure + Low Temperature = Awesome Performance. So, I figured I was in for a little fun last evening.

I was somewhat un-current at night, so I decided I would take the 152, 172 and Cherokee and do my 3 take-offs and landings. I pre-flighted DJU (the 172) and LMA (the Cherokee) and double checked I had enough gas... which I did. Chris and CFI Rob were taking JBL (the 152) for a quick jolly, so the plan was to go 172, 152 and finish with LMA.

I was under a little time pressure, as the night circuits curfew kicks in at 2230hrs local, but thankfully the circuit was pretty much empty, so I didn't have to worry too much about other aircraft. With the conditions the way they were, DJU leapt off the ground and I struggled to keep the airspeed below 80kts and was still climbing at over 1000' per minute!

I was feeling a little rusty... and the GPS track (yay, the GPS on my new phone + OziExplorer works really well!) kind of bears witness to this.

What a mess...

After taxiing back in, I pre-flighted JBL as Rob and Chris had returned, double-checked I had enough gas, had a quick pitstop and taxied out. I was feeling more comfortable for the 2nd lot of circuits, as the GPS track for that flight shows... Not too shabby if I do say so myself ;)

The way it should be...

And then it was time to take LMA... I was really pushing the curfew cut-off, taking out at 2210, but I snuck in 2 circuits before 2230 and vacated to the city for a quick scenic cruise. After flying up the harbour, I rounded SkyTower, headed out to One Tree Hill and requested (and was given) permission to enter the control zone to overfly NZAA and take a shortcut back to Ardmore.

And then things got interesting as the tower informed me I might have a bit of a hold at Mangere Town due to some departures... unless I wanted to turn left, head east until I crossed the southern motorway and then direct to Ardmore. I was more than happy with that, as I didn't really want to overfly NZAA, I just wanted the shortcut ;)

So I turned east, and enjoyed the slightly different scenery... before realising that I was heading towards my house :) Unfortunately, just as I was nearing the motorway and before I got too close to home, I was advised I could track direct, and as I didn't want to overstay my welcome, I set heading for Ardmore and watched my house slip by the port wing.

Looks like a giant sock puppet!

A most enjoyable evenings flying... and I am now current like a current thing ;)


This flight: 0.5 + 0.5 + 0.8 PinC Night
Total Hours: 179.0 (78.9/76.6 Day, 8.6/14.9 Night, 7.0 IFR)

Optimism pays dividends...

It was looking like another crappy weekend... with a big storm rolling on through. However, it looked like it was going to arrive a little earlier and move fairly quickly, so I had been hoping that Sunday would in fact be a 'Sun Day'...

and it was!

I had been planning on going and doing some flying with Nick in the afternoon, but decided not to waste the conditions, so I I headed out to Ardmore fairly early to get the aircraft pre-flighted and fueled. This turned out to be a great idea, as there were a number of visiting aircraft in town for the Pilot Expo which was putting a strain on the refueling guys. One of the club members had been waiting for an hour for fuel when I got there! So when the tanker finally arrived, I got the guy to fill up my aircraft as well.

I had been keeping an eye on the weather and it was steadily improving so I figured it would be all go for the afternoon. As I was really early, I decided to take ETZ for a few quick circuits to get it warmed up, so when Nick arrived we could get airborne relatively quickly.

I totally messed up the first landing... the conditions in the circuit were a little bumpy due to some blustery winds and mechanical turbulence coming off the terrain to the northwest. My approach was a bit messey, so I ended up high and consequently I was descending quite rapidly and I flared a little late... and a little too much... and proceeded to balloon and then hit a little hard.

The 2nd circuit I opted for a flapless... extended my downwind, and flew by the numbers... everything came together beautifully and I greased it onto the runway.

The 3rd and final I tried for a short-field approach. I flew the final leg at 60kts all the way down (theoretically the approach speed should be 54, but I was carrying extra speed due to the gusty conditions). I managed to be 50ft over the threshold and still get it down and stopped (without excessive braking) by taxiway Bravo. A landing roll of maybe 150 to 200metres, so I was pretty happy, especially given the wind conditions.

I taxied back and waited for Nick to arrive... only to get a text message saying he had been called into work and wouldn't be coming. So I decided to solo. Grabbed the weather for the far north which looked decent. Put in a flight plan to overhead Dargaville then on to Kerikeri, Whangarei and back to Ardmore. Double-checked the fuel onboard and then grabbed my gear and headed off.

Flying across the harbour to Rangitoto and the VFR transit lane by Whenuapai I was dodging aircraft left right and centre... seems everyone was doing city scenic flights! After that I saw a grand total of about 4 aircraft the rest of the flight, until I got back into the circuit at Ardmore.

Once I reached the far edge of the Whenuapai Control Zone I set course for Dargaville and climbed up to 2500' for the cruise north. It was a little bumpy so I tried 3000' and it was a lot smoother.

I also got a chance to test out the GPS on my phone after having spent ages getting the aeronautical charts loaded. It seemed to work really well. My reckoned position on my paper chart matched up pretty well with the GPS, and the actual location. The only issues I had were that it was giving bearings in degrees True. Which is problematic when you're navigating using a magnetic compass and a DI aligned to the magnetic compass ;) Not a huge problem... just have to allow the -20 or so degrees for magnetic variation. The other issue was that the phone battery died after around 3 hours... into a 3.5 hour flight! Might have to see if the cigarette lighter is compatible with the cigarette lighter charger I have... or go on shorter flights :P

Overheading Dargaville, I set course for Kerikeri and flew over some real tiger country. Some 2500' ranges and dense forests. A little unnerving and somewhat bumpy in spots. I found Kerikeri pretty easily and landed without incident and taxied to the pumps to fill up.

Heading back south at Whangarei, I thought I was going to run into some issues with myself, a parachute jump plane and one of the EagleAir Beech 1900's all arriving at the same time, but thankfully being in the little slow 152 meant I was able to sequence in behind everyone else pretty nicely without any hassles. The weather off to the east of Whangarei looked pretty bad... some massive cloud development and lots of rain. However it stayed where it was and I was able to touch and go and set heading for Ardmore without getting anywhere near it.

I made it back without further incident and managed to slot into the traffic pattern without too much hassle. Just a 172 from AFS that was overheading at the same time I was joining non-traffic side. Again, as I knew he would be faster than me, I just slowed up a little to get the spacing right and it all worked out pretty well.

If you look closely, you can see where the GPS died

A nice little afternoon jaunt, another 3.4 hours of cross-country time and another little personal milestone...

I now have more PinC time (89.7) than Dual time (87.5) ;)


This flight: 0.4 + 3.4 PinC
Total Hours: 177.2 (78.9/76.6 Day, 8.6/13.1 Night, 7.0 IFR)

The (not so) Far North

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

Answer: in a Cessna 152 of course!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Hokianga Harbour


Most random shot of the day


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


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

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

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

Sunset on the Kaipara Harbour



Auckland CBD by Twilight



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

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


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

101 Not Out

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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



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

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

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



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

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





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

Two for Two!

I can not believe it... 2 fine days in a row! I cannot remember the last weekend when both Saturday and Sunday were flyable...

Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, I headed out to Ardmore with no real plan other than wanting to go flying.

I had been thinking about heading down to Hamilton to play in the control zone, or perhaps Tauranga for the same, when Trevor suggested I might like to go over to Great Barrier Island for a look.

Sounded like a great idea, so I pre-flighted the club cherokee 180, LMA, plotted a course for the main airfield at Great Barrier (Claris) and strapped in. Unfortunately, our club has rules about being "checked out" on certain airfields, including Great Barrier. As, the field can be a little tricky depending on which way the wind is blowing, coupled with the fact that it has a fairly narrow seal strip and some rather high terrain at one end, you need to be on your game when going in there. The CFI is determined that Airline Flying Club will remain incident free and prefers students to get a briefing and a check ride when going to some of the more 'interesting' strips. This meant it was just going to be an overhead, but as Trevor said "Landing and taking off again just uses up gas, tyres and time" :)

In any case, it was an absolutely gorgeous day over the gulf. Pretty much clear skies and unlimited visibility and a slight tailwind made for a nice smooth cruise out to Great Barrier. It has some spectacular scenery, and I have already made informal arrangements to get checked out so I can go back and land this time.

The 'slight' tailwind made things a little interesting when flying over the big ridge that runs the length of Great Barrier. The mechanical turbulence was a fun ride :) To be honest, the airfield did not look too threatening... the windsocks showed a fairly steady crosswind across the main strip, so I would have opted for the shorter, grass cross-runway if I had been intending to land.

After a quick orbit overhead the field, I decided to head back to Ardmore as Trevor had a trial flight booked at 1600 and needed to get back to prepare the briefing. A relatively uneventful flight back, cruising at 4500', enjoying the wonderful scenery of the Hauraki Gulf.

I also got a good look at the 'Colville Gap', near the northern tip of the Coromandel Peninsula, that Chris, one of the instructors, had previously suggested as an alternative route around the Coromandel, when the cloud gets low and the Waihi Gap is unsuitable.

A most enjoyable way to spend a sunny Sunday afternoon. I believe Trevor has some video (he was testing the battery in his camera), so I'll post it up when I get a copy of it.


This flight: 1.4 PinC
Total Hours: 137.8 (78.9/47.6 Day, 4.9/6.4 Night, 5.1 IFR)

Old territory

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

3rd time's a charm...

Finally made it to Taupo... and my "World Tour" of NZ finally got underway on the 3rd attempt.

Woke up yesterday morning, to some severe blue skies and a nice crunchy frost. Headed out to the field just before 0800 to pre-flight JFY and flight plan for Ardmore - Taupo - Rotorua - Tauranga - Ardmore (AR-AP-RO-TG-AR).



After taking care of the paperwork and filing a VFR flight plan, Nick and I strapped in and I ran through my checks. Despite not moving for almost 2 months, good old JFY started up first time and showed no real issues during run-ups etc.

However, things changed after take-off and heading out into the clear blue skies... I had called up Christchurch Control to get clearance into controlled airspace up to 6500', so I could just cruise along at high level and avoid the bumpy conditions down low.

Unfortunately, the transponder decided to play silly buggers... "JFY, can you please confirm your transponder code is 0334"... "Affirm, JFY"... "JFY, ok, can you squawk ident"... "Squawking Ident, JFY"... "Ok, I have you squawking 7344"... "Standby, JFY"... much fiddling with transponder dials later... "Now, I have you squawking 4342, try one of my sector codes 4000"... some more twiddling... "Ok, now I have you showing 7010"... more dial fiddling... "Ok, I now have you idented with 4000, cleared to climb to 4500', VFR direct to Taupo, expect further instructions"... "Climb 4500', direct to Taupo, JFY".

We eventually got cleared up to 6500' and flew over Hamilton and headed down towards Taupo without further incident. The view was pretty spectacular, pretty much no cloud and soon the mountains were clearly visible and looking postcard perfect all covered in snow.

We parked up at Taupo, gassed the tanks, paid the horrendous landing fee ($4.50 ;) at the honesty box and went to get some lunch at the cafe. Watched the parachuting (including one guy who I think was about to go up for a jump... he looked as white as a sheet and was doing some deep breathing and meditating! hahahah), the crazy jump plane pilots descending from 11000' in about 3 1/2 minutes (do the math!) and getting on the ground almost before the parachutists and a couple of AirNZ Link Beech 1900D's arrive and depart.

We had been considering a bit of a tiki tour down to the mountains for some photos, but the weather looked like it was starting to arrive from the south, and with the fairly solid 20-25kt wind, we figured it would be a fairly unpleasant experience, so decided to just continue on our way and head for Rotovegas.

Nick commented that the easy part was behind us... and boy was he right! Taupo to Rotorua is only about 15 minutes... and Rotorua to Tauranga is not much more... you get very busy, very quickly!

While we were on the ground, I had checked with the National Briefing Office (NBO), to see if the controller had updated our flight plan with the 4000 transponder code she had given us, as we were a little loathe to play with the transponder anymore. Unfortunately, they had not, so we changed back to 0334... or so we thought.

Heading in to Rotorua, we were informed by the tower, that we were actually squawking 4334. But she had us idented, so was happy for us to continue. We were cleared into the zone at 3500' or below and to report again at the green lakes. I had initially asked for a Touch and Go and then onward to Tauranga, but given the continuing issues with the transponder, we thought it wise to just head straight back to Ardmore, so I informed the tower that I was going to amend my flight plan. At which point she informed us that we were now showing the correct code of 0334!! Nick and I looked at each other and asked "did you touch it???"

Seeing as how it appeared to be working, I decided to go ahead and continue on to Tauranga. Which proved to be an interesting decision, as the controller there was juggling about 7 aircraft all arriving from different directions... and 2 gliders!

Luckily though, Tauranga has published VFR arrival and departure procedures... which makes radio calls nice and simple... "JFY, cleared for a Papamoa One Arrival", "Cleared Papamoa One Arrival, JFY"... "JFY, cleared Matakana One Departure, Right Turn approved", "Cleared Matakana One Departure, JFY". It also makes it easy to plan and brief your arrival beforehand, which helps lighten the load a little.

So, despite there being a ton of traffic, things flowed pretty well. Nick was getting a little anxious (and constantly reminding me) that we were short final without clearance, but having 'grown up' flying at a controlled aerodrome (Palmerston North, NZPM), you get used to the controllers doing things last minute... I once got cleared to land when I was only about 3ft off the ground!

So we were in and out of Tauranga pretty quickly (next time I think I'll execute a missed approach to avoid the $24.50 landing charge!!!!) and tracking along the coast towards Waihi. Then it was through the Waihi Gap, across the plains and Firth of Thames and back to Ardmore without further incident.

The first thing I did after landing was terminate my flight plan and the first thing I did after shutting down the aircraft was to write up the transponder issue in the Defect Log.

Here you can see the planned route (in red) vs. the actual route (in blue):

Nick took some photos along the way, so if any of them come out looking halfway decent, I'll post them up.

All in all, a great days flying... which was a huge relief after only getting 3 flights in June and only 2 flights in July due to all the crappy weather!


This flight: 3.6 PinC
Total Hours: 133.5 (78.9/43.3 Day, 4.9/6.4 Night, 5.1 IFR)

Long weekend

Friday (ANZAC Day) looked like it was going to be the only 'flyable' day given the forecasts, so I headed out to NZAR on a bit of a whim and decided to go and do some 'revision' in a 152...

I am very glad I did, it was so smooth and still that I was running over my own wake doing medium turns!

So I did the basic stuff - medium turns, steep turns (need to work on the right hand turns a bit more!), basic stalls, approach stalls, FLWOP (was very happy with this), Overhead Join, Go-Around (more on this below), Shortfield Landing...

All in all, a relatively relaxing and pleasant flight...

except for the itinerant pilot visiting NZAR who:

1. Had not read the NZAR AIP Plates (had to confirm with UNICOM that circuit direction for 03 was right hand)
2. Had no idea how to join at an uncontrolled aerodrome (got talked through an overhead join by UNICOM and another aircraft)
3. Stopped in the middle of the runway and asked for taxi instructions... while I was on short finals! Hence the Go-Around... spoiled a really good shortfield approach :( Here's an idea, taxi off the runway first and then ask! grrrrr

It seems to me that this pilot (who said he was from Christchurch) has spent a lot of time flying in controlled airspace... and is so used to being told what to do and when to do it, that he is a little lost in an uncontrolled environment... He even asked UNICOM for permission to cross the runway when taxiing.

I guess another way to look at it, is that he was unsure so he did ask for help... as opposed to blindly flying into a busy aerodrome and making it up as he went along. Which should be commended.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying this guy is a crap pilot or bagging him out, if anything I blame his training establishment for not preparing the guy properly. Just as lots of guys from Ardmore struggle when introduced to the controlled environment, eg. flying to Hamilton, it would appear that pilots who have spent most of their time in a controlled environment struggle when they are left to fend for themselves in an uncontrolled environment.

Saturday was a little marginal, but I decided to take JBL for a blat to work some of the 'run in' hours off... the new engine requires 25 hours at high power to bed it in... so you have to fly everywhere at full power... which makes the approach and landing a little interesting :)

jade had taken me out to Karioitahi Beach on Friday morning to show me where she went for her team building last week, so I decided I'd fly out to Port Waikato and then up the coast to Karioitahi for a bit of a look from the air, as I could stay clear of airspace... beautiful place (no cellphone reception! :) I reckon I could live out there quite happily... although it is a bit of a drive to Ardmore! ;)

On the way back I was orbiting over Pukekohe, watching some cars going round the racetrack... and had a laugh as one of them went off the end of the back straight and into the gravel trap!

Heading back I was hoping that no-one else was stupid enough to be flying so I could join straight in so I would not have to come in on low power... thankfully only 2 other aircraft were in the circuit, so I came straight in. Was a fairly messy approach given that I was doing 80 or 90 kts, but I got it on the ground well enough.

Sunday I went to Hamilton with Trevor... I had been hoping to get a ride in a real aircraft, but unfortunately the ADF in the cherokee he is planning on using for his instrument flight test was out of action... that and the weather report mentioned isolated and embedded CB's... not the sort of weather to be out and about in... so we ended up in the Sim again...


This flight: 1.1 PinC (Fri), 1.0 PinC (Sat)
Total Hours: 119.4 (77.5/33.8 Day, 3.9/4.2 Night, 5.1 IFR)

Adding to the collection

Climbed behind the controls of a Piper Cherokee (PA-28) for the first time in almost 8 years today...

And it was fantastic... this particular aircraft (ZK-LMA) was a very tidy specimen of the 180HP variety... with 3 people on-board that could afford to miss the odd meal or three, it was still climbing at over 500' per minute while maintaining 80kts! When I took it solo I was getting over 1000' per minute!!!

LMA is a lovely (if somewhat expensive) aircraft to fly... and I will certainly be racking up a few more hours in it now that I am officially rated in it and approved to fly it.

So I now have C-152, C-172 and PA-28 ratings... that will pretty much cover the world in terms of aircraft, meaning that I should be able to go almost anyway and find something that I can fly...

In addition to the Type Rating, I was also able to provide Trevor with the 1.4 hours that finally took him over the 100 hours required of 'direct' supervision on his C-Cat... well done mate!

now about that remaining 65.1 hours PinC time required for my CPL ;)

On another note, I spent yesterday in Hamilton watching Trevor get put through the wringer in the Sim as part of his prep for an instrument rating... although I was actually able to follow along fairly well this time, I can tell I have a LOT still to learn... am hoping to tag along next week while he's doing the same thing but in a real aircraft :)


This flight: 1.4 Dual + 0.5 PinC
Total Hours: 116.3 (77.5/31.7 Day, 3.9/3.2 Night, 5.1 IFR)

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)

Circuit Groping?

Can't really say 'Circuit Bashing'... coz I could not really see it, more like groping in the dark :)

Despite a day of rubbish weather, it came good at just the right time... and once you get up into the circuit and turn the landing light off the view is just amazing... with Auckland City, the Southern Motorway snaking off into the darkness and the stars even came out! Beats me why no-one else is night flying at the moment... the only traffic I had were a couple of light twins returning from some night IFR and one of those was back on the ground while I was doing my run-ups!

My night landings are definitely improving, with just one 'firm' one out of 12... it's amazing how quickly you can get around the circuit with no other traffic around!

I now have the minimum requirements for Night Flying (5 hours with at least 2 dual and 2 solo). All I need to do now is a night city scenic with Rob (including a low approach and overshoot at Auckland International!) and as long as I perform satisfactorily I will be able to get the night restriction lifted!


This flight: 1.2 Solo
Total Hours: 107.1 (73.4 Dual Day, 2.8 Dual Night, 28.7 PinC Day, 2.2 PinC Night, 5.1 IFR)

5th 1st solo

I was not confident my plan to go flying tonight was going to come off... it had been raining all day and the cloud was really low... but by 6:30pm the front had passed through and the lovely sunset was proof the skies were clear...

So the plan was to go up with Trevor and just make sure I had everything sorted and then, assuming it all went ok, I could do a B-Cat check with Rob so I could get signed off for Night Solo's...

Only Rob showed up and said "We'll just go up and then you can do an hour's worth of Solo's"... :)

As the wind had shifted, we were flying off 21... and I taxied out to the run-up area... and discovered that the Left Magneto was running rough... We ran the engine right up and leaned it out to clear the spark plugs which worked a treat and we were off...

It was the first time using runway 21 at night and it was interesting, as the view and reference points were all different. Having advised Rob of this, he was kind enough to point out some really good reference points to use. After some good standard approachs (with and without the landing light) and a decent go-around, Rob said "Ok, make the next one full-stop, not complete... I'll jump out and you can do an hours worth of solo"...

yeah baby! My 5th 1st solo... (1st solo, 2nd - solo 7 years later, 3rd - solo in the training area, 4th - solo cross country)...

So I spent the next hour going round and round... practicing standard & flapless circuits both with and without the landing light... it is amazing the number of circuits you can squeeze into an hour when no-one else is in the circuit to get in your way! ;)

I was a little nervous about the weather for the 1st 30 minutes or so... but then I noticed the stars had come out which meant no clouds :) I still kept an eye out down to the south, but as it turned out, I had nothing to worry about...

And I got possibly my best landing ever... flapless... without the landing light...:D

The first indication that I was on the ground was that I could feel/hear the main wheels rolling... no squeaking rubber, not even the slightest bump... it was silky smooth... I wish they could all be like that!

This flight: 0.6 Dual + 1.0 Solo
Total Hours: 105.9 (73.4 Dual Day, 2.8 Dual Night, 28.7 PinC Day, 1.0 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)

The start of a very busy weekend...

Phew... my calendar seems to have 30hrs of activities booked per day at the moment! Not that I am complaining, because a lot of it is flying :)

Good Bloody Marvelous Friday was... well.... bloody marvelous! First of all, all the shops were shut, so no wandering around shopping malls looking at shoes and handbags etc with jade ;)

Instead, I spent the entire day out at the airfield, with a couple of flights thrown in for good measure. First of all I decided to go and practice in the 172... I had not been 100% happy with my landings and figured that it could not hurt to bash the circuit for an hour or so... I followed that with a very late in the day solo city scenic. I was a little nervous as I had not been into the city on my own, but thankfully it was relatively quiet and the scenery (with the sun low in the sky) was just divine.

I also managed to squeeze in a chat with the CFI about doing my CPL and what that would entail... I had been for my Class 1 medical on the monday and been given a thumbsup from the doc... just waiting on bloodwork results.

This flight: 1.1 Solo + 0.7 Solo
Total Hours: 95.6 (70.7 Dual, 24.9 PinC, 5.1 IFR)

Spreading my wings

We got some great weather this weekend, so decided to get stuck into the cross country work. First up, some map reading exercises... relatively easy, as it is hard to get lost within 25nm of the field, but as the legs are so short, you really have to be on the ball to stay ahead of the aircraft.

Flew from NZAR out to Port Waikato, then headed for Meremere, then tracked over to Kaiaua, up the coast to Orere Point and then over to Kawakawa Bay and up the valley back to NZAR.



You can get really busy reading from map to ground, identifying features to ensure you're on the right track, doing SADIE checks, monitoring fixs, track made good all while trying to stay out of controlled airspace around Auckland International... good fun though and absolutely gorgeous weather.

Had an interesting approach as I have never joined straight in for long final before (I usually join overhead, downwind or base)... it is a little hard to judge the decent without the usual references and was compounded by giving way to an AFS 172 that was actually flying a pretty tight circuit (wtf is up with that!??! ;) who I had to give way to... no real drama, I just switched to the grass... unfortunately, the late change meant a rather messy approach and we were a little fast and floated a way...

When I went up later and did the same exercise solo, I just joined for the grass to avoid and conflicts and totally nailed the shortfield landing... 54 knots on the threshold and I totally greased it... the plane just rolled onto the grass without any kind of bump and did not even bounce. I was stopped and off the strip by the 2nd set of marker boards even though I could not brake heavily due surface conditions! :)

Days like today, are they reason I took up flying... I really wish I had a video camera hooked up to my eyes, so when people ask 'Why do you fly?' I could just show them the video :)

Next up is a 'proper' cross country from Ardmore to Hamilton to Tauranga to Thames and then back to Ardmore... can't wait!

This flight: 1.1 Dual + 1.1 Solo
Total Hours: 93.8 (70.7 Dual, 23.1 PinC, 5.1 IFR)

Rated '172' - contains coarse language

Finished off my type rating in the 172... did not think it would be flyable today, but mother nature is a very curious creature ;)

The cloudbase was up around 1500' so plenty of room for circuits, so I headed out to NZAR, pre-flighted DXJ, found a couple of 'willing' participants to sit in the back seat for a couple of circuits and off we went...

The first landing was a little bouncy... but the 2nd was ok, so Trevor said he was happy and I could either park up or head up for some solo work. So, I dropped everyone off on the taxiway and headed back up for some solo circuits :)

Unfortunately the cloud was really starting to roll in, and other aircraft were running back in from the training area at 1300' so I only got one circuits before I had to call it quits.

I parked up and headed inside to finish off the paperwork and then being the optimistic sort that I am, I hung around talking bollocks hoping for the weather to improve... which it finally did after lunch and I managed to get a good hours worth of solo circuits... fantastic!

So I am now rated on the 172 and looking forward to getting stuck into some cross country work... I just hope we get some nice weekend weather for a change!

But as someone at the club said to me today "Do you know what Aucklanders call a day of blue skies and sunshine after 2 days of wind and rain?.... Monday!" :P


This flight: 0.3 Dual + 0.2 Solo + 1.0 Solo
Total Hours: 91.6 (69.6 Dual, 22.0 PinC, 5.1 IFR)

Long Weekend...

Lovely sunny day to start the long weekend... an hours worth of solo to practice my forced landings... nailed them. So thought some stalling practice would be good, until I did my clearing turn and saw a 172 heading straight at me... have no idea what frequency he was on, but he either had not heard my position report or just did not care.

So I headed back to NZAR to do some circuits... as fifteen thousand other planes had the same thought! hahaha... 3 of us trying to join overhead together, but luckily it worked out well and everyone was able to slot in fine.

Unfortunately the winds were a little tricky today... it was effectively at right angles, only 8 or 9 knots so nothing horrible like last weekend, but it was swinging through around 50 or 60 degrees so the occasional tail wind on landing...

Then after a break, I went up with Trevor to demonstrate my forced landing, then a precautionary and back to NZAR. A nice steady crosswind meant it was a perfect opportunity to demonstrate my crosswind landing technique and I nailed it!

If I can find a free B-Cat instructor tomorrow and do a solid check flight, I should be able to book my actual flight test for next week! woohoo!

This flight: 1.2 Solo + 1.1 Dual
Total Hours: 86.7 (67.0 Dual, 19.7 Solo, 5.1 IFR)