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)

Prior Experience

So having been checked out to Waiheke the day earlier, I got to put the lessons I had learned with Chris to good use on Saturday, flying some friends for a scenic and then dropping them at Waiheke for an afternoon of cafe's and vineyards before I picked them up and dropped them back at Ardmore.

The weather in the morning was a little marginal, which some low "scungy" cloud hanging around, making it hard to do any real scenic flying, but thankfully it was high enough that we could get into and out of Waiheke without too many issues. The weather had vastly improved in the afternoon, so we able to do some decent scenic flying around the gulf and the Hunua Ranges on the way home.

The wind had picked up in the afternoon, and while the Waiheke procedures state they prefer take-off's and landings to and from the south for noise abatement (ie. we don't want to annoy the neighbours by flying over their homes), I was not comfortable with taking off downhill with a 10 to 12 knot tail wind just to keep the noise down! I know that the 182 is capable of it (having had it demonstrated on another student's check flight to Waiheke a year or so ago), but the safety of the aircraft and those on board come first as far as I'm concerned. As it turned out, with a max performance take-off and the headwind, we were airbourne about halfway up the strip and we were able to easily make a right hand turn once airbourne to pass well clear of any homes to the north of the strip.

A satisfactory outcome for all concerned :)


This Flight: 1.8 PinC
Total Hours: 310.0 (146.0/138.0 Day, 8.6/17.4 Night, 16.1 IFR)

Flying on faith

So I now know what faith is... it's the belief that the little needles on the little dials on the little instrument panel of a little aeroplane is indeed telling the truth.

1.8 hours of "faith" later, and I had literally worked up a sweat... the inside of the instrument hood was dripping :P

Today was ADF approaches. So instead of "comfortably" flying around at 2500' feet flying holds and tracking to and from NDB's, we left the safety of altitude and practised flying approaches to "minimums".

"Non-precision" Instrument Approaches (like NDB approaches) are designed to allow you to fly safely down to fairly low altitudes, as long as you are where you think you are (faith in the instruments)... the idea being that you drop below the cloud base, spot the runway and commence the actual landing part visually.

Flying to minimums basically means that you fly to the lowest altitude allowed and hope you spot the runway before you reached the "missed approach point", at which point if you haven't spotted the runway, you get the hell out of dodge and climb back up to a safe altitude.

As I was simulating instrument flying conditions with the hood on, I never got to see the runway... so every approach resulted in a missed approach, back into the hold and then time to setup for another approach.


And just because I hadn't had enough "fun" for one day, I went for a quick afternoon jolly with Chris over to Waiheke, to get checked out for landing there... the club have a policy whereby members must first fly a dual check flight here due to some interesting quirks that Waiheke has... like the 45 degree offset approach for runway 17 due to noise abatement procedures, this is also complicated by the the fact that the runway has a pretty pronounced downhill slope in this direction, so if the wind is a moderate southerly you are in for a fun ride ;)

Taking off uphill can also be a challenge as it's harder for the aircraft to the necessary airspeed while it's rolling uphill and then you need to outclimb the slope once airbourne...

Thankfully, the 182 has bucketloads of power and eats the strip alive... even with a moderate tailwind landing downhill! ;)

So after doing some p-charts to confirm that we could safely get in and, arguably more importantly, out again... we headed off to Waiheke, completed take-off's and landings in all directions to get a feel for all the approaches and to see that it actually makes more sense sometimes to land with a small tailwind because it's up the hill than to land down the hill with a small headwind!


These Flights: 1.8 Dual (1.4 IFR) + 0.8 Dual
Total Hours: 308.2 (146.0/136.2 Day, 8.6/17.4 Night, 16.1 IFR)

Needles and Racetracks...

This week has been an interesting aviation week... I was "Re-educated" in the use of an E6B by a very knowledgeable instructor... I also learned more about Automatic Direction Finders (ADF's) in 20 minutes in a briefing room with this instructor than from all of the reading I have been doing of instrument rating study guides.

I then proceeded to spend over $1000 flying around in circles... and I didn't even get to enjoy the view!! :P

Yesterday was basic ADF tracking... or "How to make a needle point where it should" ;)

This involved taking off from Ardmore and flying out towards the Surrey and Miranda NDB's (Non-Directional Beacon's) and flying to and from the beacons on various headings as instructed by Instructor Phil... By learning a couple of basic principles, the "smoke and mirrors" of ADF tracking suddenly became a reality...

1. You're not on track if the needle is pointing at the wrong heading


2. The head of the needle "falls" to the tail of the aircraft


3. When tracking "TO" an NDB, to make the needle rotate right, you rotate the aircraft left (and vice versa)


4. When tracking "FROM" an NDB, to make the tail of the needle rotate right, you rotate the aircraft right (and vice versa)


5. If the head of the needle rises, you haven't made enough allowance for wind

Today was ADF holds... or "How to fly nice racetrack patterns in the sky". This lesson built on the basics from yesterday, but threw in some added fun bits, like holding pattern entry procedures (Parallel, Offset and Direct entries)...

I had another student tagging along, who brought along his Garmin 296 GPS, so when we got back I could have a look at my flight path, and while the first couple of holds were a little "wobbly", the steadily got better and better, until I was flying very nice racetracks indeed :)

A very solid 2 hour workout!

Then in prep for our club trip to Taumarunui on Sunday, I went and go current in the 152 this afternoon... with 3 quick circuits in JFY in an almost empty circuit... BLISS!


These Flights: 1.5 Dual (1.2 IFR) + 2.0 Dual (1.6 IFR) + 0.4 PinC
Total Hours: 305.6 (143.4/136.2 Day, 8.6/17.4 Night, 14.7 IFR)

300

No, not a post about Sparta...

I have managed another mini-milestone... 300 Hours Total Time :)

After another weekend of pretty awesome weather, I racked up another 8.1 hours while flying about the countryside which has pushed me to 301.7 Hours...

Saturday was a nice early start and a short hop across the city, over to "Vanilla Pie" (aka Whenuapai) before their airspace got too busy with gliders... at which point we headed for Swanson/Henderson and Waitakere, getting a little too close to the Auckland Control Zone/Area for my liking... I really need to invest in a Garmin 296 so I don't have to rely on guesstimating where the airspace really starts ;)

Sunday was a little less stressful... a nice cruise up north for a looksee around Mangawhai Heads and then onto Whangarei. A quick "recce" around the area before stopping to refuel both aircraft and occupants. As always, the little cafe in the Whangarei Airport Terminal provided some really good food... Choc Fudge Brownies FTW!! ;)

Then it was back into it, covering the area north of the city, around the airfield and along the coast east of the airport.

I would also like to give a big shout out to the Eagle Air pilot's who flew into NZWR on Sunday afternoon, they're very accomodating to us folk in the lighties... despite me offering to hold early downwind so as not to get in her way, the pleasant voice on the radio told me to go ahead and she'd slow down her approach :) And later, when we were flying around north of the city, I heard another approaching Eagle Air Beech 1900D pilot let a 172 from Ardmore Flying School in ahead of him...

Then it was home for "Tea, Buns and Medals" as Mel says... personally, I had a beer ;)

In other news, I finally got around to rewarding myself for getting the CPL. I purchased a Lightspeed Zulu headset... OMG, this thing is simply the best headset I have ever worn.

It wasn't exactly cheap, but after my 4 hour flight on Saturday, I barely even knew I had a headset on it was so comfortable... Lightweight, ANR (Active Noise Reduction) and with an auxiliary input jack for piping music from my phone (which automatically cuts out when getting radio/intercom transmissions)...

There is nothing quite like cruising around in the sunny blue skies listening to some nice chillaxing sounds ;)

My only regret is not buying one sooner!!


These Flights: 3.9 + 4.2 PinC
Total Hours: 301.7 (139.9/135.8 Day, 8.6/17.4 Night, 11.9 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 :-/

$200 $10 Fish 'n Chips...

And an Ice-cream! :P

So I found a way to fly about the countryside, sampling the wares of the various Fish 'n Chip vendors without busting my piggybank...

Find a CPL stupid who is "PinC" hour building and wants some company! :)

So I bundled myself (along with sunscreen) into the right hand seat of one of the clubs 152's, and enjoyed the view out the window as we headed for Raglan.

Climbing out of Ardmore


Thankfully, the weather today was a lot nicer than our previous effort (hence the sunscreen) and we arrived into Raglan without incident.

A short walk from the airfield (after paying the "outrageous" landing fees at the camp office) over to the Camp Store and then we were sitting in the sun enjoying some very nice fresh gurnard and chips... OM NOM NOM!! ;)

$5??!? Simply Outrageous! :P


Pilot in Command


Lunch... YUM!


This was, of course, followed by the compulsory Ice-Cream... (I went for the Magnum Gold today) which was duly consumed before arriving back at the airfield!

Irene chose a max performance take-off (probably a good idea with both of us full of fish 'n chips! ;) and we tracked along the coast heading north... Saw some interesting rock formations, I have no idea if it's due to the type of rock or the eroding action of the sea or a combination of both... but they look cool :)

Interesting rock formations on the coast


As usual, we managed to time it "right" so we arrived back at Ardmore just as World+Dog was also arriving, so the circuit was all sorts of chaos :-/

Irene opted for the grass and asked if I'd mind if she did a couple of practise circuits before full stopping.

I gave her my 'Standard Pilot as Passenger Response™'.... "You're PinC, I'm just along for the ride" ;)