Getting my fix...

Finally made it back in the air after a 4 week hiatus... this morning was looking pretty grim, with every other line on the weather reports including CB's, aka Cumulonimbus aka Thunderstorms :-/

Not really a big deal, as I went to a poker night last night and was not feeling too pleasant this morning anyway ;-)

Instead, I went for some Helifun with Nick in his R44... My first time ever in a 'moving' helicopter... my verdict? they move funny... probably not helped by my feeling so shifty! Was very good fun, and hopefully we will go play up in the bush sometime in the future and see some of the more 'interesting' landing spots.

Following that, I was thinking about calling it quits and coming home, when CFI Rob asked me if I would mind whipping up a couple of logbook sticker templates in Word. By the time, I had finished, and had visited the local and legendary bakery (Calum's) for lunch, the sky was looking quite blue.

So I decided to go for a flight to blow out the cobwebs... I had been planning on taking JBL to help get the hours off, when I found out that it was already able to do circuits, having just had its 25Hr check. So I decided to take LMA, as it had not flown for a month!

Glad I did, it is such a smooth aircraft, with lots of grunt and just handles so well. I took Nathan (the club captain) for a quick city scenic, and around Waiheke...

The arrival back at the airfield was interesting, after I called joining long final, UNICOM informed that I might like to try joining non-traffic side, as they had around 9 or 10 aircraft in the circuit! Glad I decided to take their advice, it was an absolute log jam! Luckily, I managed to slot into a nice big gap in the stream without any drama's.

Another 1.2 for the logbook... and my addiction fed for another week ;-)


This flight: 1.2 PinC
Total Hours: 127.2 (78.9/37.7 Day, 4.9/5.7 Night, 5.1 IFR)

Nothing to see here, please move along...

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

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


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





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




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





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



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

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

Diversions and a different perspective

Woke up this morning and figured that flying today could be a bit problematic weather-wise, given that I could barely see my back fence through the fog!

Was hoping that it would burn off while I pre-flighted, had breakfast, did the flight planning etc. It was starting to burn off quite nicely around Ardmore by the time Nick and I had had breakfast at the aeroclub cafe, so the plan was to fly to Taupo (NZAP), Rotorua (NZRO), Thames (NZTH) and back to Ardmore.

I gathered all the weather and did the flight planning. The forecasts at the various locations were all for early morning fog that was due to have disappeared by around 11am.

So we gassed up JBL and headed out. On take-off we discovered the cloud base was only around 1500' through the Hunua Valley but it appeared to clear over the training area. Unfortunately, this only lasted until just north of Hamilton. When the tower asked if we wanted 'Special VFR' when we requested a clearance to transit their zone, we knew it was pretty much over :(

We decided to divert towards Tauranga, as it looked relatively clear over towards Matamata. As we flew up the valley it appeared that the cloudbase was down towards 800'... so we headed back up past Lake Waikare and out into the Firth of Thames. Here the cloudbase was well up over 1000' and we could see all the way across to Thames and the Coromandel. So I called Christchurch Information, amended my flight plan to Thames and then onwards to Ardmore and extended my SARTIME out by a half hour.

I flew over to Thames, made a missed approach and then a Touch and Go and then headed back to Ardmore.

1.7 hours of PinC, a new airfield and some valuable lessons learned... like call the airfields where you are planning on going and get some 'on the spot' weather rather than relying on forecasts.

After debriefing with Trevor and discussing decisions made etc. CFI Rob called wanting to know if I would like to get some paid for flying tomorrow. All I had to do was fly a guy around over by Glenbrook and Waiuku following a steam train so he could video it. I was happy to go, but Rob then realised that I would need to do it from the right hand seat as they wanted video of the left hand side of the train. Flying from the right hand seat is a bit different and Rob was not sure whether or not it would be a good idea. I said that I was more than happy to go and do some flying with Trevor then to prove competency. Rob agreed but noted that I would need to pay for that which I was happy to.

All I can say is that it is a very different experience flying from the right hand seat! Left hand on throttle, right hand on the control yoke is very interesting, as my brain has become used to the opposite... so on a couple of occasions I found that when I was needing to push the throttle in, my right hand was still reacting and pushing the control yoke in!

Also, the parallax error on the instruments like the AH and Turn Co-ordinator have to be taken into account... on the positive side, I was always at the targeted RPM, as that Tacho is right in front of you on that side!

The end result being that, weather permitting, I am going train spotting tomorrow :)


This flight: 1.7 PinC + 0.8 Dual
Total Hours: 126.0 (78.9/36.5 Day, 4.9/5.7 Night, 5.1 IFR)

Animated Sandbag

Got the chance to go along for a ride with Nick (the guy in the picture) while he was doing the first of his solo CPL cross countries. Yes, you can fly 'solo' with passengers :) I though it would be a useful opportunity to get a preview of what a CPL cross country entails while inflight (timing, ground speed checks, ETA's etc.) And I think Nick was happy to have some company... even if I was just an 'Animated Sandbag' as he put it. Rob the CFI was clear that I was not to aid Nick in any way.

As the weather people had been wrong about the weather, the weekend was actually not too bad, so I headed out to Ardmore and got my crap sorted while Nick was working on the flight planning. The plan was to head up to Keri Keri, Kaitaia and Kaikohe. As an exercise you get 1 hour to complete it all, which is not too difficult as long as you follow the 'more speed, less haste' philosophy.


Planning complete and Flight Plan filed, we strapped into JBL and headed out. The engine is still being run in at high power settings, so Nick had planned for slightly faster speeds. It was nice to just observe see how other people do things, but I soon discovered it is a little uncomfortable trying to remain free of the controls in a 152 when you're 6'3" :)


Nick had done most of his planning to/from Musik Point, so after climbing out of Ardmore we headed towards the city getting ready for Nick to start his timings and navigation etc. Nick decided to keep a nice low 1000' and use the Transit lane to get past the Whenuapai Airspace and then climb up to cruising altitude. It was at this point that we could all the weather towards the north, and to be honest it did not look very nice.

As you can see in this pic approaching the Whangaparoa Peninsula, some of the areas up north looked a bit grey. We continued on and I clowned around with my phone (A Blackberry Curve 8310), trying out the GPS on it and taking crappy pictures like the 2nd one above, showing the effects of 'strobing' where the shutter speed of the camera and the prop RPM aren't in sync :)


I also snapped this great pic of yours truly, trying out my homemade, lightweight headset that I built from an old headset and a coat hanger (seriously!) I really love this headset, as it means I can wear sunglasses easily and I don't get a hot sweaty head from the big ear cups and headband of a conventional headset.


Unfortunately, the weather really started to close in as we started to approach Whangarei... the cloudbase was down to around 1700 or 1800' and the MSA for the area was around 2600'!! The rain was starting and the visibility was getting a bit crap. The view to the north was just a big dark gray wall. Nick asked me what I thought and remembering Rob's words, I replied "I'm just sitting here, you're PinC"... To his credit (and my relief) he decided that it was time to turn back.


So we headed back to AR and discovered the airfield had become very very busy. The most annoying thing was, that as we were heading south, we could see how good the weather that way was :( Oh well, as Nick said, it is all PinC time and useful experience. I am hoping to get started on my CPL cross countries at some point, but am still busy studying for the exams... so far I have read the Human Factors book and the first couple of chapters of Air Law. I am getting to know the CAR's, AIPs and AC's pretty well...

Tidying up loose ends

So after my careful calculations (and misreading the requirements!), I had ended up 0.1 short of Night Dual and 0.4 short of the 10 hours total required for a CPL Night endorsement.

I had spoken with Trevor and he said we would wait for a dark night (aren't they all?) and go and do some 'revision' on turns etc. Well tonight was looking good, fine with a high layer of cloud which would hopefully:

a. Block the full moon (thus making it somewhat dark)
b. Help keep the fog away by helping maintain some of the warmth

Turns out it was not so good at part a, but worked well at keeping the fog at bay :)

We started with some circuits to guarantee I would be 152 night current (and to avoid the night circuit fees charged after 8pm NZST. Climbing out, Trevor says "You can make the first one flapless and lightless"...

Was not too bad, perhaps a shade high, but was down comfortably in the end. Next one was a shortfield. I had it configured nice and early, but thought that I may have perhaps been a shade high. I continued the approach and in the end when ended up touching down right by the APAPI lights like we were aiming for. And then, to finish, we did a glide approach. In hindsight, I felt I took the last 10 degrees of flap about 3 or 4 seconds to early and consequently landed a little short of the APAPI lights, but it was still a good landing and I learnt a valuable lesson in the process.

We then departed from the downwind and headed out towards Drury and Pukekohe, climbing up to 2000', for some 'fun'. A rate one turn to the right. A medium turn to the right. A rate one turn to the left, A medium turn to the left. Followed by some steep turns... these are quite tricky at night, as you really have no decent horizon to work with and it really does throw your senses out. But I managed to hold my nomiated altitude really well, which is fairly unusual for me in steep turns, to be honest!

Then back to the field for an overhead join... which I almost messed up, by forgetting that you need to add 200' to all circuit altitudes at night... including overhead join altitudes. Trevor casually asked me what altitude I should be at as we were approaching the field. "DOH!"... luckily I was only 100' short so a quick zoom climb back to 1810' and we were fine.

Trevor decided to make it a flapless, lightless landing to finish which went without too much drama, although in the still air we floated a fair way along the runway.

Another great nights flying... I rediscovered the joys of the 152, I got a great demonstration of how flaps bring the landing point closer on final approach and I got to enjoy some of the great night views again.

I am kinda hoping the weather will hold for the weekend, so I can do some cross country flying up North with Nick (another CPL student), but the forecast is looking a little grim :(


This flight: 1.0 Dual Night
Total Hours: 123.5 (78.1/34.8 Day, 4.9/5.7 Night, 5.1 IFR)

Playing it safe

Decided to try for some more night flying last night. I made an effort to get out to the field early, so I could get up before the temperature dropped too much and the fog rolled in.

As it turned out, I probably could have done a city scenic, as what little fog there was, was fairly localised north of the field... better safe than sorry though, so I just bashed the circuit, trying to get close to the 10 hours of night flying required for the CPL. I need another 0.4 and I'm a little short of dual (0.1!), so I'll have to take Trevor up for some dual flying... perhaps some 'proper' night flying out over the training area one night.

It was still a great night to fly... an almost full moon, very few clouds and the visibility was at least 30 to 40kms. Even from the NZAR Circuit, Auckland City looks fantastic at night.

For this flight, as an exercise, Trevor suggested I try a few different things like landing deeper into the runway (ie. overflying the threshold at 50' and touching down in the 'landing zone')... the idea was really to just mix it up and make me think about what I was doing, rather than flying the same old approach.

Muffed the first one up... it was a good landing, but I landed pretty much on the threshold as normal, highlighting exactly what Trevor had been talking about. However, I managed to land the rest fairly well. I'm also getting better at finding and staying on the centreline in the dark with no landing lights and the flapless landings were not too bad.

I am still really impressed with LMA. It is an absolute pleasure to fly. Nice and stable, it does not bounce around and is not quite as 'twitchy' as the 152. Makes it easy to hold the speed, descent rate and direction that you're after... If only it was a little cheaper to fly :(


This flight: 1.2 PinC Night
Total Hours: 122.5 (78.1/34.8 Day, 3.9/5.7 Night, 5.1 IFR)

Pulling the pin...

One of my shortest flights ever last night :( Not quite as dramatic as Euan's shortest flight, but some valuable lessons learned.

I had been planning on taking a friend night flying, unfortunately the temperature and dew point were a little too close together for my liking... like 1 degree!

This increases the likelihood of fog and with a very still night meant it was almost a certainty. Indeed driving out to the airfield, there were already wisps of fog about.

We decided to play it safe, and just fly in the circuit, but even that would prove to be a lost cause. I checked the ATIS that indicated that we should be using runway 21 (wind was only a couple of knots from 180), however another aircraft was already in the circuit using 03... they had set the runway direction, so we had to follow.

On the the 1st circuit, aside from being ridiculously high (more on this below) there was already a fairly heavy fog rolling up the valley and across the field. So I decided to make the next one a full stop and call it quits. As the saying goes:

There are old pilots... and bold pilots... but no old, bold pilots!

As I mentioned before, I was really high on the first approach. I didn't think the 1 or 2 knots of tailwind would make that much difference and could not figure out why the 172 with full flaps at idle power was refusing to come down. Not having a good view of the illuminated windsock (it's on the wrong side of the aircraft when you're using 03), I figured the wind was stronger than 1 or 2 knots. So I executed a go-around rather than forcing it in and decided to extend the downwind to give myself more time to setup.

Turns out I was correct in my assumption about the wind. Indeed, the other aircraft in the circuit obviously had a GPS, as he called up as I was doing my downwind checks to let me know that it was showing an 8 to 10 knot tailwind!!

I setup a nice long approach and was able to put it down relatively easily. Landed a little deeper than usual of course because of the tailwind, but no real drama's. It was actually a really good landing (flare, stall warning, 2 dogs barking)...

Given the fog that was around after we landed, I am very glad I called it quits when I did. After all, as the instructors have told me several times, it's a long walk back from Auckland International... and then you have to go back to get the aircraft!


This flight: 0.3 PinC Night
Total Hours: 121.3 (78.1/34.8 Day, 3.9/4.5 Night, 5.1 IFR)