A MORNING BY OR, RATHER, A FEW FEET ABOVE THE BEACH.....

Well, the weather gods were kind this morning and I headed off to the club looking forward to getting a bit of low flying practice and instruction with Roger. It would be the first time for proper low flying (i.e. at a genuine low level rather than adopting the low flying configuration at altitude) since my flight test back in November 2007 and the first time in an Archer. Any debate in my mind as to whether we should go out to the Eastern or Western low flying area was cut short by Roger cheerfully telling me to head out to Raglan and we would do some real coastal low flying.
So we got a Pirongia departure and headed of to Raglan. Once there I was told to start tracking up the coast to the North and descend to 500'.


THE COAST JUST NORTH OF RAGLAN
PRETTY BENIGN AT 2500' - MORE TIGER COUNTRY LIKE AT 500'!!

We barrelled along at this height just off the coast without setting up the bed weather configuration quite then to get an idea how (apparently) things were happening at that lower height. It was also quite turbulent (good for me , so said Rog). After working out the wind was from the east (off the shore), I was then allowed to set up for 80 knots with a bit of flap and try some coastal reversal turns. On the first one I tracked out too far and was well away from the beach when I turned back - better than hitting the cliffs, though!! - but pretty much got it right on the second attempt. After a few more of those Roger showed me a steep turn towards the beach from just a wee way out (breaker line on the wingtip). With the wind's help a surprisingly tight turn was achievable - then it was my turn for a couple of those, one each way - slightly "further out" for the left hand because of the different perspective.
Then the "rising terrain" demo. Roger took control and turned towards the bluffs "trying" to get over them and showing how the airspeed dropped off with the nose up and then how to get out of the situation. Turn back towards the beach and lower the nose to gain airspeed - pretty simple really but maybe hard to remember in a genuine and stressful emergency situation.
After all this fun, time had flown past and it was time to head back to Hamilton. First attempt to approach was behind a 172 and Roger took the opportunity to set up for some slow flying. Partial power, full flap and down to 55 knots and he then handed the control back to me. I kept it nice and smooth until we were told to line up for the grass for an overshoot (a Dash-8 was going out after the landing Cessna) whereupon we went around. I did a fairly good landing on the next approach - a slight "float" (bit too much throttle) but nice and smooth in the end. After we shut down the comments from Roger were pretty positive which was encouraging and, all-in-all, a fun morning up in the air.

RETROSPECTIVE - HOW TO LOSE WEIGHT WITHOUT DIETING OR THE GYM!

THIS IS WHY WE DO IT - WHITE ISLAND - DECEMBER 2008

What a lovely weekend we have just had weather-wise. Shame I couldn't be up there. Never mind, I watched youngest (16) daughter's netball team thrash the opposition while feeling a pang of jealousy seeing a couple of light aircraft overfly Minogue Park and got a bit of gardening done. So with nothing current to report I thought I would do another retrospective on my flying experiences.....

Flashback to 8th January 2009. I had a mind to, if not get an actual rating, at least to get some tailwheel experience. I had been up in a Harvard in England a couple of years back (I'll save that story for another blog sometime) but having seen the C-180 "JFG" at the club a few months back I thought I would give it a go. My first time up was in late December 08 with CFI, Roger and we concentrated on using a constant speed prop and getting used to the extra power (235 horses compared to the 180 on the 172s). This time it was circuits and after doing a preflight and refuel on the"beast" - seemed a lot bigger than the 172 - we headed off to Te Kowhai.
Now, it was about 29ºC, mid afternoon and very sunny. Roger had greeted me with, "Are you sure you want to do this?" when I arrived at the club and, game for anything, I said, "Yes". Roger warned me I was going to get a bit hot and sweaty!! (Great Kiwi understatement rather than British??!!!)
So, into the circuit at Te Kowhai, right hand for 05, and I was already hotter than was comfortable. The 180 has virtually no mod-cons. Air conditioning? - you must be joking. This is a plane for "real men" (or "real ladies", too). The trimming, and you need a lot of it, is very heavy as the whole tail has to move. So, on downwind I had to get the throttle and pitch set for 22 (" of mercury on the manifold pressure with throttle) and 22 (rpm with the pitch control) do the usual checks and, once first flap was applied, trim like mad to keep the nose up. Base and next stage of flap, throttle back a bit, more trimming to get the atitude right, then onto finals and full flap with Roger on the intercom, "Trim. Trim, trim!". OK, Rog I'm doing that as well as making sure I'm not getting too close to those trees and trying to remain somewhere near the centreline. Short final, carb heat cold, pitch fully fine, lined up, lots of back pressure as I come over the theshold to flare, closing the throttle and, bump, down OK and a bit of brake and you stop, if not on a ten cent piece, then pretty damned quickly. Now I know why tailwheel planes are still used for those remote, short and rough airstrips.
No time to wipe the sweat from my brow, we are off again. 10º flap, full throttle, 40 knots and stick forward to lift the tailwheel, hold that attitude, and the beast flies off in a very short distance indeed! I think we did another three circuits with my landings a little better each time and then it was back to Hamilton to be greeted by an 8 knot crosswind on 18 - any crosswind is "fun" (i.e. a challenge) in a tail-dragger - and I needed a fair bit of help from Roger to get down straight and without swinging round on landing.
Taxi back, peel my wringing wet back off the seat and off to the car to wallow in the air-con on full blast. At home the shirt went straight into the laundry - almost needed to wring it out!! I reckon I lost about 0.5Kg in sweat alone, never mind the physical work-out! MMM! Great fun, but I think I'll concentrate on getting a Cherokee type rating for now!!!

Postscript: I did concentrate on getting the Cherokee rating, completed about five weeks later and haven't been up in JFG since. But I still get a little tingle in the spine each time I see it in flight (like today when it flew right over our house), so maybe soon...... - guess that is what taildraggers do for you!

OH, WHAT A BEAUTIFUL MORNING.....

MY CURRENT "FAVOURITE" - WIT

THURSDAY 6th AUGUST
Well, the forecast for fog was accurate to an extent. The day dawned beautifully clear around our suburb but a look out of the windows showed banks of fog over the "country" areas. Still, the sun came up and a check of the "ifis" weather showed the airport to be clear with no wind but fog in the vicinity. Should be good for flying mid to late morning then. Great!!!
So, off to the Aero Club at about 9.30 and it was pretty obvious that although Hamilton City and the airport were basking in glorious late Winter sunshine much of the rest of the Waikato was still shrouded in fog or low(ish) cloud. I had booked my current favourite plane, Archer III "WIT", with a view to going out somewhere quiet for some steep turns, stalls and forced landing practice. The fog, and seeing only two or three in the circuit on the way in made me change that plan and I thought I'd get some circuit practice in first and then go out and do a forced landing or two and some steep turns. (That BFR isn't too far away, folks)
So, got the old check out sheet signed by an instructor and, after a thorough preflight and gassing up, I was cleared straight away into the circuit - Good. (During the current upgrade to the old grass 18/36 to seal it has sometimes been impossible to get into the circuit or a long - like 10+ minutes - wait, which costs!). After holding for only a couple of minutes I was cleared for "immediate take-off". I had anticipated this and was all ready to go straight away.
So off I went, standard climb out and turns onto cross and downwind. Cleared to approach number three behind one of our Alphas who extended a fair way downwind (?doing a flapless) and did a standard approach and a very nice landing. Got the speeds about right on base and finals so was pretty pleased. By the third cicuit things were getting much busier and I reckoned it was time to depart so asked and was cleared for a Pirongia departure.
I had spent a fair bit of my time in the circuit and as soon as I was out Of the control zone I chose a paddock and set myself up for a simulated engine failure from about 2500'. I remembered most of the checks and set myself up at the correct height for my 1500' area and was about right for the 1000' point when I had a quick glance at the GPS and realised I was almost back into the zone. OK, time to abort this exercise and head back well into uncontrolled airspace.
Time was getting along so after a medium turn and a couple of steep turns (first one not so good, second one acceptable but not perfect) I was approaching Kihikihi and called the tower for a clearance to return. It was still quite hazy and, quite usual for Hamilton, the airport was difficult to see.


GOTTA LOVE THAT WAIKATO HAZE!!!!

Cleared on a South arrival, listening to the radio chatter it was no real surprise that I was told to hold at Mystery Creek. After only one orbit I was allowed to descend onto a left hand downwind and extend for a two mile final as a Dash-8 was about to take off. I followed a C-172 in and my approach was acceptable but I ended up a little off centre and my landing was a bit bumpy (I like to get it right, though, and I'm probably being a bit hard on myself!).
That was that, then - 1.2 hours in the book. Made a booking next week for some low flying with CFI, Roger. Haven't done that since the licence test nearly two years ago - should be fun!!

ANOTHER SUNDAY MORNING.....

Well, yes, another Sunday morning and what better time to go flying. I had been asked by a work colleague month or so back to take her 13-year old son (mad keen on aeroplanes) up for a flight. We had made a booking during the last school holidays but the good old Waikato fog turning to rain later in the day had put paid to that - don't you just love Winter??!! So we rebooked for 2nd August.
Well, Sunday, 2nd August dawned clear with little wind but there was plenty of evidence of overnight rain around (like a wet runway when I checked the ATIS on the ifis website) and the forecast was for westerly winds by lunchtime and heavy showers of rain late afternoon. We were going up at 1100, though, and all was still acceptable - cloud base 4000' and good visibility - at 1030 so it looked promising. So we met up at Waikato Aero Club at 1045, myself, work colleague, Andrea, her son, Chris and her mum, Rosemarie, who was also keen to "go up".
The usual preflight of Archer III "WIT", a refuel so we had plenty of gas for which I reckoned would be about an hour in the air, a briefing to the passengers, and off we went. Wind was still variable at 3 knots and after the usual calls we were cleared onto runway 36 with a right turn after departure to head up Scotsman Valley, over Morrinsville and off to have a look at the Kaimais at Te Aroha.
There was a little cloud around at our cruising height of 2500' but nothing to be concerned about. We then tracked on a northerly heading just west of the range to the Waihi Gap and then turned to the west, tracking towards Huntly. I was having fun with the autopilot which is easy to use on WIT and playing with the new "EFIS" which is great but having been up a few weeks ago when it was playing up a bit I've learnt to check it with the map, compass and local knowledge.
It was pretty obvious that the weather had taken a turn for the worse while we had been heading North. There were patchy showers around and to the East of Huntly and I needed to descend to 2000' to avoid an area of cloud between the showers. Once past that it was actually sunny over Huntly and I climbed back to 2500' while turning South to head for home.
The two ladies in the back and the lad in the right hand seat all seemed to be enjoying themselves and conditions had been pretty smooth so far. We had caught a few bumps under the cloud but it was only light and over in a few minutes. I got the ATIS from hamilton and noted significant changes. QNH had started to drop and there was now wind 270º at 8 knots. There was also patchy dark grey cloud around and we flew though a fairly sharp shower just South of Ngaruawahia after I had been cleared for a North Arrival.
We were instructed to hold at Rukuhia (everyone coming home with the weather worsening, perhaps?) and about halfway through the orbit I heard the duty runway change to 18. This was where it got a little interesting. With the westerly now about 10 knots we had drifted close to the circuit and when cleared to approach we were at the start of a right base, still at 1700' as I hadn't yet been cleared to descend to circuit height (I had asked!). Almost straight away I was cleared to land. I responded "Cleared to land, WIT" (and thought, "Yeah, right, I've only just started my descent and even gliding with some flap I'm going to be a bit high and certainly too fast"). So, once established on a short final I called a go around. Well, it gave me a chance to assess the crosswind which looked about 8-10 knots and a bit gusty. I warned the folks that it wasn't likely to be a smooth landing, and joined a left-hand circuit as instructed following a CTC C-172.
Downwind checks and a radio call and number two behind the Cessna. All went well, choosing only 25º flap because of the crosswind and was just into the flare when there was a bit of a gust. I ended up "floating" for a few metres but got it straight and upwind wheel down first for only a slightly bumpy landing, and not too far from the centre line. Not perfect but not bad and passenger comments were, "That wasn't too bad" and "That was better than I'd expected" so I was quite pleased, all in all.
We taxied back and young Christopher picked up some brochures about learning to fly. Great, another new recruit for Waikato Aero Club, perhaps. I'm glad I didn't put him off!!
Note to self: must keep current on crosswind landings - got the old BFR in a few months.