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!!
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