IT'S CALLED DECISION MAKING, MR PILOT-IN-COMMAND!!

THURSDAY 19TH NOVEMBER

Well, having obtained my Arrow type rating a week ago I had booked DQV for a couple of hours this morning. The weather forecast the night before had been favourable and I had prepared a flight plan for a short cross-country down to Taumarunui and back.
Well, you know weather forecasters - almost as reliable as politicians!! As it turned out the morning started cloudy with not much sign of clearing. Cloud base at Hamilton was about 3000' and looked a bit grim all round apart from Southwards so I thought Taumarunui was still a "go". CFI Roger agreed but warned me to be on the alert for weather changes and muttered something not too complimentary about weather forecasts!!
So I filed a flight plan and set off in the Arrow after a short wait for landing and circuiting aircraft and set course for Taumarunui. It was pretty cloudy all the way down and I cruised along at 2500' - about 300' below the cloud base. About 5 miles north of my "target" things got a bit more "interesting". The cloud base had lowered a bit and the hills all around were becoming obscured. I was starting to get that claustrophobic "hemmed-in" feeling as the visibilty all round decreased. I was also not sure of my position - not too good.
A bit of map to ground sorted the "lost" feeling out - I identified the railway and SH4 at Okahukura so was about 3 miles North and slightly West of the field. I could also just about make out Taumarunui township along the valley. However, a quick look around confirmed what I feared - the weather appeared to be closing in behind me. I did not fancy being "trapped" by the weather if I landed at Taumarunui so decided it was home time. A call on the 119.1 frequency and another to Christchurch information to tell them what I was up to and I headed back North.
The weather was a bit worse with some light showers and verga about but still flyable at 2500' - just, I was "scraping" the cloud base. About 10 miles North of Taumarunui I could make out Kakepuku (small hill by Te Awamutu) which was reassuring as my heading was just to the right of it - dead on course for Hamilton. I still couldn't see much of the surrounding ranges but there was no high ground ahead.
With a 20 knot tail wind I was back in the control zone in about 15 minutes (ground speed 150 knots or so) and requested some circuits. Two quite tidy touch and goes and a full stop later I was taxying over to the fuel pumps to gas up before putting DQV back in its "home". I saw Roger at the pumps and told him what had happened. He just smiled an said, "It's called decision making, Barry".
Anyway, home safe (reckon that made it good decision making) with 1.1 hours in the logbook and a bit more retractable approach practice. I am still checking those little green lights 4 or 5 times each approach, though!!