Tuesday 15th December
The weather forecast was for a southerly change and showers clearing during the morning so I didn’t have much hope for flying but, as it turned out the rain fell very early in the morning and I got up at 0700 to blue skies and a few clouds around. The wind change was right, though, a gusty southerly of 15 knots+ and it felt very cold compared with yesterday.
I checked the weather on the net and got the report as; wind 210 true at 21 knots, few cloud at 2500’, scattered at 4000’, 11ºC, dew point 7, QNH1012 and “no significant weather”. Further up the coast at Paraparaumu it was a lot calmer at 180º, 8 knots.
So, a bit blowy but more than likely good to go so I picked up daughter, Eleanor and boyfriend Adrian (“AJ”) and headed to the airport. Karl was the duty instructor and told me I was cleared to go as Pilot-in-Command. So, a good check flight yesterday and it is a nice feeling to have someone from another club give me that positive feedback. I helped Karl drag TDJ out of the hangar and he left me to gas up and preflight. That done, I phoned the tower with my intentions, a Sinclair departure (to the South-West around the Southern tip of the North Island) and then up the coast to the North.
I loaded the passengers in the back (they wanted to sit together…) and gave them the usual briefing. Ella has flown with me a few times before but it was AJ’s first time in a light plane. We were cleared to take off straight away after reporting ready (where are all those jets and turboprops, I thought) so I lined up on runway 16, did the line up checks, advanced the throttles and set off on my assigned departure. Ella told me afterwards that the thrilled look on her man’s face was something to behold!!
It was a smooth climb out and level off at 1500’ to track around the heads Southwest of Wellington. It got a little bumpy once in the lee of the hills as expected but not too bad. I stayed at 1500’ until North of the Porirua transit zone and then got up to 2500’ to be well clear of any circuit or arrival traffic at Paraparam. It smoothed out as expected and we had good views all the way up to just south of Otaki when I decided that time was about up and we should head on back. Also AJ was feeling a bit queasy and I didn’t want to push our luck.
The journey back was a replay of yesterday over the saddle to the Hutt valley and an Eastbourne arrival, only this time for runway 16 which would mean a left base and a steepish descent (well, steeper than I am used to at Hamilton) from the 1500’ circuit height. Helps to keep the speed up though.
The jets and turboprops were very much in evidence now and I was told to hold East of Point Gordon, orbiting over the Northern part of the outer harbour. After two orbits we were cleared to approach after a Dash-8 on final but I had only just started to descend when that was changed back to orbiting – again! (I think I was a bit slower to respond than the tower anticipated). The following flight in was quicker than anticipated from what I could gather from the radio calls and, fair enough, the turbines can’t change things as readily as us little pistons.
I finally got called in after a total of four (was beginning to lose count!!) orbits and made a fairly rapid descent to keep the speed up as I could hear the next one in was a jet. I ended up fairly well set on final, set 25 degrees of flap and more or less glided down to very short final, then pulling back to slow down, a bit of power to slow down the sink rate, a bit of a float down the runway to touch down about right to brake and taxi off to the GA apron with minimal delay. As I turned to park the following 737 touched down so I felt good about that – no hold-up for him.
The passengers got out more than happy with the experience. AJ was quite effusive with his thanks even though he still looked a bit pale. What a great couple of days flying.
POSTSCRIPT: The weather was good for Eleanor’s graduation on Wednesday and for our drive back today. And yes, we are very proud of her!
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