DISAPPOINTMENT - THEN A BONUS

Went over to the beach last weekend with a booking on the Stearman for Saturday afternoon but the weather gods were not kind at all.  Drizzle in the morning and, although the rain had stopped by lunchtime, when I turned up at Classic Flyers the cloud was overcast at 300 feet so there was no chance of going up.  At least I got the paperwork done for the share transfer so not totally wasted time.

I got away from work at lunchtime today so, as it was a nice sunny afternoon, decided to get some flying in.  On my way to the club I was very pleasantly surprised to see the Stearman from Classic Flyers on approach to Hamilton.

JGP was free so I took off towards the South-west for a local flight.  The wind had started at 250º at 8 knots on the surface and forecast 160º, 15 knots at 2000 feet.  It seemed a bit stronger and more westerly by the time I was at 2000' on a Pirongia departure as I was getting a fair bit of turbulence when directly East of the mountain (Pirongia, 3144').  Things calmed down a lot once I was South of the mountain and quite smooth over Kawhia Harbour and out to the coast.

Weather was changeable on the coast, nice at Kawhia, but a short distance North the cloud was covering the top of Karioi (2480') with fairly dense haze over the coast reducing visibility locally to about 15Km.  I could hear another aircraft broadcasting he was on track to Raglan from further South so gave a weather call and turned right to head directly back to Hamilton South of Karioi without going to Raglan as it was a lot clearer that way.  The plane behind followed suit and followed me in.  

It was pretty busy at Hamilton this afternoon with lots of radio activity but I was cleared for a North arrival straight away and requested 25 for landing as the wind was now 250, 13 gusting to 20 knots.  At Rukuhia (in line for a right hand downwind) I was instructed to cross the extended centre line and join left hand downwind for 2500' and was only allowed to descend once downwind.  No big deal, I flew a nice (short, as instructed) approach, got a bit of rise on short final but almost closing the throttle fixed that and, crossing the threshold at 65 knots, I did a very smooth, level hold off, column back and a lovely, soft touch down.  Not too bad in the gusty wind.  I was able to taxi off halfway and the controller thanked me as the plane behind was pretty close.

Planes at Club today:

The Stearman, of course.  One of the other shareholders was doing a few flights.

152 ZK-NPN from New Plymouth Aero Club.  They followed me in and I had a brief chat to the instructor at the fuel pumps.  They saw the weather at Raglan and had chosen the clearer route as I had.  Next stop for them, Auckland International.

172 ZK-TAT from Ardmore Flying School (had heard her call at Huntly while I was over Temple View).  Very nervous young female pilot on first solo cross-country who nearly walked across my path while I was taxying.  I had her in sight, was taxying very slowly and my feet were hovering on the brakes.  She saw me and stopped to let me pass.  I went over and had a brief chat - she landed x-wind 18 - brave girl in that wind.  Well done!  Next stop for her, Rotorua

Hope you all had good flights, folks.  And now, some photos;

     Stearman 203, ZK-XAF in the flight line with WIT AND UFS

                                Just love this plane!!

                        Kawhia township on the Harbour

                 The cloud and haze over Karioi and Raglan 

                      - Aotea harbour in middle ground

               Classics together  (ZK-TAT in the background)

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST.....?

I must say, I actually enjoy both ends of the technology spectrum offered at Waikato Aero Club, from "The Beast", JFG: taildragger, heavy manual trim, no GPS or autopilot, basic radio, to "Beauty", WIT, Twin GPS and radios, advanced autopilot, IFR capable, electric trim, EFIS.  

I can imagine a scene in The Old Yorkshire Pilots Club bar:

Bill, "Arternoon, 'Arry, how do, George"

Harry, "Can't complain, lad, won a fiver on whippets yesterday"

George, "'Ast tha heard 'bout new plane club's just bought?"

Bill, "Nay, what's it like?"

George, "Too b****y flash if tha ask me"

Harry, "Aye, it's got 'lectric powered trim wheel"

Bill, "What?"

George, "Yep, push a little switch on t' column and t' trim wheel spins."

Bill, "Bl***y Hell, in my day you had to be a body builder to shift the trim on t' planes I flew."

Harry, "Trim wheel! Luxury!!  When I were training, as soon as throttle were closed instructor'd send yer out to crawl out to tail and pull tab by hand - and there'd be a reyt rollickin' if tha got it wrong! I DREAMED of trim wheels"

George, "Got an EFIS, too."

Bill, "EFIS - yer talking foreign at me now!"

Harry, "'lectronic Flight Information System, it has just about all your instrument readings displayed on a little TV screen in front of pilot."

Bill, "Blimey, that's a bit of a far cry from knocking a nail into windscreen frame and hanging a bit of string from it.  These kids are b****y spoilt rotten these days"

George, "Got air conditioning, too."

Bill, "Air-con-bl***y-ditioning?  What's wrong wit' open cockpit?!  I dunno, youth of today......."

Well, you get the drift....

Went up this morning for a few circuits in WIT.  All went well, five good, tight circuits, three good landings, one superb greaser and only a bit bumpy for the glide approach but easily made the runway so that was all good, I reckoned.  Also, with the weather a touch dodgy I was on my own in the circuit for much of the time.  Happy pilot factor on max.

                  "BEAUTY"? (The plane not the weather!!)

                        "THE BEAST"? (but a nice one)

 Turning cross to downwind 18 - broken cloud at 1200' (circuit height)

          Late downwind - looking a bit clearer to the West

MATAMATA BEAT-UP

MONDAY  8TH NOVEMBER

Aircraft:  Cessna 180 ZK-JFG

Position: Downwind leg runway 28 circuit NZMA (Matamata)

Altitude:  600' amsl (400' agl)

POB: 2, self and Roger (CFI)

Wow, what fun!!  Another hour of tailwheel time in the logbook.  Almost an action replay of last Monday but after about five standard circuits at Matamata in ideal conditions, light wind straight down the runway, no cloud and not late enough to have the sun in the eyes on final, Roger decided it was time for some fun!

I was getting the hang of landing, I thought, although still a bit lazy on the rudder and tending to look straight ahead rather than along the cowling while holding off.  Then Roger said, "I have control", demonstrated the perfect take-off attitude, and took an early steepish turn onto downwind at low level.  Abeam the downwind threshold, he cut the power, first and second stages of flap in quick succession, full flap while turning onto a short final for a perfect 3-pointer, showing me exactly how to hold off.  Then it was my turn, Whee!!! - now I know why Ag pilots do what they do.  Not much time to think about it, just looking out, doing most of the checks by feel and, hey, I don't think I did too badly with two three pointers and a wheel landing (not intended, but remembered to keep the column back so we didn't nose over!!).  Then it was back to Hamilton, cleared straight in for 25L and a reasonable landing to finish.  The very last bit wasn't so great, though, I turned too close to the fence, missed the parking stand and had to taxi round again, Whoops!!

Total Tailwheel time 5.1 hours

TAILWHEEL TIME

My Stearman experience over Labour weekend convinced me I should take the plunge and buy the share that had been advertised on TraedeMe recently.  So, once the paperwork is sorted out I should be the proud owner of 1/30 of a classic aircraft (and, as CFI Roger pointed out, it is a BOEING!!!!)
To fly P-in-C on the Stearman, Classic Flyers want you to have 25 hours of tailwheel time, so I thought some sessions in the club's Cessna 180, JFG, would be a good way to do some of this, and also, maybe, get another type rating while I am about it.
So, today at 1645 I arrived at the club for a flight in JFG with CFI, Roger.  I have been up twice before in the 180 so not a complete novice.  Compared to the club's Alphas, Cherokees and 172s, JFG is a bit of a beast!  230hp six-cylinder engine, three blade constant speed prop and stands very tall at the front due to the tailwheel stance.
JFG has a STOL kit fitted which droops the ailerons when the flaps go down so is very short field capable for the type so we headed off to Matamata for some circuits with stop and goes.  Maybe it is the nearly two years further flying experience, or flying the Stearman, or Roger's (as always) excellent instruction, JFG today seemed a lot more benign than I remembered.  There was a 5-6 knot crosswind on Matamata's 10 runway, left to right, enough to make it "interesting" in a taildragger (runway 04 was closed and from the rich green grass after the 10 days of very dry weather here has not been mown for a while).
I was guilty of being lazy on the rudder both on take-off and landing for the first couple of circuits but was doing OK after that, setting up into a sideslip attitude on very short final, levelling off, column back, chop the throttle and settling onto a near three-point landing with only a slight bounce, keeping straight by working the rudder and a bit of brake to a halt less than halfway down the strip with plenty of room to take off again.  Then it was back to Hamilton for an acceptable landing on 36L (on the grass and no crosswind) and a taxi back to refuel.  Roger let me taxi back to park on my own - no simple task in a tailwheel plane with not much space betwen the fence and JGP's stand - I did it OK, just slightly off-centre!  Great fun, Roger, 1.0 hours in the book which means: 300 HOURS TOTAL TIME - Whoo-Hoo!!  Action replay next Monday, weather permitting.

P.S.:   Total tailwheel time: 4.1 hours!!

FLYING OVER THE FOG

TUESDAY 26TH OCTOBER

Position:  Over Rotowaro - five miles South-west of Huntly

Altitude:  2000'

Aircraft:  C-172, ZK-JGP

Weather:  See the photo!!! 

 

I had taken today off work to make it a 4-day weekend so had booked JGP first thing this morning.  My original intention was to fly North following the river up to Port Waikato and then back via the West coast and Raglan.  Didn't quite turn out like that due to our old friend, the weather!!

The ATIS had shown fog patches in the vicinity of Hamilton, few cloud at 100' and 500' and variable 3kt wind.  I could see the haze and cloud but there was very little fog to see.  That was until I was on my way North and about three miles South of Huntly.  Beyond the Hakarimata range was a sea of low cloud for a couple of miles either side of the river with the Huntly power station chimneys poking through like a two pronged fork.  Hmm!!  An ATIS for an (imaginary) Huntly airfield would have read: overcast at 100 feet!!  I made a radio call to report this (had a call from someone at Whakatane for a weather report for Hamilton a little earlier) and another station responded with, "It's all the way to the Bombay Hills, mate"!  Change of plan, then.

A look to the South-west showed the weather around Raglan was BEAUTIFUL!! - see photo below.  So, it was off to Raglan, overhead there, and back home to Hamilton for a few circuits.  These went really well but were interesting as the clouds were hanging about circuit height just to West of the airport necessitating a bit of cloud dodging in a left hand circuit off 18.  I did about five circuits including a flapless and a glide all pretty well and left for home for a well earned cup of coffee!!