Confessions of an NZ PropellerHead: DISAPPOINTMENT

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;