THAT WEATHER!!

Tuesday 13th December

Warm sector depressions - don't you love them!  Low cloud, poor visibility in rain or drizzle, uncomfortably humid, etc, etc.  Yesterday it was much like that here in the Waikato and similar this morning, although the overnight rain had stopped.

However, as the morning wore on the cloud lifted and my chances of getting up at 1300 looked more hopeful.  I checked the ATIS online before driving off to the airport and cloud base was 3500' - quite flyable conditions but only locally.  Tauranga had a cloud base of around 1500' with poor visibility in drizzle.

I arrived at the club to fly Cessna 172, WAM, which has just had a full engine overhaul (i.e.; new engine cylinders and internals in original crankcase), and got a quick briefing from Roger on engine management: 2500rpm at all times in cruise, don't spend too long on engine run-ups, no glide approaches, cross country only - no circuits.

So, after preflight I got going without undue delay.  It was fairly light traffic-wise given the weather and I took off from 36R in a slight crosswind turning right to leave the zone to the NE via Scotsman Valley.  I flew just below the clouds at 2200' as far as Morrinsville where the weather was a bit clearer and was able to get up to 2500'.  I flew a big circle to the North of the airport turning to the West at Lake Waikare to return via Huntly.  I kept a careful eye on the RPM gauge and was pretty consistent throughout the cross-country part.  It got a little more challenging when planning the approach.

I was cleared for a Rukuhia arrival and descended to 1700' prior to entering the zone.  With throttle setting for 2500rpm the airspeed crept up into the yellow zone, 140-145Kt on descent.  Hmm, could be interesting getting the approach speeds low enough.  It was!  At Rukuhia I was advised the surface wind was 060º at 12 knots and I took the option of landing on 07.  This proved a real problem as I was still at 1700' and I ended up on a short final way too high and at about 95 knots - time to throttle up and go around.  I did a fairly wide left hand circuit to give myself time to get the speed and height down on final with minimal low rpm time for the engine and it worked out OK.  The wind was more like 030º now so it was a crosswind landing with just 20º flap getting into a sideslip attitude at about a quarter mile out and a pretty smooth landing resulted with the upwind (left) wheel down first - always pleasing, that.  Another 0.8 hours running-in time for WAM's "new" engine and in my logbook.

A couple of photos to show the conditions:

Looking NE from Morrinsville - cloud base just above me and the Kaimai range completely shrouded in white, fluffy stuff

Looking a little clearer towards the Firth of Thames

THREE GREENS - GOOD: TWO GREENS, UH-OH!!

 Tuesday 6th December

Summer is here and, after a thunderstorm yesterday evening and a dodgy weather forecast, I wasn't too optimistic about getting over to Tauranga in DQV to fly the Stearman.  So it turned out.  The cloud base over Hamilton airport was around 1200' and much of the surrounding area was cloudy.  I phoned Pete at Classic Flyers and to my question about the weather he replied, "C**p, low cloud all around" (so, not much change from the weather report a couple of hours previously).

That was much as expected so, as the Hamilton circuit was flyable, I decided to take DQV up for a few laps.  All started off well and I made an early downwind call for a touch and go, checked the airspeed was below 125Kt and lowered the gear.  There was the usual clunking and trim change as the mains came down and the two main green lights came on.  The nose gear light flashed briefly and then went out.  A glance up the panel showed that the yellow "gear in transit" light was still illuminated.  Oh, dear!  (A bit of retrospective: this had happened to me on 22nd November coming back from a local flight except the nose light didn't flash and recycling the gear fixed the problem).

So, I raised the gear, waited a few seconds, and lowered it again, and..... the same thing happened except the nose gear light didn't light at all!!  OK, no panic, it's probably electrical, but in a fairly busy circuit I thought it best to make an urgency (Pan, Pan) call to the tower and told them I would extend downwind to try to sort it.  A third gear lowering was successful: after a bit of a pause, all three greens glowed and stayed glowing.  Sigh of relief, quick check I had all the downwind checks done and I turned base about 3 miles or so South of the 36R threshold.  I called the tower to say I was turning base and would be for a full stop.  I made a lower than usual, very shallow approach, and got full flap down about half a mile out aiming to stay at 70KT til over the threshold and then try to keep the flare going to touch down on the mains at as slowly as I dared (about 60Kt) keeping the nosewheel up as long as possible - just in case.  This worked fine, I rolled the mains onto the tarmac (one of my best landings ever!!) and kept pulling back on the column to keep the nose up.  The speed bled off quite quickly and once down to below 40Kt I gently released the back-pressure on the column and the nosewheel touched down and held - hooray!!!

So, I taxied back to the club and reported the problem to Roger (CFI) who knew about my previous DQV undercarriage problem.  He reckoned it was probably electrical, a relay or something similar, and agreed it needed sorting out.  So, I left it in his capable hands and went off to attempt some Christmas shopping!!

A TALE OF TWO CIRCUITS

Tuesday 15th November

They say a week is a long time in politics.  Well, I think I showed today that a circuit is a long time in aviation.

I had flown over to Tauranga to have another bash in the Stearman.  Before that, I bumped into Euan ("FlyinKiwi") at the club who was about to depart for a check-out at Waiheke Island.  The Waikato fog had been causing a few delays - hope your flight went OK, Euan =)

I got over to the Bay of Plenty via the Waihi Gap doing a bit of cloud dodging on the way and, as usual, it was a magnificent day the other side of the Kaimais.

Well, to cut a long story short, I got up in the Steaman for a few turns over Katikati which was all good then it was back into the circuit.  Duty runway was 07 which I had not flown off for some while and it took me a couple of laps to get re-oriented.  There was also a 6-8 knot crosswind from the North (Seaward side) - not much in a tricycle undercarriage plane but enough to keep you alert in a taildragger.  On about the third circuit, I thought I had it all sorted - speed and attitude about right, 500' at the marina and got the rudder and ailerons just right for a pretty good landing with no word of instruction at all for the whole of that approach from Pete in the front cockpit.  I was so darned pleased with myself that I just about forgot all I had ever learned on the next approach: too wide at the end of downwind, so a long base leg and too low on turning final, so that I was struggling a bit with power and attitude on short final.  Crosswind technique? - what crosswind technique??  I rounded out still crabbed into wind, a little (well, maybe quite a lot) high and smacked down on the grass pretty hard, bounced high and at that point Pete took over.  After a bit of inward cursing I flew the next and last circuit to end with a short approach (Pete took over briefly to set me up on final) and an averagely good landing.

Back to Classic Flyers for a debrief.  A suitably humbling experience and good for the soul (or something like that).  Good job the Stearman can take that sort of abuse!! 

Finally, as I was walking out to WIT to preflight a big bird flew out of the haze and onto the tarmac for a touch and go.  I just had time to grab the camera and shoot a couple of frames:

Orion arrives through the mist for a touch.....

...... and go

     

THE MAGICIAN'S ENGINE

Thought it about time for an addition to the old Hall of Fame.  Not a person this time but a bit of hardware.  27 litre V-12, liquid cooled, 740HP (prototype) to 2060HP (130/1 version).  May not have had the sheer grunt of the later RR Griffon, Napier Sabre or the Bristol Centaurus but the ROLLS-ROYCE MERLIN was THE engine of the early years of WWII and without it the RAF would have been up the proverbial creek with only a prayer for a paddle.  Powered more aircraft types than I can mention here but the Spitfire, Hurricane and Lancaster spring to mind first.  Also, of course, is the Packard 1650 which was the licence built version the other side of the Atlantic - the P-51 Mustang only came into its own at altitude when this engine was fitted (same for the P-40).

Pratt and Who?, Alliwhat??  =)

SIX OF THE BEST (WELL, ALMOST)

Tuesday 8th November

In spite of clear skies forecast by Jim Hickey last night on the 6 o'clock news it was rather cool and cloudy at the airport today as I "unwrapped" Archer III, "WIT" to go fly.  Given the cloud, I decided that some circuits would be the total of the day's entertainment with the challenge to be as "perfect' as possible.  As at Tauranga last Sunday there was enough wind to make it a little challenging, the windsock positions somewhat variable around the field.

So, it was six circuits off 18, taking off on 18R (the little, short one), five touch and goes on 18L (the big, long one) and final landing on 18R.  The first circuit was all pretty good but I elected to use full flap (the windsock appeared to be straight down the runway when I was on early final) so was a tad slow over the threshold and was moved off the centreline by the wind (which was definitely right to left at this point).  Second circuit was fine until the flare and throttle close; I bounced, but sorted it out straight away with a bit of throttle and nose lowered a touch and the second touchdown was smooth and straight (wouldn't have worked so well in a Cessna, I reckon).  

Next lap - flapless approach; I kept a shallow approach profile and a smooth landing after 75 knots over the threshold despite a bit of a struggle to get the speed down whilst on base and final.  Fourth circuit, a glide approach; very happy with this, I was looking a bit low at one point but easily made the runway, even needing a bit of flap to touch at my mental "point".  Two "normal" circuits to finish, the last right hand for 18R so it was an attempted precision landing.  This was the least satisfactory; in my attempt to be as close to the threshold as possible I kept a bit more power on than I needed and, with only 2 notches of flap because of the crosswind, I drifted along a wee bit before touching down but, at least I was on the seal, straight, right wing down a bit into the wind, and easily stopped with a bit of brake in about 2/3 of the length.
So, very happy with my efforts, I taxied back to shut down and think about lunch!

STEARMAN LINE-UP

Sunday 6th November

I arrived at Classic Flyers late this morning for another session of circuits in "03".  I had heard a few weeks previously of two other Stearmans (?Stearmen) imported from the USA which were to be based at Tauranga and there they were, lined up and ready to go.  I watched them start up and leave, one for a few circuits and the other to taxi to its hangar.  The noise of two radials starting up was fantastic!  Glad I had the (little) camera with me:

Biplane line up: Classic Flyers' Agcat "RTA" with Stearmen "262" and "343"

Wooden prop on "343"

Start up for "343"

To make any American reader(s) proud

Then it was down to business for me; some circuits with Pete.  There was enough wind to make it "interesting" - about 10-12 knots on the surface, a little variable with an intermittent crosswind, but 20 knots or so at 500' and on my first circuit I was reminded to widen out my crosswind turn to compensate.  Generally, my flying was OK, the first take-off a bit rough but a second go after a stop and go (for wake turbulence) was much better.  However, we did encounter a radio problem after 3 circuits, on the fourth approach not being able to hear the tower at all so after touching down Pete told me to make it a full stop.  I could near him perfectly via my helmet so that wasn't the problem.  The fault seemed intermittent and dependent on volume position so maybe a "dirty" potentiometer.  Never mind, I was pretty pleased with my efforts =) 

RED CHECKERS AT HAMILTON

Tuesday 25th October

I took Archer III, WIT for a local flight today (was supposed to be C-172, WAM but that is still in maintanence).  No problem though, as I am current on the Archer and it was a chance to "play" with the GPS, EFIS and fancy autopilot in WIT.  After putting in an hour's worth over to Raglan, up the coast a wee way and home via Huntly a couple of RNZAF CT4s at Hamilton turned up just after I landed, one going over to Aeromotive and the other parking by the fuel pumps.  I got a few photos before I had to disappear to meet a builder at home (new garage).

Red Checker CT4, "89" at the pumps

It was cloudy and hazy at Raglan but much nicer a little way North

Huntly Power Station and the mighty Waikato River behind

TRYING THE NEW "LID"

Sunday 23rd October

This was my chance to try out the new helmet in the Stearman.  I am very pleased to report that it worked extremely well.  Previously in the rear cockpit it was near impossible to hear anything in the soft helmet that comes with the plane (it's just about OK in the front) but now I am hearing everything and all Pete's instruction from the front is crystal clear.

We did about 45 minutes in the Tauranga circuit today which was fun.  To make it a bit more "interesting" there was the NZ Warbirds' Strikemaster doing its own circuits off the sealed runway and zipping around a lot quicker than we were (and burning about three times as many imperial gallons per hour than we were litres - i.e. about 800 litres/h.!!).  No wonder he was at the fuel pumps for a while after a few circuits.

Thanks to the traffic, our circuits were a trifle irregular - early left turns and short approaches seemed to be the norm.  Pete demonstrated a short sideslipping approach on the first short one and let me have a go on the next two.  The Stearman was very steady and, because of the biplane drag, loses height (and speed) pretty rapidly sideslipping with half throttle or less.  I got it pretty much sorted on my second go and was 500' over the golf course which is just right for the Grass 25 circuit.  I was a bit fast but closing the throttle fixes that on the Stearman thanks to that drag.

It was all good and Pete seemed happy and reckoned the helmet made a big difference.  Not having to strain to hear what is being said to me and confident that I can be heard means I can concentrate fully on the flying.  Cool!

I took a few photos......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The best of the several I took of the Strikemaster - anyone for a ride??

Stearman 03 showing the patched side from the bit of damage inflicted by me a few weeks ago - just needs a paint job now

BFR - SORTED!!

As a bit of an insurance policy I had made two bookings to try to get my BFR, one today and one a week hence.  From the recent weather forecasts it looked 50:50 to get up today but, surprise, surprise it wasn't too bad this morning with cloud base of 2500', good visibility away from showers, so good to go.

I fronted up to the club to find Roger on the phone and obviously busy so I "unwrapped" WAM and preflighted, etc.  Full fuel tanks, no problems with the plane so back into the clubhouse for a "nervous leak". Roger was ready to go by then and mentioned we would do some terrain awareness stuff as well as the BFR syllabus.

The wind was 250º at 12 knots (duty runway 18L) so we should get the x-wind take off and landing part done if nothing else.  We were cleared for an East departure and headed over to Karapiro, which wasn't the original intention but there looked to be a heavy shower with poor vis to the S of Maungatautari where we had hoped to do the low flying part.  Once out of the zone we climbed up to 2000' and over the lake it was a steep turn each way - aced those - big smile inside (all the Stearman/Cub experience?).

Then it was basic, power & flap and wing-drop stalls.  The first two were fine.  Roger got me to keep going with the basic stall until I felt the plane start to stall and the recover - did that, judging the stall from the buffet on the column leading to the very start of a nose drop and Rog said that was very good (more smiling).  I had a bit of trouble with the wing drop first time but got it right after a demo from Rog.  I was far too fast with the triad of full reverse rudder, full power and wings level.  Roger got me to apply enough rudder to stop the yaw first and then do the rest of the recovery sequence and, hey, it worked - thanks Rog :)

Then we went into a valley between Maungatautari village and the mountain, descending to 1200' (about 6-700' agl) for a bit of low flying/terrain awareness stuff.  Very interesting and great fun.  We did a bit of low flying, some valley turns - a 172 turns so tight!!, and a saddle cross to finish off.  Roger picked me up on not leading with power for the valley turn on my first go and I drifted up a bit travelling up the valley.  Definitely not Southern Alps stuff but a good introduction.

Back over to Lake Karapiro and time for a forced landing.  We tracked towards the North-South arm of the lake, crossed to the Eastern shore where, having sorted out the wind direction, recrossed to the West, chose a paddock and Roger pulled the throttle.  We were only at 2000' so having traded height for airspeed and trimmed for 65Kt I decided to skip the 1500' area and head around to the left for my 1000' point - a building on the lake shore my side of the paddock - doing my engine failure checks on the way.  It was a right hand circuit to land, passing over the lake and turning right to approach the field.  A bit high and fast on turning final so, down came full flap and I got the speed and glide about right to make my nominated paddock and Roger said, "Go around".

Back to base for some circuits. On the first downwind the tower instructed me for a short approach which I made a bit of a hash of and ended up going around.  Right hand circuit for a reasonable cross wind landing next, except that I lost a bit too much speed in the flare and stalled it the last few centimetres onto the runway.  Lastly, we did a flapless approach and landing which was all very good and, after remembering to do all the after landing and shutdown checks, it was into the clubhouse to sort the paperwork out.  Great!- BFR nailed and, as always with Roger, I learned some stuff, too!

IT HAS ARRIVED!!!!

Whoo hoo - a courier man arrived at the doorstep yesterday morning with a 30cm cardboard cube and inside was......

Yep, that's right the helmet I have had on order from Campbell Aero Classics for the past wee while.  OK, OK, that's enough of the "Biggles" jokes and comments, I don't think the shell of his flying hat was Kevlar and there wouldn't have been any fancy electrics inside!!

This is going to make it sooooo much easier flying the Stearman.  I couldn't wait to try it out so I brought it along to the club today to see if and how well it worked.  I had booked JGP for a couple of hours to have a practice before my BFR which is due soon.  So, once seated and ready to start, I put the helmet on, feeling a little ridiculous, and started up.  Noise reduction excellent, I could barely hear the engine.  Avionics on, and I wondered what the odd noises were.  I soon realised that this baby is really sensitive and I was picking up much more radio "clutter" than I normally would in my normal, very good Dave Clark headset.  Still, the ATIS came through loud and clear as did the tower and they had no problems hearing me.
The lid was a good, firm, not too tight fit but did get a little warm.  That shouldn't be a problem in the Stearman's open cockpit, though.  Wearing the mask there was a bit of condensation on my glasses initially but once I had it adjusted properly all was well.
So, into the circuit.  The tower warned me of IFR traffic (an Orion and a Beech 1900 doing IFR approach and circuits) that might interrupt proceedings and that turned out to be true.  I ended up doing two full stops and backtracks on 36L because of wake turbulence (and went around on another because I was too "hot and high" on a glide approach - that's a Cessna for you).  I also ended up orbiting over Rukuhia to allow the IFR folks some space on one circuit.  I didn't mind because the "stop and goes" were a chance to practice maximum performance take-offs.  My precision landing wasn't too bad either.  I did a classic Cessna bounce on one T&G - long time since I have done that and was a bit annoyed with myself.
After about 45 minutes of this I packed it in.  I had really wanted to practice the rest of the BFR stuff but it was rather cloudy all around and didn't think I would get clear and high enough to do stalls and steep turns.  Still, I had fun, anyway.  Have a booking with Roger in two weeks to have a go at the BFR assessment. 

MATAMATA AGAIN...

I was a little concerned at the weather forecast last night with patches of fog predicted and, indeed, it was pretty foggy south of Hamilton but the airport was clear and it looked good to fly over to Tauranga in C172, WAM for another session on the Stearman.  There was a fair bit of cloud and haze about but nothing too bothersome for VFR (a different story further south - see below).  I flew over the Kaimais a little further East than usual tracking along highway 29 to cross over at the road summit and down the Wairoa River valley the other side until cleared for a Racecourse 1 arrival and then into the circuit for 25 and a good landing.

On the way via Hwy 29.  Te Poi centre left, Matamata in the background below the range.  The road starts to climb over the hills a few Km to the right

I met up with Pete at Classic flyers and after a phone call to suss out the weather we were off to Matamata in the Stearman over Thompson's Track saddle, a repeat of a few weeks ago.  We followed a 172 in - they were from Ardmore on a CPL cross-country and had turned back from Raglan to Te Kuiti due to the fog which was quite bad over the King Country.

Overhead NZMA on the way home - can you spot the aircraft below? (answer at the bottom of the post)

I had felt pretty much in the groove in the front cockpit on the way there but once we had landed and swapped seats for some circuits it was a different story.

My circuits were not too bad but I was having real trouble with the headset of the soft helmet in rear cockpit - hopefully my "proper" helmet will be here soon.  The amount of wind noise and the difficulty hearing Pete from the front was somewhat distracting.  I nearly lost it on one take off, swinging to the left but got it straightened up (sort of) and up off the ground OK.

After about six or seven circuits it was a full stop, swap seats and back to Tauranga via Highway 29.  Reckon I was a bit tired after the hard work at Matamata as Pete picked me up a bit on balance and right wing down (think I was trying to get a leaky left side earpiece of the soft helmet out of the wind and holding my head crooked with resultant misjudgement of the plane's attitude).

Not a bad approach and landing back at Tauranga, then a quick lunch and back to Hamilton.  The wind had got up since I left with enough of a crosswind on 18 (about 7-8 knots) to make it interesting.  I did a very acceptable cross wind landing which was very pleasing.  Just after I shut down my phone rang.  By the time I had retrieved it from my bag the call had gone - an 03 number.  I returned the call and it was Airways - yep, I was overdue on my SARTIME - whoops - after all the Stearman excitement I had lost track of time.  There's always something for the learning curve, eh?

2.8 hours on the Stearman plus 1.3 hours in WAM = 4.1 hours for the day!!  (Don't tell the Bank Manager!!!)

There he is, centre of this enlargement - about 1500' below me and I didn't spot him until he was over the trees to the right - was joining the circuit for 28 from his radio call.  Did you pick him on the photo above??  Sorry, no prize =)

THE FIRST FLIGHTS OF SPRING

Tuesday 6th September

A Sea of Cloud:

I had booked the Arrow, DQV, to take me over to Tauranga for another session with instructor, Pete in the Stearman.  I arrived just before 0900 and got the plane out of its hangar.  The sky was clear over Hamilton city and airport but there was a lot of ground mist and haze around that I could see on my drive from home.  After preflighting and filing a flight plan I set off for Tauranga.  With an approximately 10 knot wind almost directly behind me it was 19 minutes from lining up on runway 18L at Hamilton to vacating Seal 07 at Tauranga - 43 nautical miles at average ground speed of 135 knots.  

Not at all bad.  That wasn't the full story, though.  After departure and making a climbing left turn to track East there was a lot of light ground mist about and the haze made to Kaimai ridge difficult to see.  Having cleared the zone and the 2500' lower level control area I climbed to 3500' for a look.  I was aware I would have less time to think about options in the Arrow than in the significantly slower 172 and the scene ahead was just a tad disturbing.  There appeared to be a whitish sea of cloud from the Kaimai ridge to the horizon (where the sea should have been).   Appearances can be deceptive, though.  Once past Matamata I could see that the appearance was due to a combination of the haze, cloud on my side of the ridge and the North-easterly sun reflecting off the cloud and the sea beyond giving the illusion of whiteness ahead.  

The sea of cloud looking Northeast......

....and looking Northwest - I am heading for the clear bit in between

By now I could see the peaks of the ridge and the saddle at Wairere where I intended to cross.  So, no real worries and, once over the ridge, I called Tauranga, was cleared into the zone to the hospital (as usual) and when approaching the reporting point was asked if I would accept runway 07 with 3 knot tailwind.  Nice long concrete runway and should be no problem, so I called "Affirm" and was cleared right base for 07 seal.  Time to slow down, get the wheels down and it was an uneventful approach and after a little bit of a float in the tailwind I pretty much rolled the wheels on the tarmac - great!

Of fabric and knees:

After the great flight over I was looking forward to a few circuits in the Stearman.  Pete asked me to preflight and while reaching into the rear cockpit for the fuel drainer I let my weight shift forward onto my bent right knee which was resting against the fabric between the frame runners and, "Bang", I had ripped a small hole in the fabric, Dammit!  Pete didn't seem too annoyed and went off to fetch some duct tape for a spot of running repairs.  The hole was in an area that will need patching at some stage anyway (peeling paint and looked a bit thin to my eye) so no major problem, except I did feel very foolish.  A salutary lesson about being very careful with "rag-and-tube" constructed vintage aircraft.

Good old Duct Tape!!

It got better from then on.  We spent about 45 minutes in the circuit and I flew quite well.  Nice rectangular shapes and keeping at 1000' on downwind fairly accurately.  I wasn't too happy with a couple of the landings but at the end Pete said he thought my landings were getting better and it was getting the climb-out attitude (for 65-70 knots) and direction (not drifting either side and keeping in balance) that needed a bit of work.  So, not too bad and that made me feel a bit better. 

Back Home:

Well, it may be historic one day!!!

Then it was time to hop into the Arrow and head back to Hamilton for lunch.  There were clear skies to the Kaimais and less haze around but the clouds were building up and it was a bit bumpy over the ridge.  Once past Matamata I called Hamilton and was cleared to join right base for 25 left.  So I tracked towards Matangi and at the appropriate point slowed down a bit to let the wheels down, turned base and did a pretty good approach and landing.  It seemed rather fast but, after six or so landings at about 55 knots in the Stearman, 70 knots over the threshold on a shorter runway in the Arrow should feel a bit quick!; plenty of room to stop, though.  Another good day's flying and should be able to do the Stearman thing again in a few weeks.

SPRING IS IN THE AIR

Winter is over - officially the last day was Wednesday, 31st August.  However, the Winter was not too bad for my flying.  I seemed to make bookings which, in the main, avoided the bad days and had flights on some that were "absolute crackers" (to quote weatherman Jim Hickey!).

I had a troll through my logbook and found that I had flown 14.3 hours for the Winter quarter (June-August), 8.4 P in C and 5.9 Dual (all in the Cub or Stearman except 0.4 in the Arrow as a currency check).  Not too bad and more than in either the last Summer (11.8) and Spring (6.0) quarters.  Great fun, all of it and here's hoping that the Spring brings fine flying weather and I can carry on with the flying momentum.

CAPITAL WEEKEND

This is just a quickie to share a few photos from last weekend.  Myself, wife and youngest daughter flew courtesy Air New Zealand to Wellington for a weekend visit to our oldest girl.  I took a few photos at Hamilton and Wellington airports and here some of them are:

We saw this RNZAF Hercules "04" tracking out just to the East of our house looking to be going to the hold point for a 18 instrument approach.  We saw it do a couple of touch and goes while waiting for our flight and then it taxied off to the apron.  Very backlit as I was "trapped" in the terminal - this was the best of four shots I took.

Wellington on a lovely day - shame we had to leave!  Eagle Air ZK-EAC and Air NZ 737, ZK-NGJ on the apron

Pacific Blue, ZK-PBL just arrived and taxying towards its gate

A SINGLE DAY RECORD

Tuesday 23rd August

Wow!!  3.6 hours in the logbook, a one-day record for me.  So, the story of the day goes something like this...

The plan was the same as two and four weeks ago; fly to Tauranga, go up in the Stearman, and then back home in the afternoon.  And, today, things went to plan, well, almost.

NZ Warbirds Association DC3/Dakota outside Aeromotive at Hamilton Airport - here for servicing

The morning dawned with broken cloud at about 1500' around our house (10km NE of the airport) and no wind to speak of.  By the time I got to the club at 0900 the sky over the field was clear, but there was a lot of lowish cloud all around, sort of fog at 1500-2000' agl.  So, it was good to go and instructor, Ash signed me out, I filed a flight plan and set off in C-172, WAM.  As I headed out towards Scotsman Valley (North-east) visibility was good up to about 1500' and then I was in haze just below a flat, white cloud base at about 2300' or so.  Ahead and to the left of me it appeared clear over Matamata and Morrinsville but there was a shroud of cloud over the ridge of the Kaimai range almost totally obscuring the peaks.
Once clear of the zone and the 2500' lower level control area I climbed to about 3000' to get a better look at the weather ahead (I was just west of Matamata and in the clear bit).  Having got a better view there was a white sheet of cloud hugging the ridge, about 2100' base and 3500' tops on the Waikato (my) side.  Beyond that the Bay of Plenty coast looked clear but there were only one or two gaps where the ridge could be seen, just where some jagged peaks were.  I considered my options: carry on towards the ridge, climbing up to 4500' (control zone lower level) and go "over the top" descending the other side once clear of the white stuff (Hmm!! can just see the CAA fatal accident report summary: The pilot was appropriately licensed and fit for the flight; A total engine failure occurred while above cloud obscuring inhospitable terrain...... - well, you can guess the rest), NOT TEMPTING!; turn to the left and head towards the Waihi Gap as I had already observed before climbing that it was clear from Morrinsville to Paeroa just beyond the gap - definitely better and, if the gap was not passable I could head for home knowing the route back was OK.

So, a turn to the North, descending to 2000' and pretty soon I was at the western end of the gap where the clouds were at 2100' but only for a few hundred metres eastbound.  Beyond that, all was clear and it looked like a fabulous day in the Bay; at least 40km visibility and no cloud beyond the coast side of the range.  Great!  Good decision.  An uneventful Matakana arrival and a fairly good landing (about 5kt crosswind left-to-right) on grass runway 25.  HN-TG via the Waihi Gap; 0.8 hours.

Stearman 03 and WAM together - gives an idea of the size of the biplane - quite a bit bigger than a Tiger Moth or even a 172

Instructor Pete and the Stearman were pretty much ready to go and after getting a weather report from me he reckoned the Matamata plan we had discussed previously was on and we should head back to the gap as the ridge was still pretty cloudy (looked a lot better from the Tauranga side, though).  This was fun, my first cross-country in the Stearman.  We chugged along at the 80 knots that the biplane cruises at along the western edge of Tauranga harbour and were able to take a bit of a short cut over the range at Thompson's track just to the West of Katikati and then direct to Matamata.  With the variable, light wind at ground level we could have chosen either runway 10 or 28 to land on but as we got nearer we heard a plane call downwind for 10 so that was our cue.  We headed past the airfield towards Waharoa, passing over the town to join right hand for 10 and my landing was not too bad at all for a first time in the Stearman at this field. TG-MA; 0.7 hours.

Thought I'd include a map to orient those unfamiliar with our area: Matamata with its MBZ (circle of blue dots) is bottom left, Tauranga and Mount Maunganui to the  lower right (blue ring around the Mount), Matakana Island between the Pacific Ocean and Tauranga Harbour runs from the Mount to Waihi Beach and the Waihi Gap is top centre to left.

We stopped and I changed into the rear (pilot's) seat and off we went for a session of circuits.  I lost count after five but I think we did seven, or maybe eight.  Not too bad, I kept pretty tight in the circuit and was only once guilty of losing height late downwind while runway-watching.  I was a touch fast on some of the approaches but managed to pretty much sort it out to be 60-65 over the threshold and was happy with four of the landings - the others not so good with one "early" touch that was a bit hard but, as Pete said later, the Stearman is bult to take that sort of thing. then it was time to swap seats again (the soft helmet which is provided with the plane is not up to the radio work needed from the rear at a controlled aerodrome - I have a "proper" lid coming - maybe in another 3 weeks).  Circuits at MA; 0.8 hours

We took a different route back, over to Wairere falls first where we had been told there was a crashed glider (didn't see it) and then I flew along the ridge, just on the western side and crossed where highway 29 passes flying along the road to Ruahihi Power Station where Pete called the tower and we were cleared to the hospital and then to join left hand for 25 grass.  This was a pretty good approach with a reasonable landing and we taxied back to the Avgas cafe for a well earned coffee and a spot of lunch for me.  MA-TG; 0.7 hours

Finally, it was back into WAM and home to Hamilton.  The ridge was now almost clear of cloud enabling me to fly the most direct route, crossing the ridge over the falls at 3500' (>1000' above the ridge) and into the Waikato haze really noticeable after the clear air of the Bay of Plenty.  Not my best landing back at Hamilton - maybe I was thinking I was still in a taildragger!!  TG-HN; 0.6 hours.  Grand total 3.6 hours.

PLAN "B"

Tuesday 9th August

If Plan "A" doesn't work out then it is wise to have a plan "B" if you wish to achieve your goal.  Well, my goal for today was to get over to Tauranga in Piper Archer, WIT to go flying in the Stearman again. A short cross country over to Matamata for some circuits at an uncontrolled airfield was the intention.  The weather forecast was good but this morning the scene outside the Aero Club is show in the photo below.

Sun filters through the fog giving a monochrome effect as WAM waits optimisticly by the fuel pumps

Yes, the good old Waikato fog came with the dawn this morning.  It looked pretty clear from our house just before dawn but as the sun came up the light mist over the open areas thickened (I won't bore you with the meteorological reasons why that happens) and by the time I arrived at the club the visibility was around 100 metres as you can see.  The sun was making a gallant effort to break through as the fog layer was only a hundred feet or so thick.  However, the ground level stuff thickened noticeably while I had a cup of tea and Plan "B" was executed (prompted by CFI, Roger, but I already had it in the back of my mind).

Plan "B" involved jumping back in the car and driving over to Tauranga (about 90 minutes drive) having phoned Classic Flyers instructor, Pete to warn him I would be a little late.  He wasn't concerned about that and I arrived there at around 1050, 20 minutes later than my (conservative) estimate of 1030 if I had flown over.  There was fog or low cloud throughout the Waikato and clearer weather was only reached once well over the Kaimais and about a third or the way down the seaward dip slope.

It  was certainly flyable over there with a 3000' cloud base and hardly any wind but going back over the range to Matamata was out of the question as the whole ridge was shrouded in cloud.  The Stearman's oil tank had been warmed up and after preflighting and getting suited up we were on our way.  The wind was light but variable and there were a few gentle bumps at 1000' but nothing to be concerned about.  We tracked over to Katikati for some turns - all pretty good - and then back for circuits.  There was a fair bit of circuit traffic about but we got through six circuits, the first three at 1000' and the next set at low level (500').  It was rather strange to see the runway so close, almost as if we had barely left the ground.  I managed quite well but, because of traffic, we needed to do a couple of short approaches and Pete had to do a bit more "talking through" with me.  Most of the touch downs were three-pointers with only a minor bounce on two.  I am tending to "round-out" a little high, Pete reckoned (as if I am flying a tricycle gear plane and worried about the nosewheel, I think) but overall, not too bad and he reckons I am "getting it" now.  I felt I was not quite as good as two weeks ago but today's conditions weren't as perfect so I guess I should be content with my efforts today.

A quick summary: I now have a grand total of 14.7 hours tailwheel time; 7.2 in the Stearman, 4.4 in a Cessna 180 and 3.1 in the Super Cub (out of 330.2 total hours so still <5% of my total experience).

THOSE WEATHER "GODS" KEEP SMILING

Tuesday 2nd August

Once again, I have been fortunate with the weather.  Surface wind was variable, 3 knots, scattered cloud at 4500' and 2000' wind variable, 5 knots.  So, nice and smooth and no wind-shear.  I had DQV (Piper Arrow) booked and it was a familiar "local" over to the west coast at Raglan via a City departure and then back for a circuit - one only as it was starting to get a bit crowded - long time since I have had four traffic advisory calls (apart from runway sequencing) in a single arrival and one circuit.  Good that the visibility was OK, but a bit of haze to the East of the airport with lowish sun was causing a fair bit of glare on downwind for 18, so it was probably for the best that I forgot about the turning off the landing light on the climb out after my touch and go. That should have made it easier to be seen, although DQV's bright blue and orange probably showed up better that those (nearly) all-white Cessnas and Katanas.

So, that was my brief flight today (0.8 hrs in the book) and now to the Hall of Fame.  Tempting though it is to concentrate on the well-known combat pilots that everyone is familiar with, as an all-round science geek I have a soft spot for the designers and engineers that made it all happen.  So, the two new additions are:

Sir Barnes Neville Wallis who should need no introduction.  The archetypal "Boffin", working for Vickers for most of his career, he played a large part in  airship (R100) and aircraft (Wellington bomber) design, but is probably best known for his work on "Upkeep", the cylindrical mine used by 617 Squadron to bomb the Ruhr dams.  He was also instrumental in designing the "Swing-wing" (variable geometry wing) which, when funding in the UK was cut, was further developed in the US and used on the F-14 Tomcat and F-111 among other designs.


The next in my personal Hall-of-Fame is probably less well known.  Roy Chadwick was chief designer at Avro from 1919 until his tragic death in an air crash in 1947.  He is best known for the Avro Lancaster and also designed the modifications to enable the "Lanc" to carry Wallis's "Upkeep" on the Dams raid (Operation "Chastise").  He also had a major hand in the Avro Lincoln (the Lancaster's successor) and early work on jet design which led to the Avro Vulcan.


That's all for now.  Weather permitting, I should be flying the Stearman again next week.

THE BIG CHILL

Tuesday 26th July

It may have become cold with the icy blast from the Antarctic sweeping up the country but I had a warm glow inside after today's flights.  Yes, I said flights - plural!

After the awful weather for VFR flying over the past week or so I had my fingers crossed pretty tightly for today as I had plans to take C172 "WAM" from Hamilton to Tauranga, go up with Classic Flyers instructor Pete in either the Super Cub or the Stearman and then fly WAM back to Hamilton.  As it turned out, things went pretty much to plan.

The weather forecast for today had looked somewhat dodgy up until last night's 6 o'clock news which gave a good forecast for the Waikato and Bay of Plenty areas, but (isn't there always a but) with the clearing skies the night was to be cold and at 0730 this morning I logged onto IFIS and saw this ATIS for Hamilton:

HAMILTON (NZHN): ATIS NZHN C 1921 APCH: EXPECT VISUAL APPROACH RWY:  18L SFC COND: DRY WIND: VRB02 VIS:  50KM CLD:  NSC TEMPERATURE: M03 DEW POINT: M04 QNH:  1019 2000FT WIND: FORECAST 220/20= 

I shall translate for non aviation types: Automatic Terminal Information Service for Hamilton "Charlie" issued at 1921 UTC (7.21 am): Duty runway 18 left with conditions suitable for a visual approach, dry surface, variable wind at 2 knots, 50km visibility, no significant cloud (could see that looking out the upstairs windows at home), temperature -3C, dew point -4C; pressure 1019 hectopascals (or 30.09" mercury if you prefer)  2000' Wind 220º magnetic at 20 knots

So, it was cold (for Hamilton) but atmospheric pressure had risen considerably with the high moving over us during the night and it would be a quick flight outbound with the 20 knot wind more or less behind me.  And so it was.  I took my time preflighting, checking surfaces for frost or ice and then went back in to file a flight plan (and thaw out was Roger's comment).  I started up at about 0935 and was holding for 18 at 0950, cleared immediate take-off and was into the Tauranga circuit about 20 minutes later (estimated ground speed of around 135 knots).  It was smooth as silk at 3500' but as soon as I started to descend on the Northeast (lee) side of the Kaimais there was a fair amount of turbulence (as expected with the brisk Southwester).  WAM and I rode it out pretty well but I think any passengers would have been feeling a bit queasy!!  The turbulence was worse on the way back but smoothed out as soon as I was able to get above 3000'.
I parked up and stolled round to Classic Flyers to find instructor, Pete.  I noticed the Stearman had its oil tank heater plugged in and there was no sign of the Super Cub so was not too surprised when Pete announced we would be going up in the biplane as the cub was still in maintenance.  7ºC in an open cockpit - BRRR!  I donned a flight suit over my other two layers, did the usual walk around and once Pete was happy about the oil we got in and started up.  The radial started up at the second attempt after an extra prime and we taxied on idle round to hold for Grass 25.  There was a 10 minute pause while the oil temperature gauge slowly crept up from 15 to 40ºC then engine run-up and pre take-off checks and onto the runway and off to operate over Matakana Island.  

The first take-off was good and much easier than I recalled from my previous flights.  Maybe all that work in the Cub had paid off.  Once over Matakana Pete got me to do some medium and then steep turns which were all in the acceptable to good range so we headed back into the circuit.

It had been pretty cold at 1500' and was not any warmer down at circuit height (1000').  My thumbs were getting a little numb but the rest of me was fine.  We were cleared for a right hand downwind for 25 grass and, with a little coaching from the back I did a very nice approach and touch and go keeping straight with rudder and only a slight drift into the minor left to right cross wind on climb out.
Four left hand circuits followed with pretty good approaches, crabbing a little to the left into the wind on final giving an excellent (if a bit draughty) view of the runway and all my landings were three-pointers and only one slight bounce. There was a bit of a cough and splutter from the engine when I was a touch enthusiastic with the throttle on one touch and go (must remember that radials are very sensitive and need careful handling!).  After the last we taxied back to the hangar for a warm up and coffee (plus lunch for me) at the Avgas cafe. 

Pete's immediate comment was that it was all pretty good.  My rudder control on landing and takeoff was fine and no real negatives at all.  Nice warm glow inside for me - finally feel I am becoming competent on taildraggers.  Have booked for an action replay in two weeks.


And now a few photos...

Sun off the sea and glinting off the prop bottom right

Beautiful day at Tauranga Airport

That radial that needs a lot of "babying"

  ZK-SAQ - parked outside Classic Flyers and described by Pete as a "Scary-looking microlight"  Actually a  Fly Synthesis Storch S registered to Sport Aviation Corp, Hamilton.

Air Nelson Dash-8 ZK-NFA about to roll the wheels onto the concrete - note the cross-wind technique with the left (right as we look) wing and mainwheel down

BATTERIES!!!!

Saturday 16th July

Flat ones, that is.  I shall start at the beginning, though.
Our eldest daughter, Eleanor was up from Wellington for a long weekend (middle daughter's 21st) and, as she enjoys a flight with me, I had booked Archer III, WIT for the afternoon with the intention of going somewhere for an expensive coffee.  After all the terrible weather of the past week the probability of going up did not seem good.  However, Saturday started with a bit of fog which cleared by mid-morning and, with only light winds, it all looked good.  There was a front on its way later but the skies were clear at 1245 when we arrived at the club so I thought a quick hop over to Taraunga and back would be OK.
After pre-flighting WIT we got in, switched on and I pressed the primer button and didn't hear anything - hmmmm.....  Pushed the starter and the prop managed a turn of about 20º before all power died.  Oh dear!  I tried twice more with ever decreasing results so it was pretty clear the battery was as flat as the proverbial Shrove Tuesday food.
So, we unstrapped, got out and I strolled over to the club to report the problem.  A junior instructor and a student brought over the external starter pack and tried to connect it but, in spite of following the flight manual instructions could not get any juice to flow!  We unloaded our gear and changed over to UFS (an Archer II).  
We were now about an hour behind schedule and the front appeared to be on its way from the southwest so I cancelled our flight plan and decided a local scenic was the way to go.  We took a Scott (NE) departure and headed over to Morrinsville.  Looking over to the West the visibility was reducing significantly and so we headed back over to the city and got a North arrival clearance.  We had good views of flooded paddocks and broken river banks after all the rain - Eleanor took some video which I will try to get edited and posted sometime soon.
The airfield was quite busy with several aircraft in the circuit and a lot of radio traffic - I guess CTC were playing catch-up after a week of no-VFR weather.    It was a surprisingly uneventful approach, cleared to join right base for 18R (the short runway) and I did a pretty nice landing {Eleanor thought so and it is always good to impress the passenger(s)}.  The rain started soon afterwards but was very light and we could have been up for longer but you are almost never wrong if you take the option which looks safest!  At least we managed to get up in the air which, with the recent weather and then a near-totally dead battery, did not seem likely for a while.    

HALL OF FAME

I am a regular reader/follower of Flight Level 390, another flying blog by "Captain Dave", an American commercial pilot with a domestic airline whose posts are always a good read.  On his blog he has a "Hall of Fame" of his aviation "heroes" and, being an American, yes, they are all (or almost all) American.  Well, sorry to disappoint you, Dave, but there are/were famous flyers in other countries.  So, I shall reciprocate with a British/Commonwealth bias as I am a Pom (Englishman) living in NZ for the past 20-odd years.

The first addition is a New Zealander who, in other aviator's words:

"... could have lost the war in a single day or even an afternoon" (Johnnie Johnson)

"If any man won the Battle of Britain, he did..." (Lord Tedder)

"... the awesome responsibility for this country's survival rested squarely on (his) shoulders..." (Douglas Bader)

The man is, of course, Air Chief Marshall Sir Keith Park, who commanded 11 Group (as an Air Vice Marshall) in the South-east of England during the Battle of Britain.  After that victory, due to jealousy and RAF politics he was quite shabbily treated but, unlike those who sought to belittle him, it was his statue that adorned the fourth plinth at Trafalgar Square in London (in 2009) and is now permanently located at Waterloo Place since Battle of Britain Day, 2010.

A replica of his Hurricane, OK 1 is the gate guardian at the aviation section of MOTAT (Museum of Transport and Technology), Auckland, NZ.

The second aviator is Captain Joseph "Mutt" Summers, chief test pilot for Vickers-Armstrong and (after a V-A takeover) Supermarine.  As such, he was the first man to fly the Spitfire, 5th March 1936 - from Eastleigh, Hampshire (Supermarine's local field and my wife's home town).  He flew a record (for a test pilot) of 54 first flights and was instrumental in the initial test flying/dropping of the "Upkeep" bouncing bomb prior to the "Dambusters" raid.  You can "Google" why he got his nickname and, yes, it does have something to do with dog's habits!

CHALLENGING CONDITIONS

Well, challenging for me, at least!!

I turned up to the club at the appointed time of 1000 fully expecting to have a cup of tea and a yarn as conditions looked somewhat marginal to say the least (low cloud surrounding the airport and showers around).  I had the Arrow, DQV, booked for a dual "currency catch-up" with Roger, our CFI as I had not flown the retractable for about 8 months.
Roger had a look outside and pronounced it flyable for some circuits and sent me off to preflight DQV in the hangar as it was actively raining (only a light shower at this stage). Roger duly arrived and we pulled the plane half out of the hangar only just onto the grass, started up and taxied off around two planes parked nearby making a beeline for the nearest concrete taxiway without delay.  The grass was very boggy after further rain and significantly more cut up than last week.
Once on "terra firma", I switched on the radios, got the ATIS (one good thing - no wind to speak of), and was cleared into the circuit off 18.  Now, I will start with the best thing of the whole flight - Roger made no comments about any of my landings.  The only comment was by me that I was a bit off the centreline on my first touch and go to which Roger merely said I would be OK next time.  We did five circuits in all and I remembered gear up and down, power and pitch at the appropriate times.
There were a couple of negatives, though.  We were given a right hand circuit second time around which put us into the moderate shower which was parked to the North and West of the field (also flew into it at the end of downwind on some of the left-handers).  I found myself concentrating on keeping the runway in view that I forgot about the trim change after gear down and slowly drifted down to 800' indicated by the time I turned base.  Remember to fly the aeroplane first was Roger's comment.  I also got a bit high on one approach and a little low on another but had them all sorted out in time to make good touchdowns.
Good fun.  It was not a day I would have been happy about going up alone but as always with Roger it was great value and good for me to fly in "challenging" conditions and to feel current again on a retractable, constant-speed prop type.  Thanks, Rog.   

SURFACE CONDITION

One look at the photo below tells all.

After the deluge!

TZF - an Alpha 2160 which the club is using at present - possibly because the others are all up for their 2000 hour overhauls - or is this a new club plane? (Still registered to Alpha Aviation)

After about 72 hours of near continuous rain here in the Waikato, this morning dawned bright and clear and should be good to fly.  I had WAM booked for a quick flit over to Tauranga for an expensive coffee.  The ATIS for Hamilton was variable 2 knot wind and sky clear, Tauranga, 7 knots from the South (but from the metservice forecast would be tending more westerly as the morning progressed), sky clear and all grass runways closed (surprise, surprise!!)

What a stunner!!  Well, you can see that from the photos.  There were still a few clouds around the Kaimais at around 2000-2500' but nothing to worry about.  It was fairly quiet around Hamilton and I got a clearance on track Tauranga 2500' or below straight away and once clear of the zone and the 2500'LL controlled space climbed up to 3500', put the autopilot on and sat back to admire the view.

There wasn't too much time to relax, though as it was soon time to get the Tauranga ATIS (wind now 230º at 9 knots, so metservice were right) and I called the tower at the ridge 2 miles south of "Tunnel" reporting point.  Cleared straight to the hospital 2500' or below and once approaching the hospital to join left hand downwind for seal 25.  Once on final I could see that there was a light crosswind, probably about 4 knots so I was crabbing very slightly.  The landing wasn't bad, upwind wheel down first but the flare was a tad late and it felt like the downwind main and nosewheel touched pretty much together so not as nice as I would have liked.

Clouds over the Kaimai ridge - Wairere Falls bottom left

Looking the other way - Mount Te Aroha (952m/3123ft) top left

Then it was off to the Avgas cafe for a brunch of creamy mushrooms and a flat white which went down very nicely, thank you.  Then, with stuff to do at home this afternoon it was time to wing it back to Hamilton.  If anything, the view was better on the way back with a higher sun and a few more clouds on the hills to make it interesting.   The landing back in Hamilton was as perfect as I could wish for.  Light wind, variable 2Kt still on the ATIS, pretty much straight down the  18R runway (you could see the variability as the most northerly windsock was pointing about 30º to the West, the middle one abeam 18R threshold pointing directly North and when I looked after landing the sock at the Southern end was facing directly East!) and so it was full flap and about 65kt over the threshold closing the throttle and rolling the mains dead centre on the narrow seal just beyond the thrashold and I could have stopped in less than half the length of the strip.  Very pleased - wish I could do that every time!!

There is always something, though.  When cleared into the Hamilton zone I was intructed to change frequencies and didn't (well, I thought I had as my finger moved towards the right button on the radio so maybe I didn't press it hard enough or could have accidentally given it a double tap and switched back).  No visual check until I was approaching Matangi and realised I was still on 122.9.  The tower had tried to call me a couple of times and when I did eventually report on 128.6 but were not too annoyed and accepted my apology.  I was very annoyed with myself as this was a glitch that spoiled an otherwise wonderful flight.

That was the third flight in 10 days so June is turning out to be a good month for flying.  Did a few circuits and a short local last Tuesday in WIT and had another go in the Super Cub at Tauranga the Sunday before that (again, a clear day after about 36 hours rain).