TAUPO TRIP

Two cross countries in a week - not bad!  The lovely wifey told me the other day she was off out this afternoon with friends and suggested I could go for a fly.  Great!!  The only 172 or Archer available was FWS so I booked that and planned a flight to Taupo.

Now, I reckon there are crosswinds and CROSSWINDS!!!!  The lower case ones are at a constant angle and not gusty.  Such was the case at Taupo this afternoon.  The AWIB gave wind at 080º at 11 knots and listening to the calls from other traffic 17 was the "duty" runway.  11 knots of crosswind is about my maximum so I made an early decision to go around if conditions looked worse.  Well, the windsocks were at a constant angle and direction throughout and my landing was nowhere near perfect but not too shabby - I kept straight down the runway as I flared and the upwind wheel touched down first.  I stayed to take a few photos of planes and parachutists, had a cup of hot chocolate at the terminal and returned to Hamilton.

There was an upper-case-with-exclamation-marks crosswind at Hamilton (well, for me at least), i.e. variable in both strength and direction.  The ATIS gave 060º at 10 knots, maximum 20!  I asked for an approach for 07 but the tower said the current surface wind was more northerly, 050 at 8 and would advise later.  I was eventually cleared right base for 36L and on approach the windsocks were cavorting about somewhat (about 40º variability and 8 to 12 knots at least) and a not so pretty landing resulted.  I came in a bit "hot" and although I kicked straight OK I bounced a few times before coming to rest about 50 metres from the end of the strip.  I was beating myself up a bit about it after an otherwise excellent flight.  Enough said - time for some pictures...........

Heading South over the Waikato

Pitts S-1 ZK-RTP being checked over at Hamilton

Hughes 269C ZK-HXS hovering down runway 17 at Taupo

Tandem skydivers 1

Tandem skydivers 2

Cessna line up - nearest 172A, ZK-BPT registered to a Taupo aviation company

HAMILTON TO TAURANGA AND BACK

Signs that Winter is on its way - Low sun over the sea at 1030.  Waihi and the shadowy Martha Mine in the foreground, Mayor Island in the background

Saturday 19th March

I had prebooked this flight about a month ago when my work colleague, Gavin, asked me if I would take him and his 15 year old son, Mark, who is keen on flying, up for a flight.  Originally I had booked JGP as there was a club trip on but this was changed from all-day to an afternoon jaunt and more aircraft were available, so I changed my booking to WIT.  I thought they would be impressed with the fancy EFIS and other avionics on board (Gavin is a technology enthusiast like most in our profession) and would be more comfortable, too.

I had planned to fly up to Paeroa, then through the Waihi Gap, along the coast of Matakana Island with a landing for coffee at Tauranga before returning direct to Hamilton.  This was modified slightly on passenger request to have a view of the city on the way out so we did a city departure to the North-west turning East to track to Paeroa once North of Ngaruawahia.

The weather was good with only a few patches of fog remaining around the greater Hamilton area and none at the airport or on our intended track.  Wind was Southwesterly at about 3 knots.  We took off uneventfully but on turning downwind to track towards the city it was obvious there was a radio interference problem.  There was a disturbing amount of "white noise" and easy-listening music in the background.  After turning off some avionics (ADF, DME, autopilot) with no effect I turned my attention to our headsets.  As soon as Gavin unplugged his all returned to normal so poor Gavin had to make do with shouting and hand signals for the outward leg.  Inspection of the headset at Tauranga revealed bare wires between the earpieces, probably acting as antennae and picking up the music and other "rubbish".  We also discovered that the radio interference only occurred with the mic lead in so Gavin was able to hear OK on the way back.

We had stunning views over the Waikato and Hauraki plain on the way to Waihi and it stayed clear all the way to Tauranga.  No fog over Matakana Island today.  Gavin never appreciated how extensive the swamp between Tahuna and Paeroa was and now understands why no roads have been built over that area!!

I got the Tauranga ATIS at Waihi Beach.  I called the tower at Bowentown heads and was cleared on a Matakana arrival (seaward of coast, 1500', report approaching harbour mouth).  At the mouth I was instructed to join a "tight" right base for grass 25 - it was more a wide RH downwind and then a shortish approach as I was OK to track the harbour side of the Mount.  The wind was given as 220 at 8 knots so around a 4 knot crosswind but barely noticeable with a straight down the middle, smooth landing on the grass.

Good coffee at the Avgas Cafe as usual.  In the half-hour or so we were there the wind had got up to 220º, 10G18 (G = gusting) so crosswind t/off technique needed.  Our track back to Hamilton was pretty much directly into the wind - GS down to 104 knots (IAS 115 knots).  A bit bumpy over the ridge, not surprising given the gusty breeze and couldn't go higher than 2600' because of a cloud bank just the Tauranga side - once over the top the Waikato was clear.

Tauranga side of the Kaimai range

Approaching Hamilton we were initially cleared for a South arrival - started to track to Cambridge and was than cleared into Scott sector, 1700-2500', track to Matangi.  Hmm - looks like a left base for 18 coming.  Sure was, almost no wind here and another smooth landing, fairly much a precision one, 65KT over the threshold, touching down smoothly just past the displaced threshold marks and able to taxi off at the Echo taxiway (500 metres from the displaced threshold - pretty good WIT, still close to MAUW, and maybe I can take a bit of credit, too!)  Trouble was, there was a plane about to taxi to E1 who was told to hold short but didn't.  I had seen him and stopped.  The tower told me to backtrack along 18R and go via 25 to get to the club but there was no need as said plane turned off onto the grass to make way and was then hand-slapped by the tower as he had encroached on 18R in the process!  Never mind, no collision and all's well that ends well, I guess!!

Gavin summed up the flight in one word, "Stunning!".  Completely agree!!

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Yes, this is still a flying Blog!  I flew to Tauranga today via the Waihi Gap, taking a work colleague and his son with me.  I will post the details of that flight (it was great - "Stunning" was my friend's comment) on a later post.  It was a chance to try out the camera I recently bought, a Canon PowerShot SX30IS.  This is a super zoom "compact" (actually the size of a small SLR) with a 24-840!!!! zoom lens.  I was attracted by the zoom range and a number of favourable reviews and thought it would be a better travel companion than an SLR with a selection of lenses and would be more versatile than a true compact.  Early days yet, but I am quite impressed.  A selection of today's efforts is below:

Hamilton visitors and residents;

ZK-TMR: Grumman-American AA-5A Cheetah - registered to a Mount Maunganui address - our own Alpha, WCD in the background

ZK-DNG: Cessna 206 from Skydive Waikato, Matamata.  They were parachute dropping over Karapiro today.

DNG with a happy (?) band of "meatbombs" aboard taxis out.

ZK-FLO: Piper PA-28-140 also registered to a Mount address, and ZK-TSD: Piper PA-34 Seneca registered locally and usually parked here

At Tauranga;

ZK-FNB Another Seneca - Air Discovery's one - close to widest angle for this

ZK-MJD Titan T51 Mustang - registered locally.  840mm zoom from the opposite end of the runway (almost) and cropped to about 2/3 original area

MJD again - about 500mm zoom here - no crop.  I am quite impressed!

ZK-YAC Yak-52 one of the "classics" based at Tauranga

So, a bunch of snaps from today, hope you like them.  I will post about today's flight sometime later (within a couple of days, hopefully).

RETROSPECTIVE; THE DAY YOU NEVER FORGET.....

Over five years ago now, how time flies, but the flight leading to that little entry in red ink in my logbook is still as clear in my mind as yesterday and I guess it is for most pilots - the first solo.

Saturday 18th February 2006

I had been having a frustrating time for around three months trying to be consistent enough in the circuit for one of the club B-Cats to let me go around on my own.  A few weeks before I had flown a pretty decent set of circuits only to screw up a go-around, the instructor commenting that he couldn't let me go solo after that, dammit!!
So, I was up for a few more laps with Roger, our CFI, in C-152 aerobat, EJZ,and it was pretty busy in the circuit with CTC's Katanas buzzing around.  We did the full gamut of circuit work and things were OK, at least I didn't stuff up a go-around, in fact, I remember Roger saying, "Nothing wrong with that", or words to that effect.  We were landing parallel with a Katana which was drifting towards us and I was keeping my eyes on that, being very conscious that two planes had collided at Palmerston North recently.  Roger told that he was eyeballing the CTC guy and to just concentrate on flying and after our touch-and-go told me to make the next one a full stop.  Well, it was close to 1700 and time to pack it in I thought.
We touched down and Roger told me to taxi off the runway and stop once clear.  That done, he turned to me and said that it was all fine and I should now taxi up closer to the club where he would let himself out and get me to do, "A couple on my own".  Once I had picked my jaw up from my lap I stammered something like, "Do you think I am ready" to which Roger replied that he wouldn't let me go if he wasn't sure I would be OK.
And I was, OK, that is.  I did two circuits, the touch and go and final landing both fine, remembering the plane was a lot lighter now and didn't come down so quickly.  The tower called a "congratulations" to me which I actually missed as I was too quick on the button to reply to the taxi instruction - well, I was pretty excited!!

EJZ - pictured on 14th January 2005 - the day I took my first trial flight.  No longer at WAC but JGP in the background is still here in Hamilton

So pleased.  We were out to dinner as a family that evening as eldest daughter was off to University in Wellington the next day, the first to "flee the nest"; so we had something else to celebrate, too.

UP IN A CUB

Sunday 13th March

Over for an overnighter at Papamoa (lawns need doing once a fortnight at present but it's getting cooler) and off to Classic Flyers again.  I was expecting to go up in the Stearman but Pete had a surprise for me.  He was taking me up in the PA-18 Super Cub that Classic Flyers use.  He thought it would be easier on me than the Stearman and get me into the groove of tailwheel aircraft more easily.

The Cub is dressed up in US Army colours (didn't bring the camera but will do next time) and looks the part of an Army counter-insurgency or FAC type.  It was great fun to fly.  With the light all-up-weight of around 750Kg and the 150hp engine it performs pretty sprightly, taking off in about 200 metres at 45mph (ASI is mph not knots) with no flap and climbs at a good 500fpm at 65mph.  We initially asked and were given clearance to operate over Matakana Island but on the climb out I noticed there was low cloud and a bit of fog over the forested island (the Mount and the beach to the East was clear all the way to Maketu and beyond - could see Mount Edgecombe).  We asked the tower for a new clearance into the Papamoa sector, were given that, 2500' or below, and continued our climbing right hand turn over to main beach and headed just seaward of the coast until out of the control zone and then turned inland over some flat farmland where Pete got me to do a series of 360º turns - all acceptable - and then basic and power-&-flap stalls.  I lost height on the entry to the basic stall but recovered at the onset (preceded by a fair amount of buffet) without significant height loss.  I was very patient (find that hard!!) with the flap stall (takes ages and speed down to about 35mph before onset), maintained height better and recovered with no major height loss.

Well, I reckoned that was all pretty good, so after a clearance back in for circuits, we headed West seaward of the beach turning on a long final for 25 at the appropriate point.  This little bird lands real slow with full flap, about 60mph over the threshold and probably 50 or less on touchdown.  That was all fine and I kept straight while slowing down but then the bit of trouble started.  As I reached down to drop the lever to raise the flaps my hand dragged my headset lead over the bar and the dropping flap lever then tried to pull my headset off.  My head went down to the left and with it my rudder control.  We headed off to the right, Pete gave a "What's he up to" gasp from the back, took control, got us off the ground and handed back to me while I explained what had happened.  Two lessons here; i) make sure my headset lead is clipped securely, and ii) fly the airplane first and foremost - a taildragger should be considered to be flying until parked.

I flew the next circuit OK but Pete's next flight was due, so I called for a full stop, was given a short approach instruction which Pete talked me through and, with only a little help, I managed an acceptable touchdown and taxi off, so quite pleased with that. Action replay in two weeks, weather permitting. 

FINALLY - I THINK I AM STARTING TO GET IT...

Get what, you might ask - getting the hang of the Stearman is the answer......

Sunday 27th February

Absolutely stunning morning in the Tauranga area, no cloud to worry about and hardly a breath of wind.  I had booked an hour with instructor Pete in the Stearman and arrived at Classic Flyers at 0930 to see the Stearman already outside the hangar and being given the "once-over" by Pete.  He gave me a quick briefing; a few circuits then a bit of general flying was the plan.

So, after my preflight, we got in, the ground guy gave it "6 and 6" (that's six primer pumps and six blade turns of the prop for the first flight of the day), started up and we taxied out to the run-up area by the entry to Grass 25.  We had to wait a while with the engine at about 1200rpm until the oil temperature came up to 40ºC (took about 5 minutes) and then did our run up checks (1500rpm, carb heat cycle and mag check), pre takeoff and were cleared to line up and take off into the circuit.

The first take off went fairly well, pretty much straight on the centre line and holding 65 knots nose attitude all the way to leveling off at 1000' on downwind.  I set up for the approach acceptably and, with a bit of coaching from Pete got the plane down on the runway for the touch and go in a straight line and didn't deviate too much from that once on the ground.  Throttle forward, cough, cough, went the engine!!  Back on the throttle a tad then advance a little slower, much better, full throttle, keeping straight with rudder, stick back a touch and off she flies quite nicely.

The next climb out wasn't as good as the first speed control-wise and we were then called for a short approach early on downwind.  So Pete took control and set it up for a short final where he handed back to me.  Not as a good landing this, I thought, but no major dramas and off again for a third circuit.

By now the workload was beginning to tell a bit and I was somewhat all over the place on final, first too high, then a bit low but managed OK with a bit of coaxing. Pete asked for a departure along the beach to the East toward Maketu.  The climb out was not good at all - drifting off the runway heading and needed a nudge from the back seat to get me right. 

Once on the straight and level just seaward of the beach I was fine.  We tracked along to Maketu (about 12 miles from the airport), I did a pretty nice medium turn over the small cliffs there and back along the beach again. (Pete took control for a short while on the way out so I could get a couple of photos).  We were cleared to join final for 25 which was easy - along the beach until the right point to turn about 30º left onto the extended centre line and time to slow down after the turn.  I held a good nose attitude pretty much all the way down, holding off about right ("A little more stick back" from the rear) and landed OK remembering to get the rudders working more as we slowed down (less speed = less rudder authority).  Pete then dropped a big hint we should be vacating the runway by jabbing on the right rudder so I duly complied and taxied back to classic flyers.
Pete seemed quite pleased afterwards; I seem to be making progress.  Next step is to think about getting a decent helmet so when I "graduate" to the rear cockpit I don't have to duck my head out of the slipstream to hear the tower.  Cost of a suitable "lid"?: about an arm and a leg.......!

Finally, a few more photos:

Pete giving "03" its start of day check over

At the run-up area by grass 25 - all those bracing wires!!

Looking back having just left the circuit on downwind

Rear view!