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!!