Confessions of an NZ PropellerHead: 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...........