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).