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.