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.
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| The sea of cloud looking Northeast...... |
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| ....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:
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| 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.
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