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 =)