09 August 2014

A BIT OF WINDY CROSS COUNTRY

Having got current again a few weeks ago it was time for a bit of cross country in "WIT", the club's Archer III.  One of my middle daughter's friends, Jordan, had wanted to come flying with me for some time and today was the day.  Over the past week, I hadn't been too optimistic about getting up as we had had rain, wind or both for several days but today dawned bright and clear with a light breeze, at least initially - more on that later!

I arrived at the club and before preflighting discussed my plans (Hamilton (HN) to Tauranga (TG) via the Waihi Gap - coffee at TG then back to HN over the Kaimais) with Instructor, Rob. Well, the wind at TG was against that plan: it had gone from 220º at 11 knots at 0830 when I last checked at home (x-wind on runway 25 approx 6Kt) to 190º at 13Kt at 1000 (12 knot x-wind - too much for me particularly with a likely freshening breeze).  Rob informed me that any significant cross-wind at TG was "no-go" for landing a club aircraft and signed me out with the caveat of no landing at TG.  I told him I would modify my plans and just go to the coast at Waihi and then back to HN.  

By this time Jordan had arrived and I showed him around the plane while pre-flighting and we took off from runway 18L into what appeared to be a strengthening wind (200º at 9Kt at 0830 was 180º at 12 max 15Kt at take off time).  
We left on a West departure over the city turning to track towards Paeroa once North of Horotiu and well clear of the HN control zone.  We had surprisingly few bumps along the way.  There was a bit of wind-shear at 500' above ground level (lower and less than expected, probably indicating that the surface wind was becoming closer to the 2000' forecast wind of 190º at 20Kt). It became a bit bumpy again climbing through 2200' over the city and stayed that way so I elected to go back down to 2000' where it was smooth. I didn't want to upset my "first-timer" passenger. There was one quite big bump between the small hills just North of Morrinsville but otherwise the flight was smooth all the way to the gap and only a few bumps between the hills there (I had climbed up to 2400' by then to get above any "chop" and that worked well).

Jordan seemed to be really enjoying the flight and the scenery by now so we got to the coast at Waihi Beach, did a 180º to track back past the Martha Mine on the right hand side to give Jordan the aerial view of that landmark. Then it was directly back to HN once clear of the gap just South of Paeroa.

At Morrinsville I got the Hamilton ATIS which confirmed the strengthening wind, still 180º but now 17 max 20 knots.  I requested and was given a Mystery Creek arrival.  As I came abeam Matangi I was just about to call the tower when they came on the radio to give me "descent unrestricted, join left base for 18R, number 2 behind Cessna on downwind".  They must have read my mind!  I called back the usual read back including looking for traffic which I spotted a few seconds after making the call - he/she was well in front of me.

Given the wind, I elected 80 knots for base and 70-75 with two stages of flap for final and all seemed to be good until just crossing the threshold, I flared a bit too high, was losing speed, and much faster that I can type this, "Dammit, too high, too slow, this won't end well, go around" flashed though my brain and I had the throttle full open before the thought was finished! Raised flap to one notch, informed the tower, "WIT going around" and then flew a pretty good and accurate circuit back to base leg again having decided to have 75-80Kt on final with only one notch of flap this time as I had noticed my ground speed on the GPS had only been 55Kt on the previous approach and, maybe, I had been a bit too slow for the breezy conditions (the wind was somewhat variable in direction as well as speed).  This was a good decision as I flew a nicely stable approach, timing the flare perfectly to roll the main wheels on the runway centreline just beyond the numbers in which was a pretty good, smooth touch down given the conditions.

Jordan said afterwards that he thoroughly enjoyed the flight and wasn't at all fazed by the go-around (I think a lot of first-timers would have been).  I was pleased that all the training and experience "kicked-in" almost sub-consciously with the end result a very satisfying flight. 

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