12 July 2015

IT'S BEEN A WHILE....

.. as they say, about 10 months, in fact!!

So , why no posts?  Well, I haven't done a great deal of interesting flying, have been more busy at work and moved house late last year. It also seems I got out of the habit of writing on this blog.
So, time for an update.

I haven't been entirely idle on the flying front but have done a fair bit less than usual since the club competitions last September which meant I got out of currency on both 172s and Cherokees and needed a few dual flights to get "all sorted" again.
Having got current again just before Christmas I booked WAM early in the New Year to take my oldest daughter who was over from Melbourne for the holidays and her flatmate from Aussie who had never been to NZ before up for a bit of a scenic.  It was a stunningly good day for flying, sunny with an 8-10 knot wind from the West so we took off from 25 making a right turn after takeoff to fly over the city and thence through the Taupiri Gap to Huntly, out to the coast to Raglan and then back to Hamilton.  The girls enjoyed the flight which was very pleasing.  

Over the next couple of months it was mainly circuits to keep current and a few flights in the Stearman over at Tauranga.  Then a trip to the UK for a few weeks and then, suddenly it seemed, the year was halfway over!

So, to get completely up-to-date I have been up twice since getting back, the first for a Sunday afternoon club competition - bombing - which was fun but I didn't do too well. That brings us up to yesterday....

I had booked WAM to go up with instructor, Rob for a currency check.  It had been about -3C overnight and on arriving at the club the first job was to de-ice the wings of WAM.  This involves buckets of warm water, wiping down, checking fuel drains aren't still blocked, seeing that the water has re-frozen on the shady side and doing it again.  One of those "fun" jobs just above the level of cleaning out a chemical toilet - much less smelly though :)


Cold but beautiful!
Rob and I were eventually happy to get going and all went pretty well.  I flew three circuits with Rob, he threw in a glide approach and an EFATO (engine failure after take-off) which went well, all landings were on the good side of acceptable so Rob was happy to jump out and let me do three on my own. Those landing were also pretty good (one touch down point a bit further than intended but still smooth) and was very happy with that.  A good, if a little chilly morning's flying.
  

1 comment:

  1. I'm worried that you even know what cleaning a chemical toilet is like... but well done anyway! It's been many years since I've had to clean ice off the wings before flying... there's nothing colder in the world than that! :-)

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