CAPITAL FLIGHT - THE VIDEO

Well I have finally got my act together and edited up the video my daughter took of our scenic flight out of Wellington back in December - you can all check it out at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YUJnb4hMS8

Went flying last Thursday but only some circuits - a bit challenging, however, with a moderate, quite variable crosswind - all good for the soul, though!!!

WEATHER, COMMUNICATION, DECISION MAKING, PERSONAL LIMITS:- ALL THAT AIRMANSHIP SORT OF STUFF

THURSDAY 1ST APRIL

Well, this turned out to be an interesting day, as they say.

I had arranged to take friend Ray up in WIT for a flight and planned to go over to Pauanui Beach for another "expensive" coffee.  On my way to the club, Ray contacted me to say he couldn't come.  Oh well, another time, perhaps, but that didn't change my intentions and I duly preflighted and filed a flight plan for Hamilton to Pauanui and back.

The weather was very benign at Hamilton - a light wind and cloud base 4700'.  Even the 4 knot wind on the ATIS report looked an overestimate as the windsocks were pretty much flat against their poles!  It looked a bit cloudier to the North but all the Kaimai peaks were clearly visible so all looked good to go.

Once through the Waihi gap and heading towards the coast it was clear that the weather on the eastern side of the Coromandel Peninsula was a bit different (and NOT forecast as such).  I was soon flying up the coast into lowering cloud and descended to 1800' at Whangamata when the rain hit, a short, sharp shower.  Visibility stayed acceptable, though, as I could see Tairua 10 miles to the North through the squall and it was clearer in all other directions.  About a minute later I was through the worst of it and descended to 1500' radioing my intentions to join overhead at Pauanui for landing.

I set up to orbit over the airfield and once I spotted the windsocks I could see that there was a fairly brisk crosswind, like windsock at 90º to the runway and near horizontal.  Hmm!, about a 15 knot crosswind, so too much for me on a small airstrip on what is supposed to be a fun flight so I descended into the circuit for 05 runway and did a missed approach and overshoot going around at about 300' and reversed my course back to Hamilton.

Once away from the coast through the Waihi gap the weather improved and was benign again.  I had been communicating my intentions to Christchurch Information and keeping a monitoring ear on their transmissions throughout the flight.  At the Eastern end of the gap I heard one of our club planes, WKF (a Robin) calling Christchurch giving his intentions to fly to Pauanui Beach.  Well, well, I thought, I had better give a weather report so he doesn't get an unpleasant surprise the other side of the ranges.  Looking back I could see the weather on the coast had not improved much, if at all, just moving to the SE.  So I called Info and gave them a report on the conditions at Pauanui, namely the crosswind for WKF's information.  They thanked me and passed it on to WKF who had been listening anyway (good airman!).

The rest of the flight passed uneventfully and at a quiet Hamilton (most of the club planes away at the Warbirds or the Northern Air race) I was cleared to join straight in for a long final and it was a nice smooth landing on 18Left.

So, lessons learned, or rather putting into practice what I have learned before: weather forecasts are FORECASTS and should not be relied on; when weather looks against you make sure you have an "escape" plan (e.g. turn around into the better weather); know your personal limits, like, I have landed Cherokees at Hamilton in a 15 knot crosswind with an instructor in the right hand seat but would not want to do it alone at a (relatively) strange or short airfield unless I absolutely had to; and, communication (the last of the "Holy Trinity" of flying*) - it is common courtesy to pass on any adverse conditions to other pilots; you never know, you could be saving someone from bending an aircraft of worse!

*For non-aviators, the "Holy Trinity" of flying is: Aviate (fly the plane), Navigate (know where you are) and Communicate (tell someone what you are doing/intend to do) - in that order.

TRAFFIC CONGESTION - NOT JUST THE ROADS!

THURSDAY 25TH MARCH

I had the Arrow, DQV, booked for a couple of hours this morning for a bit of "keeping current" (you know, like remembering to retract and lower the undercarriage!!!).  The weather forecast was none too good last night but, after an overnight shower, the day dawned clear enough and there were numerous balloons up after dawn as this the "Balloons Over Waikato" week.  They were all gone by 1000, though when I drove over to the Club to drag DQV out of its hangar and go off for a flight.

The weather was behaving as predicted with a front on its way and nasty, dark grey clouds to the South-West.  I decided a local flight over the city would be a good plan followed by some circuits.  After preflighting and starting up I got the ATIS to find there was a 15 knot crosswind from the West on 18 which was no real problem for take-off but might be for landing if it got up any more and I couldn't use the cross runways (07/25, L&R - yes, we have four runways at Hamilton).

After running up and pre-take-off checks I was cleared to taxi to E2 holding point and while still on my way cleared to take off from 18L - with another aircraft on final.  So it was line up checks (transponder to mode C and landing light on) while taxying, onto the runway and full throttle, column into the wind, of course and rotating at 65 knots.  Wow, a fair bit of wind, too, as I started to drift to the left immediately after lift off in spite of my best efforts on the rudder.  I got it sorted pretty smartly, though, wheels up, fuel pump and landing light off, flaps up and climbing power and pitch set all at the appropriate times and turned right as cleared out to the North over the city.

After clearing the zone I climbed to 2000 feet and headed towards the North and had a good look around.  Oooh, those clouds are closing in pretty quickly and it looks like it is raining already just South of the airport so I decided to head for home, turning South for Temple View and checking the ATIS which hadn't changed (yet!).  I called in to the tower requesting a return for circuits if available, to which the tower replied to clear me for circuits "seeing as you are a nice, polite guy", or words to that effect.  Gosh, thanks folks, please spare my blushes.  After getting said clearance, I headed for the reporting point at Rukuhia and, once there, was instructed to join right hand downwind for 25R - hooray!, landing into the wind (which was 250º at 15 knots).  I was told to maintain 1700' and extend downwind as, with the weather deteriorating, everyone was coming back in.  I could hear at least 3 other light aircraft being instructed to join for the 25 runways.

By the time I was cleared to descend to circuit height, I had been going downwind for at least two minutes (which meant 3 miles at 90 knots - I had slowed down a bit and got the wheels down) and was further instructed not to turn base for another 30 seconds to allow another plane to pass behind.  I sorted that out and was soon on a fairly long (at least 4 mile) final.  I was given number one for 25R for touch and go and at that point a CTC Katana appeared on my 2 o'clock.  This was a touch unexpected as I had heard the tower call to a CTC plane to join BEHIND me.  Whooops!

The tower called in an rather terse voice to inform said Katana that he had just cut in front of me and called me to give me number two in a more apologetic voice.  I replied I had the conflicting traffic in sight as well as a Cessna who was doing as instructed and joining behind.  Now a Diamond DA20 Katana is a fairly low powered trainer and, compared to a Cherokee Arrow, a tad on the slow side and I was now behind him.  I slowed down as much as I could while still looking after the engine and dropped another notch of flap.  It wasn't enough, I was still closing at 70 knots and the tower asked me if I could change to 25L, that was affirmative and I changed course for the parallel runway.  

The Katana touched and went just before I crossed the threshold beside him.  I touched down nicely, pushed the throttle and pitch lever fully forward (yes, I missed that check on final because of the diversion, I think), and took off not too far behind the other plane.  He was told to carry on straight ahead and I was given an early left turn for a circuit.  I could hear there was another Katana joining for the circuit and another Cessna was above and to the right, I think joining right hand downwind.

The rain had now started so I called for a full stop, flew a nice tight circuit and got the speeds and checks all nicely done for (I thought) a very pretty landing just beyond the runway threshold and taxied off back to the fuel pumps.  I was pretty cross about being cut up like that but didn't think it worth any further action.  The circuit controller in the tower had sounded pretty pissed when talking to the CTC pilot so any further action is up to them, I reckon.

At least I didn't get too wet refuelling and by the time I set off home the weather had improved a bit so maybe I should have done another circuit or two.  Never mind, there is always another day!!  I got home to find I still had the aircraft keys in my pocket.  Oh dear, what a twit!  Only 10 minutes to drive back though so big major deal - at least they got back before anyone else needed them!!

THE $400 COFFEE SYNDROME

WOW!!  What a fantastic day for flying!!  The temperature at the airport may have been 0ºC at 0700 this morning but the sky was clear with a light variable wind at ground level.  By the time I arrived at the club at 0845 the sun was shining brightly (a bit low but you can't have everything!!!) and it was warming up.

I met up with my work colleague, Hament, who was coming up with me and I had planned a trip down to New Plymouth - never flown into there before and wanted to visit Jim Hickey's cafe there (He's a TVNZ weatherman for those that don't know, a flyer himself and the son of a WWII spitfire pilot).

Did the usual preflight on WIT, had 4 hours of usable gas on board so we got in and without any delay we were cleared on track to New Plymouth leaving via the Pirongia sector (South-West).

I set the "direct to" feature on the GPS to the Ohura VOR as I had decided to go inland over the King Country on the way down and come back via the West Coast.  I had to track a bit further West to avoid the instrument sector but once clear of the control zone I turned back to intercept my course, climbed to 4500' just South of Otorohanga, set the autopilot, leaned the mixture correctly (thinking fuel economy), called Christchurch Information with my intentions and settled back to keep a lookout and admire the view.

And what a view!!  A panorama of the West Coast to the right all the way from Karioi to the North (near Raglan) down to Mount Taranaki to the South and out of the left hand window the central mountains (Ruapehu, Ngarahoe and Tongariro) were laid out in their splendour with very little haze around.

We chugged along (the wind was pretty much dead ahead and ground speed down to 95 knots) for about 30 minutes to nearly the Ohura beacon and then turned West to the coast at the Tongaporutu river with our destination now in view (50km+ visibility is great!)  The weather at New Plymouth was benign, a 5 knot wind at 060 and runway 05 on duty.  I called the tower at 5 miles from the zone and was cleared in 2500' or below and to report at Motunui (large industrial complex and difficult to miss).  I reported as instructed and was cleared to join left hand downwind for 05.  
I descended to the circuit height (1100 feet) and lined up for the approach.  I ended up a bit close to the runway on downwind (new aerodrome to me) so it was a very short base leg and a bit (well, quite a lot, actually) high on early finals.  I closed the throttle, full flap, nose down to get back on the correct glidepath and then raised the nose to bleed off the airspeed.  Hmm!, looks like I am going to land a bit long, so I thought about going around, but a quick assessment of the amount of runway left looked more than ample so I committed myself to land, held off and closed the throttle, nose up and a very smooth landing resulted with only a gentle touch on the brakes needed to slow right down to taxi off and park by the tower.

We made our way to the terminal and the Airpresso Cafe where Hament bought me a coffee and a delicious slice of blueberry and lemon cake.  This is a good cafe for anyone interested in aviation or WWII history as there are photos and models of aircraft, biographies and some memorabilia of wartime pilots from the Taranaki area.

Anyway our "morning tea" was over quite soon and it was time to head for home.  I did a brief preflight and checking the fuel found we had used between 35 and 40 litres for a time of 1.2 hours.  Pretty good and showed my economy efforts had worked.  The wind had changed and we left off runway 23 with right turns to track back seaward of the coast to the North.  With the wind behind us now the ground speed was up to 125 knots even in the climb.  I levelled off at 1500 feet until clear of the control zone and then climbed to 2500' for the coastal cruise back to Hamilton.  The view was still great but noticeably hazy now and the mountain panorama not quite so fabulous.

We were significantly quicker back to base (1 hour for a total of 2.2 hours) and again it was a pretty good landing back home, much more precise than the one at New Plymouth.  After all, it is my home base.  The wind was light but a bit gusty and I landed right wheel first which was correct as there was a bit of right to left cross wind. (When I looked a few minutes later it was left to right at the other end of the runway, so I wasn't imagining the variability!)

So, safely home and another great flight.  Hament thoroughly enjoyed it so that was good.  Must go again sometime......

TWINS - TWICE THE FUN: FOUR TIMES THE HASSLE??!!

A big day for my flying experience today.  I had booked a session wth instructor Ash in the club's Twin Commanche ZK-DOK.  I turned up at the club just a couple of minutes past 1400 to find Ash waiting for me.  We went into his office for the briefing - all done via a powerpoint type presentation on a computer - no different to the printed stuff I had read over the past few weeks but good to have Ash go over it and emphasise the important points and what we would cover on a type introduction flight.

After that, it was over to the hangar to preflight and get DOK out ready to fly.  The fuel drain procedure was interesting and very different from what I am used to.  Basically there are six tanks; main, auxiliary and tip in each wing and each wing's tanks drain via a central tube.  So, select each tank in turn and pull the drain levers which are under a cover between the front seats remembering, of course, to put the bucket under the drain tubes first!!  The rest of the preflight was very much like the Arrow, but with two engines to check and six tanks to dip.  We had about six hours fuel on board so we were good to go.

Start up went fairly smoothly once I had, with Ash's help, located all the switches and gauges - a somewhat different layout to a Piper single.

Taxi was not much different to the twin's smaller brethren and the only difference for the engine run-up, apart from doing it for each engine, was the prop feathering check.  Once that was all out of the way we taxied over towards Echo 1 (having already been cleared for this and a Scott departure) and as I called ready we were instructed to line up on 18L and cleared for take-off as we lined up.  Line up checks done, feet on the brakes, 2000rpm on both, release brakes, full throttle once rolling, everything green, rotate at 70 knots and then hold the nose down to let the speed build to the blue line (minimum single engine speed), gear up, climbing power and pitch, attitude for 100 knots, landing light and fuel pump off.  By this time we were 500' above ground level (this baby CLIMBS!!) and turning crosswind.  At this point the tower cleared us to 2500' or below so we carried on climbing in the circuit and left from downwind on our Easterly departure.

Once over Lake Karapiro Ash got me to do some turns.  No pussyfooting here, straight into a steep turn to the left.  Nailed that OK only losing a few feet on the roll-out at the end.  The right turn wasn't so good.  About halfway round the nose dropped slightly and I started to pull back on the column, WHOA, still losing height - I lost 150 feet before getting it under control and had regained the height by roll-out but this was a good lesson on how quickly things can start to go wrong on this larger, faster bird.  Then it was a basic stall and approach stall, recovering both at the onset with no more than about 150' loss on the latter so that was really good, I thought.

It was now time to head for home having progressed along the full length of the lake very quickly.  On the way back we did a simulated engine failure.  Ash covered up the mixture levers and closed one of them.  The plane lurched to the left and I fairly quickly, with a bit of guidance from Ash, got the plane flying straight with some right rudder and appropriate aileron and going to full throttle.  This was easier than I thought it would be.  So, my right leg is on the rudder, so the left is "dead" - dead leg, dead engine, left identified, close throttle on left, no change, left engine failure verified, feather the propeller.  Once the left propeller was no longer windmilling and producing drag, control was significantly easier, as expected.

The next step was an air start of the left engine.  This is where I got a bit flustered as this is not easy for a first timer.  Mixture lean, pitch about two-thirds toward fine, throttle open a crack and crank the engine.  Once windmilling, mixture rich and..... the engine dies as I was late on the mixture movement.  Tried again, not quite right - dammit!!  Third time lucky and I have got a functioning left engine again.

Then it was back to Hamilton and into the circuit.  Once downwind, number two for approach, we slowed down, lowered the gear, downwind checks and I made a reasonable approach, only geting a bit high on long final.  Checked green light and mirror for gear down on final, mixture rich, prop pitches fine and at 300 feet (500 indicated) we were committed to land (i.e. if an engine fails we still land - no going around at or below that height) so slow down to cross the threshold at about 80 knots, flare and land.  There was a bit of a crosswind so we had to crab a bit, straighten and land upwind wing down which I just about did but it didn't feel too pretty.  Oh well, not bad for a first go.

Postscript:  Well, that was fun but I don't think I will be doing a twin rating in the foreseeable future.  Apart from the cost (twice as much as a single to hire) there is also the problem of maintaining currency which, as a still working recreational PPL would be a real challenge.  If I were fully retired, able to fly several times a week with the same income as when working, it could be a different story.

Thanks again, Ash, great lesson.  The amount of sweat down my back by the end (commented upon by one of the other instructors) is testament to how much hard work that was!!!

"WEATHER TO FLY" - A TALE OF THREE FLIGHTS...

Over the past few weeks I have had some "interesting" times with the weather as, despite all the press reports of record dries and high temperatures, the weather for flying has been challenging at times, not just last Thursday as you read in the last post.

So, no more dodging around, I shall begin at the beginning......

THURSDAY 18TH FEBRUARY

I had arranged to take one of the pastors from our church, Sheridyn, up for a flight.  He had said a while ago he had wanted to be a pilot when at school and was still interested in aviation,  So, we met up at the club where I was waiting and casting rather concerned eyes around at the weather.  There was virtually no wind but the ATIS had given the cloud base at 2500 feet, it was much lower than that to the South and West, and the temperature and dew point were only one degree apart.  So, if it wasn't already raining, it would be soon!!

Any plans for a cross country flight had been ditched a while before and I decided a short local flight over Morrinsville way would be OK as the weather looked the clearest in that direction.  Sheridyn immediately recognised WIT as a Piper Cherokee and I showed him around it while preflighting.  We hopped in and were on our way.  the climb out was very laboured, which I was expecting, high(ish) temperature, low pressure (around the 1000 mark) and that humidity certainly had a deleterious effect on performance.

I set course for Scotsman Valley once out of the circuit and to Morrinsville.  All good so far but looking back towards Hamilton it was pretty obvious the weather was going to close in so going much further afield did not seem a good idea and we headed back to the west to Huntly and then through the Taupiri gap following the Waikato River back to Hamilton.  It was getting a bit murkier with a few drops ofrain but visibility stayed good all the way backinto the circuit.

We were directed over the tower to join left hand downwind for 18 and after an uneventful approach for  the smaller runway (18R) I landed with a bit of a float and a bump having flared a tad early.  I quickly apologised to Sheridyn who didn't mind at all.  he said he thought the landing wasn't bad at all and he'd had much worse courtesy of Air New Zealand!!!  Anyway, another 1.0 hours in the logbook and a good practical demonstration of Mother Nature's effects on flying in general and aircraft performance in particular.

SUNDAY 28TH FEBRUARY

This was a really good day.  We had an old friend, Maeve, staying with us.  I did my postgrad training with her in the UK and hadn't seen her for about 21 years.  She now works in Scotland and was on a bit of a sabbatical down-under together with some holiday.  She used to do skydiving and was really keen to go up with me.

The day dawned with overcast skies but the base was 6000 feet and forecast was for a sunny, warm day.  Sure enough, by 0830 gaps were appearing in the cloud and by the time we rotated off the runway the skies were almost clear.

I had done a flight plan to take us to Tauranga, touch and go there and then tracking up Matakana Island to Waihi and then home via the Waihi gap - about and hour in the air.

Winds were light, the barometer was high, low (for Hamilton) humidity and as it was fairly early in the morning the temperature wasn't that high so performance was noticeably better than 10 days before!

I didn't need to tie Maeve in too tightly to stop her jumping out!!  It would have been difficult in a low wing plane anyway.  She loved the flight.  We had great views of the Kaimai ranges and along the Bay of Plenty coast.  Maeve was amazed to see an open cast gold mine from the air (Martha Mine at Waihi).  The touch and go at Tauranga was good - smooth roll of the wheels onto the grass runway and straight off again keeping an eye on the 172 who was orbiting the Mount and followed us up the Matakana coast.

As soon as we turned south at Paeroa you could tell we were in the Waikato - that haze!!!  Other than that, it was an uneventful flight back.  We were cleared to enter the control zone via the Scott sector (pretty much straight in) and joined left base for 18R - the smaller one.  You could tell the temperature had risen as there were obvious thermals on finals; I caught one just before landing and floated a bit before touching down - plenty of room to stop, though.

Great day - Great flight - my passenger said that, too!!

THURSDAY 4TH MARCH

Well, the weather forecast for today was for fine weather and light winds.  Oh yeah!!  Read on.

I had booked to go up in the Arrow and thought I would reprise last Sunday's flight to see how quicker the Arrow was compared to the Archer (if at all).

Unfortunately the best laid plans were thwarted by the weather.

It was good at Hamilton, clear with light Southerly winds of 8 to 10 knots.  However, it looked very cloudy over the Kaimais and, although the forecast wind at Tauranga was 260º at 8 knots with a gradual change to 020º at 10 knots from 1300, this was a false reassurance.  When I checked the Tauranga ATIS it was somewhat different, 220º at 15 gusting to 24 but still within my capabilities so I decided it was a go as long as I could traverse the Kaimais safely.

I walked over to DQV's hangar to find.... no plane.  I walked back to the club to discover it was at Aeromotive for maintainence but good to go.  Only there was not a lot of fuel on board and, when I had been at club reception, one of Super Air's workers was reporting they had just about drained our tanks fuelling up the avgas tank of one of their loaders.  So, I had to taxi over to CTC to fuel up and so was quite late away, about 30 - 40 minutes.

To cap it all I was only a few minutes out when the tower called me with a SPAR from Tauranga - wind now 190º at 20 gusting 30 with crosswind component maximum 24.  Out of my league, so I thanked ATC and continued my departure to have a little think about what to do.
My decision was fairly easy to come to, Tauranga was not on for landing in those conditions so I flew to the East of Matamata and turned around for Hamilton, calling Christchurch Information to give them my intentions.  I flew back over Karapiro and Cambridge for a South arrival and a couple of circuits, two good landings and one not so great, but acceptable.  Good practice for me in the retractable.  
I taxied back to Aeromotive to hand the plane back to them for its second altimeter to be reinstalled and completion of its ARA (still had 36 days to go so I was good to fly in it).  Oh well, Weather!! - you have to live with it and respect it.
Next week - I have booked a type introduction flight in the twin - a new adventure!!!

NICE LANDING - SHAME ABOUT THE WEATHER

THURSDAY 25th FEBRUARY

I had booked another dual flight in WAM for today but the weather looked a bit ominous with lowish cloud and a look at the weather around the central North Island showed it was raining everywhere except Hamilton.  Cloud base was 2500' here, though and circuits should be fine, I thought, so headed over to the club.

WAM was in the circuit and landed just after my book-in time of 1000 so I pre-flighted, looking around at the weather which appeared to be closing in from the West.  It was clear enough over the airfield and circuit area, though so instructor, Jason was happy to go.  After calling ready I was given an "immediate" take off clearance so did the line up checks while taxying and Jason said "OK, turn and burn" as we entered the runway.  It's not an F-16 Jase!!

We took off and turned crosswind early on tower instructions and once facing towards the weather it was obvious the front was closing in rapidly, the rain spitting on us on crosswind and the deluge started on early downwind.  Previous 20km visibility rapidly became less than 2km and it was difficult to see the runways from the down wind track.  We were cleared number 1 for 36R (the main drag), I did the downwind checks, and set up for the approach.  As I turned base, the visibility had become so poor that I couldn't see the runways at all so I used the DI to line up on base, second notch of flap, and turned final at about the right point (local knowledge is a wonderful thing!) and was pretty much bang on the centre line!  Jason wasn't saying or doing anything - just letting me carry on.

As we turned final the tower instructed us to do a full stop due weather and cleared us to land.  Full flap, height and speed correct, perfectly timed round out, throttle closure and flare and I rolled the wheels onto the runway just beyond the threshold for an excellent, quite precise landing, COOL!!  The weather wasn't so cool though, the rain was coming down hard and the runway getting very wet so I didn't brake (didn't really need to on the main drag) and taxied off to the club where I got quite wet just running from the plane to the clubrooms.

Well, that was that.  I stayed for a drink and a chat to see if the weather was going to clear, which it didn't, and then headed home.  A bit frustrating that I couldn't carry on but at least one very good landing is better than none and has got my 172 confidence back.  There's always another day, as they say.

PILOTS - A DRINKING CULTURE????

This is a bit of a change from my usual postings in that it is not about my flying experiences but the front page of yesterday's NZ Herald with its headline regarding police claims of a "drinking culture" within Air New Zealand.  I won't go into the details of the article - best you read it here:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10627913

I read it at work and made the usual off-the-cuff, semi-joking remarks but afterwards thought about it a bit more seriously, got rather hot under the collar and now am writing this to let off a bit of steam.

Who are these cops and journos to sound off about the aviation industry/profession??!!  When I was at university I remember one of my clasmates who played for the rugby 1st XV moaning about how hungover he was after the aftermatch drinkies the night before.  Who had they been playing? - The Metropolitan Police.  "Boy, Those coppers can drink" was the gist of his comments (as if 1st XV medics can't!!!)

Also, one of my cousins is married to a journalist and I remember her comments about lunch together - in liquid form - when he was covering Trades Unions and other conferences!  Having actually seen this guy drink some years ago I can well believe it!!

Anyway, you have only to watch TV dramas and documentaries to see how journalists and police behave when the pub or bar beckons!!

So, two professions with what would appear to be an ingrained drinking culture casting stones at aviation.  The H-word springs to mind.  Or should the fare paying public carry breathalyser kits with them and ask the aircraft captain and/or first officer to breathe or talk into the little device before take-off!!!  I can just imagine the reaction of some pilots I know!!  Any comments, guys and gals??

MORE ON THE CURRENCY FACTOR

Thursday 4th February - Back in a 172 after a year!
I am writing this over two weeks later so my memory may not be 100% accurate but I can remember the flying part pretty well.  I had booked the club's newer 172, WAM (my previous favourite before WIT came along) with instructor, Chee, who I had flown with once before in one of the older Archers.  I had a good look round inside and out while preflighting to refamiliarise myself with the plane.  It all came back - including the thirteen fuel drain points for the fuel injected engine!
We decided to do a few circuits to see how it went.  Stating up, taxying, lining up and take off went OK - WOW!! the 180hp 172 does take off a lot more sharply than the Archer but I was prepared for that.  No problems in the circuit but the landing was not that great - not nearly enough of a flare (the low-wing influence, I think).
About 6 circuits later, after a couple of go-arounds and an engine failure after take-off exercise, Chee seemed pretty happy BUT the plane was due at Aeromotive for maintanence and there was no time for me to go solo - RATS.
Never mind, I've booked WAM again in a few weeks to go up with chief instructor, Roger, for a final "tidy-up" and, hopefully, some solo practice.  Then I should feel current on 172s again.

Keeping Current - A Tale of Three Thursdays

If, like me, you find flying a variety of aircraft types enjoyable, then one of the challenges for the recreational pilot is staying current on more than a couple of types.  I have four type ratings now and looking in my logbook could see that I had not flown the Arrow for about 6 weeks and almost a year for a Cessna 172.
So, I decided something needed to be done (didn't want the Arrow currency going the same way as the 172).

Thursday 21st January
This wasn't part of the currency equation.  I had offered to take friend Duane, up North from Southland for the school holidays, and two of his four sons up and had booked the club Archer III.  Frontal weather was forecast and it did not look hopeful.  However, heavy morning rain cleared by about 1100 and it appeared that the next front moving in from the west would be a few hours away.
So, with a small window of opportunity, I called Duane and we met up at the club at 1245 and took a short scenic over Scotsman Valley (North-East of the airport) and Morrinsville and back again.  There was cirrus cloud over Pirongia with the front behind when we took off and once over Morrinsville it was clear that the rain was not far away from the city.  Duane didn't seem to mind - could see his grin reflected in the windscreen!!  The boys were very good, too.
The plan to fly back over the city was aborted and we reversed our track back, more or less.  We were cleared straight in again (twice in a row now) and a pretty good approach and landing followed.  The rain started as we said farewell in the carpark - good timing!

Thursday 28th January
Today was keeping current on the Arrow.  There had been a massive thunderstorm the night before but now it was a beautiful, warm sunny morning.  I could see the clouds building all round with the moist, rising air, though - classic meteorology.  Virtually no wind, which was nice.
It was fairly quiet traffic-wise so I kicked off with three circuits.  The first one was right hand and not so good - I was traffic watching on late downwind and lost a couple of hundred feet before turning base.  Well, at least I had the wheels down and power and pitch all set up OK so the next ones should be better, I thought.
They were.  Two fairly good circuits followed with nice landings, even with a short approach on the last.  I then departed to the South-East over Wharepapa South, Lakes Arapuni, Karapiro and then home.  It was somewhat busier now so no straight in clearance this time.  A standard South arrival and number three on downwind for 18L, extending to pass behind a twin who was doing an overshoot.  I had to descend from 1700' to circuit height (1200') fairly sharply so didn't get the wheels down until quite late - at least I was aware that I hadn't and there was (I reckon) little or no danger of me leaving them up.  I am still checking the three greens on base and at least twice on final.  The final landing was good, not quite a greaser but well positioned to taxi off with minimal delay (yes, I DO think of you controllers in the tower, honest) and back to put DQV to bed in its hangar.  Currency updated - cool!!

Thursday 4th February
You will have to wait for this one - I have booked a dual session in one of the 172s.  I wonder how it will go - back to a high wing type after a year of low wing flying.....

09/Jan/2010 - DEFINITELY A "GOLD STAR" DAY

SATURDAY 9th JANUARY 2010

HAPPY NEW YEAR  -  FIRST FLIGHT FOR 2010

A few months ago the lady wife had suggested flying up to Whangarei to visit her uncle, Dave who, after many years in Wellington, and after a bit of overseas travel and that moved up to Parua Bay with wife, Sue a few years back.  Jolly good idea, I thought, and, about two months ago, booked Archer III, WIT for the day and crossed my fingers for the weather

Earlier in the week, daughter Eleanor called us to ask if she could cadge a ride with us.  She was being driven to Hamilton from Wellington the night before and the original idea was to drive up to Whangarei the next day for a 21st party, then back to Hamilton Sunday and back to Wellington on Monday.  Well, the clever girl had worked out that if she came with us she would get there quicker, more comfortably (5 up in a medium car was the alternative) and could have an extra few hours with her boyfriend who was up there at his parent's home for the holidays.  She hadn't seen him since before Christmas, aaaah!, young love!!!

A third person in WIT was no problem so early(ish) on Saturday morning the three of us trekked out to the Aero Club.  We loaded our stuff into the plane and I then sent the passengers back to the lounge while I preflighted and filled the tanks to give us 4.5 hours endurance for a 2.5 hour round trip - should be plenty.

It was fairly quiet at the airport (no CTC!) and we were cleared to line up on 18L as soon as I called ready and for take off while I was in the process of lining up.  We lifted off at 0933 and after two right turns I set course for the first waypoint, Port Waikato at the Waikato river mouth.  I chose 2500' for the cruising altitude for this leg.  The wind was just West of South at about 25 knots from the forecast which seemed about right because we arrived over the coast on time with only a minor heading correction for the wind.

We then turned to the North to track up the sensational West coast making for the next waypoint, about two miles West of Parakai aerodrome.  I set the GPS "direct to" track for Parakai to give me a guide (as if I needed it with the coast pointing the way!), set the autopilot and had the map on my lap to time my descent for the 1500' or below zone across the Manakau Heads and the Te Henga transit lane around Whenuapai.  I must say I really like the autopilot in WIT, especially being able to dial in a descent or climb.  It meant I could keep a good lookout and admire the view.

Our track across the heads was uneventful, no traffic nearby from the radio calls and we continued North past Piha and Muriwai beaches and at the golf course just past Muriwai called "Parakai Traffic" with my intentions to climb to 2500', and pass 2 miles west of the field on track to Whangarei.  Time now to change the fuel tank, full throttle, dial up 500' a minute climb on the "VS" dial on the autopilot and listen out and look for any traffic around Parakai.  There wasn't any to worry us, one call from a plane over Helensville on his way to Parakai, well away from us.

We tracked to the North and were soon over the Kaipara harbour which is vast (by NZ standards) and looks very shallow, the sand bars and banks clearly visible from the air.  The southerly wind was now dead astern and the GPS showed 140-142 knots ground speed and an indicated airspeed of just over 120.  Fairly whizzing along!!  There were a few boats about but no planes, either heard or seen.

Once past the northern edge of the harbour I changed to the Whangarei AWIB (Automatic Weather Information Broadcast) and heard wind 220 at 10 knots, 4000' instrument cloud and parachute dropping in the vicinity so no overhead join.  The wind sounded pretty friendly for runway 24 and just south of the MBZ (Mandatory Broadcast Zone) I called on the appropriate frequency that I was intending to land.  Just South of Whangarei harbour I descended to 1000' and set up to join left base, making the appropriate calls.  Only one aircraft nearby, just rotating off the runway, and a para dropper about to drop 10 miles away, so no worries there.

Once lined up on final it was clear the wind was not so friendly as first thought.  It was a gusty and variable cross wind from about 180º and a slightly untidy landing resulted (well, I thought so, but the passengers were happy and outside observers thought it looked OK).

Eleanor disappeared off with boyfriend and Carol & I spent a few hours with Dave (Sue was in Wellington).  We had a chat over a cup of tea admiring the views over the bay, a good walk and, following a much needed pub lunch, it was about time to head back to the airport and off to Hamilton.  The wind had changed again - now from 100º so it was take off from runway 06, right turn and off to the South.

On the way back over Northland it was a bit bumpy so I climbed up to 4500' where it smoothed out nicely.  We more or less reversed our course back except at Manakau heads I edged out to sea to get to 2500' to avoid oncoming traffic (heard but didn't see them).  There seemed to be an event on at Piha - big red tent with lots of people around and relatively few on the beach.  We heard a microlight radio call - his very loud engine (presumably uncowled) almost drowning out the pilot.

Approaching Hamilton it was still very quiet and, when I called the tower over Ngaruawahia, I was cleared into the zone, 1700' or below, to join a right base for 25 straight away.  So, a gradual descent to circuit height over the city and when I made my next call early downwind I was cleared to land on 25L.  (How often does that happen??!!).  The wind was straight down the runway and so a nice landing back at base.  Fantastic flight - great day out.

Eleanor shot some good video of the flight to Whangarei, link below;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2Dc8UJshL8

2009 IN RETROSPECT

So, in keeping with several other aviation posters, I will do a quick resume of my goals and achievements for 2009:

GOALS;

            1)  Achieve 50 hours flying for the year

            2)  Pass 250 hours total time

            3)  Learn some aerobatics

            4)  Do an Archer rating (having seen and drooled over WIT)

            5)  Finish off my night rating

            6)  Pass the medical and BFR

SO, HOW DID I DO?

           1)  52.3 total hours for the year

           2)  263.1 total time at 31/12/09

           3)  NOT achieved.  I had the briefing on spinning but after four abortive bookings due to weather I decided to concentrate on the Archer rating

           4)  Achieved - as well as a rating on the Arrow

           5)  Achieved - thanks to Loreen and Marie in particular

           6)  Medical (May) and BFR (November) passed OK

A pretty good year all in all.  I think I am becoming a better airman but there is always room for improvement.

GOALS FOR 2010:

I haven't thought too much about this but, off the top of my head:

          1)  50 hours for the year again (like, about an hour a week average)

          2)  More cross country flying and a bit further afield

          3)  Night rating on the Archer

          4)  Have a trial flight in the Twin Commanche - the only club aircraft I haven't flown yet

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL - SAFE LANDINGS!!

LAST FLIGHT OF THE YEAR

24th DECEMBER

The last flight of 2009 (on-call for Christmas and away to the beach for New Year) and, I hoped, a good one.

I had wanted to learn more about using the on-board navigation aids (ADF, VOR/DME as well as GPS * see below for a glossary for non-aviation readers) and booked WIT with instructor, Ash, for most of this morning.  My excuse for missing the last-minute Christmas rush!!

A warm but somewhat cloudy morning with hardly any wind and all looked promising.  I had made a flight plan (suggested by Ash at a briefing) to track from the Hamilton VOR/NDB to Taumarunui NDB. then to the Ohura VOR (in the middle of nowhere!!) and then back to Hamilton.

Ooops.  It is now 10 days into the New Year and only just returned to this post - sorry readers.  So, I'll make it brief.  This was a great flight.  Ash took me through how to set up the VOR, ADF and DME (mnemonic "TITS" for Tune, Identify, Test and Set) and also the GPS which I already knew a fair bit about.  I found the tracking fairly straightforward with Ash's help but found I spent most of my time with my head down at the instruments rather than keeping a lookout - OK with Ash in the right hand seat doing the visual scan and some of the traffic radio calls but wouldn't be safe on my own.

The slightly tricky part was after a turn and getting back on track {Mnemonic "TTTT" for Twist (the dial), Turn (the aircraft), Time (check) and Talk (radio call)}.  I got it OK with a bit of help, the thing is to be fairly bold with the course correction to get back on track quickly.

At one stage we were above the cloud (scattered only so would have been VFR legal) and rather than make a bit of a detour Ash got me to descend through the cloud on instruments - a tad scary but a useful little reminder of why VFR flight in cloud is illegal - it ain't safe, period!  I did fine concentrating on the dials, though.

Finally, we got cleared for a VOR approach straight in for 36R at Hamilton.  Ash told me to keep my head down and on track and when I was allowed to look up we were on short final and a bit high (also with a bit of a tail wind).  My worst landing of the year followed - not a great end but a truly edifying experience, thanks, Ash.

Lessons to take away - instrument navigation is very demanding

                                   - the GPS is easy to use as a guide for VFR cross country - I will use it in future but NOT make it a substitute for proper flight planning.

Glossary:

ADF - Automatic direction finder - used to track to or from an NDB

NDB - Non-directional beacon (low to medium frequency beacon - no directional information)

VOR - VHF omnidirectional range/radial - very high frequency beacon - gives direction and distance

DME - Used with VOR for distance to or from the beacon (as I understand it works a bit like an arcraft transponder but in reverse)

GPS - Global Positioning System - the only really new technology - the rest were developed during or just after World War II.

CAPITAL FLIGHT PART THREE - A FEW PHOTOS

Firstly - A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all!!

I thought I would post a few photos from the recent flight out of Wellington - taken by Eleanor and AJ - I was too busy flying to take photos!!

The Happy Passengers

"P-in-C" points out the sights!!

They don't call it Windy Wellington for Nothing!!

 

Karori Rock - a reporting point.

Petone and the Hutt River mouth

 

Wellington Harbour - about to join left base for runway 16 - the airport is just out of shot centre left

   

CAPITAL FLIGHT PART TWO – JOSTLING WITH THE JETS

Tuesday 15th December

The weather forecast was for a southerly change and showers clearing during the morning so I didn’t have much hope for flying but, as it turned out the rain fell very early in the morning and I got up at 0700 to blue skies and a few clouds around. The wind change was right, though, a gusty southerly of 15 knots+ and it felt very cold compared with yesterday.

I checked the weather on the net and got the report as; wind 210 true at 21 knots, few cloud at 2500’, scattered at 4000’, 11ºC, dew point 7, QNH1012 and “no significant weather”. Further up the coast at Paraparaumu it was a lot calmer at 180º, 8 knots.

So, a bit blowy but more than likely good to go so I picked up daughter, Eleanor and boyfriend Adrian (“AJ”) and headed to the airport. Karl was the duty instructor and told me I was cleared to go as Pilot-in-Command. So, a good check flight yesterday and it is a nice feeling to have someone from another club give me that positive feedback. I helped Karl drag TDJ out of the hangar and he left me to gas up and preflight. That done, I phoned the tower with my intentions, a Sinclair departure (to the South-West around the Southern tip of the North Island) and then up the coast to the North.

I loaded the passengers in the back (they wanted to sit together…) and gave them the usual briefing. Ella has flown with me a few times before but it was AJ’s first time in a light plane. We were cleared to take off straight away after reporting ready (where are all those jets and turboprops, I thought) so I lined up on runway 16, did the line up checks, advanced the throttles and set off on my assigned departure. Ella told me afterwards that the thrilled look on her man’s face was something to behold!!

It was a smooth climb out and level off at 1500’ to track around the heads Southwest of Wellington. It got a little bumpy once in the lee of the hills as expected but not too bad. I stayed at 1500’ until North of the Porirua transit zone and then got up to 2500’ to be well clear of any circuit or arrival traffic at Paraparam. It smoothed out as expected and we had good views all the way up to just south of Otaki when I decided that time was about up and we should head on back. Also AJ was feeling a bit queasy and I didn’t want to push our luck.

The journey back was a replay of yesterday over the saddle to the Hutt valley and an Eastbourne arrival, only this time for runway 16 which would mean a left base and a steepish descent (well, steeper than I am used to at Hamilton) from the 1500’ circuit height. Helps to keep the speed up though.

The jets and turboprops were very much in evidence now and I was told to hold East of Point Gordon, orbiting over the Northern part of the outer harbour. After two orbits we were cleared to approach after a Dash-8 on final but I had only just started to descend when that was changed back to orbiting – again! (I think I was a bit slower to respond than the tower anticipated). The following flight in was quicker than anticipated from what I could gather from the radio calls and, fair enough, the turbines can’t change things as readily as us little pistons.

I finally got called in after a total of four (was beginning to lose count!!) orbits and made a fairly rapid descent to keep the speed up as I could hear the next one in was a jet. I ended up fairly well set on final, set 25 degrees of flap and more or less glided down to very short final, then pulling back to slow down, a bit of power to slow down the sink rate, a bit of a float down the runway to touch down about right to brake and taxi off to the GA apron with minimal delay. As I turned to park the following 737 touched down so I felt good about that – no hold-up for him.

The passengers got out more than happy with the experience. AJ was quite effusive with his thanks even though he still looked a bit pale. What a great couple of days flying.

POSTSCRIPT: The weather was good for Eleanor’s graduation on Wednesday and for our drive back today. And yes, we are very proud of her!

CAPITAL FLIGHT PART ONE – CHECKING ME OUT

Monday 14th December

What a FABULOUS day here in Wellington! We (that is, myself, wife and youngest daughter) are here in the Capital City for oldest daughter’s graduation ceremony later this week. The opportunity to go flying out of Wellington was too good to miss and I had booked two sessions at Wellington Aero Club in one of their Cherokee Archers.

The weather omens were not too good when we arrived on Saturday – windy (it is called “Windy Wellington” after all!) and a poor weather forecast at least for Sunday and maybe Monday. Sunday’s forecast was about right, 25-40 knot winds, a few drizzly showers and low cloud. However, Monday morning was brilliantly clear, wind from the NNW at about 12 knots so good to go. I had driven over to introduce myself to the aero club the day before when they took photocopies of my licence and type ratings – thought it would save a bit of time on the day.

So I headed over to the club at 0830 and met up with instructor, Karl, who was checking me out. Karl dragged TDJ out of the hangar and fueled up, I did a preflight, and we then had a briefing on the Wellington procedures. I had read up on these but you can only read so much and doing it for real is the best way to learn, I reckon. We planned a flight out of the Wellington zone North up the coast to Paraparaumu for a few circuits and then back to Wellington over the Hutt valley.

The first step was new to me, phoning the tower to advise them of our departure and plan. That done we started up, got our taxi clearance and with only a minute delay for wake turbulence were cleared to line up on 34 for a Karori sector departure to the West.

Immediately after takeoff we were asked to track to the left to make room for a jet about to take off behind us. We kept the climbing turn going to 2500 feet over the hills to Makara beach. We had great views of the South Island, the snow covered Kaikoura ranges South of us and could see the Marlborough Sounds straight ahead. Makes you realise that the tip of the South Island is actually to the West of the bottom of the North.

Having cleared the hills and the control zone we needed a pretty sharp descent down to 1500 feet to track up the coast via the Porirua transit zone. There was a lot of cloud inland and to the North but the coast was clear for the route we were taking. We tuned to the Paraparaumu traffic frequency which wasn’t very busy, just one chopper doing circuits, a bit surprising as it was a pretty nice day.

We joined straight in for runway 34, as published procedure, and I did a pretty acceptable approach and a good, smooth landing in a mild crosswind (about 5 knots or so left-to-right) and straight off into the left-hand circuit. The next landing wasn’t so good, acceptable but not a “greaser”, and we joined the circuit again behind a Cessna 172, which was as expected as we had heard him on the radio. We followed him in, not being sure if he was for landing or touch and go as he hadn’t specified his intentions on his radio call (!!- he knew I was behind him). It turned out he was for a full stop and, in spite of my long and short finals calls while I was behind him hung around on the runway so I went around at 200’, made a steady climbing 180º turn in the circuit and set course to the South back to Wellington.

Karl had briefed on a track back to the capital over the Haywards saddle to track along the Hutt Valley looking for an Eastbourne sector arrival from the North-East. We called up the tower overhead the TV studios at Avalon (tallest building in the Hutt and not easy to miss!) and they duly gave us a clearance into the zone on an Eastbourne arrival. We had to hold at Eastbourne, tracking back North along the East side of the harbour and were then able to track back to the harbour mouth to join behind one of the club’s Tomahawks who was coming in from the South-East.

The new thing for me here was the circuit height of 1500’ and the requirement to keep a 90kt minimum airspeed until 300’ above the ground on short final. I did let the speed decay a bit on base, which Karl picked me up on, but needed to lose height so a bit of nose down soon sped us up and got us about right when turning final. The Tomahawk had just landed by then and was clear by the time we dropped some more flap and slowed down to clear the threshold at about 75 knots. I was told to aim for the 4th set of white runway marker to give us the least taxi distance – there was a jet not too far behind us – so I kept the power on a bit longer and was on the runway just beyond my aiming point (rats – was trying to be as precise as possible) but at least it meant a quick taxi off and back to the club.

A good and very satisfying flight, I felt and Karl confirmed this by saying all was fine. Club “rules” are three hours before being allowed to private hire but he said he would check that out with the CFI to see if I might be able to go P-in-C tomorrow with oldest daughter and her boyfriend as passengers (could also go with an instructor again if that is a no-go), but at least that was a tick against my flying and made me very pleased. Fingers crossed for the weather, then!!

A BEAUTIFUL DAY - THEN IT ALL WENT A BIT WRONG!!

BEFORE THE DRAMA -
DQV IN THE EARLY MORNING SUN

Superb weather in the Waikato for the past few days with glorious sunshine - quite a change from the windy, wet Spring. Having looked at the weather forecast at the beginning of the week I had booked the Arrow, DQV for a few hours and drove to the club in the early morning sun looking forward to a cross-country over to Whakatane and back.
By the time I had filed a flight plan, pushed DQV out of its hangar and preflighted, the early morning mist had gone, the few low clouds were burning off and it looked good to go. I taxied over to the pumps to fill up the tanks, got my departure clearance and went off to run up and do the pre take-off checks. There were no problems with the run-up and after a short wait for the circuit traffic I was cleared to line up behind a twin-star taking off on 18L.
All proceeded smoothly to start with, line up, line up checks, full throttle, nice and straight, rotate at 65 knots, out of runway - gear up, 80 knots and accelerating, flaps up, fuel pump off, landing light off - all good so far. Then it was set power and propeller pitch for climb and things rapidly turned to custard. As soon as I coarsened the pitch the whole front of the aircraft started to shake (quite violently, it seemed to me). Hey, this is not right, I thought, time to abort the flight and get back "home" PDQ!!
As I turned crosswind I keyed the mike and announced I had a vibration problem to the tower and requested a circuit to land. I levelled out at about 700' agl turning downwind, eyeing the paddocks nearby just in case (there was almost no wind so any landing direction would do, I reckoned, if the engine actually stopped). Fuel pump on, back to cruise power and I then attempted to set the power and pitch for cruise (24" manifold pressure and 2400rpm) hoping the shakes would get better but, if anything, it felt worse. Gear down, rest of downwind checks complete and I was cleared to approach.
The tower very kindly asked me (twice, in fact) if I required assistance but by now I was abeam the downwind threshold and within range for a glide approach so I replied in the negative, just asking confirmation I was number one. I was, as other traffic had been held or cleared off the runway which was good, and as soon as the throttle was closed back to about 15" of manifold pressure the vibes stopped and I did a pretty fair approach and smooth landing. PHEW!! A happy end to my first ever real in-flight emergency.
I taxied back to the club where senior instructor, Ash, was waiting for me. After I shut down he hopped up on the wing to ask what the problem was (the tower had told the club I was coming back because of a problem). After hearing my story and checking over the prop, Ash got into the right hand seat and we taxied around a bit throttling up and back and moving the prop. All seemed well on the ground and I was left wondering if it was something I had done. Still, Ash reckoned it was a good call to return and I left to go home.
As it turned out, it wasn't me. The owner of DQV took it out later and the same thing happened. It turned out not to be a prop problem as I thought, but a fouled spark plug which, for some reason, did not show itself on the ground run-up checks! So, even if all checks on the ground are good, things can still go wrong, sooner rather than later, too!! One for the learning curve and a good outcome.

"DED"-RECKONING AND SLIPPERY RUNWAYS!

THURSDAY 26th NOVEMBER
Not a fantastic day weather-wise with a 2000-2500' cloud base and a briskish westerly of 15-20 knots but a good day to try a bit of "Ded" (i.e.; deduced) reckoning with the Archer III, WIT, partly as a test of my navigation skills and also to deduce a working TAS for WIT for future reference.
I had made a flight plan for a short local cross-country; Hamilton to Port Waikato, down the coast to Raglan and back to Hamilton - 91 miles. Familiar territory and no need to rely on anything other than maps and my calculations. I did use the autopilot to keep a constant heading which would test my drift allowance and so the accuracy of the wind forecast.
With the westerly wind I was given 25R to take off from and started the stopwatch just after rotating off the runway. After levelling off at 2000' (I was given the clearance while still below 1000') I set my calculated heading and engaged the autopilot.
Keeping a constant heading I was able to read map to ground and check the landmarks for halfway, right on the line so wind forecast OK, and arrived over the river mouth at Port Waikato. Turned South down the coast, resetting the stopwatch and heading for Raglan. same procedure at Raglan and home to Hamilton.
The radio traffic was busy and I had to hold at Temple View, so the time was taken there and, two orbits at Rukuhia later I landed nice and smoothly on 25R. (It wasn't perfect, Though - Ash had watched me and reckoned I hadn't flared enough and landed a bit on the nosewheel - ooops.)
Back home with my timings I "back-calculated" my groundspeeds into true airspeed (remembering to allow for ending at Temple View on the last leg) and got the following for the three legs: 126kt, 121kt and 110kt (average 119). Given these I will, in future, use 120kt TAS for WIT and should not go too far wrong. Anyone reading this who reckons I am way off beam please feel free to let me know, thanks.

THURSDAY 3rd DECEMBER
A very showery day but I still went over to the club in the hope of getting up in one of the Robins which I hadn't flown for about two months, a case of keeping current. It was raining when I arrived with poor visibility but cleared sufficiently after a cup of tea for instructor Marie to sign me out to go for some circuits.
Back in the little Robin, I found myself back in very familiar territory and did a pretty fair set of four circuits with two glide approaches, one normal and, finally, a flapless approach - the weather looked like closing in again. Coming in flapless I was, of course, a bit faster than usual and just after landing, I touched the brakes to slow down before the taxiway and that is when it got interesting. The seal was still pretty damp from the earlier rain and I found myself skidding towards the terminal!! Off the brakes, straighten up, still sliding a bit, and let her slow down on her own - after all, there is over 2km of runway on the main 36R - plenty of room to stop. A good lesson on (not) braking on wet runways!!!
Other than the skid, I was pleased with my efforts and current again on the little Robins. Might get to fly in some nice weather sometime!!

IT'S CALLED DECISION MAKING, MR PILOT-IN-COMMAND!!

THURSDAY 19TH NOVEMBER

Well, having obtained my Arrow type rating a week ago I had booked DQV for a couple of hours this morning. The weather forecast the night before had been favourable and I had prepared a flight plan for a short cross-country down to Taumarunui and back.
Well, you know weather forecasters - almost as reliable as politicians!! As it turned out the morning started cloudy with not much sign of clearing. Cloud base at Hamilton was about 3000' and looked a bit grim all round apart from Southwards so I thought Taumarunui was still a "go". CFI Roger agreed but warned me to be on the alert for weather changes and muttered something not too complimentary about weather forecasts!!
So I filed a flight plan and set off in the Arrow after a short wait for landing and circuiting aircraft and set course for Taumarunui. It was pretty cloudy all the way down and I cruised along at 2500' - about 300' below the cloud base. About 5 miles north of my "target" things got a bit more "interesting". The cloud base had lowered a bit and the hills all around were becoming obscured. I was starting to get that claustrophobic "hemmed-in" feeling as the visibilty all round decreased. I was also not sure of my position - not too good.
A bit of map to ground sorted the "lost" feeling out - I identified the railway and SH4 at Okahukura so was about 3 miles North and slightly West of the field. I could also just about make out Taumarunui township along the valley. However, a quick look around confirmed what I feared - the weather appeared to be closing in behind me. I did not fancy being "trapped" by the weather if I landed at Taumarunui so decided it was home time. A call on the 119.1 frequency and another to Christchurch information to tell them what I was up to and I headed back North.
The weather was a bit worse with some light showers and verga about but still flyable at 2500' - just, I was "scraping" the cloud base. About 10 miles North of Taumarunui I could make out Kakepuku (small hill by Te Awamutu) which was reassuring as my heading was just to the right of it - dead on course for Hamilton. I still couldn't see much of the surrounding ranges but there was no high ground ahead.
With a 20 knot tail wind I was back in the control zone in about 15 minutes (ground speed 150 knots or so) and requested some circuits. Two quite tidy touch and goes and a full stop later I was taxying over to the fuel pumps to gas up before putting DQV back in its "home". I saw Roger at the pumps and told him what had happened. He just smiled an said, "It's called decision making, Barry".
Anyway, home safe (reckon that made it good decision making) with 1.1 hours in the logbook and a bit more retractable approach practice. I am still checking those little green lights 4 or 5 times each approach, though!!

ARROW TYPE RATING COMPLETE!!

THURSDAY 12th NOVEMBER
What a fabulous day. Light wind, no significant cloud - AT LAST!!
So, it was with a light and happy heart I set out on the 10 minute or so drive to the club. Well, that was the first, and only, mishap of the day. For some reason best known to Hamilton City/Waikato regional council and/or Land transport, a fair bit of Narrows Road was being dug up. The metal surface they had left down was pretty rough to say the least and I think I picked up half the road under the wheel arches (and that was at 20kph or slower). Hey guys, not all of us driving these roads are farmers or "lifestyle-blockies" in utes or 4-wheel drives. Not all vehicles using rural roads have 5' of ground clearance, people!!
I finally got to the club leaving bits of road metal on SH3 each time I touched the brakes. I went off to get DQV ready to go while Roger went to rustle up som "ballast" for the maximum weight check flight. The "ballast" turned up in the shape of Peter, one the of the club CPLs (and recently qualified C-cat instructor). A fair bit of ballast this (sorry, Peter) as he is about the size of a rugby lock!
Peter folded himself up in the back, Roger and I jumped in and we were off. I decided on a Scott departure and we headed out over Scotsmans Valley for the usual turns, stalls and a forced landing. All went well until the forced landing where I was getting myself set up nicely for my chosen paddock when a klaxon sounded and the gear came down - the emergency gear extension had kicked in! While Roger reminded me about the override for that piece of "safety" equipment I became a bit distracted and ended up too far away from my chosen field. Fortunately there was a nearer paddock to approach so that was OK. We went around and headed for home. Peter had hardly said a word, so Roger asked if he was still awake to which he replied, "Yea, all good thanks". An ideal passenger! Thanks, Pete.
Back in the circuit for a few "laps" dual and then Roger and Peter hopped out and I did a few on my own. My first landing was pretty near perfect but the next two weren't that great but never mind; if "any landing you walk away from is a good landing" then "any landing you walk away from with a totally intact aeroplane" must be a great landing, yes??
Well, it was all good anyway, and, a bit of paperwork later, I had my type rating for the PA28 - 200 (Piper Cherokee Arrow) in the logbook - YAY!!!