Finally something to show you

I did an awesome flight with my sister and her partner Perraine. We went around Mt Pirongia to Kawhia and then turned north up the coast to Raglan. Perraine is an amateur cameraman of sorts and took plenty of amazing photographs which I'll post when I get the chance. He also took some video footage.

The flight went extremely well, my only slight apprehension was when we took off from Raglan, I had got to 200 AGL and had raised flaps and trimmed for an 80 knot nose attitude when I realised that we were not climbing very fast. I did a quick check of the engine T's & P's and they were all nominal except maybe the engine was slightly hotter but still within the green range. Since we were not losing height I didn't worry too much but continued to monitor the situation and eventually we settled into a 200 foot per minute climb, which was more than enough since we weren't going to require more than 2000 feet for terrain clearance and we were already over half way to that height.

Once we cleared the hills west of Hamilton I got the ATIS and clearance straight in for grass 07. The movie I've posted is my landing. Not a bad landing, but not as good as I am capable of. Firstly I didn't hold the nosewheel up for very long after the mains touched down and secondly we veered to the left after I applied slightly uneven braking. I corrected it and we straightened, but still, it was an unnecessary faux pax, sorry about that. I hope that you get some impression of how pretty NZ is from the video and pics, and although the weather was fantastic we get a lot of days like this at this time of year.

Enjoy.

Comments

Rodney said…
Hi Euan,

Nice video! By the looks of the panel you were in an 'R' model C172? I did my C172 type rating [many years ago] in the 'R' model :-)

I've been into Hamilton several times, but always landed on the opposing vector... It is a nice AD to visit!
Chris Nielsen said…
It is an R model and it's very nice compared to the M model I fly!!
Rodney said…
Cool. I'm mainly flying an N model, although occasionally an L model. So far, I've flown L, M, N, P, R, and SP models. The SP is the best one I have flown - it was brand spanking new [less than 20 hrs on hobbs when I first hopped in], leather seats, everything worked in it :-) and 180Hp. Nice.

Still prefer the PA28 series though :-)
Chris Nielsen said…
I did my training on Archer IIs and feel most comfortable in them, but there is lots of things to like about 172s. Especially JGP with 180hp and the big prop! A real load hauler, although PA28s seem very solid, stable and fast on x-countries.
Flyinkiwi said…
WAM (that 172R) and I go way back. It was the plane I did my first solo in back on 20 Nov 2004, so it will always hold a special place in my heart.

Rodney: Its a rather uncommon occurrence to have an easterly blowing into Hamilton but on that day thats exactly what we had. Believe me when I say that landing on 07 is much easier than 25 because of the complete lack of turbulence on the approach.

Chris: My feelings about the Millennium Falcon are well documented.
Chris Nielsen said…
You'll have to come with me when I do my Arrow rating next month!