Added as promised.
The takeoff.
And the landing. I muted the recorded soundtrack because I had to do some time compression to stave off people getting bored and it doesn't sound quite as good at two times speed. I hope you get a decent impression of how awesome the day was. We really were spoiled. Thanks again Rodney for arranging it for us.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Flying with Rodney
As part of a trip to Wellington, I hatched a plan to go up flying with another kiwi pilot and fellow blogger Rodney. The lovely Susan had managed to score us some very cheap tickets to fly to Wellington commercially (much cheaper than the price of gas for driving down), so around 10 weeks ago I had emailled Rodney and he thought it would be a brilliant idea to go up for a scenic flight around Wellington.
Rodney kindly collected us from our motel and we turned up at the Wellington Aero Club, where Rodney flies from. Eventually our plane, an Archer which Rodney had booked for 10.30am arrived back from the previous booking and he got to work pre-flighting while I snapped some photos of our mount.
Eventually we got strapped into our life jackets and taxied out onto runway 16 and with very little ceremony we were off! (Film to follow when edited)
I had listened into the Wellington ATIS and the wind was pretty light but I was amazed at how smooth the flying conditions were. Remember Wellington NZ has a reputation of being a bit of a plane bender but conditions were nothing if not docile.
If I recall correctly we were cleared for an Eastborne departure so we turned left and flew up the entrance to Wellington Harbour.
As you can see here, there was a bit of cloud cover overhead but the visibility was excellent. This photo looks northwest back towards Wellington City, although most of downtown is obscured by the pillar. In the foreground is the seaside suburb of Seatoun.
Here is the Department of Conservation controlled island of Matiu (formerly known as Somes Island). The largest island inside Wellington Harbour, we visited the island briefly a few days earlier by ferry, but it looks heaps better from the air.
Looking north up the Hutt Valley, showing the Hutt River and on the left hand side of the river, the main fault line running through New Zealand. The quarry you can see in the centre left of shot is where both the Helms Deep and Minas Tirith sets for the Lord of the Rings Films were located.
Looking west towards Mana Island off the coast. In the back ground you can see the South Island!
Pretty much taken straight after the previous photo, looking north at Kapiti Island.
Rodney then proceeded to descend and we orbited Mana Island from about 1500 feet. You can see Kapiti Island to the north in the distance and the North Island mainland to the right.
After the orbit we headed south and Rodney put us in a cruise climb to regain some altitude prior to rejoining Wellington airspace. This photo looks southwards. On the left is the North Island and in the background is the South Island. If you look closely you can see the Kaikoura Ranges with snow on them.
Here's my last airborne photo of Rodney commencing the Sinclair Arrival procedure. We need to remain on this side of that little witches hat looking island just off the coast in the middle of the photo.
It was an awesome flight, much better than I could have hoped for. When Susan and I flew out of Wellington commercially later in the day the wind had picked up to around 15-20 knots and the cloud was moving in preceding a cold front. I will post video of the takeoff and landing later when I edit them appropriately.
PS. As this blog site has been updated with a new template, I will now post in larger text to make it easier to read. Enjoy.
Rodney kindly collected us from our motel and we turned up at the Wellington Aero Club, where Rodney flies from. Eventually our plane, an Archer which Rodney had booked for 10.30am arrived back from the previous booking and he got to work pre-flighting while I snapped some photos of our mount.
Eventually we got strapped into our life jackets and taxied out onto runway 16 and with very little ceremony we were off! (Film to follow when edited)I had listened into the Wellington ATIS and the wind was pretty light but I was amazed at how smooth the flying conditions were. Remember Wellington NZ has a reputation of being a bit of a plane bender but conditions were nothing if not docile.
If I recall correctly we were cleared for an Eastborne departure so we turned left and flew up the entrance to Wellington Harbour.
As you can see here, there was a bit of cloud cover overhead but the visibility was excellent. This photo looks northwest back towards Wellington City, although most of downtown is obscured by the pillar. In the foreground is the seaside suburb of Seatoun.
Here is the Department of Conservation controlled island of Matiu (formerly known as Somes Island). The largest island inside Wellington Harbour, we visited the island briefly a few days earlier by ferry, but it looks heaps better from the air.
Looking north up the Hutt Valley, showing the Hutt River and on the left hand side of the river, the main fault line running through New Zealand. The quarry you can see in the centre left of shot is where both the Helms Deep and Minas Tirith sets for the Lord of the Rings Films were located.
Looking west towards Mana Island off the coast. In the back ground you can see the South Island!
Pretty much taken straight after the previous photo, looking north at Kapiti Island.
Rodney then proceeded to descend and we orbited Mana Island from about 1500 feet. You can see Kapiti Island to the north in the distance and the North Island mainland to the right.
After the orbit we headed south and Rodney put us in a cruise climb to regain some altitude prior to rejoining Wellington airspace. This photo looks southwards. On the left is the North Island and in the background is the South Island. If you look closely you can see the Kaikoura Ranges with snow on them.
Here's my last airborne photo of Rodney commencing the Sinclair Arrival procedure. We need to remain on this side of that little witches hat looking island just off the coast in the middle of the photo.
It was an awesome flight, much better than I could have hoped for. When Susan and I flew out of Wellington commercially later in the day the wind had picked up to around 15-20 knots and the cloud was moving in preceding a cold front. I will post video of the takeoff and landing later when I edit them appropriately.
PS. As this blog site has been updated with a new template, I will now post in larger text to make it easier to read. Enjoy.
Friday, October 03, 2008
Pauanui Beach
Pauanui Beach is an idyllic little settlement on the Eastern Coromandel peninsula exactly 57nm north northeast from Hamilton as the Cessna flies. Susan had always wanted to go there, and judging by the fact that the airstrip is bang smack in the middle of town, it’s an aviation friendly place.
The day was pretty nice by most standards, although it was quite hazy and the ATIS at Hamilton reported broken at 3500’ and vis of only 25km. I did a weight and balance for max fuel and we were way under the limits so after preflighting we got underway. I haven’t done much flying recently, and I was a little concerned about my currency, but the met was well within my personal minimums so it was more of a nagging doubt than a concern.
Once we were clear of airspace I climbed up to 3000’ and surveyed my options. It didn’t look like I could get across the Kaimais with any sort of safety margin so I decided to make for the Waihi Gap. As we got closer to the town of Paeroa which sits at the western entrance to the Gap, I heard traffic on the Coromandel frequency stating that they were happily VFR at 4500 so I knew the cloud conditions were better the further east I went. The cloudbase had started to break up, and by the time I was overhead Paeroa the cloud was few at 3500 so I picked a gap and climbed.
Once we were on top the ride smoothed out and the entire eastern side of the Coromandel was CAVOK. Once I started our descent (Pauanui’s elevation is 12’) we hit some clear air turbulence, but it was nothing major. I had been monitoring traffic around Pauanui and there was quite a bit, and they were using both runways so after dialling up the AWIB and being told that the wind was variable, I chose to perform an overhead join and see for myself.
After not spotting the windsock at one end, I eventually saw the other one and it was indicating an off shore easterly breeze of around 5-8 knots so I announced I was descending non traffic for 05. Pauanui is bordered by a range of hills to the south about 1nm from the airstrip which are higher than circuit height. I remember a pilot telling me that you need to fly at the hills till you think you are too close then turn away. I was descending to 1000’ at the same time so the hills seemed to rush up at you. But it worked because I ended up perfectly spaced at circuit height to join downwind.
The rest of the approach went well until very short final when I hit a patch of sheer and the plane lurched to the right. I overcorrected and we drifted left, I thought about going around but sorted everything out by the time we hit ground effect and we touched down surprisingly lightly, albeit half a wingspan off centreline.
The trip back was fairly uneventful other than our arrival being at the same time as a flock of CTC aircraft returning so I had to hold north of the airport while the controller got everyone sorted out. I did a passable crosswind landing and taxied clear. A 1.8hr flight and a whole day of fun.
The day was pretty nice by most standards, although it was quite hazy and the ATIS at Hamilton reported broken at 3500’ and vis of only 25km. I did a weight and balance for max fuel and we were way under the limits so after preflighting we got underway. I haven’t done much flying recently, and I was a little concerned about my currency, but the met was well within my personal minimums so it was more of a nagging doubt than a concern.
Once we were clear of airspace I climbed up to 3000’ and surveyed my options. It didn’t look like I could get across the Kaimais with any sort of safety margin so I decided to make for the Waihi Gap. As we got closer to the town of Paeroa which sits at the western entrance to the Gap, I heard traffic on the Coromandel frequency stating that they were happily VFR at 4500 so I knew the cloud conditions were better the further east I went. The cloudbase had started to break up, and by the time I was overhead Paeroa the cloud was few at 3500 so I picked a gap and climbed.
Once we were on top the ride smoothed out and the entire eastern side of the Coromandel was CAVOK. Once I started our descent (Pauanui’s elevation is 12’) we hit some clear air turbulence, but it was nothing major. I had been monitoring traffic around Pauanui and there was quite a bit, and they were using both runways so after dialling up the AWIB and being told that the wind was variable, I chose to perform an overhead join and see for myself.
After not spotting the windsock at one end, I eventually saw the other one and it was indicating an off shore easterly breeze of around 5-8 knots so I announced I was descending non traffic for 05. Pauanui is bordered by a range of hills to the south about 1nm from the airstrip which are higher than circuit height. I remember a pilot telling me that you need to fly at the hills till you think you are too close then turn away. I was descending to 1000’ at the same time so the hills seemed to rush up at you. But it worked because I ended up perfectly spaced at circuit height to join downwind.
The rest of the approach went well until very short final when I hit a patch of sheer and the plane lurched to the right. I overcorrected and we drifted left, I thought about going around but sorted everything out by the time we hit ground effect and we touched down surprisingly lightly, albeit half a wingspan off centreline.
The trip back was fairly uneventful other than our arrival being at the same time as a flock of CTC aircraft returning so I had to hold north of the airport while the controller got everyone sorted out. I did a passable crosswind landing and taxied clear. A 1.8hr flight and a whole day of fun.
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