Sunday, May 13, 2007

Over the ditch and back again

I got to go flying again today, and even better, it was free! OK, so I wasn't flying, but a passenger in a PA38 [Tomahawk]. "Captain Nirav" earned his PPL a few weeks ago, and was planning on going to Nelson. I turned up at the right time, and got to go with him. Awesome!

Unfortunately the weather was not great. We got over the ditch [Cooks Strait], passed Tory Channel and over Queen Charlotte Sound. At that point it become obvious that we were not going to get much further with cloud over all of the hills. Rather than push on we came back to Wellington - still a good trip!

The first of the photos was taken at about 900' abeam Long Island looking towards the north western "spike" on Arapawa Island. The rest are coming back to Wellington - Right-hand downwind in the airport holding pattern, right base and short final approach for runway 16.

Long Island
Airport from the holding patternRight base for runway 16Short final approach for runway 16

3 comments:

Chris Nielsen said...

Ahh - a Traumahawk :-)

Rodney said...

heh heh heh... yeah, I'm only current on the C172 these days [Wellington Aero Club has a C172 at a very good rate for members], but it is good to go along as a pax once in a while.

I also enjoy having people come along for a ride when I'm out and about - makes the flight much more enjoyable.

Chris Nielsen said...

Never been in a Traumahawk.. Did most of my training in 152s and Archers, got an excellent rate on the club's 180hp 172 so I use that most of the time.

I agree, it is good to have passengers, even if the only way I can get them to come is to promise to pay for it myself !!!!!