Wellington, Hawera, Whanganui and back to Wellington

What a FANTASTIC day for a flight! Smooth air, sunshine and not too much other traffic around - just about the best combination you could have :-)

Last week another club pilot ["hello Rhys!"] asked if I wanted to go to Hawera [ICAO code NZHA, about 1.5 hrs flying from Wellington]. Rhys was picking up another aircraft to take to Nelson and needed someone to get him there and to fly back. I could see that the weather was looking good and I'd never flown into Hawera, so why not?

First thing for me was to get current on the Cessna 172. A quick flight with the Club's new CFI in our C172N ZK-FLT last night [also in perfect conditions!] sorted that. This morning was a thorough preflight, refuel, check of the weather and NOTAMs and off we went. Rhys flew to Hawera and we arrived 1.5 hrs later. Smooth flying conditions and helped by the fact that Rhys flies really well.

My flight back went via Wanganui Airport [NZWU] for a quick lunch with the folks ["thanks for paying, Mum!"], a brief wait for the Air NZ B1900 service to depart, refuel, then back to Wellington. Again, perfect flying conditions. I was enjoying it so much I completely forgot to take any photos. Darn!

In short, I had a relaxing, fun flight to Hawera, I'm current again on the C172 [as well as being current on the PA28], have practiced an overhead rejoin [at NZWU] and accumulated another 2.3 hours flying [yesterday's check ride plus today]! Awesome! did I mention how much fun it was? :-)