Today, Andrew, Amy and I headed off to Masterton in Cessna 172N, ZK-FLT. No real reason, except to have a fly, some fun and a few circuits at a quiet, uncontrolled, aerodrome. Ok, we had to avoid some meat bombers [parachutists], but the jump pilot was friendly and helpful, telling us where they be descending etc.
I got to fly from Wellington to Masterton and a few circuits. We took the Pencarrow Departure from Wellington, into Palliser Bay and then north to Masterton. This first picture is in Palliser Bay, looking south-east.
On the way there, we past another Club aircraft - Piper PA38-112, ZK-TAW. the Hatchet must be slow for our old C172 to overtake it easily :-)
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Andrew did some circuits at Masterton, then I flew us back again. It was mostly smooth enough flying, although the gentle breeze and thermals at Masterton were interesting. The aircraft was moving around most of the time, and the windsocks were all a little different. Not at the level of being character building but enough to keep us awake and on our toes.
Finally, here we are short-final approach into Wellington, followed by Andrew's GPS track of our arrival. The magenta line shows our flight path, and yes, it was a fairly tight base leg to fit in with inbound IFR traffic.
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Now all I need is some good weather to finish off my night rating!
Pictures in this post are from Amy and Andrew. Thanks!
hey m'friend! Good mornin' from way over here : )
ReplyDeleteRodney, did you ever know a pilot there named James Drexler? He said to ask you, since it's such a small world out there; he use to fly out of that airport : )
Cheers!
Liz ~*
Hi Rodney
ReplyDeleteThanks for having me along. It's much more fun 'flying social' than flying alone, and I enjoyed the chance to do some circuits at the relatively uncongested Masterton.
It was a good day for flying, though as you point out enough funny wind things going on to keep us on our toes.
Cheers,
Andrew
Rodney
ReplyDeleteA PS about the GPS track, which might look wildly inaccurate (+/- 50 m horizontally, and a massive 95 m vertically).
I was using a remote GPS receiver that connects though Bluetooth to my iPad. I turned the receiver off in the plane, but didn't take the screenshot of the track until I was inside the aero club office. Probably the iPad was at that point struggling to get a signal for its internal GPS, which inflated the margin of error figures.
This was the first time I've used this set-up in earnest, and I'll do some more experimenting with it. I was pleased with the way it worked, though.
Cheers,
Andrew
Hi Liz - sorry, I don't think I have ever met James.
ReplyDeleteAndrew - ahhh, that explains that :-) Thanks!