Nanchang flying

It had been about 5 weeks since I last flew the Nanchang, so with good weather yesterday I took the opportunity to go for a quick flight. I had a spare seat, so rather than waste some perfectly good space, Gareth, one of the Wellington Aero Club students, came for a ride.

After a 34 Ward Departure, we headed to Mana Island, did a few orbits of that, then headed back for a 34 Owhiro Arrival. It wasn't as turbulent on the arrival as I thought it could have been - just a couple of gentle lumps every now and then.

All up, 42 minutes from start to finish.

Many thanks to Gareth who took these really nice photos! I'm quite impressed with how the first one came out as a monochrome image [and yes, I really need a pair of prescription sunglasses].

Nanchang CJ6A, ZK-MAO

This next photo is of one of the steep turns near Mana Island. I think that counts as looking into the turn.

Nanchang CJ6A, ZK-MAO

This was just before turning onto final approach and is a really nice shot of the rear cockpit. The rear cockpit has most of the instruments and buttons from the front, but is missing a few controls and is laid out quite differently. This photo also shows the weird artificial horizon [AH], which shows the ground on top and the sky underneath. I never did work out why the Russians and Chinese did that.

Nanchang CJ6A, ZK-MAO

Last up is a photo from about a 1/2 mile final. For the smart-alecs out there, yes the PAPI shows 4 white lights, but that's normal as I tend to have quite a steep approach in the Nanchang [mainly as I really want to be able to see where I am heading...].

Nanchang CJ6A, ZK-MAO