Yep, this was an awesome currency check in the club's Cessna 172N, ZK-EKE, this afternoon with Oscar.
Rather than just a few circuits, we headed up to Paraparaumu to do some circuits. This included some interesting weather en route, some slightly crosswind weather at NZPP, solo circuits and a relatively easy flight home.
Fun times!
... since I last flew - one month to be precise.
Today's flight was just a series of circuits at Wellington International Airport, in the aero club's Cessna 172N, ZK-EKE. Fun times, with sweet clearances, no delays and great weather.
Anyway, here's a reminder of what this awesome machine looks like.
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| Cessna 172N, ZK-EKE, operated by Wellington Aero Club |
Next up is a small video of today's Fiji Airways departure to Nadi [NFFN]. This is a Boeing 737-MAX8, DQ-FAD. It is good to see the regional operators returning to Wellington as the Covid restrictions are reduced.
This was shot on my new Samsung A73, so I'd say the image stabilisation is pretty good!
Saturday was a chance to take a couple of people for a flight to the Marlborough Sounds. The weather was nice - a bit breezy, but nice enough.
Yet again 😂 I have managed to not take any photos of my own, but in a one hour flight, we managed to get across to the Marlborough Sounds, taking a look from Long Island down to Picton then across to Port Gore, before returning to Wellington.
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| The flight path |
Last weekend [Monday to be precise] I had a flight in a Cessna 172N, ZK-EKE. I was by myself, so rather than just go sightseeing, I thought I would practice some manoeuvres instead. So, after just one hour, I had practiced turns, stalls, FLWOP, constant radius turns, then rejoined with a short approach to land.
Fun times! No pictures from the flight, just this screen grab from an app.
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| The flight path |
I went flying on Sunday afternoon. The aircraft needed a wash prior to the flight... so, no, this was not after my flight... Clearly the previous flight had some fun 😏
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| Cessna 172N, ZK-EKE, operated by Wellington Aero Club |
For the first time in many years, Wairarapa and Wellington Aero Clubs held an inter-club competition last Saturday. These used to happen regularly, but haven't for a few years now. There is even a rather large and impressive cup, the Liverton Cup, on offer.
The competitions
The day consisted of three competitions taken from the excellent [I may be biased!] set of competitions run by Flying NZ for their regional and national competition events. We also used the relevant safety standards promulgated by Flying NZ, especially for the landing grid set-up and operations.
The three competitions were:
To give different people a fair go, there were three categories, Junior [student pilots], Senior [licenced pilots] and Special [CPL, instructors and other "special" people 😆]. It was a friendly get-together, with an emphasis on having fun and learning something and serving as an introduction to pilots from both clubs who had not experienced competitions before.
I had planned to spend most of my day running the landing grid... but I found out partway through the day that someone had entered me into the precision circuits and forced landing competitions. They also decided that I would also use the Nanchang CJ6A, ZK-MAO. Funny people.
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| Nanchang CJ6A, ZK-MAO, operated by Wellington Aero Club |
That might be the last time anyone enters me in a competition without asking first 😁.
Kiwi Coffee and Kai Catering
Kiwi Coffee and Kai Catering provided delicious food in the afternoon and evening. Yum! Apparently they cater all over the place, and I'm sure Wairarapa Aero Club will be happy to have them back another day. The owners of the food truck came along for a ride in Wellington's Cessna 172N, ZK-EKE - a nice little 20 minute trip. Check out their FB page for some photos and video of the flight.
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| Cessna 172N, ZK-EKE, operated by Wellington Aero Club |
Flying Tigers
The Wairarapa Flying Tigers were out in force, providing rides in their two DH82A Tiger Moths. Very impressive machines, and I know everyone enjoyed their rides.
I signed up as a member of Flying Tigers a while ago, but being busy, yet again I managed to fail miserably at going for a ride. Sad. Another day.
The end result?
Everyone had fun and I'm sure most people learnt something [I learnt that I should be more careful about applying sunscreen everywhere exposed... Grrrr!].
I actually had fun gliding the Nanchang onto the ground - that last 500' is always the fun bit. I also flew the Nanchang to/ from Wellington - again, good fun.
Congrats to Wairarapa Aero Club who took out the Liverton Cup this year. We'll be back next year to take it back!
Guess where I got to this time?
Over to Masterton first thing Monday morning [well, a 10:15 arrival is close to first thing, right??] 😀
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| Piper PA38-112, ZK-JBX, operated by Wairarapa Aero Club |
Today's little rocket was Wellington Aero Club's Cessna 172N, ZK-EKE.
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| Cessna 172N, ZK-EKE, operated by Wellington Aero Club |
Following this I headed in the other direction - back south, past Wellington, across Cook Strait to Kaikoura. Home of the best seafood and whale watching available in New Zealand. If you do want to do some whale watching, best to do it with Air Kaikoura. You'll probably see more of these 🐳 and spend less time wondering where they are hiding!
The scenery on the way down is pretty awesome also.
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| Kaikoura peninsula |
What else happened? With two crossings of Cook Strait, I made good use of the radar monitoring service provided by Airways NZ, and I reacquainted myself with the benefits of tuning into Christchurch Information to update my SARTIME [this is the time they start searching for me...] and my flight plan when the route home changed.
Another 3.2 hours of fun in the air and about 7.5 hours for the year so far. It has been an expensive start to the year! I might have to stay on the ground for a couple of days, although it is looking nice on Saturday...
The route... planned vs actual.
Last weekend I was up in Whanganui for the Flying NZ Cook Strait region competitions.Unlike the previous four years, I wasn't the Competition Director [Thanks Leroy for doing that this year. Well done!], but I was given the role of Chief Ground Judge [so LOTS of time out on the landing grid], as well as competing in the Wigram Cup Basic Panel Instrument Flying competition.
A fun day and one that was well organised by Flying NZ and the Wanganui Aero Club.
For me, the weekend started with a flight to Whanganui in Wellington Aero Club's Cessna 172N, ZK-EKE on Friday. My competition was done in a Piper PA38-112 Tomahawk, ZK-TAW on Saturday and the flight home on Sunday was again in EKE.
I didn't get any pictures during the competitions - I was too busy with managing safety on the grid and ensuring the judging was up to standard, but I did get some on Saturday evening and on the flight home.
First up is the de Havilland DH112 Venom, ZK-VNM. This was pulled out of its hanger and turned some Jet A1 into noise and kinetic energy. Nice!
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| de Havilland DH112 Venom, ZK-VNM, operated by Wanganui Sea and Air Charters |
This Supermarine Aircraft Spitfire Mk 26 Replica, ZK-SPT, was pushed out of it's hanger to make room for the competition presentation dinner. What an awesome machine!
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| Supermarine Aircraft Spitfire Mk26 Replica, ZK-SPT |
It looked great in the dark also!
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| Supermarine Aircraft Spitfire Mk26 Replica, ZK-SPT |
I am always impressed at the quality of photos on my new iPad Mini 6. here are a couple as we passed over Paraparaumu airport and a cockpit photo of EKE.
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| NZPP - Paraparaumu airport |
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| NZPP - Paraparaumu airport |
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| Cessna 172N, ZK-EKE, operated by Wellington Aero Club |
Oh yeah... competition results. I managed a First Equal in my competition. I'm quite stocked with that! I guess the practice helped. Well done to Mads from HBECAC who was also first equal - a great guy and friendly rivalry [rumour has it, I might has tried to convince Mads that I was so bad, that he would win even if he didn't compete... 😁😁😁 ... didn't work!].
Last Saturday dawned fine and so was a good day for a couple of flights.
First up was a refresher on partial panel instrument flying in the Clubs Piper PA38-112 Tomahawk, ZK-TAW. This is prep for the upcoming [Covid19 permitting...!] Flying NZ Cook Strait regional competition. There is more practice to come [and needed!], but flying the old Traumahawk is always a bit of fun.
Second flight of the day was a quick trip to Paraparaumu [NZPP] for a couple of circuits then back to Wellington. All up, this was a 1 hour flight in the Cessna 172N, ZK-EKE. Good to hear some friendly voices on the radio also. The following picture is the track I took to/ from Paraparaumu.
I have only been up the Desert Road corridor once before, so it was good to see it again. Last time was clear skies. This time we flew up and back down with a bit more cloud and a bit of rain, although neither of them affected the flights.
It's a magic flight along this corridor, squashed between pieces on military airspace over the Waiouru training area, although I wouldn't want to be here in low cloud or poor visibility! In these first two photos, it's only the tops of the mountains that are obscured. The corridor itself was quite ok.
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| Mount Ruapehu |
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| Mount Ngauruhoe and Mount Tongariro |
A few nautical miles north of the Desert Road corridor is the town of
Turangi. There is a small grass airfield [ICAO designator is NZTN] just
out of town, as shown in the following photo. I haven't been in there yet - maybe another day.
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| NZTN - Turangi airfield |
The ultimate destination for this flight [prior to returning to Wellington] was Taupo airport. The pilot who flew up and another passenger picked up a Piper PA38-112 for the return trip and I got to fly the Cessna 172N, ZK-EKE home.
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| NZAP - Taupo airport |
Here's a brief video from a flight on 14 March, where I fly south down the southern Wairarapa toward Lake Onoke and Palliser Bay, then return to Wellington via the Baring sector.
The aircraft was Wellington Aero Club's Cessna 172N, ZK-EKE. The video is sped up 6x as otherwise it would be very boring 😀.
Leave me a comment if there are more areas around Wellington or the top of the South Island you'd like to see in a future video. No promises, but I may be able to do it!
This short video shows me flying overhead Paraparaumu airfield [ICAO code NZPP] in February. This was part of a fun flight from Wellington, around Kapiti Island, overhead NZPP and back to Wellington.
Enjoy the video!
If you like this type of content, then please like and subscribe the video on my Youtube channel. This feedback shows me that you appreciate the content, and finances permitting, I'll make more of them!
Enjoy the sights of the northern Wellington region as we track north up Transmission Gully, a new northern route in and out of Wellington. I've finally sorted the camera configuration, so hopefully this looks better than some previous videos.
It seems that like all new roads, it is much delayed, but it due to open in September 2021.
Enjoy the video and come back later this year to see if there's a new video of an opened road! 😁
Like this content?
I am hoping to do a few more of these types of videos, showing off parts of New Zealand as I fly around. Like and subscribe on my Youtube channel to get notified of new videos as they are released.
Here's a brief video of a recent trip across the Marlborough Sounds [at the top end of New Zealand's South Island] and what turned out to be smooth flying conditions and good visibility.
The aircraft is Wellington Aero Club's Cessna 172N, ZK-EKE. As I mentioned in the previous post [with content from the same flight], there's still a bit more fiddling to do with the camera settings, but I'm getting there!
Next in-flight video will have the camera's Linear mode set on. I can't wait! Ha ha
Following on from my last video of the 34 Owhiro Departure from Wellington, my destination on that flight was Motueka aerodrome [ICAO code: NZMK].
Motueka is located near the top of the South Island and is a really nice place to visit, even if this visit was just long enough to refuel the aircraft then the pilots.
The flight itself was across the Cook Strait, then the very scenic
Marlborough Sounds [I might do another video on this], then on to where
this video starts, crossing Tasman Bay. It's a nice part of the country to visit!
Camera settings are much better than last time, but still not quite right. I figure I may as well use the Go Pro's setting to generate a linear image. This crops down the field of view, but I think does make for a better result. That of course is for another day.
This is a short video of the 34 Owhiro departure from Wellington recently.
This was the start of a flight to Motueka, near to top of New Zealand's South Island. The aircraft is Wellington Aero Club's Cessna 172N, ZK-EKE. EKE is a wee bit special - it has a 180hp engine and a STOL kit. On this flight, with 120litres of fuel and two people on board, the takeoff roll was around 100 meters [maybe slightly over]. Not bad performance!
Anyway, enjoy the video. There will be further videos over the coming weeks, hopefully including the arrival into Motueka as well as video from across the Marlborough Sounds 👍
Here's my first flight with a new Go Pro camera. Unfortunately I had one of the settings wrong which makes for a very "interesting" effect. Accidentally shows off one of the great capabilities of the camera!
I got to be a passenger last weekend while another pilot underwent a Maximum All Up Weight [MAUW] checkride as part of his type rating on the club's Cessna 172N, ZK-EKE.
It's actually nice to be a passenger for once and to be able to sit back, relax and enjoy the view, while someone else does the hard [fun] work. Fun times!
Anyway, here are a few photos from the flight around the Wellington circuit.
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| Cessna 172N, ZK-EKE, operated by Wellington Aero Club |
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| The old prison at the north end of the Miramar Peninsula |
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| Right hand downwind for runway 34, looking back to the airport |
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| A view to the south-east from the circuit |
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| Final approach for runway 34 |
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| Cessna 172N, ZK-EKE, operated by Wellington Aero Club |
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| Cessna 172N, ZK-EKE, operated by Wellington Aero Club |
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| Beer and pretzels in the Wellington Koru Lounge |
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| Local and competitor aircraft |
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| Local and competitor aircraft |
