Strip flying... yeah, still day 2!

Ok, so we get towards the end of day 2 of the strip flying course at Marlborough Aero Club.

After D'Urville Island we headed back towards Omaka. It's amazing how after just a few hours of training, I started seeing all sorts of little airstrips around the countryside! There are few photos from this flight as I was sitting in the back, nice and comfy, enjoying the views :-) One I did get was of Woodbourne AD [joint military/ civil] as we flew past.

I don't recall the last airstrip we flew into. It is one of the most advanced airstrips that MAC take people into, and if anyone is looking for a name, perhaps "Scenic and fun but almost undie changing" might be an apt description!

The most abiding memory of all of the circuits [including the two I flew] was of a windscreen full of grass on approach and plenty of hillside above me. Takeoff was apply full power and shortly afterwards the ground drops away :-) Around 250 meters for landing, and 150 meters for takeoff from memory.

The view once you are all the top of something to behold though! You get to see all over the Marlborough region from about 1300' AMSL [above mean sea level]. Just magic. So here are the photos. The last one Nick took on left-base for the airstrip. The airstrip is in the centre of the photo and our approach had us well below the top of that hill ;-) No closer picture or any of the takeoff... too busy flying, concentrating and enjoying ourselves!

Strip flying, still day 2, off to D'Urville for lunch!

After Port Gore, the next place to fly to was D'Urville Island airstrip. As I had flown in there before [a few years ago], my instructor, Nick, was kind enough [brave enough??] to let me fly the first approach in. ZK-OMK had landed a few minutes earlier and reported no wind. When I landed we had a slight tailwind, but it was still safe and comfortable. The breeze did pick up a little and that's another lesson learnt - the weather can change very quickly. Not a problem today... just something to keep in mind when out and about.

D'Urville Island was not the hardest airstrip of the day [or maybe we were getting better at this stage!] but I'd still want to be a wee bit cautious... I suspect in the wrong winds it would get rather nasty.

D'Urville Island is a nice place for a quick lunch, and then we were into the circuits... well, figure-8 patterns really. take off to the north, left turn, overhead the field, right turn in to land. It was on one of these that the benefit of manual flap was reinforced - I was floating a little bit, but carefully dumping the flap meant I nailed the landing :-) After Charles and I had done a few, Nick let us go up for a solo circuit each. that was a highlight :-)

Anyway, here are the photos. First up are the students in front of ZK-OMK [Me, Charles and Charles... not a typo], then our instructors [Sharn and Nick - BTW guys, I do have another picture of you two I could publish :-) ha ha], then the aircraft doing their thing. The last photo is one of me landing... a bit flat... but safe after my solo circuit.

I have a couple more posts coming up [yes, day two was full on fun!].

Strip flying, day 2. Off to the Marlborough Sounds

Much like Saturday, Sunday dawned with barely a gentle breeze, a few clouds and lots of sunshine. It was clear that day 2 of the strip flying course at Marlborough Aero Club [MAC] was going to be a stunner!

We arrived at MAC at Omaka airfield Around 9am and after pre-flighting both aircraft and packing the essentials [which included a portable BBQ and food for lunch!] we headed out to a private strip at Nopera in the Marlborough Sounds.

To say the weather was perfect would be an understatement! Very little wind, the surface of the water was smooth and crystal clear... just perfect! We headed out over Koromiko airstrip and a few minutes later arrived at Nopera. the approach is over the water and is not really that hard at all. We flew overhead first to check the surface out [especially checking there were no sheep in the paddock] before heading in. Not a bad landing if I may say so! I got a couple of takeoffs and landings in [including with the land owners] before handing over the controls so Charles [one of the other Wellington pilots] could have a go. Here are some of the photos:

As you can see, there's a wee bit of slope... the main thing though is the terrain behind the camera which you can't see :-)

Next up was an airstrip at Port Gore. This was a really step up for us, although once we were shown how to handle it, it became quite doable. It seems an important step is to always do an approach and overshoot or fly-by first to ascertain the state of the strip, and, having phoned ahead for permission, we were all good to go.

You'll notice from the photos that this airstrip has a slight [!] slope on it from about half way along... what an amazing airstrip though, and again, once shown what to do, it was well manageable in the great conditions we had on the day!

As for the photos, you a look at the one I took from the back seat, at the top of the airstrip. Yes, it really is that steep [and I might add, awesome] :-) For a guy who hasn't done much of this before, it was both a bit weird and huge fun to be sitting at the top of a hill about to go to full power :-) So much fun, it should be illegal [but it's not!] :-) The second photo is of ZK-OMK taking off [BTW - see if you can see the wire]. Did I mention it was fun?

That's it for this post... the next one will include D'Urville Island and the final strip back near Omaka.

Wow! What an awesome weekend! Strip flying with Marlborough Aero Club!

Yep, the headline pretty much sums it up!

Last weekend I went to Omaka, along with two other Wellington pilots for a course in strip flying with Marlborough Aero Club [MAC]. I knew it was going to be fun and I wasn't disappointed at all!

The course was split into two days. this post will cover day 1 and, you guessed it, the next couple of posts will cover day two.

Firstly, I was flying MAC's Cessna 172E, ZK-OMR. Another pilot was using their C172 taildragger, ZK-OMK... you'l see photos of both of these in this and the next couple of posts.

ZK-OMR is one cool machine. Although an older machine, it is in great shape, fun to fly and is STOL kitted with drooping leading edges and wingtips, wing fences and, my new favourite feature, a manual flap [I'll explain why later].

With two pilots undergoing training, we were able to get plenty of flying in but also to be able to sit back an observe which was really really helpful and just added to the value of the whole course. In other words, hint # 1 for this course is to go with someone. Share the flying. Apart from anything else, this is way too cool to not share!

Day 1 consisted of an intro to stable approaches with about 30 minutes each of circuits at MAC's home airfield of Omaka, firstly on the main strips, followed by touch-and-goes on the 300 meter strips mown in beside the main strips. We then landed out on a nearby [barely out of the circuit] hill top strip for a look around and a chat before heading off to the Awatere Valley to try out hand at landing on some farm strips.

The Awatere Valley was where the fun started. The first strip was slightly up hill with a big bend in it. You'll see this in the following pictures. We're also landing with a tailwind, but that was no drama at all. With two people on board you can get airborne well before the bend, with three on board and limited experience, we were going around the bend, but still no drama!

Next up was was a strip that was long and straight, just with a few trees at the end and an interesting water feature near one end that resulted in a wee bit of turbulence and sink. This is where we we taught about dumping flap on landing and putting some in on takeoff.

This is also where it started to hit home just about useful a manual flap mechanism can be. Not only is it simple with no electrics to fail, but it is also very quick to extend or retract - a definite bonus when time is of the essence!

I think the following photos show the terrain quite nicely :-) The runway is centre of the first photo.

Unfortunately, this is where the photos stop for day one. We did end up at two more strips before heading back to Omaka for the evening. One of them straight but with a few lumps in it, the next straight, flat but hidden behind trees until you turned onto short final :-)