First flight with GPS

After getting my GPS the other day and learning how to use it, I decided to go for a fly to test it out. The plane that was free was FWS, which happens to be my favourite plane anyway.. So myself and a friend grabbed FWS, and planned to fly out to Raglan and back to test the GPS.

I attached the yoke mount, and found it fitted perfectly, and slotted the GPS in. We started up and taxiied out. Because we were flying in the evening and going west, the tower warned us about the setting sun. The aircraft has big sun visors so it turned out to be not a problem at all, as I suspected, and we took off and flew west. I checked the GPS occasionally and found it was harder than I thought to keep the CDI from drifting off.. I know it's adjustable but I don't know if that's the right thing to do or not. Anyhow, as we got closer to Raglan the VNAV indicator came alive, and I followed it down to circuit altitude, and we were right on target. A low approach and overshoot followed, after which we turned around, I punched in Reverse Route in the GPS and we followed the indications on the HSI back. Once again I had issues flying precisely enough to stop the CDI from drifting off a bit, but I guarantee after 10 hours I'll be spot on.

The map and airspace alerts proved very useful for situational awareness, but on the way back the VNAV didn't work, I figured out later you need to enable it manually for each route you fly, but that is only three button presses..

After landing, I decided to go do some circuits to practise my landings, and so we trundled to what felt like the other side of the airport, and when we finally got takeoff clearance, a large flock of magpies and plovers landed halfway down the runway in front of us, so I had to abandon the takeoff and wait for the man with the shotgun to drive past and fire blanks at them!!

The only other memorable part was when I decided to land on the seal, which is very unusual for me, my friend encouraged me to fly down the PAPIs instead of landing on the piano keys like I usually do, and we ended up landing smack bang in the middle of the rubber marks on the runway! Great fun, I must do it again!
I am off to Tauranga on Saturday so might have a crack then too..