Sunday, February 11, 2007

Pauanui for a $100 hamburger!

Finally made it to Pauanui to take my mate and his son for a $100 hamburger! After issues getting a plane - they all mysteriously became unserviceable when I went to book them, I ended up with our Archer FWS.. I flew from Hamilton to Tauranga, got there exactly the same time as my friend, and he only had to drive across town to get to the airport, and we both left the same exact time.. Anyway, I picked them up, and we flew to Pauanui..

Which is 40nm up the coast from Tauranga on a beautiful 30 degree C sunny day.. Which on the way up we did at 500 ft to get a close look at the countryside. 20 mins and we were there.. A couple of other aircraft in the circuit, then a 5 ship formation of Yaks kept us entertained when on the ground.

So we rocked on up to Pauanui, we parked up, wandered across the road to the shops, had lunch, went to the beach, watched the Yaks, then flew back to Tauranga, this time at 3000 ft. I had the Archer trimmed up, and it just purred all the way back.. We could see the Mount from Pauanui, and it couldn't have been nicer! I stuck the Archer on autopilot, trimmed it up, sat back and watched the view!

I spent a few hours with my friends in Tauranga before heading back to the airport at 6pm for a nice cruisy flight back at 2500 ft.. I always have issues coming back from Tauranga - I never quite know which way to head to get back, it just never looks quite right.. And then finding Hamilton from the east is a nightmare, so this time I took a GPS with me, and just followed the arrow back, and there we were! Couldn't have been easier!

And I got back and visited the bar on the way through, and that just capped off a fantastic day! It is the reason I got my license in the first place!! Wicked!!

No comments: