Another fantastic day for flying...

When I did the bar on Friday night last week, one of the lads asked me if I wanted to come flying with him the next morning. Hell yeah! was the reply, and then he told me we had to meet at the club at 6:30 AM !!! I don't think I've ever been anywhere that early in my life :) Anyway, we piled into a 172 and went for a blast over some of the lakes and rivers south of Hamilton, which was just awesome! Cold, still air made for a very nice flight and a total lack of air traffic made our coming and going easier. Being in the plane with a very experienced pilot was good too... All in all, a fun flight, and we were back before 8am, which is about when I'm normally getting up on a Saturday....

And as if that wasn't fun enough, I already had the Arrow booked for the rest of the day. I needed a passenger, and since I haven't taken the old lady for a fly for a while, I went and grabbed her for the day. We hadn't been to Pauanui for ages, so I thought that might be a good place to go.

We had clearance to 2500 feet in the Hamilton area, so I climbed as high as I could under the cloud - 2000 feet. It was pretty bumpy at 2000, and the cloud was only a hundred feet or so above us, so I decided to try to climb over it when I could. Once we were clear of Hamilton airspace, class G went to 6500, so I was able to climb us up over the broken cloud. At 5500 we were well clear of the cloud and at the appropriate cruising level for northbound flight, and the air smoothed right out, as you'd expect. Nearing Paeroa there was a gap in the cloud and ahead what looked like 8/8 cloud everywhere, so we ducked down under it and went up the coast by Whangamata then around the corner to Pauanui. My landing was more than satisfactory, we parked up, pushed the aircraft back out of the way, and went off for lunch and a walk around the beach.

A while later we returned, started, and took off. Remembering the dire predictions of some people about taking an Arrow to Pauanui, I did a max performance takeoff, and with 2 POB and 2 hours gas, we used less than half Pauanui's 850 metre grass runway. I flew ahead in order to clear the circuit before turning right on track (I don't like non-standard turns at uncontrolled airfields). As we climbed, we saw that this time the solid looking cloud had moved southwest and it looked like we'd be going to have to stay below the clouds and endure a very bumpy flight home. I found a hole in the cloud shortly after, so we zig-zagged up through the gap and found ourselves at 4500 feet over seemingly endless beautiful puffy white clouds, and once again found perfectly smooth air. It wasn't quite 8/8, although it was close, however there were sufficient gaps to remain VFR. I could see the sea to the left and ground to my right, so we had plenty of options, and boy was it good to escape the usual scud running I'm inclined to indulge in. Sorry there are no photos, I was that awestruck I forgot to get the camera out :)
Just like on the trip over, I had my chart out and course plotted, I had set the bug on the DI, plus we had the moving map on the GPS as a backup to both, so I felt relaxed and confident. The clouds were just gorgeous, maybe moreso because we were above and beside them, and the aircraft was quiet, smooth and fast. Wow!

Coming near to the zone we descended and got the crap beaten out of us as we came close to the airport, and after being made to come in the long way we finally landed and taxiied back. I then had to get gas which of course meant doing a hot start, which I am pleased to say I managed much better than I did last time.. And we just had to put the aircraft away and we were done. Nice!!!!

I wish all flying trips worked out that well!!!