I hadn't flown for a month or two so decided to go on Saturday, and invited 3 friends to come with me. Originally we were going to go to Tauranga in the Arrow for a $100 hamburger, but the Arrow became unavailable at the last minute, and I realised on Friday that due to the regionals this weekend, Tauranga would be a really bad place to try and go to. So, on the day I ended up with WAM, our (now 180hp) 172R, which I haven't flown since it got the new engine, and we decided Pauanui would be the go. Weather was scattered cloud @ 3500ft, wind approx 060 @ 10kt.
I went out and got current, then came back and put enough gas in to make it there and back with 45min reserve, and drew lines on the map, worked out the heading etc. My passengers and I piled in to WAM and we fired it up. I decided that even though we would only be in controlled airspace for maybe ten or fifteen minutes, that I should call up Control and get clearance up to 5500. I have never done this before, at least like this, so I was keen to try it out - when I called up from the ground and asked for clearance to Pauanui, I asked for that clearance @ 5500. The controller told me he'd sort out a climb for me later. We took off and headed out IAW the departure procedure, and we'd barely levelled off at 1200 ft when we got the go to contact Control. I did so, and we were cleared up to 5500 ontrack. Woo Hoo!!
The flight at that altitude was well above the clouds, and very smooth and cool. The plane went well, and before I knew it we needed to begin our descent. The landing was a little challenging but I think I pulled it off okay - did a bit of a greaser. We all then went to the shops for lunch, and after that and a walk down the beach, it was time to come home. As we were near MAUW I did a max performance takeoff, and we were off with no problems whatsoever. We came home at 4500 ft, and I executed a steady descent pretty much all the way to touchdown.
All in all, this was about as good a flying day as I could have hoped for...
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