One success, one failure...

First the success: It's BFR time again!!!! While planning for my trip to the Masterton airshow I realised to my horror late last month my BFR was due on the 7th of this month. Gasp!! Then several bookings didn't happen due to unserviceable aircraft and other reasons. Last chance was this week, so I had them book me a couple of slots. The first on Wednesday went very well, including a practise forced landing that ended up with my landing the aircraft! Thankfully it was on an airfield!!

The next booking was last night, and I was very worried that due to feeling ill that day I wouldn't pass, but I managed to hold it together and passed. I'd already done my ground work so I submitted that and my logbook was duly stickered and returned to me ready for another 2 years.

Now the fail. Epic fail more like :-)

I had the Arrow booked for this morning, and I turned up at 8am and prepared to do my preflight while the latest weather was downloading on the flight planning computer. It took a few minutes to get the damp cover off and hung up to dry on the deck, and on with the preflight. When I got to the first wing fuel drain port I found it stiff and it only dispensed a trickle of fuel. When I released the sample container, the valve didn't close. Fiddling with it didn't help, and it was fair pouring onto the ground. An instructor was nearby and I called him over to look at it. He managed to reduce the stream of fuel to a trickle but the valve stubbornly refused to close completely.

I abandoned the aircraft and grabbed an Archer instead. That also needed a cover removed and a preflight performed. My passenger, also a pilot, offered to perform the preflight and I quickly agreed. I went and pulled the weather off the computer, quickly determined I'd be best to fly east to avoid the incoming front, drew lines on my map and worked out the headings to hold. All this was taking much more time than I was comfortable with, and bearing in mind my 8am start was designed to let us be airborne at 8:30 for an arrival before the 10am airspace closure at Masterton. Now we were pushing our 8:30 departure, had a slower aircraft and a significant (15 minute or so) detour. Hmm, not good!!!

By the time I had everything organised and stowed, then rushed out to the car for an item I'd forgotten, then gone back again for the key to the aircraft that I'd also forgotten, it was 8:35. I started the aircraft and called up for clearance, and was told to standby, so I taxiied out and headed straight for the run-up area. Still no word from the tower so I proceeded to do my run-up and pre-takeoff checks. I got to "controls full and free" before he called me back, so I rattled off my request. We were given a clearance with a taxi to the holding point we were currently parked at for a takeoff on the (sealed) runway 18, so I immediately called back with 'ready' and his response was to clear an Air NZ aircraft to backtrack and lineup on runway 36. Damn!! We have no taxiways here so those aircraft have to enter the runway halfway down and trundle about a kilometre, then turn around and takeoff. Damn!! I immediately requested the grass and was granted it, and prepared for a max performance takeoff (25 flap).

The aircraft got off the ground smartly and I held it level to build up airspeed to Vx then climbed out, reducing flap as we obtained a positive rate of climb then set heading on track. As we flew southeast, the cloud was a broken layer at 4000 ft or so, and it looked very ugly underneath. Bearing in mind it was supposed to clag in this afternoon, that was not a good sign! At any rate, I looked at my watch and it read 9:45. I reluctantly concluded our broken airplane had doomed our trip. Bugger!

We climbed up to 6500 feet once clear of airspace but by Taupo (30 mins flight) the broken layer underneath us was looking pretty overcast, which limited our options severely. This, combined with the holdup, the detour and the slower plane, meant we had no chance of making it. Bugger!!! I finally called it, and informed my passengers I was terminating the flight. They took it well, and we agreed that since Mt Ruapehu was near, we could do a scenic around it and go home. My passenger did a bit of flying here and there, and we had a nice scenic, of which I will post the photos I took if you ask me.. We flew home on the map + VOR + GPS and had a nice smooth flight home, at least until my top of descent when we shot down under cloud and it got a bit rough. Other than that we had an uneventful flight home. I think they enjoyed it, but it really sucked that the plane broke down and ruined our day.. Oh well.