First flight with pax in Arrow

Well peoples, after dreaming about it for months, I finally got my Arrow rating! I have a bit over 200 hours total time, 100 or so hours of which in Archers, and now have taken the next logical step.

Anyhow, on Sunday I had my first flight with passengers since getting my rating, and it was awesome! It was originally only meant to be a short local flight but the prospect of sharing the piloting duties with Aaron, who convinced me that if I got us somewhere he would pay his share to get us home, which turned it into a much longer, much more fun flight!

We decided on Rotorua for lunch, so off we went. I flew the first leg from Hamilton to Rotorua, and had a airspeed of 135 showing most of the time, much nicer than the 120 I am used to! Had my GPS 96C with me, which made navigating there trivial, and Rotorua doesn't have any special procedures, so we called up and were cleared in straight away. Pulled the throttle back a little and got the speed back to below 130, then dropped the gear, and did a good approach and a slightly misjudged landing (was a bit lower than I thought, ended up touching down before I had fully flared, but was still mains first then nosegear and quite a smooth touchdown, so no worries). I then parked up and we went off for some lunch, and the decision was made to fly to Whakatane via Mt Tarawera, so I switched seats with Aaron, who, after being made to hold on the ground for ages, took off and flew us to Whakatane, and I got some nice scenic pictures along the way over Tarawera.

We landed at Whakatane and got fuel, then wandered around for a bit and met some friendly local pilots, plus the hangar cat.. The terminal building is the most wacky, bizarre terminal building I have ever seen - I initially thought it was a big McDonalds(tm) kids play area attached to the terminal, but it turned out to be the damn terminal building itself!!

I had promised myself I would visit a former customer at Whakatane, Air Discovery, so we trotted over to their office and had a chat to them for while. After that, we refuelled and took off back to Hamilton, with what seemed a much slower takeoff with full fuel, and this time we obtained clearance to fly back in controlled airspace at 5500ft, which turned out to be between cloud layers, and since the layer beneath was broken but we could still see down, we were still legal VFR, and we also got a nice smooth ride home.

In preparing for this rating, I spent a lot of time mucking around on a flight sim (X-Plane), getting used to flying a CSU and retract, and found that helped a lot when it came to the procedures. I also found an excellent set of Piper aircraft at air.c74.net, which is a commercial package, but it's so inexpensive and so amazing you'd be silly not to get it. It contains a couple of fantastic Arrow models (I and III) that I've been using and they seem pretty close to the real thing..

I had planned a photographic extravaganza, but since the photos belong to Euan and he's done such a nice job of it on his blog and I can't really be buggered, this is all you're getting!

More GPS stuff

On my South Island trip, I took my Garmin 96C GPS. This was the first long trip I'd taken it on, and since it was a nice day on the way down I thought I would get used to tracking along my route on the GPS. I found that if I switched it to HSI mode and tried to keep the CDI centred, I would end up wobbling left and right like an old drunk while I was trying to keep it on track. I found it much easier to get it lined up then look out the front of the plane and pick a landmark directly off the nose, then just hold it in the same place. When I got there I found I'd more or less stayed pretty well on track. When I got to the next waypoint, I lined it up on the next part of the route and picked a landmark, and so on.

The next thing I found is my complicated route I planned, which kept me from going too far out to sea, was essentially useless as the day I went down was such a good day visibility wise, I found I could see where I was trying to get to and was able to go direct and cut down the distance a bit. Of course on the way back the GPS was useful to keep me from just clipping the corner of some controlled airspace as I was avoiding weather.

OT: Christchurch Armageddon pics

My whole trip to Christchurch was for Armageddon, which I try and attend each time it's on.. My photo set on Flickr for Armageddon pics is: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dirtyolechris/sets/72157600118681193/
You're welcome to go take a look...

Some South Island pics

Here's a few random photos from my South Island trip..


A MiG I found in central Christchurch parked up on the street!!!




The Kaikoura ranges shot from the main road down the coast




Kaikoura airfield with Wings over Whales' GAF GA-8 Airvan parked in foreground. The airstrip is to your right.





Blenheim photographed from JGP. Omaka is just behind the town, and Woodbourne would be off to the right a bit, also behind the town





Crap weather I ran into coming back up the coast. Thank God for a mapping GPS !!!!

South Island trip - the other bits

For those that have asked... After the airshow at Omaka, the only flying we did was to take a day trip to Wellington, which sounded like a good idea at the time (an Air NZ pilot we know had just landed at WN and told us it was fine - bring it over), which turned out to be not such a good idea, and got the shit kicked out of us on the way in and out of Wellington, with a ground speed of 40kt on finals with an indicated 75kt. Welcome to Wellington.

Couldn't fly to Christchurch for Armageddon, had to drive instead, and the damn car was being blown all over the road so in a plane would have been life-threatening!!!

The trip back from Blenheim to Hamilton turned out to be not so much fun either, with beautiful blue skies at Blenheim, and very ugly cloud on the way up the coast that got progressively worse as I went north, but we managed to find a gap by Taharoa and scoot across to Hamilton. Thank God I had a mapping GPS with me!!!


The other thing I wanted to mention was my Arrow rating today - did my MAUW check with Roger, and that went surprisingly well - for those that know Hamilton, we were at max all up weight and Rog made me take off on Grass 18, from Echo 1, which cuts a good deal of 18 out, and she still got airborne by the end of the runway, with only 10 flap.. Very cool!!

I am much much more comfortable with the whole retract + CSU business - it just seems like a heavy Archer to me now. No worries!!!

Once Rog has gone over my paperwork for the rating I believe we're all go, and you Arrow drivers will have someone else to share the plane with!!

Arrow rating Part 2

Did another hour in DQV today for my Arrow rating. Went up with Roger today and did a whole lot of circuits, just getting used to the retractable gear and CSU. After 0.4 of circuits he got out and sent me out to do solo circuits which was another 0.4. I am getting much more comfortable with the aircraft, and have got the complex bits sorted out. Now I have to sort the rest of my flying out - I have been finding I miss things I wouldn't normally miss because I have been concentrating on the extra bits, and now the extra bits are becoming easier I can get back to concentrating on my flying!!!!

Have a Max All Up Weight Check tomorrow morning, if it goes well I may have a rating tomorrow!!

The best aircraft museum in the world? You betcha!

While in Blenheim, I visited Omaka's Aviation Heritage Centre, and no aircraft museum will ever be the same to me again!

Check it out: http://blogs.smh.com.au/trampaboutnz/archives//009735.html