Flyaway

Sorry for the late blog this week, but what a week it has been. After already completing 3 flights last week, I thought I would be having a fairly relaxed weekend, however 6 of us were lucky enough to be offered the chance of a flyaway. For the flyaway, we were based in Napier for 2 nights, and 2 groups of 3 were given one plane and one instructor each. We then got to fly pretty much anywhere we wanted to practise instrument flying.

The reason we were asked for the flyaway is that there is a shortage of examiners over the next couple of weeks, so a few of us have to be ready for the CPL skills test earlier than expected, and a flyaway is a good way of building up our hours. I have to say, and I'm sure everyone would agree, that this 3 day flyaway was the best 3 days of New Zealand. We were flying/backseating from morning till night, and managed to fly to the tip of the North Island all the way down to Christchurch on the South Island. 

Our 3 Days Of Flying

Ben, Florence & Me. The ZK-CTM team with our brilliant instructor Tash.

Friday
A 6 o'clock start greeted us on Friday and the weather was not being very helpful. With frantic planning and fog settling in Hamilton it didn't look like it was going to be a very good start to the 3 days. However, we managed to get out of Hamilton and Florence flew us up to Auckland Airport where we did the LOC/DME approach (a very similar approach to the ILS). We unfortunately didn't get to see any airliners on the approach but we got a great view of the airport. From Auckland, Florence then took us all the way up to Whangarei, an uncontrolled airport located in a harbour with a relatively short runway - quite scary when you don't see much runway left on take-off. We then filled up the plane, Florence & Ben jumped out to do some planning and then I flew from Whangarei to Kaitaia, did a couple of approaches and then went back to Whangarei to pick Ben & Florence up. It was a good flight overall and I got to practise a few stall recoveries on the way which are always fun !!!! From Whangarei, Ben then took control and we went down to Tauranga via Auckland. This time the weather was better over the city and we got some great views of the airport and the main city area. We then flew at night from Tauranga to Napier (where we stayed for the night), via Gisborne with Florence at the controls.

Hamilton's morning cloud

Auckland from above

Overflying Auckland International

Whangarei Airport

Saturday

Saturday was by far the best day for me. Due to the distance from Hamilton, you are normally only able to reach the South Island on flyaways - and that's exactly what we did. After another early start for us, Florence took command from Napier to Wellington Airport via Palmerston North. Wellington was a great approach, and the wind was quite calm - quite unusual for 'windy Wellington'. From Wellington I took control and flew down to Christchurch and across to Hokitika over the mountain ranges. The trip down to Christcurch was very slow due to a strong headwind and because of this we had to be delayed for our approach into Christchurch and I got to eventually land behind an Emirates 777. After the approach from Christchurch we got to circle 1000ft above the city so got to see some great sights. We then flew over the mountain ranges at 11000ft (with not much talking due to the lack of oxygen) before a rapid descent into Hokitika. Florence then flew us from Hokitika to Nelson for a night approach and then Ben flew from Nelson to Wellington before returning back to Napier for the night.

Wellington Approach

Over the sea to Christchurch

Christchurch Airport

Christchurch - Hokitika (Courtesy of Jonny Beech)

Evening Sunset

Nelson At Night

Sunday

Due to the amount of flying on Friday and Saturday, we were able to have a bit of a lie in on Sunday, had breakfast out, then had our first flight which was at 12. Today we had a mixture of short and long flights so that we all met our target hours. Ben started the day off from Napier to New Plymouth via Whanganui, then I flew from New Plymouth into Taupo before Florence took us back home to Hamilton to end the flyaway.

New Plymouth

Mt. Taranaki - Enroute to New Plymouth

So that's it for the IFR training in New Zealand. All I have left now is 3 CPL Profiles and then the actual CPL skills test. The weather is looking to be ok for the next few days so hopefully all will go to plan; my first profile got cancelled today due to heavy rain showers and lightning in the vicinity.

p.s. I plan on setting up a YouTube account shortly to put all my videos on.

The End Of New Zealand Simulators

This week has been quite slow for CP106, only 2 flights for me. With a sick instructor, low pressure weather systems and the Easter bank holidays, there have not been many chances to get much done.

The first flight was my final New Zealand simulator flight. This flight recapped on what we’ve learnt over the last couple of weeks in the simulator, and also introduces en-route navigation and workload management for the Twinstar. The route was from Hamilton to Auckland and back, which seemed fairly straightforward when I planned for it the night before with a 20-25kts wind at 7000ft; however it was elected that I should use the actual weather conditions on the day which were 65-70kts wind – it’s fair to say that it definitely increased my workload!!!

The second flight was back in the actual Twinstar (DA42) where I practised DME Arcs and approaches. It seemed such a long time since I was last flying the DA42, but it felt much more easier to control than the simulator and it was a great feeling to be back in actual cloud (not that I was able to look outside and see - the IFR hood was on)

Unfortunately, as I mentioned above, the weather has been deteriorating this week. The 25°C blue sky days seem to have disappeared, and we are now having very cloudy and wet days – not ideal now that we have finished in the simulator. Thunder and lightning has become more common as well, so there have been many flight cancellations.

The view every morning this week

Some big news this week is that we have been informed on when to expect our CPL Skills Tests. The majority of the course should have them on the week commencing 5^th May, with a few expected to have it the week before – only 8 days away!!!!!!! We really need the weather to improve especially for the CPL profiles and tests as these are conducted in Visual Flight Rules where the weather needs to be good.

The one good thing with all this wet weather, is that the golf courses are no longer brown with grass reappearing. With the time off this week, I have managed to play a couple of rounds, and had my best ever round on Wednesday – gross 81 for those of you who play.

Evening sunset - the best time of the day for cloud

That’s it for this week – I've got a bit of CPL reading to do today, in between stuffing myself on chocolate. Hopefully I'll have some flying pictures to show next week. 

Happy Easter

A Few More Sims....

After 3 simulator sessions this week, I now only have 1 more simulator flight for the remainder of New Zealand. Hopefully this last one will be in the next couple of days, and then I have 7 more instrument flights and 3 CPL profiles before the actual Commercial Pilot's Licence Skills Test.

This week in the simulator recapped on NDB (Non-Directional Beacon) approaches which I first flew last week, looked at engine failures during instrument flight (as well as flying approaches with 1 engine) and DME Arcs.


A Simple Introduction To DME Arcs
DME (Distance Measuring Equipment) Arcs are designed to save time and fuel. Previously, when we have flown VOR and NDB approaches, we fly overhead the airfield and follow the teardrop pattern (as shown in Red below) to intercept the Inbound Track (blue) to land.

The DME arc allows us to rather than fly all the way overhead the airport to then complete the teardrop, we can just follow a line of constant distance (the green line) around the airport until it takes us into the final inbound track. You should be able to see that it is quite a shorter arrival.

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Today, we also had an exam on multi-engine aircraft so that when we get our CPL we can have a multi-engine licence added to it - I'm pleased to report we all passed!!! Aside from flying this week, not much else has happened. We had the Royal visit yesterday to Hamilton, but they were only here for an hour or so before they went to the nearby town of Cambridge. It did mean though that we had a couple of NZ Military 757s arriving and departing in Hamilton.

The Royals arriving overhead our accommodation

That's it for this week, hopefully I'll be back in the skies before the next post...

Back In The Sim

This week has been a pretty slow one having only managed to have 2 flights in the simulator. At the moment, the course ahead of us are taking priority due to them currently undertaking the CPL profile/mocks and actual CPL skills test. The idea is though that after they complete these within the next week or two, we should then be able to press ahead and complete the remaining New Zealand flights.

Morning Sun

This weeks flights introduced me to NDB holds and approaches, as well as ILS approaches. NDB holds and approaches are very similar to those conducted with a VOR, however the ground-based navigational aid is less reliable and accurate. We are also affected by 'dip' where, when we turn, the instruments in the aircraft dip downwards into the turn giving false indications which we have to compensate for. All-in-all though, a relatively straightforward lesson.

Twinstar Glass Cockpit

The other lesson, which I had today, was ILS approaches. These are the approaches carried out by the majority of airliners, and give more information (vertical plane, lateral plane and distance) and we basically just follow the indications that the instruments are telling us. It was a lot simpler than I was expecting and I can't wait to do it for real, as the nearest airport to have one in NZ is Auckland International. The only problem there is the commercial traffic; we therefore have to have a much faster than normal approach speed - just so we don't have to slow down an A380 or B737 !!!!

That is it for this week, not much else has been done. I was on standby a few times this week incase instructors came available due to the weather, however 2 out of the 3 days I ended up with no flights. Its still around 25C here (nice enough for autumnal golf), but rain has been forecast for the next week and fog has become a common problem for morning flights.

*Navigational Aids (VOR = VHF Omni-Directional Range) || (NDB = Non Directional Beacon) || (ILS = Instrument Landing System)