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.