Cross-country flights - part 1

So I mentioned earlier that I have been doing some cross-country flight training, which required a total of 20 hours (10 with an instructor on board, 10 without) plus a flight test. This all had to be completed within 12 months; I managed to do it quite comfortably within 6 months. Maybe not so comfortable on the bank account but that's a minor point.

Anyway I thought I would share some pictures of where I went, since I did get to see a fair bit of the country - each flight had to be at least 370 km (200 nautical miles) long, with at least one over 550 km (300 nautical miles).



Flight 1 (dual): Paraparam, Blenheim, Kaikoura
(13 Jan 2017, 237 nm, 3.1 hrs flight time)

The night before this trip I had the maps opened out on the floor, and was looking at them, thinking, 'I wonder where he'll want to go'. I had a sneaky feeling that Kaikoura might be an option. In the morning my instructor gave me a couple of options, Kaikoura being one of them. We did a touch and go at Woodbourne (Blenheim) on the way down. The runway at Kaikoura was definitely the narrowest I'd landed on so far.

No surprise that State Highway 1 was closed due to slip damage from the earthquake in November.



Flight 2 (pilot-in-command): Paraparam, Takaka, Motueka, Nelson
(28 Jan 2017, 250 nm, 3.4 hrs flight time)

I had been talking with Raewyn about flying over the Abel Tasman coastline, so the two of us and another friend from work made the trip. Despite low cloud extending half-way across Cook Strait forcing us down to 900 ft, over the South Island it was a glorious day. This was my first time flying into both Takaka and Motueka. With the sloping approach at Takaka and being a relatively short runway, I wasn't able to land it first time around so had to go around and try again. After stretching the legs and paying the landing fee we continued on around the coast, flying relatively slowly to make the most of it. We landed at Motueka amongst the skydiving planes, and walked towards town to find somewhere for lunch. On the way back we did a touch and go at Nelson for the heck of it so I could get some more controlled aerodrome practise.

Anchorage Bay. Note the use of flaps to help us fly slowly!



Flight 3 (dual): Paraparam, Turakirae, Masterton, Dannevirke, Palmerston North
(2 Mar 2017, 200 nm, 3.0 hrs flight time)

I must confess I was a little disappointed when my instructor suggested this trip. Maybe because I wasn't landing anywhere I hadn't been before! I did however get some experience navigating through the Wellington control zone, and got to fly over both my house and my workplace. On this particular exercise one of his goals was for me to practise lost procedures, the trouble was that the landmarks in the southern Wairarapa are pretty obvious. Cue the 'close your eyes for a bit', followed by 'I need to make a radio call, so can you unplug your headset?' Ahh... sit back, relax and enjoy the flight. I didn't take any pictures on this one.



Flight 4 (solo): Paraparam, Raetihi, Hawera
(23 Mar 2017, 278 nm, 3.1 hrs flight time)

I had the week off work following some pretty intensive synchrotron beamtime. The weather on this particular day was looking pretty good so I planned a trip somewhere else. I decided North Island since that would make things even. I decided west coast. And I decided Hawera since that was pretty far away; New Plymouth was a bit too far. At my instructor's suggestion I planned the flight to transit the messy airspace around Palmerston North, Feilding and Ohakea at low level on the way up and high level on the way back. Unfortunately the cloud base in the afternoon was lower than forecast, so I had to quickly change plans and recalculate the route back from Hawera. I opted to follow the coast all the way back, past Whanganui and Foxton. To make a loop out of it he suggested I plan the route up via Taihape and Raetihi - two small towns that might have been difficult to find, but turned out to be no problem. I think I was starting to get the hang of it!

Aeronautical chart showing the messy airspace near Palmerston North. The light blue outlined area labelled 'T354 Oroua' is a transit lane, meaning that during the day it becomes uncontrolled airspace up to an altitude of 1000 ft. The grey pencil line through it is my planned track.

A view of Mt Ruapehu shortly before flying overhead Taihape.

KAL on the ground at Hawera - lunch stop!

Flying back down the coast, admiring the black sand and cliffs, contemplating practising a forced landing simulation and saying to myself, 'Why bother - I'd just land on the beach, wherever...'



Continued...