Clear Prop!

It’s just over three weeks in and I’m happy to say I’ve had a couple of flights and I’m looking forward to progressing with my flying.  Had the weather been a little better, then I would have had a few more flights under my belt but I had four cancellations even before I managed my first one. It's a start, anyway!

Following the weather has now become part and parcel of life here – trying to gauge what to expect as different weather patterns come through and where we might expect opportunities to get airborne.  The morning of my first flight there was a significant weather warning for turbulence, so I was geared up to cancel yet again, however things had settled down a little and having been mid-lunch suddenly it was time to get going.  That seems to be a common theme of life here – long periods of inactivity punctured by moments of intense busyness and steep learning.

First Flights

It was a real thrill to get back in the air again after so long, and despite there being plenty of turbulence still around and without much of a horizon, we managed to complete the lesson.  A nice clear horizon is needed in the early stages as pretty much 95% of the flying is done visually, meaning you set the attitude of the aircraft against the picture through the windscreen – a nice clear horizon makes this much easier!  At this stage the instructor takes care of most of the radio and the take-off and landings, but from my next lesson I should start incorporating elements of these into my skill set.  I did enjoy my second lesson a lot more, the more you fly the quicker you develop your “sea legs” (maybe there is a more apt aviation version – air legs perhaps?) so I felt much more settled second time around.  I also managed to find more time to focus on orientating myself which is an essential part of being a pilot.  There are various layers of airspace which have different classifications, some of which you need permission to enter, others can be classed as Restricted or Danger zone, etc. – this basically means you need to know where you are, as there is no sign in the sky telling you that you are about to “bust airspace”. 

Venturing Out

As I mentioned, there has been plenty of downtime here and we are rostered in for 6 days on with 1 day off each week.  As there hasn’t been much flying, there has been lots of opportunity to explore the local area and a little further afield.  We have the Pirongia Forest Park nearby here, where we took the opportunity to walk up to the Ruapane Lookout which looks over the Waikato Basin (that’s the area we are living currently).  It was a pretty eventful and beautiful walk, through thick forest then at the lookout some 700+ metres up we walked along the ridge where the weather was alternating between glorious sunshine, rain, pelting hail and even a touch of snow.  No wonder that there wasn’t much flying that week with such changeable weather!

Ruapane Lookout

The weather struggle to make up it's mind...

I also enjoyed a New Zealand birthday, where we took a trip east to coast at Tauranga and walked up Mt. Maunganui giving yet more amazing views down the beaches.  Yesterday saw us head east again to Rotorua which is famous for natural geothermal activity - and accompanying smell of rotten eggs given off by hydrogen sulphide emissions!  Rotorua is a bit of an adventure playground (well, I guess most of NZ is really, but lots seems concentrated here) and we have earmarked a few activities to come back and try.  We mostly spent the day wondering around various hot pools, and through a Giant Redwood forest which were both very impressive – we’ll be back!

View of Tauranga from Mt. Maunganui

Hot and Steamy in Rotorua

Hopefully I’ll be scheduled in to fly a fair bit this week as the weather is improving – the last few days have felt pretty Summer-like and it looks set to stay for at least the time being.

Sore necks, Giant Redwoods.