Qualifier

Today I did my qualifier, which basically required me to fly for at least 300nm and stop off at two controlled aerodromes in the space of 24 hours. Due to the fact that the weather is perpetually crap at New Plymouth, I chose the alternate route which consists of:

Hamilton - Pirongia - Taharoa - Rotorua (full stop and buy caramel slice for rest of CP) - Opotiki - Tauranga (Full stop and visit bathroom) - Waihi Beach - Limestone Downs - Raglan - Hamilton

The weather today was just good enough for this flight, which is something of a reversal in fortunes for me. I was expecting to be waiting weeks! Apart from busting my SAR time on return to Hamilton (*slaps forehead* - this was REALLY stupid), things went generally to plan and I was soon back toting the ridiculously sweet and gooey cargo obtained at Rotorua!

Some pictures can be seen below:

First stop, Rotorua - to the terminal cafe!!

Passing Mt. Edgecumbe enroute to Opotiki. So thats why this area forecast is called Edgecumbe....

6,000ft, oh yeah.

Tracking along the coast towards Tauranga

Parked up at Tauranga.

Clearways Opening

This week has been somewhat busy, with various media events occuring to celebrate the official opening of the Clearways facility.

Thursday was spent showing schoolchildren around the training facility, taking in the TwinStars and the Alpha 160, which took the abuse quite well! They all seemed to enjoy themselves and left wanting to be pilots, next week they will all want to be doctors, or firemen. Kids!!

Friday was the grand opening of Clearways, attended by various CTC execs, the head of Alpha Aviation, the head of ops for Air New Zealand and various other local figures. Champagne and nibbles were accompanied by a fantastic aerobatic display in an Alpha 160 ('Foxy'). The local news report can be found here:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/waikatotimes/0,2106,3856923a6579,00.html

The week was finished off with a solo nav, down to Kinloch and back, cutting it a little too close to the end of daylight for comfort!

Apologies...

...for an extended lack of posts recently, I would love to claim I was busy but unfortunately I have just not had anything to post! Crap weather, unserviceability and poverty have all conspired to make my life fairly uninteresting of late. I thought about waiting for something interesting to happen, but instead I decided to post some random pictures I have taken recently. So here you go.


A couple of pictures of Tango-Zulu-Foxtrot, who showed her displeasure at being forced to wait for the weather to improve by going unserviceable! (And yes that is an egg-timer stuck to the instrument panel)

My colleague Martin flying 'Ejit', quite possibly the oldest and most knackered C172 in NZ!

The Cresco crop duster is a common sight in Hamilton, being built on the airfield.

This F-27 operated by the postal service regularly visits Hamilton to carry out crew training.

Another regular at Hamilton is this Air New Zealand Link DHC Dash 8.