Right as its exciting me the most, at 0925 NZ time Alice jumped on a flight from Heathrow, and she is now somewhere over central Europe living it up in Business class as the jammy b*"th got an upgrade! Tomorrow i'm off to Auckland, and sometime around midday she finally gets here after what feels like forever. This week is gonna be immense!
Qantas 10 steaming past the Essex coastline
Training.....After managing to get past my 'first' solo, i've been quite fortunate to have a busy week flying with five events since Monday. On Tuesday I was back with my primary instructor Scott for another hour of consolidation in the circuit, which had been scheduled for 0730. The main risk with early flights is how the weather is going to muck things up, and at a temperature of -5degrees I was wandering around a Cessna in the darkness attempting a pre-flight. Due to the cold the aircraft was caked in ice, so we were delayed getting airborne as we needed to use the only de-icing bowser, a bowser that about 10 other aircraft also wanted! However, after the delay getting going I was treated to stunning views of the Waikato as the sun crept higher over the Kaimai mountain range.
After a few circuits with Scott he jumped out, allowing me to carry on for another hour to consolidate my flying in a solo scenario. This was complimented a few days later with another session of solo circuits, but this time with a lot more eventualities! As Hamilton is one of the busiest aerodromes in NZ, aircraft are required to book a slot in the circuit to avoid the Air traffic controller becoming overloaded. My flight was scheduled for 1545, but after a short delay where I had to refuel I finally called ATC at 1605 requesting a clearance, only to be told the circuit was unavailable and to call back. Given my point on the course I am not allowed to fly at night, and with official night commencing at 1737 that day I needed to be taxiing at 1619 in order to squeeze in my 1.3hr lesson. Time was ticking!
At 1618 I was finally given clearance, but now I was briefing myself on the fact the last 20 minutes of the lesson would be quite dark with the setting sun and a thick layer of overcast cloud. This in itself wasn't an issue, as a briefing is designed to prepare the pilot for the upcoming threats, and give the opportunity to plan how to manage the situation. The lesson itself went relatively well, but as I approached the 1.2hr mark there was a noticeable decrease in brightness, the runway lights now illuminated to give better reference. Initially I decided I had time to complete a final circuit, but as I reconfigured for the approach one of the passenger carrying aircraft called up, and immediately my plans were scuppered. Instead of performing a touch and go (landing followed by take off without stopping) I decided to change my request to a full stop. This was based on the fact a larger aircraft was approaching, and even though I had time to squeeze a circuit, if I had needed to perform an orbit (one complete circle) or go around, I would have landed during official night and would've been breaking the law. These are the sorts of decisions that are gradually placed on us as cadets, some completely without warning.
Following circuits I was yesterday back into the simulator examining VOR tracking. A VOR is a ground based navigation facility that pilots use to fly the aircraft along designated routes, as well as for aircraft orientation. This is another quirk of the MPL course, as Wings cadets don't start instrument flight in such detail for quite a lot longer. The session was quite enjoyable and a completely new skill for me, which is to be complimented this afternoon with NDB tracking (a different kind of beacon).The Garmin G1000 is starting to make significantly more sense!
This week it was my old housemate Ash's 40th, so we all went into town for a big meal. It would appear the restaurant we picked weren't geared towards big groups, as there was a single chef working frantically to cook 20 meals all at the same time! I have to say, it appears curry houses in NZ dont put much in the way of of spice; i'm not exactly designed for the hot stuff, but I genuinely feel the Vindaloo I had was about as hot tomato soup!
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