This week started with plenty of optimism, as the skies were clear and the flying programme pretty packed. I managed a trip down to New Plymouth on Monday, which took me close to Mount Taranaki (which was used to mimic Mount Fuji in 'The Last Samurai'), as well as close to the central Volcanoes. Unfortunately all the summits were shrouded in cloud, but regardless they were an impressive sight. After getting close, my next nav was a trip south to get a closer look at the North Islands impressive Volcanoes, Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe. The one on the left is Ngauruhoe, and as i'm sure many of you know was Mount Doom in the Lord of the Rings. The day before the crater had in fact been smoking which would have been exciting, but it'd calmed down by the time I got there. 
Following the solo's I was back in the aircraft for a dual nav route, but this time under the guise of an 'Ops route'. Some of you may feel this is purely semantics, but the name change indicates a real difference when compared to a normal dual lesson, effectively making the flight one where the student acts as commander on an operational flight. Initially the strong winds and turbulence did their best to stop the flight happening, but after much deliberation I decided the conditions were satisfactory when considering if the operation could be conducted safely. Yes at times we got a bit of a kicking as there was plenty of mechanical turbulence from the wind flowing over high ground, but the flight was manageable and the decision to proceed was proven correct.
Another subtle difference with the Ops routes is that the flight contains more scenarios which have to be considered and acted upon. In the case of my first one, my instructor simply said that during a cruise check the carbon monoxide detector was indicating 'caution', and I now had to act with that information. The first concern is that the human body actually has a stronger affinity for carbon monoxide than it does oxygen (about 200 times!), and the CO displaces the oxygen from the blood, effectively suffocating the individual. The longer the CO poisoning continues the higher the likelihood of passing out, so time is of the essence. The most common cause would be a crack in the exhaust manifold, as the hot air to the cabin is heated from the hot exhaust. So the air is shut off, and the windows opened to ventilate the cabin.
Once you have solved the problem, or at least stopped it getting worse, the best plan is to land as quickly as possible. One of the big issues with CO poisoning is that humans are very poor at recognising the symptoms, and you could have very little knowledge of how close you may be to passing out. Working quickly and being prepared to make fast confident decisions, the next mission is to fly an accurate diversion to an alternate aerodrome. I chose to fly to a small aerodrome called TeKuiti; it is unattended, has no air traffic control, and the runway is tiny, but in an emergency best practice has to be more flexible.
I managed another flight this week up to Ardmore, which is New Zealand's busiest airport. Normally the traffic pattern is rather intimidating as so many aircraft are trying to fly so close to Aucklands airspace, but as I left Hamilton at 0740 and it was pretty windy, I pretty much snuck in and out without seeing anyone else (at least I hope there was no-one else!!). I was due to fly another solo on Friday, and one today with a night flight, but both days were cancelled due to high winds then low cloud. With four days of good weather ahead there is a real possibility I could finish my VFR phrase by the end of the week, and if that does happen I could in fact get home on time, but there are no guarantees, just hope!
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