Bain of my existance, everybody... everybody, the bain of my existance.

Well, I thought it was about time you got introduced....

This is the weather phenomenon that is responsible for binning flight after flight after flight of mine...

In other news, they have decided to let us carry on without the CPL qualifier I mentioned before and just do it on an opportunity basis. In theory this means that I can move on and finish the foundation course without having to wait weeks for that flight. In theory.

Well, that was predictable...

I was clearly in danger of making too much progress this week, so the weather decided to be rubbish and get my flight canned... so no qualifier for me today!

The forecast for the next week isn't great in general, and there are 6 of us now waiting on these qualifiers which more or less take up a whole plane for a day... so I don't hold much hope of getting it in any time soon.

So....

Managed to get my land-away done on thursday to rotorua, which was my last dual navigation flight before the PPL - good stuff! I also managed to get the solo nav to rotorua done on friday which I had been waiting to do for a while, and took the opportunity to take a pic or two:

Lake Taupo early in the morning:

Enroute Rotorua from Lake Taupo:

Heading back to Hamilton from Rotorua (look at the difference in the weather!!! Bloody Hamilton!)

Currently I'm scheduled for my long (~300-350 nautical mile) CPL qualifier tomorrow (sunday) and on one of the new cessna's too. This bit of luck combined with the forecast for good weather has me somewhat suspicious however, we can but hope! Expect a few nice pics should I a) go in the first place, b) not end up in Australia, and c) make it back at all.

thumb's-a-twiddlin...

Well, what to say - it's been like swimming through treacle the last couple of weeks!

Since the katana fleet got grounded around 2-3 weeks back, just before which I had done my first "intro to nav" navigation flight, We got type rated on cessnas instead... this involved the completion of an Essential Knowledge Quiz (basically an exam type dealio with questions relating to the aircraft type) and two conversion flights. I got these done in just over a week, which I thought was slow progress for what were supposedly high priority flights... just to prove to me what slow progress meant however, New Zealand decided to become exceedingly unco-operative in the weather department just as I had finished the conversion flights and tried to pick up where I left off with the next Nav Flight which also happens to be the check flight which you need to pass in order to be unleashed on your first solo Nav.... Booked in each day monday to thursday and each day the weather laughed at my best laid plans. The weather finally picked up today but, of course, it was my instructors only day off this week! The weather looks good for the next few days, at least in so far as you can trust the forecasts here, and i'm booked in for tomorrow afternoon so fingers crossed!

In other news, most of CP42 have buggered off home for their ATPL exams so comet block will never be the same again! CP49 should be arriving in the next week and will be taking their rooms I imagine. I can't believe 49 are arriving already - when we got here in december CP39 seemed so very far ahead for us poor CP44 newbies!