Upset training

Today I had my first introduction to aerobatics! Loved every second of it, and will definately be looking into it as an (expensive) hobby in future... for now i'll have to make do with the other two upset flights i still have to look forward to.

Today I was taught how to induce a spin, and how to recover from it... and here's a video of me spinning towards the ground at 1,500 feet per minute!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=BmNIK1xmj0s

and loops and stall turns:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTBF-F_k1pc

The guy teaching me was great (first time I've flown with him) and said I had a natural "flare" for it - commence smug grinning. Really enjoyed myself, and was good to fly a different kind of plane too... cessnas are a bit too vanilla for my tastes!

Here's a couple of slightly higher quality captures from the videos:

Qualifier at last

Lee and myself finally got our qualifiers in today which involved flying from hamilton to a place called taharoa on the west coast, just south of raglan, then to rotorua for a quick snack. From rotorua we headed out to the east coast to a place called opotiki and from there to tauranga further up the east coast... at that point we stopped for some lunch and then headed on up the coast to waihi beach then through a gap in the Kaimai mountain range and aaaaaall the way across to the west coast again, then down south to raglan and back into hamilton from the coast. As you no doubt gathered, that makes it quite a long flight!

Here are a couple of pics of the journey:

Big day...

Wednesday the 6th June 2007... the day someone was foolish enough to give me a Pilot's license!

It all happened very rapidly in the end, got called up to come in and do my last solo consolidation yesterday afternoon after having already canned it in the morning, then took the PPL this morning. Despite some showers and a fairly strong wind, the weather held out well enough and I managed to get the flight done... the lovely man saw fit to pass me, which was nice because there were a couple of points at which I thought I might be done for! Lee is up doing his test as I type this, so hopefully he'll also pass!

So, here I am... 6 months later... and I'm finally on the wings course! It's timed to perfection, because there is a farewell 'do' this evening for cp39 who are leaving NZ for the sunny shores of Britain for the last time, and it is at these events that they hand out the all important epaulettes to go on your shirt for the newly qualified pilots (me!) - the true reason why everyone wants to be on the wings course!

In other news CP43 have started to go home, with a few left behind until tomorrow - so best of luck on the exams to them! We're now the next course to come home, so much to do between now and then that I imagine the 4/5 weeks left will rocket past.

a turn up for the books...

On friday I finally got my Nav pre-test done (4th time lucky, fog canned all the previous attempts to get airborne) and somehow made it a great flight so passed without any problem. Today (sunday) I managed to get my general handling pre-test done (which was not such a great flight but I still passed so that's what counts!!!) and tomorrow I am booked in for that elusive qualifier although the weather may or may not play ball for that one. Either way I've done all the dual flights that need to be done before my test so it's only one solo for a bit of practice and then the test follows - scary!

It's currently looking like I should have the test on wednesday or maybe thursday but we will have to wait and see... the end of this foundation course and entry onto the wings course is finally in sight though!

Hopefully my qualifier will go tomorrow too and I'll be able to tick that box off, plus put up some pics of the journey, but thankfully it shouldn't delay my test date if it does end up getting canned.

Here's hoping...