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281 | 365 Travel

Back from Wellington before dark for a change and took this photo of a Beech 1900D on the tarmac at Hamilton Airport.

274 |365 Christchurch Airport

Flew Air NZ, Hamilton to Christchurch return today. I love flexible flights and Koru club.

189 | 365 In Awe

For as far as the eye could see low bulbous cloud covered the country and out beyond the sea to the horizon. The sun creeps up to the skyline as the earths revolution enables the break of a new day. The darkness of the night sky fades to blue then to burning bright yellows that reflect over the cloud.
 
From 18000 ft, the curve of the earth is apparent, and I am in AWE of the work of God’s hand. The depth, perspective, colour, cloud, light and darkness are amazing. Such beauty that the camera did not and will never fully capture.
 
Then I am reminded how honoured I am to enjoy it. Less than 100 years ago, few men had ever seen such sights, and even today, very few people around the earth will see such things.

[189 | 365 – In Awe – An amazing sunrise as I flew to Christchurch]

184 | 365 Dream of flying?

It is said that man has always looked at the birds and longed to fly.

Well, I have a non-current pilots licence and could fly, but don’t. I just dream about it. I was talking about it with a friend on the way home from work, and it reminded me about how I long to fly, about how when I get airborne I join a different world, and about how much energy it brings me. Yet flying costs money and that is an entirely different subject.

Anyway, I got home thinking about planes so took this shot of a Cessna 152 made out of Sprite Cans.

[184 | 365 Dream of Flying?]

Danger alright...

Now that I have my pilots licence for planes, I have started thinking about how inconvenient they are. A helicopter would be so much better. I could drop into the vacant land next to agóge HQ. It would be great.

Well on Friday a Robinson R44 dropped into our neighbours CKL. It encapsulated all of my dreams. The sign by the tail rotor, with agoge in the background, is a warning in more ways than one...

The Helicopter HLG is owned by Meridian Holdings Limited in Auckland.

Flight Sim comedy

This is classic. Have a watch.

Family Flying

Took the whole family flying for the first time Saturday. We flew from Hamilton to Tauranga, took Mun and Dad for a fly, then flew back.

My Son is under 4 so sat with a lap belt on his mums knee. This meant we had 5 people on board (POB) in a four 4 seater plane. Air Traffic Control in both Hamilton & Tauranga both doubled checked when I told them 5.

As always with flying and me at the moment. I learn heaps from each flight and this was no exception.

A great day though!!

Alpha aviation is put into liquidation

Hamilton based Alpha Aviation has been put into liquidation this week by it’s Australian Parent (Inventis). They produce the aircraft in which I did most of my flight training and sat my PPL exam.

It is disappointing as it leaves the aircraft that the Aero Club and CTC brought effectively unsupported.

Another blow to the Hamilton Airport and Government as well.

I would love to have a look at their books. They are reported to sell aircraft at around $250,000 (which is cheap) and are producing around 10 per year. 2,500,000 million is turnover is not much to support 70 staff and pay for the costs of production. It is has 20 aircraft, has orders for 16 with a further 14 options. The parent company announcement to the ASX is worth a read.

It proves the saying correct “The best way to make a small fortune in aviation … is to start with a huge one.”

Any landing you can walk away from is a good one...

... this one is particularly good. From the Herald yesterday

Battered pilot Bob Robertson waits in shock for rescuers to cut him free from his plane after it disintegrated around him.

The 34-year-old had a miraculous escape after his 1960s light plane lost power and crashed on to a motorway.

Firefighters had to cut Bob free from the wreckage of the aircraft after it clipped a building and crashed on to the busy road in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

He suffered head, arm and leg injuries and was airlifted to hospital.

How does your cockpit completely rip off, and you end up sitting up waiting for help. WOW!!

Major Air Traffic Problem...

Not sure what airport this is but the Air NZ ATR at a foreign airport doesn't mean it is real.

Hattip: umami

Artist is: Homato

Andrew Nicol: Licensed to Fly…

What’s that distant scream I hear?

WARNING this post is full of Acronyms. It’s a pilot thing, definitions are below.

More screams…

After almost 3 years in the making, yesterday I passed my flight exam for my PPL.

It was a weird day. Initially I was mean to fly to NPL, so I got up early and did my flight planning. As the sun came up, NZNP tower woke up and issued a METAR and TAF and it became self evident that for the second attempt in a row I was going no where.

At 08:00 I called the Aero Club and told them I was clearly not going down and they told me to get out to the club as Wayne (the Flight Examiner) was coming up IFR.  The weather was still crap, but we would aim for a break.

Around 11:00 Wayne arrived and I did the ground school component, questions about the WX, NOTAM, SPARs etc. Then I was asked to calculate TO and LDG distance, blah blah.

Now for the hard part, out to the Flight Exam in WCD.

I pre-flight WCD, do the briefs and checks, go to start the plane and NOTHING. A flat battery! I arrange for an external power pack and get the plane started, get taxi clearance and taxi to the other end of the airport to do engine run-up checks. The oil pressure was showing NOTHING.  The aircraft at this point is OS, so I taxi back to the club. On the way back, the gauge comes to life but it is too late. (For interest oil pressure dropping is one of the things you would do a forced landing for, so not a plane you should take flying)

Now for the hard part, out to the Flight Exam in WKF, but this time the nerves are at an all time high!

Once we got back on the ground I honestly thought I had failed.

It was clearly one of the worst flying days I have had. My selection of paddocks in the FLWOP was not good and I came in high (the lack of wind got me). My steep turns were not that sharp and my wing drop was decidedly average.

Over all though I was very competent at most things, and competent in the above.   

Net result. I PASSED!!

3 years, 77 flying hours, 96 flights, well over 100 TO & LDG. Self studying the theory, easily 300 hours ground work, and countless hours going through checks while driving my car, sitting at my desk.

I need to do some more FLWOP practice and it takes 4 – 5 weeks before I get the actual licence, and I need to pass a fit & proper person test (which fortunately has nothing to do with fitness) but the hard work is done.

Thanks to all my instructors at the Waikato Aero Club - Roger, Paul, Greg, Dave, Ash, Marie, Lorreen!

Definitions

• PPL – Private Pilots Licence
• NPL – New Plymouth
• NZNP – Another way of writing New Plymouth just to confuse you.
• IFR – Instrument Flight Rules (Can fly through clouds and over large buildings)
• VFR – Visual Flight Rules (Can’t fly through clouds but can still fly over large buildings)
• WX – Weather
• NOTAM – Notice to Airmen. (info about runways etc)
• TAF – Aerodrome forecast
• SPAR – Special Aerodrome Report (issued when the weather turns to crap)
• METAR – Current Metrological Conditions at and Aerodrome
• TO – Takeoff
• LDG – Landing
• WCD – Plane Registration for an Alpha 160A
• WKF – Plane registration for the Alpha that I flew
• NOTHING – is not an acronym it is a sign of my frustration &(*%&$( !!
• OS – Out of Service (broken!).

Another Airline! What do they put in the water in Nelson?

Maori Trust, Ngati Koata has decided to set up a small air charter and freight service. They will lease two 18 seat Jetstream aircraft for the venture (old Origin planes I suspect). The trust is looking for companies that want to use its freight service in the Nelson area.

Recently another Nelson man claimed he was going to set up an Air Charter business but nothing came of it. In this case the Trust has applied for an Air Operators License.

How many regional airlines can a place like Nelson create? NZ is a very small market and some pretty clever and well-backed businesses have tried to enter the regional freight and passenger service. Unfortunately the airways are littered with their wreckage, metaphorically of course. I suspect this will be another one that last 12 – 18 months.

Aerobatic NZ airforce style!

Last week I saw video footage at the "Flawless Execution" seminar I attended, of the Blue Angels doing aerobatics in fighter jets at 900km per hour, 45 cm wing tip to wing tip. It was amazing.

This week I see in the NZ herald the below picture of the NZ airforce doing aerobatics in their training aircraft.

Not quite the same is it!

Hamilton Airport is too taxing

I travelled to Christchurch the other day and now have to pay a $5 departure tax from Hamilton Airport for Domestic Travel. The tax^ is required to pay for the interest charges on the new terminal.

Here are my issues with it:

• The Hamilton airport is a regional airport and is the gateway to the region. The terminal needed upgrading because it was by far the most butt ugly terminal for the size of the region it services. In my view the shareholders (being Hamilton City Council 50% and the other regional councils) should have seen this coming, as the business case either always included this or was so far wrong somebody should go. The value of the airport company jumped $22 million in just one year (69%), slightly more than the $600k in interest payments.
• They are charging me a departure tax for a new terminal that won’t be finished for another 18 months. In the meantime it’s portable toilets outside.
• They have twice increased the car parking charges as well. It was $8 a day, then went to $10 a day and is now $20 a day. I am being taxed twice!
• I really really dislike queuing as it is. Now I have to queue twice once for my ticket and the other time to pay departure tax. No four times. I queue to check in, queue for departure tax, queue to handover more tax to get to the gate, queue to get on the plane.

The board and management team lack the ability to think in an ingenious way. Taxing the departing visitor is dumb. I thought the purpose of the airport increase visitors to the region.

A final note. It takes me 30 mins from home to the airport. To get to Christchurch direct is 1:50. If I drive to Auckland it will take me 1 hour and I get a 1:20 flight time, cheaper flights in bigger planes with more leg space, more frequency and better services and lounges. Hamilton Airport assumes people like me won’t do that.

They are wrong.

Ingenious Rating : 0

A review of my blog

"In short I thought I would start shouting into the wind..."

And with those words my blog began. Like most things in my life my blog has proven to be random, distracted thoughts. It comes and goes depending on my mood and has had three major changes to its look and feel.

It will continue to change because I love change. It will continue to be random and change in writing style because I am always learning and experiencing different things.

Anyway here are a few of my favourate posts etc from each month since Aug last year.

Old Posts

Old & New  ... Lost after 3 years is the new car smell, it now has one of those car airfreshener smells . A smell that you know is hiding a potentially more potent odour, the way lighting a match in the toilet tries to hide a foul stench... read more [nb this is my most commented post a whole 3 comments]

Origin Pacific falls from the Never Never Land ... In my opinion Origin was doomed to failure before their first flight left the ground. They tried to behave and act like super powers, then align themselves with super powers like Qantas, rather than establishing profitable niche markets ... read more

Authentic Community ...I think this small business called agóge. This business with people from all over the world, with varying educations, from different religions and diverse upbringings is starting to become an authentic community ... read more

Woolgathering at 17,000 ft about the Marlborough Sounds ... I sit in the ATR, transfixed at the sight of the Marlborough Sounds out my window and grateful for the relief from a tiring day that woolgathering about the Sounds allows. ... read more

Flying an Alpha 160 ... "It is like climbing into a new car when you have been used to driving a car that is 25 years old." ... read more

Most enjoyable book

Blue like Jazz - Donald Miller.

Best quote

"I’ve always thought smack in the middle of a contradiction is a great place to be!"  Bono - U2

Flying an Alpha 160A update

A brief update on flying in the clubs other Alpha (ZK-WJH) which I flew this morning. I did some glide approaches then went solo in the Alpha.

Observations
- The stall warning seems to function heaps better in this plane. I only heard it when I expected to.
- Only having two flap settings 10 & 35 Degrees is a pain on a glide approach. I duffed the first one because I put full flap down to early.

Still great aircraft to fly. Since I have done a solo I am back to normal PPL lessons.

Flying an Alpha 160A

"It is like climbing into a new car when you have been used to driving a car that is 25 years old." citied Roger (CFI) when I asked him about the new Alpha 160A (R2160) that the Waikato Aero Club has replaced the Cessna 152's with.

A week or so later he is proven correct when I go for my first type intro flight. The first thing I noticed when I clambered into ZK-WKF, doing my level best not to stand on the plush leather seats, was that everything looks new, there are actually some digital gauges and a GPS unit.

Marie kindly explains the various features and start-up procedure and before long we are off to the eastern training area for some stalls and a forced landing.

I have now completed 3 type introduction lessons in the Alpha 160A and here are my brief observations (from a novice perspective)

• The view and the sunburn! The view is stunning on a fine day. My first flight out I could see down to Mt Ruapehu. With that comes the glass house effect, sunburn and heat. An interesting trade off.
• It has a control stick as opposed to a control wheel. Feels really natural straight away (must be the experience of computer joysticks from my younger days)
• HEAPS more right rudder. The larger engine and huge tail rudder means it takes a lot of right rudder to keep the aircraft in balance. It requires it so much so that you would almost expect it to have a rudder trim. Alias trim isn't there so its off to the gym to work on my right leg muscles.
• The STALL warning sounds way to early. You are flying a well configured aircraft on approach and suddenly the stall warning goes when you theoretically are 20 kts above stall speed. Scares the crap out of me.
• It glides like a rock (or slightly better). At the recommended 80 IAS you are dropping 1000 fpm, which doesn't leave a lot of time for a Forced Landing from 2500 ft. The club is teaching Forced Landings at around 72-75 IAS, but then the stall warning kicks in every 10 - 20 secs.
• Gone are the long flares on landing that I have been taught about in the C152. You basically point the Alpha at the ground and do a small flare just before touch down. If you were to flare at the same angle as the Cessna that rear of the plane scraps along the runner (no brownie points earned if you do that)
• GRUNT. The 160 hp Alpha verses the 110 hp Cessna can mean some pretty quick trips in the downwind portion of the circuit.

All in all a great asset to the club and a fun plane to fly. I'm looking forward to my cross country flights in it!

[Hat Tips]
Photos - Chris Nielsen
Waikato Aero Club
Alpha Aviation

One person makes all the difference!

Just one person in any one company can make it or blow it. One person can sent you away feeling like the most important person in the world or make you feel like they don’t value your business.

[Read the whole article here] about a less than remarkable service on a flight to Christchurch.

Woolgathering at 17,000 ft about the Marlborough Sounds.

There they are! The Marlborough Sounds.

The picture from my PDA does it little or no justice, but I simply had to take some photos. The lady in front of me had a real digital camera and I thought of asking her to email them to me, but my courageous contemplation turned to weak actions.

I sit in the ATR, transfixed at the sight of the Marlborough Sounds out my window and grateful for the relief from a tiring day that woolgathering about the Sounds allows.

I have long dreamed of chartering a yacht and sailing around the Sounds. I dream of waking up on a still, warm, sunlit and cloudless morning surrounded by little islands covered in bush and farmland. The only sound is the sound of water lapping enchantingly against the side of the boat. I dream of jumping from the side of the boat for a quick swim to remind my body it is alive. Then I dream of the mandatory cooked breakfast that has smells and aromas and tastes that can only be experienced in location such as this.

It's a dream. A long held dream. Hopefully one day it will become a reality.

Cockpit/Crew Resource Management

Here is the video clip that Trevor the A320 pilot sent me.

We were chatting about how easy it is to end up in the right seat (first officers seat) of a jet overseas nowdays and that a day is potentially coming when pilots end up in the right seat without having ever flown a small plane. A concern is that they become too inexperienced to speak up with authority when needed.

Speaking up is not an issue for this first office (John Wayne). Trevor called this CRM the old way...

Yesterday I went flying, the guy in the right hand seat (in my case the instructor) was sick, so I did some rather challenging forced landings on my own. I also found out that the aero club will ditch the Cessna 152's as soon as the next Alpha arrives. I guess I wont finish my PPL in the 152 after all.

Fly by Wire

Boarding your plane and taking a seat next to an Air NZ pilot wouldn't excite most of you, but it was one of the most interesting flights I have taken. I sat next to Trevor an Airbus A320 captain and pilot trainer as he was being repositioned back to Auckland.

Trevor has been flying for 40 years and you can tell straight away he is an experienced and safe flyer. In his 40 years flying he has never had a major incident, never had an engine failure, nor forced landing. This is as much a testament to aircraft maintenance as it is to his attitude and skill.

Once we established that I was on my way to my PPL (so knew an incredible amount about flying), we talked Navaids, GPS, airports, handling of 737 vs A320, maintenance, CRM (Crew Resource Management), industry changes, ATPL training, the airworks accident last year, sims and pilot attitudes and leadership.

Interesting Facts

• Wellington Airport was not closed on Wednesday. Trevor landed his Airbus, it's just the ground crew couldn't work in the wind.
• Dunedin Airport is the hardest (=riskiest) airport in the country to land a jet in.
• Airbus A320's self trim (Makes them heaps easier to fly)
• At FL30 (30,000ft) and engine failure in a 737 required an immediate and positive from the pilot to stop it going over on it's back. An A320 will re trim, and put the plan into a descent.
• Wherever possible they take off with reduced thrust to save the engine life. In the A320 they take off with the cabin pressurization off, which again saves engine life.
• Great pilots come as a result of great attitudes.

Disjointed implications

• The media never give you the whole story.
• I'd rather fly in a A320 (or a next generation 737)
• If reduced thrust take-offs improve engine life, then to what other areas or things could this principal apply?
• Being great at anything, sport, flying, spirituality or leadership is all about ATTITUDE.

Trevor said he was going to email me a funny clip about CRM. If he does I will post it here.

What the FOGGLES?!

Imagine driving in your car, and being given a pear of foggles (sight limiting glasses that simulate fog or cloud). All you can see now is the instruments on your dashboard, but that’s OK because the person in the passenger seat is going to tell you what to do!

Well today I did my first real session of Instrument Flight for my Private Pilots Licence. It is isn’t quite as bad as doing it in a car because you have more instruments and the instructor has a complete set of controls but it was reasonably challenging none the less.

All flight training to this point has told me to look outside the cockpit where as instrument flight is the exact opposite. You take-off, don the foggles at about 600ft, fly around blindly (well just using the instruments shown) for an hour, then come back into the circuit, and take the foggles off just in time to land. I know went out to the western training area (because I requested it from ATC), but really I had no idea where I was.

It is harder than it sounds as your body can make you feel like you are level when in fact you are turning. For the most part I did ok. How do I know, well I didn’t get asked too many questions like; What altitude are we aiming for (meaning you at the wrong altitude) or how do you think that turn went (meaning you stuffed that turn completely!)

Flying Hours:       1.0
Instrument Time:  0.7
Aircraft:              Cessna 152
Registration:        ZK-EOQ (Echo Oscar Quebec)

What Origin Pacific lacked

It has been said 'The best way to make a small fortune in aviation is to start with a huge one'. I am sure that Mike Pero might have personally learnt this lesson after sinking $10 million into Origin Pacific. The full-blown disintegration of Origin Pacific last week, confirmed New Zealand’s domestic aviation market has become fully mature.

No one, other than a huge multi-national, has the resources to compete with Air NZ. They, along with Qantas who choose not to do regional, are the Super Powers [see previous post] in the domestic market and there is simply no room for ‘secondary [ugly] powers’, like Origin.  In the ‘business guerrillas’ camp we have small niche operators like Air2there, Sunair and Sounds Air. Each has very niche markets that Air NZ simply doesn’t care about or is too small to enter.

BIG question - Can you become BIG without directly competing with the Super Powers?

Short answer - No!; but the road of business is littered with companies that tried.

There is a place for specialists with a niche market, but ultimately they have to be prepared to stay as “guerillas”.

If you are not happy being a guerilla, then sooner or later you are going end up in the middle ground. To stay there and grow to be BIG, you will have to take it to the Super Powers. Once you reach the never never land of the Secondary Powers, you now must compete in price, service and features. If you can’t compete in that position for a prolonged period of time and if you can’t continue to grow month on month, you are near stuffed!

Now here’s the challenge if you want to be big, somehow you need to grow and yet maintain the nature of guerilla warfare. Making very strategic decisions about the markets, even specific customers you want, the service you will offer and the prices you will charge. If you can continually move the battle front, the Super Powers will struggle to fully understand what you are up to. They will respond with a defense that is already irrelevant as you have move to the next battle field and target.

In my opinion Origin was doomed to failure before their first flight left the ground. They tried to behave and act like super powers, then align themselves with super powers like Qantas, rather than establishing profitable niche markets and attacking and growing through guerrilla warfare.

Agree, disagree, have a question? - Post a comment now.