I did this long nav the 10th of February. My route was to fly from Hamilton to Cape Reinga with landings and touch and goes at Parakai, Whangarei, KeriKeri, Kaitaia, Kaikohe.
Cape Reinga is the Northest point of New Zealand. I wanted to go there because it's said that, from the air, you can see the line where the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman sea meet with each other...
Unfortunetly, CTC told me that it was too far. Actually It'd have added 1.2hrs to my 5.2hrs navigation, and as student I can't fly more than 6hrs a day...
Even if I didn't get there, this fly was great anyway because I flew over so many iconic scenaries like Bay of Islands, Ninety miles beach and Auckland City center... Flying at 900ft with the sky tower at my wing tip will stay in my mind forever!
The first progress test ( like a PPL) is not to far away as I have only 7 flights left before the exam. This exam will also be the conclusion of the single engine phase, as we will start to fly on the multis really soon. I'll try to keep flying with a single engine though, because I don't want to forget my VFR skills for the CPL...
I was supposed to do a classic 2.5hrs nav from Hamilton to Taupo, Turangi, Taumarunui and back. But that morning, the instructor in charge to sign me out for this flight, told me that it was a pitty that I haven't planned to fly over Mt Ruapehu only few minutes south of Turangi.
He suggested me to go there, because the weather was perfect. No clouds, almost nil wind...
He briefed me, gave me a survival kit and that was it...
Mt Ruapehu is the highest volcano on the North Island. Its high is around 9,500ft, so I had to climb up to 11,000ft. This was an absolute amazing experience. The view of the lake was stunning. The lake is acid, and to be honest I don't know if I was hallucinating or not, but when I was overhead I could feel that my nose was itchy...
Was it caused by the acidity of the lake or my imagination knowing that the lake was acid? I probably would never know!
Anyway, Lake Taupo, Mt Ruapehu and Kawhia Harbor were amazing from the sky. As soon as I landed I thanked the instructor for this amazing suggestion.
The next step will be my CPL cross country qualifier navigation. A 300nm minimum navigation. I've planned to go top north of the North Island to see ninety miles beach, bay of islands, etc...
Why proper? Well, in my opinion a navigation is a flight where you take off from A to fly and land to B. And so far, I had flown only solo navigations with turning points without any touch and goes or full stops.
But I'm now allowed to do so, since the last dual navigation, called "Triangle of death" by most of the cadets. The route is Hamilton - Rotorua - Tauranga, three D class airspaces.
The purpose of this last dual navigation is to make sure that the cadet is able to fly correctly the published arrivals and departures procedures with good radio calls. To make it harder, we are wearing a hood which allows you to see only your instruments. Obviously the hood is removed for all the joining procedures.
Thanks to my previous flying experience, I didn't find this nav really hard, as I had always prefered controled airfields than uncontrolled.
For my first proper nav, I've been up to Coromandel Peninsula to do two touch and goes at Pauanui Beach airfield and Whitianga airfield.
I was really upset because I had forgotten my cameras, and it was absolutely fabulous, specially Pauanui Beach. This strip is open for general aviation without permission of the operator, but it looks like a private strip as the short grass runway is stuck between to houses lines with many aircraft in their back gardens.
The airfield is located on a small peninsula, so on both approaches the final is over the water, simply amazing to fly in a such environement.
Coromandel Navigation - Pauanui Beach, Whitianga
For my second nav, I decided to go back to Rotorua because the joining instructions make you fly over the water which is stunning.
I also decided to challenge my self for my training here in New Zealand and I have decided to try to land on 30 differents aerodromes. It's probably going to be hard but still, I'll try.
So, during the nav preparation I was looking for aerodromes not too far, when another cadet suggested me Opotiki. I then decided to fly from Rotorua to Opotiki and back to Hamilton. Because Whakatane, was really close from Opotiki, I decided to do a Touch and go there, to improve my workload management.
There are only 10' or less, between these two airfields, so I thought it would be interesting, because you're quiet in a rush, for your arrival briefing, fly the aircraft, but you have to do it well...
Everything went well, and I flew back to Hamilton.
Hamilton - Rotorua - Opotiki - Whakatane - Hamilton
The next step is another 2 hours navigation and then my 300nm cross country which is a requirement for the CPL. I'm still hesitating for the route of my cross country navigation between an Notherly route towards Bay of Island, Cape reinga, and a Southerly towards Wellington and its international airport...
