Today prior to the meeting in the club rooms, I went for a fly. I had previously planned a cross country, but Harvey felt the weather wasn’t suitable. Although the wind was 15 knots gusting 20ish it was coming straight down runway 25. I keep my taxi slow and controlled as I did not want CDL to wind cock in the strong wind.

As soon as I was off the runway I could tell that things were not normal. At about 50 feet the turbulence was pretty severe. I climbed straight out and veered slightly to the south to avoid the cloud system to the north. Once overhead Muriwai at about 2000ft I continued north, climbing as airspace would allow to 4000ft, crossed over the harbour mouth and continued to where the airspace would let me climb.

I continued my climb up to just shy of 8000ft where I was pretty surprised to that the towering cloud I was observing still made me feel like I was at sea level! I now really appreciate just how hard it is to gauge the height of cloud formations.

On my return to NZPI I found multiple areas of pretty nasty turbulence where I was well clear of any land to cause it. The shifting atmospheric conditions made the circuit hard work. After one touch and go with the same treatment at around 50feet I decided to call it a day.

Not the most pleasant flights but certainly educational!

Photos from today: