CDL by the pumps (NZPI)

Today was my first flight with a passenger, quite the mile stone. Yesterday I sat my final flight test and passenger rating with Harvey. Not the most enjoyable flight as it is rather hard on the nerves!!! I got there in the end with the all important pass! Upon solid advice from both Harvey and Simon Lockie I remembered to keep my turns shallow and everything gentle and pleasant.

We first took off from the field on runway 25, flew crosswind and confirmed the passenger was happy before vacating the circuit for Muriwai Beach. We then descended down to 700ft and followed the beach south. While the better half admired the view I confirmed with the Whenuapai ATIS that they were off watch. We then tracked the city via the ‘corridor of green’ making sure to avoid Whenuapai’s red circle, crossed over into ‘city traffic’ and overflew the harbour bridge. City traffic was remarkably quiet, we were sharing the airspace with a lone sightseeing helicopter and one other fixed wing. From the city we descended down into the transit lane, flew up to gulf harbour, and around into Orewa.

Upon the return from North shore I pulled back the speed for Danielle to admire Kaukapakapa and noticed just how much we were drifting north.. The southerly had picked up significantly while we were gone. We joined right base for 25. I came in with full flap as we were a little on the high side as Danielle weighs significantly less than Harvey and I am still getting used to the difference a passenger makes (that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!).

 As we crossed the threshold I was struggling to hold the centre line so put on the power and went around remembering to let the passenger know that go-arounds are perfectly normal and nothing to worry about! For my second approach we came in lower with 15 degree’s of flap and power as required holding roughly 65 knots. The extra speed gave me the control required to pull off a text book crosswind landing (if I do say so myself ).

After deplaning we checked out the weather station in the club rooms. 15-16knts directly across the strip! Learning to fly at Parakai really does prepare you to handle the aircraft in challenging conditions as a matter of course. Crosswind landings are part of the fun .

Here is the flight path of my first passenger flight one with the airspace overlaid and one without: