Arrival, Transport and Lodgings

Somethingth of March... Arrival

As I write this I look back at a lot of water under a lot of bridges. Trip schedule changed almost to the point of non-recognition. Life direction moved to Southern Hemisphere. No fixed abode, no fixed job. Lots of memories, snippets of conversations, feelings running round my swede. The two weeks in NZ were just what I needed to get a bit of perspective on things, and to immerse myself in something utterly familiar to me, whilst pondering the big white open space of the future.

No taxi ride this time, just a rather beautiful scenic route from Queenstown Airport to the Pinewood Lodge, my "home" for the next couple of weeks.

Instead of bussing everywhere (10k from the town to the airport) I decided to rent a bike. However at $50 per day, this was going to be expensive. So I forked out for a new mountain bike and used that to tour the local area when not flying. In particular I can recoomend cycling to Glenorchy, although it is a fairly long way with some steep hills in between. Moke Lake another good spot.

So, to the interesting bit, the flying. I had booked a couple of weeks flying with Air Wakatipu, ostensibly to get my NZ PPL and do some mountain flying. Air Wakatipu, or more properly the Wakatipu Aero Club (WAC) I had visited previously in NZ, and was impressed enough to go back and do more consolidated and "serious" flying with them. I was in for a shock as well as a surprise, and some great flying.

First session in the Citabria was some Upper Air work; stalls, steep turns etc, which went OK. The circuits were new to me and very challenging; there were some serious hills around in the circuit and they meant that the circuits had to be moved slightly to avoid contact with mountains. The other challenge was the radio work; the number of calls on different frequencies took some getting used to. I had only flown from simple airfields with simple traffic reports and not been used to reporting at VRP's, all of which were new to me. So a southerly departure on Wye Creek took a couple of go's to get right. For other pilots wanting to fly in NZ, gen up on these in advance and mark up maps accordingly...

Then came a change of instructor, and a change of direction. Julianne Kramer took me off in the Citabria for some low flying and precaurtionary landings in the Von valley. Unfortunately, no movies or pictures, but the place looked like a moonscape. Wierd and barren lansdcape with canyons, rivers, few trees and a couple of bush strips. My flying improved as I got used to the ways of the Citabria, and the terrain.

A foray up to the North to Mount Earnslaw gave me a good perspective of mountain flying, and a healthy respect for the terrain. New Zealand's terrain is well suited for mountain flying as a lot of the terrain is high, but most of the valley floors are quite low. The Rockies in the US for example, is all high thus the performance of most aeroplanes is limited by the altitude. Not so in NZ.

Things to learn came thick and fast. Crossing saddles, valley turns, superimposing a horizon on the mountains, keeping options open with weather and terrain considerations. Even a 160HP Citabria can be out-climbed by a valley floor. But all this was great fun; although comforting to have an experienced pilot like Julianne in the back. And also informative, there are a lot of geographical and historical sites around.

Then back to the PPL syllabus. I had to do another two hours of instrument flying so headed off in the C172 for some Under the Hood work. The air was rough and with some large up and down currents going on, so this was a real challenge. I had not flown IMC for about 5 years, never mind with a partial panel and 500 FPM up and downdraughts. Julianne talked me down to an almost zero level decision height, but the windshear at different times with no ILS to follow made this next to impossible. I looked up at about 100 feet which wasn't bad.

Next flight was on a beautiful day and so I missed the fog in the valleys, broken cloud around the peaks and searingly beautiful blue azure skies. I did see however the ASI, Altimeter, VSI and A/H most of the time, plus the VOR / DME stuff for a hold. Mental note to self - do more of this at home before coming out here again.

I had booked my BFR (flight test) halfway through the last week, and had a gruelling 2 hours in the Citabria. I was very relieved to have passed. That was a tough test.

I had also booked in to the Wanaka Warbirds airshow, and helped the WAC set up their stand. A huge marquee had been rented and we spent a very sweaty afternoon rigging this at the airshow, next to a very pretty Pitts and AC Cobra. The strip was very dusty and after the show, everything was a tinge of brown. The dust had a sort of sparkle to it, probably mica or feldspar or something, so everyone looked like they'd been on the glitterpaint.

I took advantage of my 50-500mm lens at the Wanaka Warbirds show, and took some reasonable pictures. Separate picture page about Wanaka Warbirds

Getting there by road on one day and by air on the last day showed the use of aeroplanes in NZ. Distances aren't particularly large, but the roads are not direct due to the terrain. Flying is so much quicker, but not necessarily reliable due to weather. Life is a compromise....

Last flight was intended to be a Milford Sound flight, but the weather had other ideas. Instead JK and I headed off to NZ's latest lake which was created a few months ago after an earthquake. We flew around that and several other glacial lakes at the top of Lake Wanaka for a while, and did some more saddle crossings and valley turns. Underneath, a C185 was a mere speck in the valley.

So.... time now to pack up, ship out back to the UK until end April to rejoin the trip in the USA. Mixed feelings on dropping the S. America part of the trip. Visa very important for entry into Australia and this is a good thing to be organising. I guess the places won't move very far and I can always visit them in the future... and I get to spend more time flying in the UK putting the new found skills to the test.

Last Updated 30th March 2008

Best viewed at screen resolution of 1280 x 800 (widescreen), or at least 800 pixels high. Use F11 on MS Explorer to get full screen view.

Errors and Omissions Excepted. The use of this information does not constitute a contract for goods or services, cos I ain't offering any. All information is used at the risk of the User, especially the use of untested anecdotes. Not to be read before the use of heavy machinery, and not for exposure to children or animals. Contains nuts.

Contact the webmaster if you have a comment.