The Home of CP16

Catalina Flight

Today, we organised to go flying in the only Canadian Vickers license built PBY-5A Catalina (or Canso) capable of carrying passengers in the world. After a 3.5 hour drive down to Taupo Airport, we went in to the Taupo Aero Club and met the crew. The flight cost NZ$120 (approx £44) and ledasted about 30 minutes, chock to chock. The Catalina can carry 16 passengers, but we were the only paying customers on board, the rest were members of the The Catalina Group of New Zealand. As we lined up on the runway, full power was applied and we began to accelerate down the runway. The roar coming from the two 1200HP Pratt and Whitney "Twin Wasp" engines was amazing! We left the ground quite quickly and positioned so that we could land on Lake Taupo. Landing on water in a Catalina is a brilliant experience, the grins on all of our faces said it all. We then took off from the lake and climbed up to 2,000ft for some general handling. We were allowed out of our seats to visit the cockpit and also sit down the back at one of the blister windows. It felt like sitting in a large bay window, the view was spectacular. A Yak-52 from the New Zealand Warbirds Association formated on our starboard wing for about 5 minutes, as we gently turned in the skies about Taupo. Soon enough, we heard the whine as the undercarriage was lowered and we began our desecent in to Taupo airport. After a smooth landing followed by some aerodynamic braking (that our CTC instructors would have been proud of) we taxied in to the apron and shut down. It was a wonderful experience and we are looking forward to doing it again. If you get the chance - take it!

Air New Zealand A320 Simulator Visit

Today, we visited the Air New Zealand Airbus A320 simulator at Auckland Airport. We were shown around the facilities by an ex A320 pilot called Gordon, he is now flying the Boeing 767. One of the newest training devices is a full flightdeck mock-up called a Integrated Procedures Trainer (IPT). This uses 7 touch screen LCD displays to recreate every aspect of the Airbus flightdeck and train pilots in the use of all the aircraft systems, normal and emergency procedures, and checklist handling. It is now being used more often for the fixed base training as it is cheaper to operate that the full flight simulator. Before using the IPT, pilots use Computer Based Training (CBT) in the classroom to learn how to operate every system in the A320. We were then shown the full motion A320 simulator made by CAE. From the outside, it looks nothing like an aircraft, but once inside, it recreates the A320 perfectly apart from the fact that there are 2 instructor control stations behind the pilot's seats.

Unfortunately, we were not allowed to fly the simulator, as Gordon was not current on type. Oh well, looks like we'll just have to wait until we begin our A319 type rating in November 2005!

Nik's First Solo

After a week of waiting for the weather to settle and for aircraft to 'start', the moment Nik had been waiting for finally came. Having thoroughly rehearsed engine failure procedures for a week during R.E.M. 'sleep', the time had come for Nik to prove to the VFR Team Leader that he could walk away from his landings.

SFB (formerly KTA - a notoriously dodgy aircraft) was the aircraft destined to help Nik pass the checkride, but the engine died immediately afterwards. Despite the setback, Nik remained hopeful that the weather would be good for the following day and was happy to discover that SFF 'Foxy' would be his first solo aircraft.

With the checkride complete, Nik proceded to the holding point, making small talk with himself during the awkward silence. As he lined up, a Seminole performed a Touch & Go and several students from Ardmore Flying School bound for 'HUNUA!' lined up to watch Nik take off. The circuit was long, as he followed the Seminole round, then as he turned finals, time began to speed up. The approach looked good until short finals when a 'gust' blew Foxy off the glide path. Nik recovered well, with a burst of power and landed in one piece. A moment Cougar would have been proud of: "Pull up buddy, you're a little low..."

Auckland ATC Visit

An earlier start by CP 16 saw the six of us reporting at Ardmore by 9am this morning. The reason was an announcement by Mr. Calvert regarding the future area of training for us. Apparently we shall be moving to Hamilton sometime around Christmas. With the weather being totally unsuitable for flying, thick cloud, strong winds and cold rain we were at a loss with what to do for the day. So Mr. Hart decided to ring Auckland Tower and arrange a guided tour of the ATC centre at Auckland International.

We arrived at 11:15 after a small detour by Morgan, Tony and Andrew… After signing the guest book and sticking our visitors passes on, we met Jim who was our guide for the first part of the visit. We were brought up to the tower and were given an excellent view of the airport. There were three controllers on duty and another providing backup whilst Jim explained the operation of each team member to us. As he talked, a Korean Airlines 777-200 touched down, a greaser despite the high winds. It was an impressive sight! The controllers were a very friendly bunch and seemed to welcome the chance to explain to the people who they control what their perspective was like. We got a chance to closely examine the actually radar screens over Ardmore and the MBZ which was quite useful. We also saw how aircraft log their flight plan with the tower; the controller passes that onto Auckland Ground and then that is passed onto Auckland Tower and the Area Control Centre in Christchurch.

We were then escorted down to the Oceanic Control Area. This was an amazing area: the technology and the guys running it impressed us all. We were given a very good brief on the Oceanic Control Area and how it all works and integrates with other Areas. After the theory was explained we were then shown how it works in practice. It was pretty cool seeing the little vectors on the radar screens denoting all the various aircraft and we were able to follow an Indonesian A340s descent and arrival into Auckland, and watching/hearing the controller tell it what to do. It was interesting to see how the controllers deal with different airlines because of differences with language barriers and procedures.

One of the controllers actually showed us a typical roster (much nicer than easyJets) for the month to see how many controllers there were and how they are scheduled. They told us that at the moment six New Zealand controllers are in America training the Americans on how to use the equipment that New Zealand ATC use. The data-link systems that are in use are the cutting edge of ATC technology. The demonstrations of collision avoidance and separation were very impressive. New Zealand AT controllers are in high demand worldwide because of the high standards of training that are maintained.

And so our tour ended with a grin on our faces and we reminded the guys to be nice to any Katana’s transiting their airspace in the near future. Thanks to Andrew for ringing and for Jim for allowing us to come in and visit, it was a very informative trip that certainly brightened up our day.

Overnight in Tauranga

Tony and John joined Ed, Rick, Rob and Chris from CP11 for an overnight trip away from Sweet Home Papakura. Evan (one of the Instructors) was taking a Beech Dutchess away overnight to Tauranga to visit some friends but also with the main purpose of using the twin time to keep his Instrument Rating current. The Dutchess only seats 4 people so Tony, Rob and Chris drove down to Tauranga while the rest piled into ZK-YES (a truly magnificent example of a tired and worn out aircraft) for the 50 minute flight at 8,000ft to
Tauranga. Weather on route was generally good, scattered clouds and a stiff westerly wind to test Evan's NDB tracking. We arrived safely, tied down the aircraft for the night and called a taxi to take us to the Cutters Cove apartments situated on the seafront a mile south of Mount Maunganui. Tony, Rob and Chris arrived 1 hour later after getting lost trying to find the apartments. We ended the day with a nice meal and plenty of fine wine, followed by some beers in a local 'Irish' bar. After an early start the next morning, John, Ed and Rick traded the Beech Dutchess for a Toyota Corolla for the 2 hour drive home, while the rest enjoyed the views from 9,000ft with an ILS approach to runway 23L at Auckland thrown in for good measure. A jolly good time was had by all!

Morgan's First Solo

Morgan finally managed to fool his instructor for long enough to get him out of the plane and make his first EVER solo: With an icy-ball-of-lead-in-pit-of-stomach-feeling, beads of sweat forming on his forehead, breathing getting faster and heart rate going through the roof…. Simon stepped from the plane. And then Morgan went and did his first flight as Pilot-in-Command. All in all the flight went smoothly with a ‘Full-Landing’ being the icing on the cake. Sierra Foxtrot Juliet will be in maintenance for the rest of the year. More photos can be found in the First Solos Photo Album. Congratulations Morgan!

The story so far...

It’s been thirty-three (or tirty-tree as some of us say) days since CP 16 arrived in the lovely New Zealand hamlet of Papakura. After a marathon session of twenty-two hours in flight courtesy of Singapore Airlines we had reached our home for the next few months.

Our first few days of settling in and acclimatising were accomplished with the help of CP 15 and 13 who, very obligingly, took us on our first trip to Auckland City to sample the exciting nightlife. So with the important task of getting inebriated out of the way we were all set for our first day at work. A week of long briefs and familiarisation with Ardmore Airfield, the DA20-C1 Katana and Calum's Pie Shop followed as we settled in. Unfortunately due to weather and maintenance CP 16 did not get much early flying done. Luckily, we had come prepared with a guitar and several talented singers/songwriters who were quickly put to work composing CP 16’s anthem. Also, to practise for our first lessons the high-fidelity simulation IL-2 Sturmovik was installed on all the laptops and we quickly became experts at either running away very quickly or stalling into the ground. Not pointing any fingers but Mr. Noel Leeming is being held accountable for some very serious crashes that “would never have happened in real-life….” CP 13 organised a Karting competition in the first few days of our arrival and due to the different way the water goes down the taps down here, CP 16 managed to come in last. The moral victory was ours.

As soon as we moved from our temporary accommodation in Delta into our real home, Echo, the culinary class of our fellow cadets rapidly surfaced: Phil’s ‘Chicken Yassa’, Andrew’s ‘Pasta Special’, Nikhil’s 'Chicken Curry', John and Tony’s ‘Chilli Con Carne’ and last but not least Morgan’s ‘Burgers.’ All the local supermarkets were quickly scoured for the finest ingredients and we made good inroads into sampling the local beers – and we were misled! The beer out here is just fine! And so is the vodka, tequila, wine, sambucca, gin, paint stripper and water.

In the next few weeks CP 16’s cadets all managed to get into the air with their new instructors and make their first impressions. We all know how important those are so we really took it easy on those first few flights and let the instructors ‘think’ we didn’t have a clue. We have sorted that out by now and are ‘keen as’ to get more flying done and onto the A380’s… Theory exams for the Private Pilots License are progressing well also, with the Long Course Legends having to do three times more work than the short course. Not to mention twice as much flying to ‘catch up’ on the Short Course Scots. Only two more left for the Legends and then onto the ATPL’s.

At this stage Papakura has become like a second home except for the electric gates guarding the paddock like Jurassic Park, smashed glass outside our compound, a burnt out car or two and the house next door actually burning down. In fact when the braver souls ventured into town for haircuts we discovered that the friendly hairdresser (an Olympian hairdresser, no less) actually knew more about our progress on the course than we did ourselves. And she cut a decent hair cut too.

The sporting mad amongst CP 16 also managed to get out and about for a game of indoor soccer. Three of the long course turned up for five-a-side and quickly realised exactly how unfit we are becoming. We lost out 3-1 but the stunning defeat has left CTC Serious with an appetite for vengeance and the intense training schedule begins… sometime soon…

All in all, an exciting and successful first month of training.

It all starts here!

Well Ladies and Gentleman, it's what you've all been waiting for. The new and improved homepage of CP16 has finally arrived. It should be a lot quicker and easier to navigate around and will, hopefully, remain virus free. We are still learning about the various tricks that we can do with it so please bear with us for a few days while we figure it all out.