The Joys of Flying

The last week has been a busy one. We have all been flying nearly every day since gaining our PPLs and are well in to the cross country stage of our flying, allowing us to see more of the spectacular scenery that New Zealand has to offer. The week ahead looks like it's going to be a busy one with a trip to the South Island planned for John, Tony and Phil next weekend. When we said goodbye to Ardmore Airfield just over one month ago, we didn't think that we would see it again. How wrong could we be?! All the scheduled maintenance is still carried out at Flightline Maintenance at Ardmore so a lot of our cross country flights involve a stop there to drop off one Katana and pick up another, well.......... thats if it's ready on time. I'm sure John enjoyed his 4 hour wait, while the engineers worked out why oil started to leak out of the engine casing shortly after the engine was started. It was a brand new engine too!

Morgan is walking around with a smile on his face again and so is Jo(e), its been a while since we saw that :-) Our enthusiastic cooking attempts every night have gradually ended and been replaced by take away and restaurants. No wonder our airline allowance is dissapearing so quickly. The Outback Inn and The Bank have been regularly attended too, although the high percentage of underage girls being allowed in is slightly worrying. Drink is cheap and Chartreuse is quickly becoming the shot of choice. If you ever get a chance, try a 'Backdraft', it's quite nasty!

The next 2 weeks are going to be hard work flying as much as possible and finishing off the groundschool in between. We return to the UK on 26th November. See you all soon.

Comments

[DA20 Test Pilot]

Aircraft Delivery Update: SFD's Homecoming

Despite the previous unsuccessful attempts at delivering SFD to the Hamilton base, Andy and Nik persevered and gave SFD the homecoming she deserved. Engine tests were conducted at 2500 feet and once they had tested SFD to the edge of the envelope, they battled through marginal weather and arrived safely at Hamilton.

[C Chop Suey]

Gives a yell if your down this way guys..

I'm in Wellington till probably 22nd Nov doing my Jetstream course...

lets just say you can tell this aircraft was built by the British.. :-P

Laters

C Chop Suey / Miagi....
("Bugger.. that damn doors popped open again in flight....")

[Mark]

Interesting is it not, that this particular aircraft ended up in a field 2 weeks later lacking a crucial throttle cable bolt...