196. Airbourne

Ashburton Aerodrome

Prompt start to the day as I was booked in for my flying medical at the Lyttelton Medical Centre. Arrived at twenty past eight to be informed that they were running fifty minutes late. I questioned how this was possible and the receptionist said that there had been a number of urgent patients already. I found it surprising when she then said the doctor had been held up by roadworks. I commented that I wasn’t upset, I had plenty of time and I had also come from the city for the appointment and that there were no road works. At this point I remembered that the centre always runs late and I used to phone prior to arriving to establish how late they were currently running. I wonder if this is a legacy of my grandfather, Dr Heath, who established the practice over seventy years ago and ran it with two partners, Dr Chambers and Dr Walker, until his early cancer demise in nineteen seventy four.

Turned out that the wait was under twenty minutes and I was seen by a very nice doctor who declared me fit for purpose and a hundred and twenty dollars later I was out clutching my signed medical.

Ranger vs. Hylux

The traffic on state highway one was awful and I realised that as it was the day before Easter weekend combined with Ed Sheran concerts in Dunedin as well as Warbirds over Wanaka I was in for a slow drive. Our state highway one (the major route is a two lane road with occasional passing lanes and a maximum speed of a hundred kilometres per hour) is slow at the best of times. Traffic came to a complete stop a couple of times, the first for a prang before the Selwyn river where a Ford Ranger and a Toyota Hylux had engaged in battle with the Hylux upended. Looked to me that there was no victory as the Ranger looked like it had also battled its last. Nobody was hurt and the emergency services had not arrived so we were all able to pass by slowly.

Met my instructor Les at eleven however we were happily distracted by the Yak 3 parked outside and agreed that the BFR could wait in such auspicious company. For two thousand dollars we could have had a twenty minute ride but I wasn’t man enough for that (the money, not the ride). The startup alone was fantastic and a rare treat to experience the V12 Allison at such close quarters. This particular plane was packed up and taken to Reno where Arthur competed right through to the open finals which is an amazing achievement particularly as the hotrod Allison suffered oil pressure problems so he did the whole competition on the standard engine. Les and I sauntered out to the edge of runway two-zero to watch him take off with the huge propellor running a corkscrew of contrail down the fuselage, and, oh the noise, that noise! Arthur generously did a five hundred foot circuit then zoomed us before heading for Wanaka - ecstasy!

Distractions now dispensed with we set to completing my BFR. I had read the instructors guide while waiting at Lyttelton so had a fair idea what I was up for. As I had only done four and a half hours flying in the last year I was feeling pretty rusty and wondering how I would cope. Les also gave me a run down on what to expect then off we set. My radio work was not ideal and my instrument scan was through as I am not particularly familiar with PAA having only flown it for the first time last year. Luckily it runs similar numbers and has the same Jabiru 2200 engine as JRW that I did my ab initio training and WEN our family kite.

All went as expected until Les closed the throttle as we cleared the runway at about six hundred feet simulating engine failure. I pitched forward and elected a field within view of the windscreen which inconveniently had a centre pivot irrigator across it. By retracting flap we cleared it and I thought we might be landing as Les didn’t let me at the throttle till we were about twenty feet above the field. If felt like a long pull across the field building speed, closing flap etc. till we were able to climb away at seventy knots (140 kph).

We climbed to about three seven, wending our way through beautiful building cumulous cloud ranging from about two to five. I lucked my first grade one turn by having the satisfying bump when we had done three hundred and sixty degrees, Les said probably have to give you that one.

Steep and compass turns were done around the clouds which is great fun though the lack of horizon makes speed and attitude a point of focus. Accuracy was not helped when Les put his hands over the major instruments and required more steep turns, not something one would normally tolerate from a passenger. Somehow I kept the wings on and the engine noise relatively consistent so we returned to NZAS to join overhead whereupon Les immediately closed the throttle necessitating a full forced landing, this time to a full stop on two-zero which happily I completed horizontally, not vertically. A few circuits both into the wind and crosswind followed with Les OK with my approach but suggesting I needed to nail the speed at fifty five knots. We then returned for the written exam which was fine though the Met notam was a bit of a lucky dip - forgot to swot up on that.

Didn’t see my Mum as she swanned off to Wanaka with Elizabeth Stucky this morning which is great.

Footnote: March 31- Arthur Dovey's rare Yak 3 Russian fighter plane landed on a grass runway at Wanaka Airport but clipped one of two cherry pickers parked between the grass and sealed runways