Apparently one should not "give up".
So Sunday morning I caught a bus to the airport(read previous blog on why I wasnt driving).
Left my "famous" red hat on the bus....buggar...
Machine fianlly fuelled and ready to go. Local cloud cover at 2500ft but Waikato weather looking much better. Webcams at Taupo, Palmerston North and Kapit look very good. Into the sky at around 11:15 and a quick pop over the Kaimais. A long slow climb to 6500ft (on top) North of Taupo. The revers eof Saturday with cloud reasonably thick(duh) around 5/8 cover north of the Lake to 8/8 blue SOuth of the Mountain.
Today I didnt talk to a controller other than flight service at Paraparumu. This necessiatted a beach run from Wanganui to Otaki which didnt appear to add toooo much time to the trip 2 hours 17minutes takeoff to touchdown. The only place I have landed with the prop spinning! This so I could vacate the grass runway as it was a tad busy with landing aircraft.
Great reception from Wellington club and a chance for a quick chat to some competition friends. They tell me that they had a really busy summer with heaps of new members, something to do with a really enthusuastic young visiting instructor and nightly BBQs.
Luckily I was not planning to go south as a large band of cloud covered Cook Strait. Negotiating my way over/under that wouldnt have been nice for my blood pressure. NOT!
A 10 minute dash over the hill to Kaitoke and the Upper Valley gliding club's aircraft carrier in the hills. In all the places I have flown in to in the world!!!!! this is the most interesting. Landing uphill and launching downhill the club looks a great place to fly from. The members were again generous in their welcome and advice. Time was running short so reluctantly it was up up and away, over the hill to Papawai and the Wairarapa Club. Nobody appeared to be in residence after two "low approach and over shoots", "strip evaluation", "beat up", call it what you will. Not keen to land on a strip unless its an emergency or I see some activity or communication with someone on the ground...... I continue on my way.
A small diversion around some "Ohakea" airspace and its 7500ft on my way North. Not back to Tauranga but to Drury for the night as I had a morning business meeting with a Queen street lawyer. The Southern part of this leg was lovely with some occasional chunks of cloud which were easily flown over, decending to 5500ft over the South west corner of lake Taupo then further down to 3500ft under the northern cloud past Matamata with gliding still in progress, to land at Drury at 5:25 where at least 20 cars indicated a full clubhouse:-)
The only North Island club I have not visited in the Pipistrel is Thames.
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