Festivity down under 🎄
- Connor Raven
- Jan 2, 2018
- 4 min read
Firstly, Happy New year to all of you who read my blog posts. Here's to 2018 which has the potential to be a great year indeed!
Christmas:
I'm not going to lie, celebrating Christmas has been very peculiar being so far away from home and family. Although it was quite clearly Christmastime with Pak n Save playing Christmas songs and tree's up in each common room, something just didn't feel the same. However, I certainly managed to make the most out of the situation I was in and Christmas day and New year's Eve turned out to be one that I certainly won't forget.
Christmas day was very bizarre indeed. As it was my first 'hot Christmas' I thought it'd be rude not to go to the beach! Hence, I found myself swimming in the Tasman sea attempting to surf on Christmas morning. Once in a lifetime I'd imagine, how often do you go swimming in the sea on Christmas day? The sea was freezing cold but as the stereotypically British saying goes... "It's alright once your in". After a swim and a kick around on the beach I headed back to Clearways to relax with the rest of the group, enjoy a BBQ and play a few games. The day finished with a few calls and messages back home to wish everyone back in the UK a merry Christmas. Although It was a good day, part of me obviously wished I was back home in the UK for Christmas so I could spend it with family.
The start of navigation:
In between Christmas and New year I had my second, third and fourth navigation flights plus my first out of circuit solo general handling flight. All of which were really enjoyable yet demanding to say the least. The third Nav flight I had planned to transit an airport overhead through their airspace however once I'd met up with my instructor the plans changed and we decided to do a touch and go at the airport instead. As I had intentionally not planned on actually landing I was slightly 'behind the drag curve' as my principles of flight instructor back at ground school would say. Or in other words, a step behind where I should have been. Thankfully, it was nothing serious and the touch and go went relatively well before we continued on track down the coast, but it was definitely a good learning experience, illustrating why it's wise to plan for all eventualities... just in case.
The Nav flights also included 4 very important skills that needed to be covered and for me, revised! These included the likes of PFL's (Practice forced landings), diversions, steep turns for collision avoidance and lastly IF or in non pilot speak, Instrument flying where I wore a hood or baseball cap like contraption that stopped me from looking outside the cockpit and only at the flight instruments in front of me. But don't worry, during this time my instructor was on lookout duty for other aircraft as I was purely eyes in the cockpit. You'll be surprised how difficult it was!
My first solo general handling flight then followed. Believe it or not I was quite nervous about this flight, mainly due to the fact that the procedures at Hamilton are alot different to what I had been used to back home and the fact that It was my first time leaving the control zone solo. (airspace directly around the airport) My previous solo flights had been in the circuit so if any issues in flight did occur I'd be so close to the airport I could potentially glide the aircraft back in. However, leaving the control zone means saying goodbye to Hamilton ATC (air traffic control) and speaking to other people. I had to consider diversions, arrivals procedures, airspace, fuel consumption... you name it and this time if any issues did occur I'd have to decide on a course of action such as diverting to a local airfield or landing in a field if the issue was that bad. There was lots to consider and continually evaluate while flying... what fields look good If the engine failed, how long will it take for me to reach Te Kowhai (my diversion airfield), what would I do if the cloud base dropped, all of these plus more were continually going through my mind while still remembering to complete the aims of my general handling flight. It was busy yet great flight but unfortunately it was cut short as I departed late due to the morning fog!
New Year's:
For New year's myself and the rest of the CP headed to Auckland to watch the fireworks and be amongst the first people in the world to welcome in the new year. My first impressions of Auckland when we arrived were not great, however we managed to find our way down to the harbour area where it was immediately more welcoming and appealing. There were many bars and restaurants looking out over the harbour while loads of expensive yachts were moored in perfect view of the SkyTower ready for the fireworks.
We relaxed in a bar for a few hours before watching the fireworks. Again, I was slightly disappointed by Auckland's attempt at New year's fireworks, I felt as though I was constantly waiting for it to pick up and go into a firework frenzy like they do in London! However, a firework frenzy did not occur and I was left saying "was that it" after the 5 minute or so display ended. When we arrived back at Clearways on Monday 1st January, it was just turning midnight in London, so I was straight onto YouTube to watch the London New year's fireworks and boy did they amaze! London completely outdid Auckland's but hey ho, it was still an experience and a good evening all round.
The outlook for the next month or so is mostly navigation flying for me before my QXC (qualifying cross country) and LST (license skills test) come middle/end of February. As always, I'll keep the photos coming in on Instagram, so to stay up to date with my progress don't forget to follow me on there!
Until next time, happy 2018 and safe landings🎈🛫
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