Long Night

Just in from Narita to Auckland flight. A long night with lots of weather to dodge. A cyclone over Guam forced a reroute to the East of the usual track and associated thunderstorm activity meant a busy night avoiding the worst of it. Another patch of weather around Honiara followed by a strong jetstream abeam Brisbane resulted in a tiring night of turbulence.
Arrived in Auckland and straight onto a flight to Brisbane to meet Kimmie to go to a Joe Bonamassa concert. Should be great.

Walsh Memorial Scout Flying School

Since 1967, SCOUTS New Zealand runs the Walsh Memorial Scout Flying School providing quality aviation training in New Zealand for budding young pilots aged 16-19. Up to 70 students attend the very popular two-week long training camp at Matamata each year. The Walsh has many past students with successful careers in aviation. They are a credit to the instructors who provide their services free of charge.

The School provides more than just flight training. Students camp out in tents and are given jobs to help in the day to day running of the school. It is a great atmosphere and the students develop life long friendships and a good deal of personal responsibility.

My daughter Alannah attended the Walsh Flying school for three years and flew her first solo aged 16. I have started her training in out Yak 52 but her studies at Otago University keep her way from flying most of the year. So yesterday we decided to head to Matamata to catch up with her old instructors, Gordon Ragg, Mark Woodhouse (Chief Flying Instructor), Ross Crawford (I used to fly with Ross in B747-400 before he retired), and many others.

The other Yak pilots at Pauanui (Doug Batten, American Rick Grant, and Pete Meadows) decided to come as well. We arrived amidst a throng of training aircraft in the circuit. We were well received by the students who love to see a formation of aircraft like the Yak in action. After a quick refuel we did a display practice demonstrating the wonderful capability of the Yak 52. Four of the instructors were picked to fly with us on a short aerobatic trip.

The trip home to Pauanui was in beautiful summer weather with great New Zealand scenery over the Hauraki plains, Waihi and Whangamata. Randall Scott (ex Cathy Pacific) took this great shot from the back seat of Pete Meadows Yak.

Overall a great day of aviating!

Pete Meadows has put in a huge effort to become the first New Zealand CAA Part 115 Adventure Flying Certificate holder. In my previous blog I discussed picking up Harvard 7660 which Pete bought for the Adventure Flying Company "Double X Flight". I have started a web site for Pete which can be seen at www.xxflight.com. Double X Flight will offer a range of scenic, aerobatic and formation flights in Yak 52s and the Harvard operating from Tauranga airfield. Hopefully there will be more exciting aircraft joining the business soon (L39 Albatross?).

Introduction

I'm not sure why I'm doing this or where it will lead but maybe just having a record of the things I do in the aviation world will be of interest to some of you ... at least my kids will have a record of what I do from day to day.

I design simulator training profiles for Boeing767-300ER so with the next [6 monthly] training program due to start in March I start today drafting the details. It's always a struggle to fit all the required training into two details but I have listed some ideas to get started. Contaminated runway take off, Hydraulic problems and Emergency descents feature in the first detail and the focus of the second is Low Weather Minima operations and RNAV approaches. Lots of emphasis these days on RNAV operation which are clearly the way of the future.

A friend of mine has bought Harvard 7660 (T6 Texan or SNJ) and we are heading to Christchurch on Wednesday to pick it up. My initial training was on Harvards (a long time ago) and a few years ago I did a bunch of circuits to get insurance approval to fly a P40 Kittyhawk (Warhawk). I haven't been in one for a couple of years though so will spend this afternoon reading the manuals.

Well I better get to it ...

Please feel free to post questions about any of the aircraft or procedures mentioned in my blogs.

Kind Regards

Bryan