Day 32 – Precautionary landings – 19/01/10

More rain first thing in the morning, but I am off to flight school all the same as there is still work to be done locally in the control zone. First picture, the clouds that stopped me from flying over the Kaimais today! Unfortunately no continuation of the cross-countries yet.It’s sometimes a hothouse of education in the hangar, with several people learning CPL and Flight Instructor ratings. Hence the second picture, the map some budding artist has drawn while going over their lessons. For those who have never been here (and those that have), if you don’t recognise it, it’s New Zealand. A real beauty. Is it art? You decide.
The next three pictures, I finally got around to getting Andrew to take some pictures of me flying the Jabiru, with it’s cra-a-azy right hand stick setup.

As you can see by the last photo the weather seems to have fined up again, so I am hoping to get over the hill on a cross country tomorrow. In the background can be seen Matakana island.

The day finished with a painful extraction – of the financial kind. But that’s fair enough, I understand that importing all those Yorkshire Tea bags and Yorkshire Bitter can get expensive for the school.

Tomorrow I am privileged indeed as the lord and master himself will be the special guest in the plane, for only the second time ever. I predict lots of whining about watching out for scratching the paint work etc. but hopefully there will be some useful guidance as well. If the weather is on my side and everything goes to plan, the flight test is pencilled in for Sunday!

Technical: 2.2 hrs dual, precautionary landings, cloud-dodging circuits.