2 hands 1 cable 1 wakeboard.

well..there is always a first to everything. but today it isnt a good incident.

i planned a route that was pretty tough, even instructors said it would be hard to do so, especially when it will be my first time. i managed to fly everything well (with some helping hand of the garmin of cause!) and i made it back to hamilton from Auckland

 awesome picture with the sky tower right next to me. didnt bust any heights or control airspaces if you are asking.

but what happened badly was on my return to hamilton. traffic was packed. with ATRs rolling.. i had many non standards calls.

fault 1. i saw the ATRs rolling for runway 36. when ATIS called clearance for 18.i simply assumed i was going to land on the same runway. never was i that wrong

fault 2. when the wrong runway is selected, naturally.. left and right bases would be wrong too.

fault 3.. new clearances i have yet to hear. something new, cross the tower. i honestly did not know what to do with that.


so in conclusion. yes. i had to file an incident report. the first in my batch. something i feel ashamed of. time to learn..

1) ATRs always get 36 clearances regardless in hamilton
2) make sure you get the right runway before doing anything
3) drown myself with beer now.

but all in all..

WORTH IT. for such a scenic flight around the North.



 Hamilton city
 landing
night flying.. something that is 10 times cooler. accompanied with the scary factor that if the engine fails. you can only pray that the black spot u are landing on is not a river but a nice flat grass paddock. i came in for my flight at 6pm. didnt expect myself to be so unprepared. contrary to Hamish's brief about night flying. Kuni was a much more thorough instructor.. with workaheets to complete. and a proper flight plan to Ardmore in case of an emergency. he gave me the look of disappointment when i have not done any of those stated above. such is life.. 30mins of frantic planning and looking up information before i begin starting the plane. 20mins late from my actual offblocks time.

we tracked to Te Awamutu-Cambridge-Huntly and back to Hamilton. everything looks so much nearer as compared to daytime navigation. and the lights are stunningly beautiful from the cockpit. Kuni kept repeating his jokes about scary and lonely. i dont doubt the 1st part. but the lonely side was kinda funny. keeping my nerves in check.

i didnt think i would mistake house lights to stars.. it looks pretty hard to be as dumb to think. those ground lights are stars isnt it? but when Kuni told me to close my eyes and put my head down, while he upset the aircraft. from a unusually high pitch up of the plane which would further lead into a stall,  "now open your eyes and look" well. there you go. i was disorientated.i couldnt make out which were stars or houses. but in that split second. i had to look into my instruments and recover. we did two upset recoveries.. a spiral dive for the 2nd one. which wad pretty cool to see the plane being thrown about. wonder how Phoebe felt at the back with all the Gs and unusual manoeuvres. hah.

we did 4 touch and goes. it felt weird at first. when all u can do is trust those PAPI lights to know if you are on profile to land. not to mention the runway was pitch black. thus, losing your orientation of where the land is. all u can trust. is those edge lights that will soon pass your peripherals on the sides of your face as you focus on your landing.

great experience  to the night section of the training!



i used to think Navigation was tough. even in Singapore during SYFC.. even though i didnt do any navigation, the reality that i couldn't identify any features in my homeland to pinpoint where i am scares me. When i was studying in Liverpool, my fears got worse as we had substandard teachings and ground theory from a typical flying school that wants to earn as much cash off you as possible while youre there. so yes, i couldnt identify anything during my navigation stages there too.. leading me to have a constant fear of what i am going to do when i hit this phase.