PT1, Time Off and Waiting To Fly On Instruments

Last time I updated my blog I was halfway to the first flight test out here in New Zealand; PT1. I have since passed this flight test which marked the end of the VFR stage (until we sit our CPL exam which is also done under VFR).

Before this flight test we had 13 Navigation flights to do. The first two were dual flights to show us the different navigation techniques as well as some more landmarks around the Hamilton area. We then had 10 solo navigation flights which were very enjoyable as we could choose where we wanted to fly to. I made the most of this by flying to as many places as I could around this area including the Coromandel Peninsula, Tauranga, Rotorua, New Plymouth, Taupo, Mount Ruapehu and Mount Ngauruhoe (aka Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings). I also flew to Napier and Gisbourne for my Cross Country Qualifier. The qualifier involves flying 300 miles and making two full stop landings at two different airfields away from Hamilton. I flew down to Napier and Gisborne for mine which involved flying at 9,500ft over some mountains which were 5,500ft! 

Flying over Lake Taupo

Air New Zealand Dash 8 departure from Napier

My aircraft parked in Napier!

Departure from Napier

Arrival into Gisborne

Looking down the coast next to Whakatane

My cross country qualifier route

Departure over Lake Taupo

Mount Ruapehu

Mount Doom

Going back to PT1, it is the equivalent of a PPL test, the only difference is that we don’t actually get any licence from it. During the flight we act as pilot in command, making all of the decisions related to the route, weather and overall safety of the flight while we treat the examiner as a passenger. It is divided into 5 sections including:

·    Departure – Performing checklists on the ground, requesting departure clearance and flying to clearance   out of the Hamilton zone.

·        Airwork – General handling of the aircraft – Steep and Medium turns through 360 degrees, Instrument flying, unusual attitudes and stalls.

·        En-route Procedures – The navigation part of the flight. The examiner will give us a nav leg to fly and then give us an inflight diversion to a certain point.

·        Approach and Landing – Getting back into the Hamilton zone, complying with the arrival procedure and circuits at the airfield.

·        Abnormal and Emergency Procedures – Handling of simulated emergencies with a successful outcome and also performing either flapless landings or glide approaches.

For my PT1, I was given a little town called Lower Kaimai to fly to, which is next to Tauranga and then down to Wharepapa South airfield which is south east of Hamilton. The leg from Hamilton to Lower Kaimai was just a normal navigation leg. On the leg from Lower Kaimai to Wharepapa South, I was given a simulated radio failure, which meant I had to divert to an uncontrolled airfield as you cannot fly back into Hamilton or any other controlled airfield without a radio unless you declare an emergency. I chose to divert to Te Kuiti as the runway at Wharepapa south was not long enough for the landing distance I had calculated for the aircraft. I planned the diversion and the headings I had calculated worked out quite well as it took us directly to Te Kuiti. I then performed a standard overhead rejoin to join the circuit for runway 16, we then did two circuits there before starting the general handling section. I was given steep turns through 360 degrees, compass turns, the full clean stall and the final approach stall with full flap. We then came back to Hamilton where I performed a flapless landing. Overall the feedback was the flight went really well with just a couple of minor things pointed out to me, I was very relieved to hear that I had passed!

Away from all the flying, since we have had a couple of weeks off, three of us decided to go to Sydney for 5 days which was absolutely fantastic. It was great looking around the city seeing the sights such as the harbour bridge, the opera house and Bondi beach and we had a couple of nights out there too. I also got upgraded to business class on the flight from Auckland to Sydney which was amazing! Some photos below:

We are scheduled to start the next stage of our training on the 24^th February which is the Instrument flying stage on the Garmin 1000 equipped Cessna 172’s before going on to the DA42 Twinstar for our multi engine phase, I can’t wait!

Until next time…