Blog – Low Flying in Wairarapa 02/01/2022
Today was an absolute ripper of a day. Perfect weather and a light northerly.
Today was an extra special one as my FI suggested we fly over the hills to Lake Wairarapa to play in the low flying zone.
We took off from runway 16 and flew south, climbing to 3500ft. The views were outstanding as we could see Wellington, Hutt Valley and Wairarapa in one go. It took no time at all to get over the Hutt Valley where we changed radio frequencies and made a call to any local traffic. We flew over Upper Hutt just south of Te Marua and on to the Wairarapa. Changing radio frequencies again we dropped down to 200ft and into the low flying zone.
This was so much fun as we reconfigured the aircraft at 2000rpm, 70kts and 20degrees of flaps and started buzzing the local boaties and fishermen. The locals here are very aware of aircraft flying low and seem to enjoy us being there just as much as us flyers. My FI set me the task of following the river down to the sea and then asked me to do a coastal reversal turn. This is done by flying 45deg to the coast downwind, then turning back into the wind so that your ground track is quite small. Awesome fun anytime but wicked at 200ft over people watching you and waving. We travelled back up the river and waved at the holiday makers and water skiers as we flew overhead. Such an awesome feeling to be seeing the public enjoying “the show”.
Once well past, we powered up, cleaned up the aircraft, and started climbing back to 3500ft towards Featherston before turning towards the hills. The way back to Paraparaumu was via Teranikau, Akatarawa, and Rekiorangi. Following the valley, we descended towards Waikanae and down the coast back towards Paraparaumu. We joined the circuit and landed on runway 16 for a great landing.
What a way to finish this absolutely beautiful first trip to Wairarapa. This is why we fly…
Happy days!
Aircraft: ZK-KAZ (Cessna 172SP Skyhawk)
Total Time: 1.1
Landings: 1
Go-arounds: 0
Visual Approaches: 1
Instrument Time: 0.0
Low Flying Time: .05
Until next time….
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Blog – Low Flying in Wairarapa 02/01/2022