Blog – Short Field Take-off and Landing 5/12/2021
A bit of an “everything” day weather wise again this week but I still managed to get a good training session in before the forecasted rain arrived in the afternoon.
This time was extra special as my wife came along for the ride. She has never been in a small aircraft but after some initial trepidations she was enthusiastically looking at the views of the Kapiti coast.
After departing NZPP from runway 34 we climbed to 1500ft hand headed north towards Koputaroa Airstrip. Winds were around the 15kt mark with not too many bumps except for the wind coming down off Otaki Gorge.
The initial plan was to land and join in on the fly-in breakfast that was taking place. However with the airfield full of aircraft and a rather short runway at 550m my instructor suggested Foxpine Airfield about another 5-7mins flying time up the coast. This strip is twice as long at 1015m and much wider at 40m. With the decision made, we overflew Koputoroa, and flew on via the Manawatu river and Foxton bridge to Foxpine. With the wind from the north we did a standard overhead join to confirm the wind direction, a dumbbell turn to put us in the right direction and dropped into the circuit.
Foxpine has a wee challenge coming in on 27 as there is a bank of pine trees near the airfield so you need to approach in a right turn then straighten out to land. I managed this fine with a few instructions and cam e in for a nice landing. After taxiing back to the flight line I shutdown the aircraft.
Foxpine is a really nice field with coffee and biscuits on hand. Landing fee is only $5.00: a real bargain. after sorting out the coffee round we sat down outside on the tables and enjoyed the location. A quick chat to the locals then it was time to pre-flight and get ready to return to Kapiti.
Flight back along the coast was smooth and after only 20mins flying time we were making preparations for joining downwind for runway 34.
What a fantastic morning and totally enjoyed having my wife along for the experience. My flying today was good and I was “in the zone”. Days like today make all the hard work worth while seeing the sheer joy of my wife experiencing GA flying for the first time.
Happy Days!
Aircraft: ZK-KAZ (Cessna 172SP Skyhawk)
Total Time: 1.3
Landings: 2
Go-arounds: 0
Visual Approaches: 2
Instrument Time: N/A
Until next time….
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Blog – Short Field Take-off and Landing 5/12/2021