Vacating and Joining – Solo at Otaki Strip
A cracker of a morning with no wind.
FI let me solo to Otaki with same radio calls and track as last time.
Vacated Paraparaumu with no problems and arrived overhead my waypoints at correct height and on track. Made good radio calls and arrived at Otaki strip bang on.
My overhead joins were much better today as I gave myself plenty of room. My first one was a bit high but I would have landed ok at this 2700ft strip. Once I was sure to land I powered on and climbed out to 1000ft and tracked to Otaki River mouth. From there I repeated the route from last flight down to Pekapeka ponds then inland for 2miles and turn north east back up to Otaki at 1500ft. Repeated the overhead join at Otaki and this time I hit the key points as well at the correct heights and configuration.
On my second run I turned onto final at 500ft 65knots; right on target! Powered up and cleaned up aircraft again and turned towards Otaki River mouth once more at 1000ft.
I decided to practice some level turns on the way which were ok but not perfect as I was dropping the nose a bit.
Tracking back to Paraparaumu was no problem and after making contact with Paraparaumu Flight Service, joined downwind with no issues.
A nice soft landing on 34 seal to finish it all off, and continued rolling down the runway to vacate to the Aeroclub via “Charlie”.
So much fun doing all this solo. Feeling a bit like a real pilot now! Happy days!
Aircraft: ZK-KAZ (Cessna 172SP Skyhawk)
Total Time: 0.9
Landings: 1
Go-arounds: 2
Visual Approaches: 3
Until next time….
For more Blogs and Digital Photos go to https://walshephotography.com