The Learning Continues
We were told to meet Peter, a flight instructor, at the Q Airport, near the cafe at 9 AM. A check of the weather last night was not promising, with an approaching low pressure area and forecasts of rain and heavy winds. But so far so good this morning - no rain and light winds. We dropped off the car, and dragged our enormous bags through the terminal to the cafe with the floor to ceiling windows looking out on the runway. I migrated to the bar, which appeared to be unoccupied. I watched for a C172 but there was no traffic until finally an Air New Zealand commercial flight landed. We struck up a conversation with the bartender, Arthur, who had come here from Brazil to spend two weeks, and has now spent two months. He received a work visa and will be staying through the winter. He is living in a house in Queenstown with two others, and the view of the lake is great, all for only $150 per week. And being 20-25ish, he just loves Queenstown because it changes everyday with new people coming in, and others leaving.
I saw Tango Romeo Sierra taxi in and 10 minutes later, a man approached me and asked if I was Nat. This was Peter. He is married to a second wife (nothing wrong with that), and combined they have six children between the ages of 16 and 21. We went out to the plane and miraculously our bags (especially my behemoth) fit in the plane. As I started to walk to the righthand side of the plane, Peter said, “Nat, you get in here. You’re flying the plane.” So there’s no waiting around to get started.
We took off on Runway 29 using the Victoria Bridge departure, a departure that heads into a narrow mountain valley and makes a left hand turn following a river up the valley. Peter handled the radio and I flew the plane, following Peter’s instructions on how high to climb and where to go. He said we would check out a few strips on the way to Wanaka and from there we’d take a spin around the lake and then proceed to Geordie Hill Station, the sheep ranch of our hosts.
Peter directed me to a ridge and pointed out a short grass strip next to a curve in a dirt road. We flew over it at slow speed with 20 degrees of fllaps to check out its condition and to determine if it was level. It was not and Peter said we would land uphill. So we flew a circuit again, entering downhill, then base and lining up on final with full flap and carb heat off for short final. We kept the power on right to the ground and even on the ground as I eased it back and taxied to the end of the runway and just before the hill side that dropped off 100 feet or so. I turned the plane around, headed downhill, kept the brakes on, 10 degrees of flaps. gave it full power, let up off the brakes and didn’t pull back on the yoke for fear that we would be dragging out tail since we were going downhill. We lifted off in plenty of time before we went off that side of the hill, lowered the nose to gain airspeed and took out the flaps. We continued on to land at two more grass strips, on the tops of hills or on farmers’ fields, each time checking out the field and then landing uphill and taking off downhill. Peter then said we would fly over to Wanaka, his hometown, to look at the sights.
We flew past the Wanaka airport, over the town and then around this beautiful lake, Wanaka Lake, another one nestled in the mountains, with several hilly islands with no foliage whatsoever. Peter seemed to be evaluating how I would handle flying close to ridges of the mountains as he would ask me to follow the contour of a mountainside or ridge. We cut across Lake Wanaka, the 4th largest lake in NZ (Lake Wikatipu being the third largest), then past the southern end of Lake Hawea, another large lake, and then southeast over one last ridge to the valley of Geordie Hill Station. Again, Peter pointed out the location of the grass strip, we descended to about 500 feet above the elevation of the runway and again checked it out and discussed how to fly the approach. So we turned base just before reaching a small ridgeline, then final and with power landed and taxied through the grass and a few puddles.
Geordie Hill Station
Jo met us at the end of the runway with her Lexus station wagon, and after introductions and dropping our bags off in our separate cottage (a real one, not a NEH cottage), invited us to the main house for scones and tea. This sheep ranch has 7000 sheep, of which 4500 are ewes. Matt was away buying ra.ms to mate with the ewes, returning after awhile with 7 rams, each of whom will service 70 ewes. Eat your heart out, guys. The ranch is 5500 acres. According to Jo, that is not a large ranch as the one next to theirs contains 10,000 acres. We met Nugget, the 11 year old yellow lab, and Delta and McGyver, two horses whose corral is right outside our kitchen window.
We’re surrounded by mountains that have no trees on them, just tussocks of grass. In fact, in the summer, the sheep farmers will drive the sheep up the mountains, presumably for foraging, and then bring them down in the winter. They maintain the sheep for their Merino wool, which is incredibly soft and very white. But the sheep are dark. Why? Because the lanolin in their hair follicles goes to the very end of their fur and all the dust and dirt attaches to the oily surface of the follicles. Or so we were told and I, for one, have no reason not to believe this believable explanation.
Checkride
After our scones and tea, and a short time at our cottage, we returned to the plane with Peter and flew to Wanaka, landing at the grass strip next to the paved runway, and taxiing to his hangar and flight training operation. We lunched in town and then Peter and I reviewed NZ airspace and flight rules, which are similar to those in the US. As it turns out, almost all of the flying we will do is in Class G airspace, i.e. uncontrolled airspace. For example, the lower level of Class C airspace where we are is 11,175 feet, and the lower level of Class D airspace is 9,580 feet. The highest we flew today was 4,500 feet, and most of the time we flew at 3,000 feet or below. Considering that the ground level is at 1100 feet, we were never very high off the ground, and especially when we were flying up a valley hugging one side of the valley wall.
We took off on the paved runway as the wind increased and headed northeast into a broad valley. With Sugar still in the back, he asked me to demonstrate my method for recovery from a stall. Being satisfied with that effort, Peter then said he would like to run through with me the loss of an engine and an emergency landing. So “power off” and he instructed me to trim it to maintain a speed of 70 knots, look around for a suitable landing site, enter downwind at 1500 feet above ground level and turn base with about 1000 feet above ground level. Sugar must have been chewing her fingernails as we kept descending without any engine power, but I heard no complaints. l dropped full flaps as we were high for the site I had chosen, and we kept descending to what we knew was going to be a landing from which we would walk away. He asked for full power and we started climbing back to altitude, flaps up, and we headed back to Geordie Hill. With the wind increasing still more off the mountain ridges, we entered a narrow canyon at 2000 feet and, with a few bumps, flew through to the valley occupied by Geordie Hill Station, set up for downwind, and landed on their grass strip.
We said goodbye to Peter as he dropped us off at our cottage. We will miss him. He was very easy to fly with and very instructive on flying in the backcountry and landing on these out-of-the-way strips. Jo will send off the paperwork and I should have my NZ license.
We had a wonderful homegrown meal cooked by Jo, and were joined by James, their son, Lauren, a 17-18 year old girl whom they’ve hired to work with them on the farm, and Bill, from Michigan, a Beech staggerwing pilot. They are all very nice.
Still the storm has not struck and we don’t know about the flying tomorrow. Whatever, it was an exciting day for us today. After 6 months of anticipation, we are finally here.
Goodnight from a tired boy, love, Nat, Dad, Matt, DB
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