Queenstown To Nelson By The Fast, Scenic Method

[nalbers]

I wanted to make a short flight, but also wanted to cover a lot of ground and make pretty pictures. In this plane, I can do both



I just love this scenery. Oh and the plane isn't bad looking either


Same scenery, another angle.


Once you've figured out how to use it, this is a very fun and easy plane to fly.


Hello there Christchurch!


Down and safe after 2 go-arounds.


Parking next to a NZ Link flight.

Until next time everyone!

[Olderndirt]

What a great way to go cross country. Your scenario caused a flashback, common at my age, of an event when I was with the FAA. Back in the seventies, an F4 was going to Fairbanks - out of Anchorage (263 nm) with no speed restriction - must have run out of something at the 'O' club. At handoff to Center the target was strobing. He went block to block (engines running to shutdown) in 23 minutes. Not too shabby for those days.

[nalbers]

QUOTE (Olderndirt @ Feb 12 2011, 03:46 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

What a great way to go cross country. Your scenario caused a flashback, common at my age, of an event when I was with the FAA. Back in the seventies, an F4 was going to Fairbanks - out of Anchorage (263 nm) with no speed restriction - must have run out of something at the 'O' club. At handoff to Center the target was strobing. He went block to block (engines running to shutdown) in 23 minutes. Not too shabby for those days.

That's pretty quick! But with an experienced pilot I can believe it. I wasn't watching the clock too closely, but I'm pretty sure I did the flight from take-off to parking in less than 30 minutes, including a lot of mucking around on landing. I still need to get a lot more practise on getting a steady rate of descent in a high AoA situation. Thankfully the F/A-18 has a fair number of idiot lights in the HUD. At least if you know how to read them. And I need to learn how to fly this beast economically too: I was under Bingo fuel on landing, because I used to much afterburner while going at Mach 1.5 along the Alps.