Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2011 6:02 pmAuckland - Norfolk Island - Lord Howe Island - Brisbane
I decided that with a cold keeping me indoors I needed to do something productive with my time - maybe I should depart from my usual smaller aircraft to something a little larger. So it was that I decided to fly the Project Open Sky 737-900 via Norfolk and Lord Howe islands to Brisbane where one of my daughters lives. My wife probably disagrees about the productivity of this activity but "A man's got to do what a man's got to do"
Auckland to Norfolk island was mostly uneventful - assuming that the passengers could overlook the scare caused be me inadvertently entering a vertical speed of 1600 feet/min in the autopilot. This eventually caused a stall and wing-drop before I worked out what was happening and got things back under control. I'm pretty sure that the free drinks kept them happy and so they shouldn't report me to Civil Aviation. I hope.
Last sight of NZ with the Three Kings Islands appearing through the clouds to the rear of the plane
Once that was settled I was able to relax with a cup of tea and biscuits and even got a bit of a look at the crossword puzzle. Finally sighted Norfolk island off my starboard wing and was able to turn on to a long base-leg before coming in to touchdown. Somehow the runway seemed a lot shorter on the ground than I was expecting but we stopped with about a quarter left to spare. Taxied up to the terminal to refuel and spent the night at the local resort hotel.
Turning onto finals at Norfolk Is
The take off the next afternoon and setting of the autopilot was uneventful and the only minor bit of excitement was when an airbus went over us at 35000 feet, probably on the way to New Caledonia or maybe Fiji. The air hostess, in the form of one of my friends, provided me a lunch of soup and hot toasted cheese, chicken and chutney sandwiches, as well as an interesting conversation.
Had some trouble with something gradually developing after about 90 minute, it caused gradual turn to the left. Couldn't find what the problem was but 'solved' it by applying more left-hand throttle. Deviated a little off course to check out Balls Pyramid not far off the coast of Howe Island.
Where is that runway? It should be just ahead of me in the gap but I'm blowed if I can see it.
Ah, just a matter of waiting until the autogen catches up . ..
This was another worrying landing as this runway was a little shorter than that at Norfolk Island. The end of the runway seems to be galloping towards me but I finally stopped with the use of the spoilers and full reverse thrust.
Taking off was also a bit of a problem, with full passenger load and 90% fuel, the rear wheels coming off the ground just before the end of the runway. Maybe I should have used a tad more flap this time!
Looking out the for the first glimpse of Australia I didn't notice it creeping up off my left wing, I got quite a surprise when glancing out the window to see the coast about 30 miles away while there was still no coast in view out the front. A glance at my atlas confirmed that I should have been expecting this.
The landing at Brisbane (edited from Melbourne because I'm an idiot and forgot that I had changed my mind about where I was going to!) was relatively uneventful though I did have to wait my turn before landing and as you can see there were two more planes waiting for me to land and clear the runway.
At the terminal and powering down waiting for the boarding ramp.
All in all quite a nice way to spend a day. Almost worth the misery of a cold. Another advantage of this type of flying is that I can drink whiskeys while the autopilot looks after things. Come to think of it, maybe the whiskeys were the cause of my autopilot errors. Hmm, maybe it's not good to drink and fly even in a simulator!
I decided that with a cold keeping me indoors I needed to do something productive with my time - maybe I should depart from my usual smaller aircraft to something a little larger. So it was that I decided to fly the Project Open Sky 737-900 via Norfolk and Lord Howe islands to Brisbane where one of my daughters lives. My wife probably disagrees about the productivity of this activity but "A man's got to do what a man's got to do"
Auckland to Norfolk island was mostly uneventful - assuming that the passengers could overlook the scare caused be me inadvertently entering a vertical speed of 1600 feet/min in the autopilot. This eventually caused a stall and wing-drop before I worked out what was happening and got things back under control. I'm pretty sure that the free drinks kept them happy and so they shouldn't report me to Civil Aviation. I hope.
Last sight of NZ with the Three Kings Islands appearing through the clouds to the rear of the plane
Once that was settled I was able to relax with a cup of tea and biscuits and even got a bit of a look at the crossword puzzle. Finally sighted Norfolk island off my starboard wing and was able to turn on to a long base-leg before coming in to touchdown. Somehow the runway seemed a lot shorter on the ground than I was expecting but we stopped with about a quarter left to spare. Taxied up to the terminal to refuel and spent the night at the local resort hotel.
Turning onto finals at Norfolk Is
The take off the next afternoon and setting of the autopilot was uneventful and the only minor bit of excitement was when an airbus went over us at 35000 feet, probably on the way to New Caledonia or maybe Fiji. The air hostess, in the form of one of my friends, provided me a lunch of soup and hot toasted cheese, chicken and chutney sandwiches, as well as an interesting conversation.
Had some trouble with something gradually developing after about 90 minute, it caused gradual turn to the left. Couldn't find what the problem was but 'solved' it by applying more left-hand throttle. Deviated a little off course to check out Balls Pyramid not far off the coast of Howe Island.
Where is that runway? It should be just ahead of me in the gap but I'm blowed if I can see it.
Ah, just a matter of waiting until the autogen catches up . ..
This was another worrying landing as this runway was a little shorter than that at Norfolk Island. The end of the runway seems to be galloping towards me but I finally stopped with the use of the spoilers and full reverse thrust.
Taking off was also a bit of a problem, with full passenger load and 90% fuel, the rear wheels coming off the ground just before the end of the runway. Maybe I should have used a tad more flap this time!
Looking out the for the first glimpse of Australia I didn't notice it creeping up off my left wing, I got quite a surprise when glancing out the window to see the coast about 30 miles away while there was still no coast in view out the front. A glance at my atlas confirmed that I should have been expecting this.
The landing at Brisbane (edited from Melbourne because I'm an idiot and forgot that I had changed my mind about where I was going to!) was relatively uneventful though I did have to wait my turn before landing and as you can see there were two more planes waiting for me to land and clear the runway.
At the terminal and powering down waiting for the boarding ramp.
All in all quite a nice way to spend a day. Almost worth the misery of a cold. Another advantage of this type of flying is that I can drink whiskeys while the autopilot looks after things. Come to think of it, maybe the whiskeys were the cause of my autopilot errors. Hmm, maybe it's not good to drink and fly even in a simulator!
