By the time we had rock, paper, scissored for front and back seats, it was already 10.30 and we climbed aboard our ride for the day- ZK-LWA, to taxi out for a runway 21 departure towards the south. It was smooth sailing as we climbed up towards 3000 feet, and followed the coast down the Firth of Thames, tracking towards NZTG, until it was time for a left hand turn over the Kaimai's... Unfortunately, there was a tonne of thick cloud laying right across the tops of the hills, blocking any possible pass through, even the Waihi Gap had closed up for us, and Jarred was forced to make the call to turn back to Auckland.
I think we scouted out for a crossing as far south as Te Aroha, but when we realized that it wouldn't be possible to make it over to the east coast, our captain suggested we head back home and take a scenic flight around town- below are some pic's I took on the way, from my new Panosonic Lumix FX-33 digi cam with 'aerial photography mode':
Leaving Ardy:
The CU that stopped us from attending:
The flat farmland plains of North East Waikato:
Back up the coast towards Maraetai:
Duder Regional Park, at the entrance of the Clevedon River:
St Heliers and Kohimarama beaches:
Looking up the Waitemata Harbour:
Over the Harbour Bridge:
CBD Orbit:
Browns Island:
A quick video of Jarred's oh-so-smooth landing:
Lima Mike Alpha back on the ground, safe and sound:
Even though we never made it to the meet up, I still had an enjoyable morning. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to make any FS2004 small talk with the FSX only passengers, but it was great meeting Tim and Hayden, and also Jarred for the third time, and having a chat in the air. In retrospect, the day probably worked pretty well for me, as I had only had four hours of sleep the night before, and I was so tired by the time I got back home at 1.30, that I went straight to bed again for a quick nap- and didn't wake up until 5pm! (My family are away on holiday in the UK at the moment, so me and my mates who are on university holidays have set up a temporary internet cafe in my rumpus room for LAN gaming, and were playing counter-strike and battlefield into the wee small hours
)Thanks once again to Jarred for taking us up in the Archer- weird to think that this time next week I'll be on a 767!- and hopefully we can organize another member meet up during early 2009, when the WX is a little nicer
)
