Our flight back from New Plymouth to North Shore in John Crone's JMB VL 3 ZK-VLT was very different to the lower level scenic route we took to fly down to New Plymouth:
We lifted off Runway 23 at New Plymouth around 4 pm and headed North.
This time John elected to fly higher so after clearing the New Plymouth control zone at 4,500 feet as instructed we climbed up to 6,500 feet and headed for North Shore on autopilot. It was very smooth up there.
We weren't slouching around as you can see from this shot of John's panel, which shows a groundspeed of 173 knots - that's 320 kilometres per hour! (Click to enlarge to see the panel better).
Then we came down in steps to be under the Auckland International airspace. Here we are flying past the Manukau Heads at 2,500 feet, still on autopilot.
Over the Waitakeres with the Upper Nihotupu Dam and reservoir down there.
Through Whenuapai airspace with the air base down there and it is a very short flight to North Shore for the mandatory overhead rejoin. We arrived back on Runway 21 after exactly 1 hours flight time!
ZK-VLT ready to put away in the hangar.
Then around the corner to compare notes with Rodger Coleclough who was just behind us in his Cirrus ZK-WHL
Thanks very much for the great day out John.
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