To New Plymouth

Finally a good day for a visual nav to New Plymouth. The weather's been against us over the past couple of weeks, kinda frustrating! Airborne around 0830 to NZNP via Wanganui (NZWU) and Hawera (NZHA). A bit of cloud kept us below 3000ft until Waverley but the skies cleared enough for us to climb.

We needed to get to 6000ft or above as the students need experience navigating high level. A touch'n'go at Hawera then to New Plymouth via Stratford. I always like to grab a coffee at Airspresso at the New Plymouth terminal. Always good coffee. I let the kiddies re-fuel while I re-fueled.
We routed back to Palmerston North via Patea Dam and Jersualem which can be hard to find even on a good day. A bit of low cloud and light turbulence made the job a little harder for my student but he managed to find it (must be due to my superb flight instruction!). Total flight time there and back was 3.1 hours.

Diamonds are a boy's best friend

The deal was signed last week for a new fleet to replace the existing PA28's and PA34's. An email arrived in my work inbox at 0024 on Saturday morning from the boss saying we were getting 12 DA40CS' and 2 DA42L360's. Deliveries are scheduled for May, August and December. Half of the DA40 fleet is to have the G1000/GFC700 2-axis digital autopilot, all to be equipped with the TAS600 TCAS-like system. A huge step-up from the verenerable PA28 Warrior!

Then we heard today we are getting the DA40XLS instead. This model has the leather interior, standard GFC700 autopilot (2-axis) and a heap of extras too. Fantastic!