Flight to Tauranga

Last Saturday I was lucky enough to be offered a flight by another blogger (and club member), destination Tauranga. This would be be my first flight to another airport in a light plane, as a passenger, and in the Arrow.

We met in the clubhouse around 10am and a bit after that we took off. We climbed up off 36, and headed for Tauranga. En route Chris and Euan pointed out Matamata airfield, I was told they had a longer grass strip than Hamilton which was interesting. It was a smooth flight until we reached the Kaimai ranges where we had a small period of turbulence which bumped us round a bit, but that was all good.

Descending into Tauranga was awesome, you fly straight over the port, which was great compared to the Hamilton approach over farmland. Had a nice approach down onto the tarmac before taxiing over to the airport museum for shutdown. We then had a quick look through the museum before heading back to the aircraft.

Departing from Tauranga it was easy to pick out a few noticable landmarks, such as Baypark Stadium, and I think the Bayfair Shopping Centre?? Relatively straight forward flight home, located Matamata again, and then joined the circuit for 36 for a nice touchdown.

I snapped a number of pics but nothing flash so I cant really be bothered resizing them...

Thanks to Chris for taking me, was an awesome experience. Cant wait to be able to do it myself...