SEA Fog and short landings

Milton and beyond to Lake Waihola and the Taieri Plains

Today, I tried to fly our Skyleader GP One through to Taieri Airfield, but was thwarted by very low cloud along the Otago Coast. 

After stopping at a deserted Gore airfield for lunch, I headed across the Kaihiku Range to Balclutha. The cloudbase was sometimes below 1500 feet, so I wasn't able to fly very high.

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Very low cloud, lurking behind these hills, prevents using the coastal VFR transit lane.

At Milton, I turned down to Toko Mouth to see if the VFR transit lane along the coastline was clear. Unfortunately there was sea fog rolling up onto the hills, so no go.

I back-tracked to land at Balclutha and had a pleasant chat with a couple of South Otago Aero Club members. Of course they were interested to look over the GP One and ask lots of questions. 

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Gore - world famous for its brown trout fishing and country music festival.

Headed west to find the Waipahi farm where my son and his family were staying. All the paddocks were too small, too steep, had powerlines in them or were full of sheep, so no landings today. I just circled twice while they all waved enthusiastically from the house. 

Then it was on to Gore.

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Gore Aero Club

Landed at Gore again, this time there were some Gore Aero Club members to yarn with.

Final leg was back to Oporo Flats to land in the 'pocket handkerchief'-sized paddock. With a very light SW wind, I was able to come in low over the fence and stop quickly. I measured that it took 120m from threshold to full stop, so I was very pleased with that. Over 140m of airstrip left in front of me.

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