New year's day trip

I've been keeping an eye on the weather forecast lately and trying to pick a good day for a big IFR (instrument flight rules) trip that I've been wanting to do. We've had a lot of strong westerlies lately which would make the trip pretty unpleasant. But on New Year's Day the forecast was for light winds and a freezing level around 13,000 ft; both the plane and my safety pilot were available, so we all met at the aero club at 8:00 and headed off.

Leg 1: Paraparam to Christchurch. Since I was signed off for an ILS endorsement in October, I figured I may as well have a go at using it while I'm still current. Christchurch is one of the few airports in the country with an ILS (of the two that are closer, Wellington tends to be too busy and you need special permission to fly into Ohakea). Christchurch is about 2.5 hrs flight time from Paraparam in a more-or-less straight line.

Leg 2: Christchurch to Westport. Since coming straight back to Paraparam would be around 2.5 hrs and not really give me anything new, I was keen to make another stop somewhere else if possible. Westport is an unattended aerodrome and getting in and out you fly through oodles of uncontrolled airspace, which I haven't had a lot of experience flying IFR before. 1.5 hrs flight time.

Leg 3: Westport to Paraparam. Again, this would enable me to gain some experience departing from an unattended aerodrome - and from there entering procedural airspace before getting back into radar control. 1.5 hrs flight time (with a tail wind).

I spent quite a lot of time preparing for this trip - looking at the various routes, reading the published airport information, practising the Christchurch ILS approaches on the G1000 simulator software at home, trying to anticipate the instructions I might get from ATC and what radio calls I would need to make at various points. It was definitely worth putting in the time beforehand - everything went really smoothly, which made for a great day out. In addition, I also passed a significant milestone somewhere between CH and WS: 500 hours total flight time!

Thanks to John for coming along as safety pilot and for taking some of the photos below.

GPS track of our route. Total flight time for the day: 6.2 hrs

The view at 10,000 ft

G1000 primary flight display near the start of the SABDA-MESIX leg (96 nautical miles).
You don't see these numbers too often in a C172!

In-flight planning for CH-WS and WS-PP while in the cruise

On approach into Christchurch

Safety pilot John checking the oil levels after landing at Westport

Interesting cloud formations between Westport and Nelson:
cumulus (front), lenticular (middle), towering cumulus (distance)