Up, Up in the Air.

Here's the long awaited blog post about our excursion with Drew on the aircraft! The aircraft is a Tecnam P92 Eaglet, in case you were wondering. Or for those not wanting to dig deep into nerdy airplane terminology: in simple terms, it's a two-seat ultra light monoplane.

The Aircraft.

Inside the aircraft.

We shall take it in turns, with Ben giving his account about the flight, then coming back to me for my own (and probably less detailed) account of my flight with Drew.

Ben's Flight with Drew

:

Plane went up. Came back down. It was good.
[At this point I handed the laptop back to Emilie but she looked really angry at me, so I decided to continue writing instead of risk getting hurt]

Ben getting ready to fly off.

This is the first time that I had been in the cockpit of a plane in flight since I started studying Aerospace about five years ago. It was nice to see that all of the things that I have been cramming into my head, all of the long and seemingly meaningless equations, are actually very useful! Because of them, we get to see some wonderful sights from up in the air. I have a fairly good knowledge of the surrounding area as I am a little bit obsessed with maps. Dad can have the weather, but I prefer maps.

As soon as we were airborne Drew turned and flew over Whangarei town so that we could go low past Whangarei falls. Here you can see where Emilie and I walked around the top of the falls, doing a complete circle and going back down to the footbridge.

We then went further North over areas that were covered in bush for mile after mile. It is amazing how little of the land is used here in New Zealand. As soon as you leave the town there are vast areas of wilderness. Unfortunately there are huge areas that have been logged.

We next flew over Pataua and around the coastal areas.

In the distance you can see Poor Knights Islands, supposedly one of the top 10 places in the world for scuba diving. When the sun hit the water, the colour was so bright and vibrant. I was lucky to see this, as it was starting to cloud over a lot by now.

As Drew turned to head back, we passed over their house in Parua Bay. I did not realise that there was so much forested area around where they live, as it cannot be seen from the house. The pictures that I took of the house turned out far too blurry.

The coast around Parua Bay looks stunning from the air. The small island is the one that we look out onto from the Susie and Drew's deck.

On the way back I saw a large propeller driven aircraft that was circling then touching down to land and taking off again. My knowledge of aircraft is very poor, but I did recognise this one as a Hercules, because there is one that is constantly flying over our heads in Canada, circling round and then touching down on the runway so that the pilots can practice landing. I felt very smug.

That was it for my flight. It was a brilliant way to see the area and I thoroughly enjoyed it. When I landed I was already excited for Emilie, as I knew that she would love it too. I really wanted to film Emilie taking off, but unfortunately we only have one camera, so I will let her give you the news.

Emilie's Flight with Drew:

When it was my turn to take a tour in the aircraft, the weather became a lot worse and so Drew took me down a sunnier route, trying to avoid us getting stuck in the thick back clouds. My flight took us across Parua Bay, where I was then told to try and spot Kauri Villas, which was a much trickier task than I had envisaged. We flew in circles above it and we could see the herd of sheep grazing in the paddock; the steep bush, from where the trail ran down; the swimming pool and the lodge, etc. It was a strange experience to see everything from a different perspective.

Kauri Villas from the air.

The view we look out on from Kauri Villas.

Then we headed over to Ocean Beach, where we went for a walk with Susie and Drew; passing by Mount Lion and Smuggler's Cove, which we visited last weekend. We then flew over Mount Mania, recognisable through its two little horns and passed by McLeod and the other Scottish named bays, before flying back to the airport. At some points it rained and we were surrouned by thick clouds, but I actually liked it as it gave a different perspective.

Ocean Beach from the air.

'The Old Lady' and Mt. Lion

Smuggler's Cove.

Mt. Manaia, with its little horns.

McLeod's Bay.

Gorgeous blue water.

I loved being able to recognise the places we previously visited from up above and wished the flight could last for hours longer. Thank you, Drew, for this wonderful experience!

Ben and Emilie with Drew.

If you're interested in more details, you can always visit the Whangarei Flying Club Website