Departing Niue
The final leg of our journey before "pausing" the trip for three weeks in New Zealand was from the small island nation of Niue/NIUE to Auckland, New Zealand/NZAA on December 11 (arriving Auckland December 12 due to crossing the international dateline).
At 1,350 NM (1,550 SM), this was not a particularly long flight and the weather forecast was excellent.
The Niue airport is unusual in that they advertise being open 24x7. However, with almost no traffic (perhaps one or two flights a week), we could not understand what the airport staff does during all the "down time." Regardless, we arrived at the airport at 0630 local time and the handler, security, and AFIS were on-duty. We were able to quickly complete our pre-flight chores, got the IFR clearance from AFIS, and were on our way into a beautiful early morning sky in just about 30 minutes.
Niue on the morning of December 11...
The departure from Niue...
YouTube video: https://youtu.be/_b7Zk7EJqGM
We said good-bye to the AFIS controller on VHF (he optimistically said "See you next time...") and called Auckland Radio on HF.
The Wonders of High Tech - SELCAL
For this trip I had a new gizmo installed - a SELCAL decoder. SELCAL stands for SELective CALling and it is a means to use HF without having to monitor hours and hours of static while on standby for a possible call from ATC. It is fairly old technology, but very useful and makes our long overwater flights much more enjoyable.
Here are the basics of how SELCAL works. You register your airplane with a central authority and get a short code that is assigned to your plane (our code is CHEG). Ground stations convert that code into a short series of loud tones that are effective in penetrating the normal static. When you first contact a ground station on voice HF, you (or the ground station) can request a "SELCAL check." The ground station sends the tones associated with your code and if all goes well, magic happens...
A SELCAL light illuminates in the cockpit indicating a ground station is trying to contact you. Once you confirm a good SELCAL check, you can turn-off the audio from the HF radio and enjoy silence. If the ground station needs to reach you, they transmit your SELCAL code on the assigned frequency and the SELCAL decoder box connected to the HF radio in the airplane receives it (even when the crew is not listening to the HF audio) and illuminates the SELCAL light in the cockpit at which point the crew turns-of the HF audio and responds.
It is a simple technology, but makes these long distance flights outside VHF communications range much more enjoyable.
SELCAL rocks!
Cruising to Auckland
After a good SELCAL check with Auckland Radio (let the choir sing hallelujah!), we cruised toward Auckland on a basically direct course with no weather issues. The wind was very strong (about 70 KTS at one point), but mainly a crosswind from the west (our course was south-southwest) and thus did not have a huge impact on our groundspeed. The air was smooth as silk.
Along the way we passed one very interesting place...Raoul Island which even has a 1,600 FT grass airstrip. We just caught a glance of the island under the clouds as we passed...
One of the most enjoyable parts of this trip is learning about some of the unusual places we fly over, even if we don't land. For example, Raoul Island is a part of New Zealand, but uninhabited except for a small research station. The Wikipedia article on the island tells more of the story of the island, but suffice it to say these sorts of ultra-remote places fascinate me.
Form an aviation standpoint, what sort of airplane do they operate there from a 1,600 FT grass strip when the closest airport in New Zealand is more than 1,000 NM round-trip? Twin Otter? PC-6 Porter? Cessna 208 Caravan? After much searching, I could not find any information on aviation operations there. A mystery.
Arrving Auckland
After about 4+30, we are instructed via HF to contact Auckland approach on VHF. They must have a strong VHF transmitter and/or a remote outlet because more than 200 NM from the Auckland airport we picked them up loud and clear.
Auckland is a busy international airport and Josh and I spent more than an hour briefing all the details unique to NZAA that we might experience. In particular, the airport has some non-standard procedures that we wanted to understand so we didn't look like (or sound like) "dumb GA pilots."
One of the many oddities of Auckland was they use a single runway, but it is designated 23L and 05R (left and right). I can't see any evidence of their being another runway now or in the recent past.
Josh and I scoured the notes on the airport to attempt to determine why the single runway was designated R and L (right and left). If anyone else can solve the mystery, let us know!
Weather was good on arrival to Auckland and traffic was not too heavy. We were primed for another unusual procedure at NZAA, but did not get it. Often once assigned a STAR (standard terminal arrival route) at NZAA they will give you a specific time to cross a specific fix on the STAR. For example, we were assigned the EXOPI 6A STAR...
ATC could have given us an instruction like "Cross EMRAG at 1453 zulu." If they had, we would have needed to adjust speed to hit that restriction. We heard them give such time/fix instructions to airliners, but not us. Probably assumed we were dumb GA pilots!
Auckland has a LOT of airport notes including two separate modes of operation - WHITE and YELLOW. WHITE operations are when the full length of the runway is available. YELLOW operations are when they reduce the available runway in order to allow work to proceed on one end. The airport was in WHITE mode (no NOTAMs to the contrary) when we arrived, so we briefed the 10 pages or so of Jeppesen airport notes for that mode. There were many, many details to review. Most did not apply to our operation, but some did. For example, when landing runway 23L, turboprops are supposed to exit on the A6 high-speed, turn right on A, hold short of B6 and only then call ground control.
Here are just a few examples on the airport information notes from Jeppesen (there were a lot more) with some of the information we thought relevant to our flight highlighted...
None of this stuff is particularly difficult, it just takes some time to read it and digest it all. Moral of the story is when arriving at a big international airport, allow an hour or two for briefing the airport particulars.
We were assigned the ILS DME RWY 23L and flew it about as planned except for a short vector off and then back to the final approach course. We got a couple of speed restrictions which were easy to meet.
On short final for 23L at NZAA...
A friend on the ground got a neat video of us landing at Auckland...
YouTube video: https://youtu.be/zc9WoctxMnQ
And finally at the FBO at Auckland where the plane will stay for about three weeks until our departure on January 2, 2019...
The Plane
Knocking-on-wood, the plane has performed perfectly on the trip so far. No maintenance issues at all. Many thanks to Pilatus for designing such a rugged and dependable aircraft and the professionals at Levaero Aviation (my Pilatus Service Center) for getting the plane prepared for this trip with a very thorough inspection (and installation of SELCAL!). This trip is a team effort on many levels and Pilatus and Leavero are definitely key parts of the team.
Signing-off for now
So, that is the story of flying from Austin, Texas to Auckland, New Zealand. We will resume the trip January 2, 2019 and so don't expect to see any more aviation geek blog entries until the New Year.
While aviation is a big part of what we are doing, we are also enjoying a wonderful time in New Zealand which is a gorgeous country. I'll close with a photo from today at the summit of a the biggest climb of the cycling part of our New Zealand exploration. It has a bit of an aviation theme if you look closely...
Signing-off for now. Back in 2019.
