What a contrast!: Wednesday

When I awoke on Wednesday morning it was with significant sadness and weather to match. I could hear the wind and rain outside.

Today is my last day (on this trip anyway) in New Zealand and my plan is to fly from Picton to Wellington on SoundsAir, a local carrier and then on to Brisbane on Qantas. That part involves a connection in Melbourne, not the most direct route but what is available. Originally I had planned to return on the ferry as it is a wonderful ride through the sound and over to Wellington.

I discovered on my first Picton stay that SoundsAir fly Cessna Caravans out of the very small Picton airport to Wellington for NZ$79, so I decided to do that in the hope I could conn a ride in the front right seat and get a good view from a pilots perspective.

I knew when I saw the weather that plans would likely change as they fly in and out of Picton using visual flight rules, and there was little visibility. I also knew that they use the Blenheim airport about 20km away when the weather gets crappy. They have a shuttle that takes you from Picton out to the airport. (The same lady that checks you in also checks passengers in for the train service to Christchurch. Different desks but the same building. True multi-tasking)

Anyway the shuttle arrives and hauls us off to Blenheim and it is tipping down with rain for the whole drive and also when we arrive.

We load up and wait (yes I did manage to talk my way into the front right seat). There are two aircraft who are circling above and waiting for the weather to improve before landing and our pilot says he is going to wait it out for a while. In reality it was about 20 minutes and we taxied out and were on our way.

SoundsAir leaving Picton the day before my flight

I have not flown in a Caravan before but it is a big single turbine engine aircraft used around the world in rugged conditions. It has fixed undercarriage and seats about 10 plus baggage in a belly pod. It has a fantastic reputation for reliability in adverse conditions.

It was a little bumpy but looking down at the whitecaps on the water in the Cook Straights I was glad I was in an airplane and not on the ferry. We followed a STAR (Standard Instrument Arrival) in to Wellington at 5000 feet. 

As we descended it got bumpier but was never bad. The pilot made a great landing and looked like he battled more with the airplane while taxing to the ramp. 

I asked him about the winds on landing and he told me they were 38 knots but almost on the nose. I looked at the GPS as we landed and it showed a groundspeed of 45 knots and you would probably make an approach at about 80 or 85 knots so the numbers make sense. For the non-aviation folks anything above 15 knots is potentially challenging for private pilots and 30 knots is significant for airliners.

Wellington is known to be challenging because of it’s location and the winds. I saw it for myself. A well spent NZ$79 for me anyway. Wellington is on the list of the “Ten most challenging airports in the world” I have flown in and out of two so far (Barra Scotland was the other) and am planning to add a few more including Lukla in Nepal, and Courcheval in France (hopefully in May this year).in the foreseeable future.

Another thing to note was that there was no security screening for the SoundsAir flight, but you go in to the main terminal on the ground side when you arrive in Wellington for the “proper airplane”

I am on the Melbourne to Brisbane flight as I write this. I am sad I did not get to see the scenery from the air crossing the straights, but the experience was real Wellington flying and that is worth the time and effort. The pilot told me they had seen dolphins from the airplane the previous day.