CPL solo cross country qualifier

After planning and then canning this flight on no less than 5 separate occasions the weather finally improved enough on Sunday for myself and Simon (also CP36) to fly our CPL qualifiers. It was an amazing day of flying, four hundred miles and over five hours of solo flight time.

CPL qualifier route:

Hamilton -Taharoa Sands - Rotorua (full stop landing and signature) - Opotiki - Whakatane - Tauranga (full stop landing, signature and fuel) - Waihi Beach - Limestone Downs - Raglan - Hamilton


Both myself and Simon had originally planned to fly to New Plymouth (150 miles south of Hamilton) but a quick glance at the morning weather reports soon had us frantically re-planning to our alternative destination at Tauranga.

One of the many aeronautical charts we use to navigate our way around New Zealand.

First stop Rotorua, short finals for RWY 18.

Air New Zealand and Quantas 737's on the ramp at Rotorua as I taxy in to get my signature off ATC to prove that I actually landed there.

Shorty after take off from Rotorua, on track to Opteki, Whakatane and then my second landing and signature at Tauranga.

I finally caught up with Simon at Tauranga who had departed from Hamilton 45 minutes before me. By this point of the trip I was getting pretty tired and by the time I finally made it back to Hamilton later that evening I was a broken man.

Self portrait of me after my departure from Tauranga with the Pacific Ocean off my left wing tip.

Tracking North West up the Pacific coastline on my way back to Hamilton.