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Post by thomarse on Mar 11, 2014 12:06:58 GMT 12
This morning a Cessna 206 floatplane stooged up the Hutt Valley and into the Wairarapa. In all my years of looking to the skies, I've never seen a floatplane locally!
It's just come back and headed off to the West. It's a 2-blade so I'm guessing MCG from Picton, but where's it been? It has landed somewhere since I saw it earlier.
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Mar 11, 2014 14:51:30 GMT 12
Lake Wairarapa, perhaps? What time this morning? I was running a train this morning, supervising a chap who is learning the ropes (he transferred from Picton to Wellington), teaching him to drive Wairarapa passenger trains, and Lake Wairarapa was covered in fog when we came out of the tunnel and headed down the hill around 9:20am, but the fog probably burnt off not long after that. Or perhaps it was heading to and from Lake Onoke (Lake Ferry). Or what about Lake Pounui, which is landlocked by movie director James Cameron's South Wairarapa property?   |
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Post by thomarse on Mar 11, 2014 15:44:07 GMT 12
It was about 9.00am he went up. It was 8 oktas at 1500ft at the time and he headed straight into the Kaitoke Basin towards the Tauherenikau Gorge. If he had turned into the Pakuratahi Valley (Rimutaka Incline) I'd have heard the change of engine/prop note.
Reappeared from the same point.
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Post by saratoga on Mar 11, 2014 16:46:15 GMT 12
Probably an Aussie pilot looking for the great inland sea.
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Post by suthg on Mar 11, 2014 20:34:51 GMT 12
Haha! Shot at ducks (not claiming hits) in Alsops Bay in May duck shooting, and have shorn sheep on Pounui Station before it was sold, not that I have even seen the lake, but... the early morning fog is well known during calm Autumn mornings near Lake Wairarapa. That lake is only about 3-5ft deep in winter so should be fairly shallow in a dry summer... so where that float plane put down is still up for debate. Obviously, they have little draft so depth is not an issue really! Its just the hidden logs or driftwood below the surface that I would worry about. An interesting story!
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Mar 11, 2014 21:53:07 GMT 12
I can't think of anywhere else one could land a floatplane in Wairarapa.
I doubt if Henley Lake in Masterton would be big enough, and anyway it wouldn't be allowed.
And I very much doubt that the lagoon at Castle Point would be big enough, even at high tide.
None of the rivers in Wairarapa would be suitable for floatplane operations, and anyway they are all at really low flows at the moment.
There are no sheltered harbours anywhere on the Wairarapa coast, so it has got me buggered.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 12, 2014 1:41:11 GMT 12
What about Hood Aerodrome? Some floatplanes are amphibious.
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Post by Brett on Mar 12, 2014 8:49:05 GMT 12
With PCS being worked on in Masterton it could be a case of the owner flying in to check on progress?
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Post by thomarse on Mar 12, 2014 9:20:02 GMT 12
I wondered about the connection with PCS. AFAIK the feet on MCG are not amphibious.
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