“Hi, my name is Mike and I’m addicted to flying. It’s been 20 days since I last flew….” Good grief. 20 days. I’m not sure I can remember what those big flat things sticking out of the side of the aeroplane are anymore. The Flight school has been closed from 22 dec to 2 Jan…
Solo at last!
108 Landings. One hundred and Eight. This is how long it takes to teach an old dog new tricks. I flew(yeah, I know) through the upper air work – stall spin checkout done at 10h. But I’ve been in the circuit for the last 3months and 17hours trying to get the simple landing right. Weirdly,…
Why do I fly?
I’ve been sitting on this one for a while now. I wanted to write it in response to Fly Like you Mean Its post “Why do We Fly”, but I’ve been really busy doing talks for congresses and sorting out the various things needed to keep the house up and running… If there’s one thing…
Being photographed by others while flying
I was pleasantly surprised while browsing through the “Seen at FALA” Aviation photography forum to see a shot of the aircraft I usually fly (ZS-BOR) against some pretty impressive cumulonimbus clouds. I was even more surprised to see it had been taken when I was flying the plane – i.e a photo of a plane being…
Progress?
Update: – I’m still in the circuit. I’m still not solo. I’m still ok with that. I had a break from flying for 2 and a half weeks – mostly due to the combination of both my instructor and me being away (but not coinciding). So I was expecting a terrible flight on Friday. And…. I…
Dead Mag & Air Law Pass
Bittersweet. This is how I’d describe my specially arranged Friday morning flying session. I’d specially organized this to get some flying in when (a) the wind isn’t howling across the runway as it is wont to do in Jhb in August and September and (b) it isn’t so hot.. But the best laid plans…
That’s better..
I’m still in the pattern. But things are looking up. Yesterday’s flight was MUCH better than last week’s. Weather for a start was much improved – winds light and variable instead of 12 gusting 15kts. It’s amazing how much easier it is to concentrate on the roundout etc without being blown off the side of…
Silly admin stuff
The amount of time spent doing flying related stuff that isn’t directly related to the flight on the day is actually getting silly. To get access to the flight school requires a permit. Now you can acquire a day permit for the princely sum of R10 but this requires someone to walk/drive over from…
Some days you’re the bug..
It had to happen sooner or later. I had to have a bad day flying. Now don’t get me wrong, a bad day in the aeroplane is still better than a good day at work (or something like that), but my last lesson was a real struggle. In fact, it has been a bit of…
Into the circuit
Lesson 7 Date:- 11 August 2017 Aircraft: – ZS-CCT Route: – FALA –– FALA METAR: –METARMETAR FALA 111300Z VRB06KT CAVOK 23/M00 Q1027 NOSIG Hours:- 1.6 Total Hours:- 11.3 Having got my stall/spin sign out last week it was time to get my circuit on. I was really looking forward to the new challenge and spent…