How do you make having a pilot license feel real? Fly with those who are most precious to you. For just over a year now I’ve been disappearing off to the airport for protracted periods of time and bringing nothing back other than stories of where I’ve flown, or how bad or good the conditions…
First post PPL Flight – Circuits at Lanseria
22 June 2018 Using the PPL for the first time There is something about flying yourself for the first time with a freshly minted PPL certificate. No instructor to sign you out. Nobody double checking the tanks and the oil to make sure that you’ve put the caps back properly. It’s weird. But in a…
Achievement Unlocked – PPL!
It is with a heavy heart that I write this. I need to change the subtext of my blog from “An Anaesthetist’s journey to PPL” to “An Anaesthetist WITH a PPL!”. Yes. That is correct – I passed my PPL checkride on Tuesday! I am now legal to fly all and sundry and to “exercise…
Solo Navigation Exercise 1
Solo Nav Number 1 – FALA – FAVV – FARG – FALA Look. Flying an airplane is fantastic. Flying an airplane solo on the other hand? Absolutely amazing. It’s great to be flying solo again. But scary too. Almost everyone I know who has learned to fly tells me they got lost on their solo…
Ridin’ in the back
Date Aircraft Route Flight Time Total Hours 14 April 2018 SR22T FALA – FARG – FALA 0 – Ride along 57.6 Ongoing maintenance issues with the flying school aircraft mean I’m grounded for the moment. Fortunately my flying buddy Ari came to the rescue this weekend. He owns an SR22T and was kind enough to…
Cross Country – and a new Province
Date Aircraft Route Flight Time Total Hours 8 April 2018 ZS-CTP SR20 FALA – GAV – FAPY – FAPS – FALA 1.9 (Dual) 57.6 Back in the Saddle We’ve just come back from 17 nights away. It was great. Apart from the whole “not flying” thing. So I was a little apprehensive about…
Looking skyward (or not Flying enough…)
There is a joke that you can tell who the pilot at a gathering is because he’ll either tell you or he’ll look up at every single passing aircraft. I’m in the latter category. I don’t tell random people I’m learning to fly because the follow up questions usually relate to how much it costs…
Stimulating simulating and 50h in the logbook
Time is flying. And flying is time. I’ve spent three weeks doing basic instrument flying in the simulator. I thought I would hate it. Really. What could you possibly enjoy about playing a hyped up computer game? “I can do that at home right?” “How hard could it be?” “It’s not real flying” “will I…
Progress?
Feels like ages since I managed to sit down and write a post. So. Where are we in this journey? Well, I’m excited to report that I have made significant progress this month after 3weeks of not flying. The first two flights were not stellar – on the first we were hounded by a localized…