I was very keen to get my night rating. So keen, in fact that I went straight from my PPL into night training. There was a lot to be said for the night rating – extra hours of sim time, extra instrument time, and the joy of flying at night where it is generally smooth…
Tag: Aviation
Annual done and a new home
As much as May is a flying administration month with medicals and license renewals (did I mention it took 9 weeks to get my license renewal back from submission to collection?), August/September is annual time. Last year I had a big shock in that I had to pony up for the 5yearly rubber hose replacement,…
I like the night life….
Some of the best video I’ve seen on YouTube of flying is in the evening – after the sun has set. Being able to fly at night obviously extends the useful flying day and also improves the options for waiting out weather and other potential delays. I’m a firm believer in having options to decrease…
Flying with the Family – 1 and 2..
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…
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…
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,…
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…