Ski's Flying Blog - October 2005
last updated 02 Mar 06
This blog is an ongoing account of my flying career. The opinions expressed within do not necessarily represent those of Cabair, BCUC or OFT.
The first subject we'd studied and taken in the PPL groundschool syllabus. Apparently one of the harder ones too. So we were very conscientous, and organised a revision session at Daryl's flat. However....we ended up mostly drinking beer! Such is student life. We did get a fair amount of revision done as well tho.
Come exam day, I gather more than I few people failed. Never mind - in some cases they were only out by a few marks though! How annoying. I was relieved to find out I'd passed though. Next we start Human Performance and Limitations - and we're told it's fairly easy.
26 Oct 05 Local Training Flight from Denham - The weather's OK, but Seji is ill!
At last! The weather was beautiful (OK, it wasn't, it was marginal, but we thought the overcast-but-still-just-passable sky was gorgeous) and Denham told us to come on down. We duly did, everyone met their instructors....apart from me and Virun, who were told Seji was ill and couldn't fly! Laugh? I nearly bought a round. All was not lost thought as another instructor, kindly offered to take me up for a quick flight. It had to be quick, as the weather was fast turning useless (to us). Still, I got to fly, and thoughly enjoyed it. Getting used to the PA-28's yoke (As opposed to the joystick the Air Cadet Bulldogs and Tutors are equipped with) proved to be no problem, though I found the visibilty in the PA-28 to be nowhere near what I had enjoyed when flying with the ATC. More seats though, which allows one student to sit in the rear and observe the other, thus learning in the process (theoretically anyway. I have a suspision most of us might doze off at some point).
05 Oct 05 First Flying Slot Weathered Off - so we play Wacky Racers
Our first flying slot! I met my instructor, Seji, and was paired up with my flying partner, Virun (we fly in pairs - the PA-28 has four seats, so while one student is being taught, the other can sit in the back and observe).
We weren't too surprised to be told that the weather was out of limits for us to fly, as we could tell that by looking at the leaden sky. We got to practise taxiing instead! The control tower seemed slighty irriated at 3 PA-28s requesting taxi practise, and we ended up haring up and down the field. It was fun...sort of. It was good practise (for taxiing) and nobody pranged anything. Not even a prop strike.