Already four days have passed since the last entry. On Monday I progressed on the way to become a city human again and bought a few more shirts and shorts. I also tried to organise my money transfer for my car. Unfortunately a little bit more complicated and time consuming than I thought. I guess it will take until next week before I can pick it up now. So you have to wait a little bit longer for the car to be released… ?

And the other two dominating topics of the week have been flying and the search for accommodation.

Starting with the flight school. I decided to stay with the “Canadian Flight Centre” which I also did my first flight with. Before I decided on which airplane type I will do my PPL (private pilot licence) I tested all of them.
So on Tuesday I did a session in the slightly bigger Cessna 172 with Alexander. It is basically the same airplane as the Cessna 152 just with four instead of two seats. And guess what – today was the day of my first take-off! I liiiike!

 

All went well and I had a lot of fun flying turns. You can do a lot more fun stuff than in commercial planes. I did my first 60 degree turn probably experiencing about 2g force. Jieehhaaaa!

And on Wednesday I did another go with the Citabria – a so taildragger or tailwheel aircraft. Why? Because next to the main gear it has a third wheel in the back and not in the front. The taildraggers are supposed to be a little bit more difficult to fly this is why you would need an additional check-out after your PPL if you want to fly them. If I do my license on the Citabria though I would be able to fly both, the Citabria and the Cessna without another check. So quite charming.
The Citabria is also completely built out of foil over a light-weight frame instead of fibreglass or aluminium.
This time I went with Sergi, an instructor with Spanish roots. Also very different to the Cessna – the seats are behind each other and I had to sit in the front. So Sergi does not have access to the instruments and radio. And more thing is that you have a stick instead of a yoke. So a lot of new stuff today.

Sergi made me do the radio communication with the tower today right away and then we went on the runway. I did the take off and we went for accent and decent training, straight & level flight with different airspeeds and turns. And then: my first own landing! I would say not perfect but I did not damage the plain, nobody got injured and at the end we landed on the runway. So cool!!

I thought about it for a day and have now decided to go for the challenge and become a “real pilot” as Sergi called it ?. The Citabria it is!

Next to the fun part its also study time again. My time outside the plane looks like this now. I have to say I really enjoy this. For one thing it is cool to sit down and learn again. Reading, understanding, learning new stuff. Doing summaries to memorise. And all that. Back to school. And also there is a lot of stuff I am really interested in. Really looking forward to the weather section for example.

Next to the flying we put a lot of focus on finding a place to stay. Arno, a Belgian, Sam, a Brit from London and I decided to look for a place together. We all met in the Airbnb place we are currently staying. We just clicked right away and now look for a place in the coolest and hippest area, Kitsilano, which we can afford. Unfortunately it’s not a tenants market. As soon as the houses are on the market, they are usually gone. So we put together a nice application mail with our stories and a picture to hopefully increase our chances.

So we checked out one place yesterday, four today and one or two more on the weekend. Let’s keep fingers crossed.

Yesterday we went out for dinner and on the way back we found an amazing second hand book store. As a housewarming present to ourselves we all bought each other books – yes, we are complete weirdos! Boys going out ending up in a book store buying each other books… Hilarious!!! ?
Arno received John Krakauer, Into Thin Air. Sam received Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist. And I received Robert Macfarlane, Mountains of the mind.

I also shopped two more. Now we just need a place to stay.

Keep you posted on the progress. Next flight today at 1600. Jiehaaaa!!! ??