Update from the cockpit.

Besides the city life I have put a lot of focus on flying during the last two weeks. Sometimes up to three flights a day. Since I am not at the level where flying is like driving a car for me I am exhausted after a flight. It still takes up my entire focus and concentration. Especially during the exercises I have to do. Sometimes you have to watch and do many things at the same time – flying the plane, watching for traffic, talking to the controllers on the radio, navigating and calculating headings and times on the map, making sure you don’t enter an airspace that you are not allowed to without getting permission and of course always having an eye on the instruments making sure everything is working properly. But it is also a lot of fun!

I have now already done almost 40h of flying which of 9h are solo flights. I have gone through all relevant lessons already and there are only a few more flights left until I can actually do my flight test.

The other day we did some of my favourite stuff again – spins. Of course I took my GoPro to capture it. Here you go. The view out of the cockpit:

And now the inside view. You can tell I am not as scared as during my first spin…

We also started with the cross-country flights. So flights to airfields which are further away which you have to do proper navigation and fuel calculations before. I have also done my first solo cross-country already.

And this is how your breaks look like – healthy food, chart studying and flight plan calculations. I am not complaining…

Two days ago Sergi and I went to Hope airport – my first landing on a so called soft field. Very cool flight along the Fraser River into a narrow valley. And once you arrive there is nothing but a big field – no control tower or anything. So you have to make sure there is nobody in your way and then you just land on the lawn. Really cool!

The only thing we have to fix – we definitely need air conditioning in the plane. It is probably also due to the fact that it is still very demanding for me to fly at all but it also just get’s way to hot in this plane. That’s how I looked after the flight to Hope:

And on the way back – that’s I guess why you do all of this for. We followed the Fraser River in about 100m altitude almost all the way back to Vancouver. Making every turn of the river and only pulling up when there were power lines or bridges. Such a cool experience!!!

I am also really getting used to my work place.