Have Wings, can Fly!!

Instructor Brad handled my Flight Test and Sling Training

Today was the day. Finally the weather improved after a week of rain and clouds; so after several postponements, I was able to do my flight test today and was awarded my wings.

Brad put me through my paces and although the landings and some of the manouvres were not 100%, I can fly this little red rocket safely and can handle the exercises. Perfection will follow.. perhaps not, one is always trying to make the next landing the most perfect one. The fun is trying.

Hey, what are these clouds doing in my sky?

Thanks to Geoff, Noel and Brad - the team at Light Flight and Tasha on accounts, for the past few weeks of exhileration and training at Light Flight in a relaxed and fun atmosphere.

Thanks also to the team at The Airplane Factory for making this awesome little red rocket for us. What a dream to fly!

Some fun time

I was supposed to do my final flight test today, but the weather was acting up. Instead I did a solo circuit at Virginia, spent some time polishing the plane, and was joined by my friends Shawn, Mark and Michelle who cheered me up. :-)

First service

Our red rocket had it's first service today - a 30 hour oil and filter service. So I got to fly solo from Virginia to Cato Ridge for the service and watch as the oil was changed, plugs checked, filters cleaned and magnet checked for filings. All was good, but I was so absorbed that I forgot to take photos. Then bad weather was brewing so I had to get back to Durban. Pity actually as some extra solo time would have been good. However, I was quite chuffed as remembered all of my checks, the flaps at the right time and the changes to the constant speed prop.. text book! Landings were ok too, although had a bit of a balloon at Virginia after I thought the plane was about to land perfectly. Perfect next time!

Red Rocket rocks!

Cockpit view of the Red Rocket as we head out from Virginia with the Bluff and the harbour coming into view. The cockpit sports dual controls and twin MGL Odyssey Voyager glass efis on-board computers.. note the Bluff and harbour depicted on the gps. The red handle in the middle is the emergency parachute mechanism that shoots a parachute out by rocket blast in the event of deployment.

The blue knob handles the constant speed/variable pitch propellor and pressing F1, then 2 activates the auto-pilot, useful if you need to have that cup of coffee or are "temporarily uncertain of one's position" aka lost ha ha.

Sling Solo

First Solo flight in the Sling

Showing off at Light Flight - myself and Llewellyn

 Today was an awesome day. I convinced Brad that I really was confident to take to the air in our Sling Solo for the first time. So off I went and did a few circuits at Virginia, even managing to take a photo of my first Sling solo flight. After that I took the pocket rocket solo to Pietermaritzburg while my instructor tailed me with Marc in his plane. Feeling a little unfamiliar with the route, I put the plane on auto-pilot for a short while while I gazed more intently at the GPS while chatting to Brad and Marc on 123.45.. sjoe what a morning, but awesome stuff and great to feel I can handle the plane myself. Big steps and rocketing now towards my licence I hope to achieve next month.

Brad at Light Flight

Home to Durban

Brad takes Calvin and Marc for their first flips in the plane

Fun day

Sling co-owners Llewellyn and Dave

Dave's daughter Kate-Lynn

Dave being de-briefed by Instructor Brad

Today we introduced our baby to the locals and did some great flying.. after the breathtaking first flight on Friday, today was a chance to get the feel of the plane, do my first landings at Pietermaritzburg and Light Flight and later Virginia.

It was a great day to put the Sling on show and enjoy a braai with family and friends before flying the plane to her home at Virginia Airport. So in the last photo, you see our city from offshore the Bluff like I've never seen it before, shortly before rounding the harbour entrance and making my first Virginia landing on runway 05.

Thanks Brad for taking on this challenge with me and bringing our baby home.

Our baby gets her first bath today and was on show for the guys all coming to get a look at Light Flight's hottest stuff, "Hot Stuff". Isn't that silver spinner stunning?

Helicopter pilot

I was a helicopter pilot for about 30 secs today as Arthur kindly took me up in his beautifully homebuilt helicopter ZU-LIZ at Light Flight. Swiss-made precision, and an excellent aviator, Arthur also holds some record of 23 000ft up in a chopper! Oh, did I mention that now that winter is over, Arthur has removed the doors so that at 4000ft it's quite a view.. tried to take a photo and stretched my arm inadvertantly out the doorway and nearly had the camera swept away at 120km/h with a drop from 4000ft and some houses below.

Taking Delivery today

The Airplane Factory's James Pitman hands over new Sling LSA "Hot Stuff" to Dave

Instructor Brad and Dave after arriving at Light Flight School after the Sling's maiden cross-country to Durban

What an incredible day as we got up at 4am to catch the early flight to Johannesburg, where Llewellyn's Dad picked my instructor Brad and I up from the airport to go to Tedderfield, home of The Airplane Factory where our Sling LSA has been taking shape.

Whilst James and the team worked fervently to iron out a few snags Brad went with Marc to do his instructor's conversion training so that he and I could fly "Hot Stuff" back to Durban the same day. James also took me up for 2 mind-blowing barrel rolls and bombarded me with software info for the avionics. Only towards 2pm did Brad and I venture out onto the tarmac and get airborne for our flight to Durban. What an awesome machine.  

"Hot Stuff"'s co-owner with kids Caitlin and Calvin. Calvin is keen to become a pilot too and dad Llewellyn will follow Dave in getting his licence on our new baby.

The view from van Reenen's Pass to KwaZulu-Natal (home for "Hot Stuff")

Braai Sunday at Light Flight

You're invited to a bring-and-braai on Sunday at my Flying School, Light Flight in Cato Ridge to check out our new plane. Will be flying in the am but the plane can be seen any time from 10am and I will light fires from 12.30.. so please come and be part of the excitement.

Sling on it's way

Our Sling is ready- at last. I have booked tickets to Johannesburg Friday morning with one of my instructors, Brad, where will will take delivery and receive familiarisation training (conversion to type) from the Airplane Factory and the instructors there. Brad and I will then fly the plane back to Durban. Awesome and exciting, so watch this spot.

Birthday Headsets

So for our birthdays in August, we each got each other some cool matching headsets for the Sling from MGL Avionics. Here I am trying them out with my other gifts and cards. And the good news is that our plane got registered today... ZU - ZDL !! Great going!! And "Hot Stuff" is expected to fly next week as well.

ZU - ZDL takes shape

Thanks Ivor for these latest photos of our Sling coming together at The Airplane Factory in Johannesburg. We had a little wobbly initially with the colour. We asked for a slightly deeper metalic red but initial photos distorted the colour and we nearly had it repainted back to original Sling red from the photos we saw. However lighting can be deceptive and we decided to stick with the metalic shade you see here. Looking awesome!

Hot Stuff!!

I know one is supposed to be original but this is the colour we have chosen for our Sling, so there will be a few of them around, but only one called "Hot Stuff". ZU-FNM arrived in Durban last weekend and ours will be the next red one here soon. It's getting very exciting as D-Day arrives to collect the plane and fly it back to Durban. Also exciting is my 85% pass in navigation today, so that makes it 7 exams down and only one final exam on Aircraft General to go.. that's the technical stuff, like where do you put the fuel, what does a carb do etc.. so nearly there!!

The same colouring and style of our Sling plane in production

Solo awards braai

Enjoying a braai at Light Flight School on Tuesday, Geoff and Noel handed out licence certificates and Solo awards to their students. Thanks guys for my certificate and for getting me this far. The sky's the limit, or is it?

93% for Mets

This one was better. 93% pass for Meteorology. It was a difficult exam though and required some guesswork - like knowledge of South African weather patterns in winter and summer ito movement of low and high pressure systems, and the cause of Berg winds for example. Anyhows, this makes it 6 exams done and only 2 to go.  WooHoo!!

So now it's Navigation re-write on Friday and Aircraft General on Monday. Let's hold thumbs.

Back to the drawing board

One of my flying instructors, Brad (centre) pops around for a drink and a braai with Llewellyn (right) and myself (left). This helped me re-focus after failing the Navigation exam yesterday and today it's back to the drawing board. I have Mets and Aircraft General next week as well as a re-write of Navigation on Friday.

It's definitely do-able, just needs me to refocus on that horrible  Whizz wheel thing I only bought this week for some of the calculations needed for the exam. I prefer to understand a concept and then manually calculate the answers using the formulas I know. Anyhow I never got to use the Whizz wheel in the exam and preferred to draw out the wind vectors with my protractor and did some angle measuring. Not good enough to pass but will get there with a bit more practice this week.

For Mets I have been doing some reading on some of the strange abbreviations you find to describe weather in Metars (Meteorological Aerodrome Reports) - here they are, with acknowledgment to Darren Smith who did the research.

4 down, 4 to go!

Just passed the half-way mark with 4 exams passed and 4 to go! Do hate these multiple choice questions though as they try and trick you changing a word here or there. Two more exams this week as I step up the pace so by Friday mid-day will hopefully only have the last two.

Flight Performance and Planning

Waxed this exam with 88% pass this am. Am pretty stoked, it was an incredibly hard exam and took me back to Matric Science days. Glad I got past this one without too much of a fuss, although I am still not sure how I did it. :-) Have Human Performance on Monday, Air Law on Wednesday and Navigation on Friday so it's going to be a busy week ahead and not too much fun this weekend.

Sling 4-seater ready for around the World

The larger 4-seater prototype of our aeroplane has just taken to the air for the first time and is ready for it's Around-the-World promotional adventure.

Well done guys, this is an awesome achievement for a South African-based designa and construction. I look forward to following your trip around the world and to the delivery of our own Sling in August.

Neat chopper

There are quite a few neat aircraft at Light Flight where I train. Here's a chopper I captured yesterday. Home built and very cool. One of the limitations with them I always thought is that you are stuck where they land, but you will see the clever little wheels (like a wheelbarrow) the owner has made.. you lift up each side with the fulcrum and clip the wheel on. When both sides are done the helicoper is pushed easily in and out of the hangar. Simple but effective.

Oh, did I tell you I got lost this week? Not too hectic and within a few ks of my home field, but part of my training to venture out on my own and find my way back. I was retracing my flight to the N3 highway when my instructor spotted me cruising the skies from the ground and diverted me back to the field. Next exam is on Tueday - Human Preformance - and Friday I write (or click .. its an online exam) Flight Planning and Performance, a little more tricky... loads of graphs and stuff.

First Exams - 92% pass

Inbetween visiting Pietermaritzburg Airport, and a quick visit to Cape Town where I can be seen practising my take-off skills, I have been hitting the study books - Monday did my Radio Licence, and this morning wrote my first PPL exam... and hey, a pass of 92% in Principles of Flight is a good start. Have registered for 2 more exams next week and hope to hit off 2 a week until I am done.

Groot Constantia was the home of the first Govenor of the Cape Colony founded by the Dutch in 1652. A good place as any at Simon van der Stel's former residence to show that flying is just a matter of getting your feet off the ground.

Little strips separate us

In preparation for my Radio Licence exam Monday I visited the Pietermaritzburg Airport Control Tower and got some better insight into how the little strips on the board representing the air traffic in the area are separated. Scary stuff, but it seems to work.

First hour solo

Just completed 1,1 hours solo.. and beautiful landings.. so proud of myself. Here instructor Noel gives me the thumbs up, after touching down on a crisp Cato Ridge morning at Light Flight.