Le yin byan c'aik teh

Well, another blog entry for me this year! That makes two for the year .. and counting! Well I guess now I have reason to update my blog on a regular basis as I'd like to keep a record of these forth coming events in my life which means so much to me.

I've always been passionate about my flying. Although I've accepted the fact that I will never fly for an airline at my age, my passion for flying and aviation in general has brought me back into the air again. I've come to terms with the fact that I didn't make it in the airline industry but hey, that's life. When I was younger, that was quite devastating, but now I've come to realize that teaching others to fly can be just as satisfying and rewarding as being an airline pilot.

So after a break of about 13 years, it was back to flight school again to start my flight instructor's rating. My first flight after a long absence from flying will be this weekend with a grade 1 instructor. This is so that I can revalidate my pilot's license. He will assess my flying skills to see if I still "have it". Hopefully I'll be checked out after just one flight after which I can then fly solo again. :-)


My last solo flight logged in my pilot's log book was on June 11th 1994 on VH-NAM "November Alpha Mike", my favourite Cessna C-172 on the line. This was a night flight of just over an hour from Moorrabbin to Essendon. Apart from the log book entry, I can't even remember that flight, it was so long ago! I've had many hours in "November Alpha Mike" including a flight to Adelaide. Pictured above is "November Alpha Mike" being refuelled at Hamilton on our way back from Adelaide.

After all these years, I can still remember the safety drills I learnt during my training for the CPL. I've been practising them in my head when I drive to work and I'll also shamefully admit that I practice these drills on my home computer using Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004! ;)

My check flight in two days time brings me great excitement, but at the same time, I'm also a bit apprehensive since it's been so long since I was last in the air. Not only has there been a lot of changes to the rules and procedures, especially with respect to how the airspace is now divided, but the radio procedures used these days are quite different from what I was taught 18 years ago when I attained my Flight Radio Telephone Operator's License. Let's hope all goes well for my check flight this weekend. And I better get back to Flight Simulator 2004 to practice EFATO and forced landing drills!