Fulfilling a dream and becoming an Airline Pilot: First Flight

Hurrah! After seven months of being a trainee pilot, I have finally had a go in a real aircraft. It's been a very busy week, flying most days, including a trip to the nearest gliding club at Matamata.

Last weekend saw me take to the skies in one of CTC's Cessna 172's equipped with the rather nice and easy to use Garmin G1000 glass cockpit instrumentation system. The week before I completed the four simulator sessions. These were great fun with a chance for the instructors to put me to the test with some rather challenging scenarios. For example during my last session the instructor put me in a situation where I was completely lost and flying in cloud. This required a little bit of brain power to determine where I was using the instruments as well as keep control of the aircraft. All in a days work! There was a serious side to these sessions as well teaching us how to use the G1000, basic flying and general handling skills.

Since then I have flown three more times and had another simulator session to teach stall recovery techniques and some circuit practice. It has been great being back in the air. The scenery over New Zealand is fantastic with lots of rolling hills and mountains. During my first flight my instructor and I flew out to the North East of Hamilton via somewhere called Scotsman's valley, a very distinctive valley in the hills which you practically fly right through. In other flights we have been out to Raglan on the west coast providing views over Raglan harbour and Mt Karioi to the south.

Those of us with previous flying experience have found that it has helped a little with our learning but, predictably, it has been quite challenging so far. This style of accurate, airline type flying is very demanding. There are many different checks to be doing as every few minutes as well as navigating and contacting ATC (Air Traffic Control). The radio calls I find are what is making most difficult, especially as I haven't got used to the Maori place names yet. Some of them can be a real tongue twister.

Gliding in New Zealand is fantastic. It's autumn here and the weather is virtually better than summer back home. The gliding club at Matamata is located near a substantial ridge providing excellent ridge and wave soaring potential along with the thermals stronger than I have ever experienced before.

Here are a selection of photos from the past week of flying: