the whiteboard of a student PPL pilot – some conclusions

I arrived yesterday (Thursday) at Cranfield to find that G-AXIO had gone to the hanger to get her squeaky noise checked out. Oh, as I was looking forward to flying as it has been 2 WHOLE DAYS since I last flew.

Anyway, I have been studying hard for the past few days on Flight Planning and performance and decided that instead of going back to London, I would stay at cranfield and continue with my studies. It was such a wonderful day and a hawk trainerjet screamed past my head at about 150 feet. Suddenly my heart missed a few beats and I did not have my camera. I met a commercial pilot who now flies for Oasis Hong Kong who was trained by the same team who are teaching me my PPL.

I PASSED MY 5TH EXAM and got 85%…I have now got RT theory and practical plus Navigation theory and FINAL general flight test to go. I may take RT theory before the end of the week.

Blimey, I am getting closer to the end, I never thought that I would. At the end of the day, me and Keil who I am getting on very well with went on a plane trip. Kyle passed his flying test after only 45 hrs….he asked me if I would like to come fly with him in his Tomahawk…well what do you think I said, YES PLEASE.

Here is a photo diary of our plane journey around Cranfield
http://www.freedom-in-the-air.com

Today i almost went solo, just need my medical certificate returned from CAA which has the restriction taken off now that i passed my medical flight test – i hope the postman brings it tomorrow.

Terry Ackroyd who is the onwer of the PA28 (G-AXIO) that i use to train on has the hand control units in. Terry is based next to Cranfield flight training and a month ago, i went to see terry to discuss pilot training. he and David Coulson-head of training at the flying school are very open minded and formulated a plan. David Coulson did my medical flight test and since then i have got to know him a little. every student pilot should know a person like david.

I have been greatly inspired by the team effort between terry, david, donald and mike who have gone out of their way to develop my flying skills.

i am now going to complete my PPL with them. Overall i would say that in my short flying experience, this has to be the best place that i have yet attended. Every flying organisation that i have gone to so far have their individual merits, with what i have learnt, i would have started it all at Cranfield.

I know that i can learn from all at this flying school. the team have not trained a person with disabilities before, and yet it feels as if they have. they know how to overcome tiny little matters as well as the larger ones, such as dealing with heavy cross wind landings using the hand controls. we are now talking about developing a hand control that incorporates the throttle control thus my 2 hands can do everything. I have had chats with the professors of engineering at the college of aeronautics to help out.

I would advice any person who has a disability or not wishing to train as a pilot to consider Cranfield Flight Training – http://www.cranfield-aviation.co.uk/ – the head of training is a magician and has more then 21,000 hrs of flying at every level.