The preferred ‘gap’ between lessons is a personal one. You won’t really know until you start.

I started flying in March 2000, initially two lessons a month, but not long after starting, had a gap of about six weeks, due to a spell of bad weather. As soon as I was back in the seat, it felt as though the six weeks was six days. Later on, I was trying to fly at least once or twice a week, it was hard work, but still enjoyable.

A couple of things I do suggest is get the medical out of the way asap, if you already haven’t. A fellow ‘pupil’ left it till the last minute, just as he was ready to go solo, only to find he had a potential problem that may prevent him from getting the medical. Also some schools are particular in getting the Air Law exam passed before going solo. I failed it on my first attempt, just as I was ready to go solo, and the school had a policy that you could not resit an exam for at least 14 days. Instead of going solo at around 9 hours, it was 12 hours, not that I was hung up at when I would go solo, more the disruption to the training progress. Having to jump forward to other lessons, then stepping back again to finish off the circuit training.

Don’t get too hung up at type of airfield you do your training from. I did my flying from Aberdeen, where it did get busy at times. More often then not, ended up doing orbits at the ‘end of the downwind leg’, during circuit training, while watching a stream of various airliners land.

This type of experience, didn’t really prepare you for when you flew to a small uncontrolled grass strip. My instructor and I did a trip to Dornoch, for a fly-in, and what an eye opener. You really needed eyes in the back of your head, as several inbound aircraft didn’t bother with the notified joining procedures. Operating from a short grass runway, when being used to a good mile of tarmac, was something else. Good fun, but it was hard work.

Unfortunately I never did manage to complete my training, stopped after about 25 hours, due to personal circumstances (career change and associated issues). Did look at ‘ultralights’ but not really my cup of tea (the person who ran the operation did not like to class his aircraft as microlights). A bit of a strange experience, like putting on a serious amount of power on final, due to the lack of inertia. Its also hard work, constantly trimming and trying to maintain the correct balance, in flight. In any case the hourly rate was equivalent to a C152, so going for the NPPL started to look attractive. It also made me realise that there is no ‘cheap’ way of getting a licence.

Anyway I am hoping to start again next year, once I get my wedding out of the way, this October.

The bmi GROUP made a total loss of £9.8m in 2003, that covers all business units such as bmi, bmi regional, and bmibaby. The group turnover in 2003 was £772m.

The ‘facts’ on that A.net post are only partially correct, bmibaby does not have 31 aircraft, but they did carry 3m pax last year. I suspect the ‘profit’ figure quoted is for the entire group.

Business Air had reserved all registrations from G-GNTA through to G-GNTZ (TZ was used for our one and only 146). These out of sequence registrations do cost more than having one allocated by the CAA, I can’t remember the figures unfortunately.

The GNT was our three letter ICAO code, as we were based in the Granite City (Aberdeen). As for G-RUNG, it used to be F-GGBV, owned by Aigle Azur and from whom we initially leased the aircraft from, away back in 1995/96. It was then bought by an investment company Shooting Star Investments, and the aircraft was then put onto the UK register. It may have since changed hands – ownership wise, but I believe it went straight from us to Aurigny. As to why G-RUNG – no idea, but it was suitable, as the aircraft was a bit of an oddball, which caused numerous issues when the aircraft first arrived.

I did hear that the Trident at Bristol was due to be scrapped, maybe Brunel College were getting rid of the Varisty as well.

Milestone books. I’ve bought a few books/manuals from them, including a partial set of maintenance manuals for an Embraer Bandeirante (I’ve got a Bandeirante flightdeck in the workshop).

They have lots of books/manuals/timetables relating to commercial aviation.

Their website is http://www.quaysidebookshop.co.uk/index.html

Very highly recommended.

The summer season, for 2004, started on Sunday 28th March and runs to Saturday 30th October. The winter season will start on Sunday 31st October and will run to Saturday 26th March 2005.

The start date of each ‘season’, is tied to the dates when the clocks change for daylight saving, generally the last Sunday in March and the last Sunday in October.

When I was at school, many years ago, work experience wasn’t compulsory, but I did spend most of my free time between 1989 and 1993 at the local airfield, which was a heliport for an offshore helicopter company.

It was an interesting four years. I spent many an hour in the hangar, climbing over helicopters, helping out in ops, got a few helicopter flights and more importantly made a number of contacts within the aviation industry. Thanks to these contacts, I was able to get a job within a small airline at Aberdeen in May 1993 (two months before my 18th birthday), where I am still employed today, but we have grown significantly since then.

As for today, the airline I work for still accepts requests for work experience, from schools, in fact we had someone through just the other month. We are fortunate, in that although we are located at the airport, we are not actually located ‘airside’ so security passes are not an issue.