Going like a Boeing!
The idea of my column is to add a more “personal” touch to the world of aviation – which we all know, can be a very tough and demanding world! It is a great feeling knowing that you are not the only one who experiences problems or has one or two “bad days”! And, if you are contemplating the idea of starting to fly, be it for a career or just for the sheer pleasure, it is nice to know what you can expect during your training, from people who are actually going through the process of flight training; who are in the same boat (or rather plane) as you – instead of just seeing the lessons written down in black and white.
I am currently training for my PPL at Pretoria Flying School, Wonderboom and have just over 40 hours at this stage. I matriculated last year and now, while all my friends are slaving away at varsity, my dreams are taking flight – literally! But I won’t kid you – it is not all just fun and games. There is a lot of hard work and dedication involved. And I’ll be the first to tell you that I can be a bit on the ‘lazy side’; but, if flying is your passion, as it is mine, it will all be worth it in the end. If you’re happy in what you’re doing, you’ll never have to work a day in your life, right!?
Just to get you all up to date with my flight training, I will start my column from when I started my flying – Saturday the 8th of January. My first briefing. I had stayed up until midnight the night before preparing for the briefing on “Principles of Flight”. I had asked my father, on very short notice, to prepare a ‘lecture’ for me on the following chapters, handed him the books… and went to have a bath.
10th of January – my first flight. The lesson: Descending and Climbing. It all sounds very easy – descending, climbing, flying straight and level – it is. But the only problem that keeps on sneaking up on you is that little black ball on the turn and slip indicator that just doesn’t want to stay centered… And man, did my arm get tired staying on that throttle all the time – something which took a little getting used to. And yes, it did take my stomach one or two flights to get used to flying around in a bumpy little “een-skewe-twee” (Cessna 172) – so don’t let that put you off on your first few flights. You will get used to it, just like I did, and if you feel that you need to see a pharmacist about nausea tablets, do. Just make sure they’re the non-drowsy type!
And so my training went on, day by day, bit by bit. Climbing and Descending turns, Medium level turns… until Spinning. I like to think of myself as quite an adrenaline junkie, but I must admit that I was a bit uncertain about what was going to happen up there in the air after I had been briefed on it. Up in the air, my instructor asked me: “Okay Natalie, what is your definition of a Full Spin?”. I knew this was it. I was feeling a bit edgy. I’ve been up in a bungi rocket, bridge swinging, sky diving – for heaven’s sake, what was wrong with me?! But I couldn’t let him think I was chicken – “I’m ready!”. And WOW – was it fantastic! I cannot explain the feeling. When I saw the earth spinning there below me, it was the most magnificent sight that I had ever seen. It was totally out of this world! I knew from that day on that this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Flying, I mean… not spinning…
I used to get moaned at a lot by my instructor for looking at the instruments too much instead of judging my flying against the REAL horizon. Easy for him to say when he could actually see it. “Shorty” that I am, I had to get myself a cushion to sit on in the plane. My “attitude” flying improved a lot from that day.
One day I was taken to the engine shop. It all looked so confusing and I started wondering whether I would ever pass my Engines and Airframes exam. I mean, I never even knew how to check my car’s oil before! The first time I ever learnt what a piston or a carburetor was, was when I started flying. I also went up to the control tower. My suggestion: put a lift in the building – I got my year’s exercise after climbing those stairs. I appreciate the controllers a lot more now after seeing how much they have to cope with – especially with new, aspirant pilots like myself, where a clearance read-back can be vaguely heard in between all the “ahhs”, “ag, I means” and “ums”.
Circuits: 2nd of February. This was it – I would finally land her by myself. It looks easy – I promise you now, IT’S NOT. I have even experienced bad landings in a Boeing 747 with pilots who have thousands of flying hours; so even they, at that level, can still make a “bloeps”. With my first landing I saw my whole life flash before my eyes. The third landing was as soft as a baby’s bottom; I looked down the runway and kept the nosewheel off the ground. But one good landing does not mean that you have grasped the “art” of landing an aircraft. Just when you think you’ve finally got the hang of it, a little windsheer decides to surprise you just before rounding out – just to remind you that you still have a helluva lot to learn.
The big day – a HUGE milestone in every pilot’s career – your first solo! It was a beautiful sunny morning on the 5th of February. Geared up in jeans and a black T-shirt, I headed towards what I like to call “my plane” to do the pre-flight. I flew a couple of circuits with an instructor and he then told me to tell ATC that the next landing would be a full stop. After landing, we taxied to the front of the school – he got out the plane… and I started praying. “Wonderboom Tower, request your taxi instructions for circuits and landings, there is a student pilot on board…” that last part sounded really good.
What a feeling lifting up into the sky and looking next to me and realising that I was all on my own. No one telling me “Ball in the middle”, “Watch your speed, Natalie” – just peace and quite – and a much better rate of climb. I flew a damn good circuit if I do say so myself, my approach was surprisingly brilliant and I was quite chuffed with my landing. Then, after parking and tying her down, I made my back towards the flight school. All I needed was slow motion and dramatic music; it felt like a scene from Top Gun. And then the dream-like atmosphere ended abruptly when I got thrown into the clubhouse swimming pool by my instructor, wearing my black T-shirt – which I am now told is apparently against the rules of the flight school – although they still can’t show me where it is written. I spent the rest of the day walking around with wet hair and in a T-shirt that has “I flew solo at Pretoria Flying School” written on the front and a picture of a very unhappy looking aeroplane coming in for landing.
The Restricted Radio Licence course began on the 15th and classes were held in the evening. A Johannesburg International Air Traffic Controller gave the course. I had been having a pretty bad day on the last day of the course – I had had a bad landing whilst flying solo circuits. I came in for a flapless landing at a way, way to high speed. And then, to top it off, I somehow managed to lock my keys in my car! After getting mocked by every male at the school (apparently only women lock their keys in the car, and being blonde just made matters worse), we managed, with a lot of effort, to retrieve the keys. But – my day was made when I got to go up for a flip in a Bell UH-1 Huey chopper. It felt like I was back in Nam…
My first solo GF – 6th of March. It was 13:00 and the visibility was bad. I asked my instructor if I could still go and fly. He said “You can fly, can’t you?” – so, brave little me went. Everyone was telling me not to get lost and just to keep the power station in sight all the time. I was beginning to get a little nervous – after all, it was the first time that I would be venturing into the big wide world of Wonderboom GFA on my own. The visibility was bad. And I did lose sight of the power station. I kept on flying back to it just to make sure that it hadn’t moved anywhere. Otherwise, I really enjoyed myself up there. And, my landing back at Wonderboom, I kid you not, was the best landing that I have ever done… and no one was even there to see it. (Just to let you know – this was very bad of me - but the object of this column is to share experiences with you so you know that we all do things like this - I didn’t once practice incipient spins and I maybe did one or two stalls in all the solo GF lessons I had. It’s a lot harder to build up courage when you don’t have your instructor sitting next to you. But, I did my PPL Prep today and you’ll be amazed at how quickly these things come back to you – so don’t worry too much about it).
Unfortunately, I cannot go in to too much detail with my above experiences as they happened a while back and I did not keep a detailed account of absolutely everything. But I hope that this gives you a clearer view of how a pilot’s life is in the beginning - very beginning - stages. I will include more about my first radio failure and navigational flights in the next column. And, I should also be a fully qualified Private Pilot by that time!
Now, let your dreams take flight too.
You are more than welcome to email me:
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