Busy February... long time no see!!

Hey there everyone!

So, yes, my "New Year's Resolution" of updating my blog regularly has long way been gone! I realised I haven't written anything in February! That's because February was quite a busy month here... with a couple of ups and downs along the way as well, both in my training, and in general.

After my first solo flight, it was one straight run towards my Pre-Solo Cross-Country Navigation checkride. I was enjoying the cross country flights because I was finally getting away from our home base in Falcon Field. However, things were not going so smooth and I was finding it a bit hard to get the grasp of navigating around by reference to visual references on the ground... I really prefer the idea of flying on instruments! Anyway, in a couple of days I went for my Pre-Solo Cross-Country Navigation checkride and... I failed! Ye I wasn't pleased at all about it, but that checkride was a whole mess for me so ye... I had to fail. And anyway... nothing comes easy in life, so I guess this was one of them. I then did an extra mission with my instructor and then had a re-check, which, I passed!

So, having passed that check, I started my solo VFR cross-country navigation. I had some flights with my instructor but then most of them were solo flights. The flying was really cool, but the planning was really keeping me busy. Most of my flights were being scheduled early morning at 0730, which meant that I had to wake up early most of the days to check out the latest wind forecasts. Ye I was waking up at 4am! And that also meant that I had to sleep early the night before, and the night before, I still had to plan out my flight. So, it was one whole cycle, wake up at 4am, go for the flight (some of which were 3-4 hours long), get back home, plan another flight, sleep, wake up... repeat! And that left me with little or no time at all. Well sometimes I did laze about as well, but ye, time was quite limited.

But anyway, one flight after another my solo cross-country flights came to an end last week, but there was one particular flight which I remember well. It was a Saturday and I had planned a flight to Kingman Airport (an uncontrolled airfield up north) and then to Lake Havasu Airport. It was a great day, weather was very good, winds were calm... the kind you'd wake up in the morning and say "This is a good day for flying..." And yes it was... I was sitting there in my little Diamond DA-20, floating in calm air... doing what I like most... flying. I made a touch and go at Kingman and then headed to Lake Havasu where I stopped for fuel. And, Lake Havasu is one of those really poshy airfields, in which, after you land you get about three "follow-me cars" waving at you to follow them to their hangars to give you fuel. I followed one of them and parked my aircraft. Speaking of "poshiness", the guy in the follow-me car went out and put carpet near my aircraft... I was like "wow" :-) The guy gave me fuel and I went in to relax a bit. Wow it was so poshy there; the pilot's lounge was so welcoming, there was a big screen where you can watch movies on, internet, and complimentary coffee/tea/cookies... and even their restrooms were also like, the poshiest place you could imagine... yep it was one really nice place to spend a couple of minutes in, on a Saturday afternoon. Anyway, once I was ready, I headed back home and it was another great flight, with me sitting there singing along the way... (yes... no comment :-)

Well, some of the flights also had some minor problems in them as well, but nothing really serious.. but ye, once I had an Exhaust Gas Temperature gauge going nuts during flight which worried me a bit... you know, sitting up there all alone and getting weird indications from a gauge does wory you a bit. But then I realised it was all about wrong indications from a gauge. In another flight, something similar happened with the Fuel Quantity gauge. It decreased all of a sudden and at one point in time just went to Empty... I was like... "ok what's next?" Again I suspected a wrong indication but I still landed in a nearby airfield to check out the fuel tank, which still had more than half a tank of fuel so again... wrong indications! But ye, nothing goes so smooth so you get these "glitches" every now and then, just like everything in life I guess.

Anyway, all these "adventures" brought me to my final VFR navigation checkride last Friday. I was a bit tense about it, especially having had a re-check in my previous check. But anyway, I went for it, and during the flight I felt it was going ok. But, the typical examiner... absolutely no comments during the flight! But at the end, I was on downwind entering into Falcon Field, with my checkride coming to an end and my examiner said "So you realise this is your last flight on the DA-20" I was like "So... I passed.... wuhuuuu" And yes... that WAS my final flight on the DA-20! And in a couple of seconds I was doing my final landing in the DA-20. Actually, I'm glad it's over on that little DA-20. I want to move on!

Having passed my checkride I'm now ready to start instrument flying on the DA-40. Yesterday, I had a briefing about the DA-40, and today I'm scheduled for my first flight on it! I'm looking forward to it... it's a new phase, and it also means I'm nearly half way through in my flight training! Yes I want to be back in Malta ASAP!! :-)

Anyway, I'm off because I have to start preparing for my flight (and start all over again learning new flows and checklists!) It was a long post today... but ye had to update a bit on the happenings around me. Next time I'll ry to update more often :-) Another sorry to all my friends whom I haven't been in contact with for some time... Anyway... till next time!!