CPL ME (VFR) rated!!!

Yes... I finally got my first official checkride done, and I passed!! I'm now officially, CPL ME (VFR) rated!! Yaayy!! Ok, what does CPL ME (VFR) actually stand for? It is "Commercial Pilot Licence, Mult-Engine" with a slight note that I can only fly in VFR conditions, the "good weather conditions" to keep it simple hehe!!

Basically it's the first step to officially being recognised as a licenced "commercial pilot." Yaayy!! When I go back to Belgium, I should be having a further three flights and then another final checkride to obtain my CPL IR ME, which stands for "Commercial Pilot Licence, Instrument Rating Multi-Engine" And that's when I could also fly in crappy weather and all that!

The checkride went pretty well. Take off from Falcon Field, transition through Mesa Gateway's airspace south bound, did the maneouvres (steep turns, slow flight, stalls, VMCA demo... and all that stuff) and then headed to Coolidge to start my navigation. Just before nearly completing the navigation part, the examiner told me to divert back to Coolidge directly. I estimated a rough heading and flew back to Coolidge. There I did some landings, and that's where the engine failure stuff started. The examiner "failed" my engine on upwind and immediately started with the re-call items, which according to him were a bit "on the slow side." But I think all went pretty well, and I think this was one of the best flights I ever had in fact. The only two main comments the examiner had was to be faster on the one-engine procedures, and that according to him I should use flaps even in one-engine approaches. But then again, that's up to the PIC's discretion no?! Haha, well over all it was a good flight, and as soon as I realised I passed I was... yaayyyy!! Obviously, a couple of beers HAD to follow in the evening!

Anyway after that checkride, my training in Arizona is now over and next Monday I'll be returning to Brussels. Ok I must admit, I am going to miss the place and the people. (Sidenote... definately not ALL people... some are just pure plain assholes!!) But I'm also looking forward to a well-needd break in Malta, and see my family again. However, for now, it seems that once back in Belgium, we will be flying immediately so I don't know whether there will be any room for Malta. I guess I'll just have to wait and see!!

Well for the time being, I just want to hang around and celebrate my first successful official checkride!!! Till next time folks!!

San Francisco...

*me* peeps out of a hole... *me* looks around... *me* shouts "ANYONE THERE???!!!"

Ok... it's quite! Well yes here comes a post after nearly three whole months without anything new on this blog!! Ok, I apologise... I will not do it again... but I know I eventually WILL do it again :-) You see, at first I spent some weeks not updating it, because of two main reasons; a) either not finding enough time b) pure laziness!!... (some say B is more like it! could be true!!) Then I realised, I had loads and loads of things to add, that eventually I always found it hard to start adding all things that I did during those past weeks. After about two months not writing anything, I said "ok.. just do it" but guess what... I didn't!! And another month passed... so... there are now loads of loads of loads of things to add here! And also, guess what..... I forgot most of the things!! Well, not forgot... but there's so much to say that something will sure slip away!

And that's because these were three fully packed months... and, no not with flying. I'll talk about that one day. All I can say is folks... if you want to learn to fly in a good school... do not choose THIS school :-) But anyway, let's not talk about the flying for now; well other than I'm now flying the twin-engine DA42 and I'm soon finishing my flying here!! Yep, I had passed all my DA40 checkrides and moved on to the DA42. I wish things are going a bit better with my flying because sometimes I'm feeling a bit behind. But I hope all goes well for my final flights. I have one more flight to do here and next week I should be having my official CPL VFR ME checkride. After that, I should be back in Europe to finish off with the final CPL IR ME checkride. But more of that later on!

Rather than flying let me concentrate on the pleasurable free time of the past few months. They were three packed months! Let me try to remember a few events; the musical "Cats", NASCAR races, hiking... (ye I hiked Camelback Mountain, Sedona and part of the famous Grand Canyon!! I can now say "been there, done that!"), the Apache Trail and a more American version of the Apache Trail involving a "Hummer H3", a visit to Lake Saguaro, oh and an unforgettable night flight to Las Vegas!! How can I forget that?! Well these were some of the main events I had happening over the past weeks. I won't talk about them today however cause it will take too long! But, I have put up some photos on Picasa from three of these events; Saguaro Lake, The Apache Trail (1st Edition, Special "Hummer" Edition still need to be posted!) and The Grand Canyon. Enjoy the pictures by clicking on the links below!

Saguaro Lake	The Apache Trail	Grand Canyon

And now, to the title of this post... my most recent great time was in... San Francisco!! Basically, we knew we were not flying for four days (quite common here... o what a "flight" school...) and so what better way to spend a weekend... head to San Francisco!! We went last Friday, by plane, and spent a good three days going around the city. On Friday, we visited the famous Alcatraz island. Quite a place to visit! On Saturday, we visited "The Fisherman's Wharf", which is an area around the coast, full of piers, boats and sea lions!! There, we visited "The Aquarium of the Bay", which is a small place full of live fish and stuff! It was nice, but a bit short. I thought it would have taken longer to see. We also visited a World War II US submarine there, the USS Pampanito. That was quite an interesting visit! We then walked all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge, (See picture below) Oh it's huge... a great scene to see! On Sunday, we spent the day going around the city. We walked a bit over San Francisco Bay as well and then headed to the Golden Gate National Park. We returned back to hot Arizona on Monday morning. Well it was a good break and a well-needed holiday too! I'll try to upload some photos on Picasa as soon as I can!

I'm stopping here for today. I'll try to get into the habit of updating my blog more often (ye right!) So much happened over the past weeks and my stay here in Arizona is now coming to an end!! Basically I have one flight left (which according to the schedule I should fly tomorrow) and then I should be doing my first official CPL ME checkride at the beginning of next week. So hopefully by the end of the week I'll be back in Europe!! Yep that's right... maybe I get a small break in Malta, maybe not. It all depends whether we can start flying immediately in Belgium or not! As for me, well I do need to see Malta badly!! Need a break there!! And I need to see all my family, and that cute little nephew of mine, as well as my friends! So I hope that within a week or two, I'll be back in Malta for a little break! Then again, I have to admit... I'm going to miss Arizona!! Definately I'm not going to miss the school and it's... incompetence?!! Well ye that's a good word! But I'm definately going to miss all my friends and flight instructors, who have all made my stay here, one to remember!! I'm off for today!! Till next time... hopefully soon!