HAPPY NEW YEAR

At least it probably will be by the time you read this.

Yesterday I flew to Key West for lunch, it is the pretty bit with turquoise waters at the bottom of Florida. They also do good sandwiches. It was my last major bit of flying. In the last four days I have logged about 20 hours of flying. It may not seem so much but when you consider that there was probably about 15 hours of flight planning in that, it sounds a bit better. I will be going back to meet some friends that I have made here. They all went home for christmas and are coming back out in the next few days. I hope to do a bit more night flying while I am at it.

Last night I also drove down to Miami. I met a guy kite-surfing and he invited me to his family home. Nicholas from Argentina. Today we went kitesurfing and had a fairly decent session and am slowly getting to grips with my new board. I spent a fair while of it with one phrase lodged in my head. It was something that Felix(hairy kitesurfer not smooth Morph) said to me, "Kitesurfing is a RIDICULOUS amount of fun". Very, very true. Blasting down Miami beach with a new friend and a rainbow in the background, I felt very lucky indeed.

Tonight we are meeting up with some of his friends and going to some bars in Ft Lauderdale, it is north Miami on the coast.

Wherever you are in the world, I wish you a very happy new year and all the best for the following year.

It is all good again

It is only now that the weather is better again that I realise how bored I was when not flying. In the last 3 days I have flown about a dozen hours, all interesting cross-country stuff.

I am meant to be flying at the moment down to Key West but the aircraft had a bald tyre so I have had to wait for it to be replaced. If I do finally get to go, I am now going to be back after dark which wasn't the plan as I aim to drive down to Miami this evening.

I am nearly at the end of my flying now having built around 115 hours in total. I also have to move out of my apartment today, which is a great shame as I won't have a kitchen anymore. I have prepared by filling 3 tupperware boxes with pre-cooked meals which should last me for a while. Miami for New Years is the plan. I met a guy who's family comes from Miami out Kitesurfing and he said that we should hook up. I agreed. The good thing about going down there is that for the next few days, there is more wind forecast for there than here.

I will let you know how it goes....

Flying again

Yesterday, I finally got to fly again. It had been a week since I had flown, mainly due to the weather. Suddenly all was good again. I hadn't realised how out of my head with boredom I had been getting until I was able to get into the air.

I planned a route that to Melbourne and then up the coast to Merritt Island. This had the additional benefit of allowing me to check the state of the surf and to see whether I could see any kiters out there.

I drove to the beach, listening to the adverts - split up with the odd bit of music - on the radio in my hire car. The car itself is about 2 liters and is the most gutless car that I have ever driven. My Citroen Visa would have outgunned it, hands(tires?) down. This seems to be a common thing and I am amazed by how little power they seem to get out of their vehicles here. Generally they are huge with massive engines, but they seem to be all bark and no bite. I guess with fuel so much cheaper there isn't the need to spend time/money refining the engines to get the most from their capacity.

The wind was gusty at the beach and I really struggled. I would like to blame it on the conditions, but I think that the shorter board that I have now is a lot harder to ride than the board I had in the UK. Oh well, I hope that I have the wind so that I can persist.

All in all, not a bad day though. Flying in the air, but not quite on the water. Will have to work on that last bit......

Bloody Freezing

I did go to the beach today and it was so cold I didn't dare go in the water. I couldn't feel my ears or feet so didn't feel like changing into a (wet) shorty. Lets hope the next few days are warmer.

Christmas Cheer

I have just woken up from almost 12 hours sleep after a massive christmas day feeding.

Four of us got together and cooked a turkey in my apartment. Eddy who I live with and two others I met the day before. Patrick and Damien. All things considered, it was a good day and it was a typically good chrimbo stuffing followed by a DVD(Shrek 2 - def as good as the first one).

The weather is still too crap to fly however. It is 4/5 days in a row now and Kissimmee isn't the most exciting place when you can't fly. The plus to today is that it is windy so there might be a chance to kitesurf. The downside being that it is freezing. I am going off in a few minutes, I will let you know how I get on.

1st Kitesurf

So far my christmas day, as decided by you is evenly split between deep-frying a turkey and the lottery of Tequilla. Any other suggestions. Please.

That reminds me, the statistic that 75 Americans started fires deep-frying their turkeys is TRUE!!! There is an public awareness advert on TV that runs: "Last Year seventy-five Americans started fires attempting to deep-fry their turkey".

I will be looking out for more public awareness announcements soon. "Gators are not for stroking", "Don't warm your hands in boiling water" and "Glass is not for eating, keep it off the menu".

I went kite-surfing yesterday. Well I tried to, I didn't have very much joy. The wind was pretty light and I was trying a smaller board than I had before. I think that was making it harder too. I did meet a couple of other guys though which was cool.

My flying is winding down too, I will probably do another dozen hours or so. Try to get checked out on another couple of aircraft and finally make it down to Key West.

Will let you know how I get on.

Christmas Day Vote

What shall an 'alien' in the States do on chrismas day.

If it is windy, I am going to go kitesurfing. That is decided. However, if the good lord doesn't take pity on me then I propose that I let democracy prevail.

Options:

1. Deep-fry a turkey and gorge myself silly.

2. Conventional roasted turkey and trimmings.

Quite food orientated so far obviously.

3. Tequilla.

4. Something else to be decided by you, the reader. :)

answers on an e-mail.

Multi Engine

Sorry I have been a bit quiet on the blog front for the last few days, but I have been concentrating on my multi-engine rating.

The skill test was yesterday and I passed with very favourable comments which bodes well for the future.

From now on, I will just be building a few hours, I plan to head down to Key West which should be fun and go the odd place for lunch/dinner. It is nice to know that I have all my tests/exams out of the way.

We went out last night to Pleasure Island, not infact a moated brothel but a themed street full of various clubs and bars. It is a Disney thing and you pay once on initial entry and then you can flit between the various bars. A funny night if only because JP and Robbie had a few sets of tonsil tennis and one of the dance floors was revolving. Danger. Danger.

Text message

Some people's texts aren't coming through to my 'cell phone' so if you haven't received a reply, i'm sorry, please text my 'mobile'. If you see what I mean.

Brilliant statistic

Did you know?

70 Americans died last Christmas as a result of deep-frying their turkeys.

Brilliant. Someone told me this and I will admit that I haven't tried to verify it, mainly because I am scared I will find it isn't true. I don't want that.


I had my first flight in a multi-engine today, it was a twin. A Seminole to be exact. Beejeesus things happen quick in it. Before I knew it, I was at 4000 feet and while in the circuit there is hardly time to think. I am flying it in order to get my multi engine rating.

Also, I have found out that the ticking off the control tower gave me when my electrics(radio) failed was because of procedural differences between here and the UK. I had been studying the JAA(European) syllabus and had done the correct thing by that, but it is slightly different here. Feel better. I did also forget to mention that as I was joining the circuit with no radio and hawk eyes, there was a B17(Flying Fortress) in the circuit. Just after I had cleared the active runway, it flew a low fly-by with two Texans in formation. The shadow enveloped me. It was the first time the bomber had flown in 45 years after 12 years of restoration. So that was pretty exciting.

Last night we had another barbeque and poker session. Yet again I lost; well didn't win anyway. Adequate consolation was that we were having a barbeque on 11th December.

Christmas is getting closer, though naturally it doesn't feel like it here. The greatest indication is the out-of-place and over-the-top christmas decorations and lights that cover some houses and stores. The flying school is also getting loads quieter. I don't need to book up aircraft in advance now as there is always some free. This is a good thing as I have a lot of hours to make up from when they were overly busy.

I'm not sure what I will do for christmas however. I am not sure there will be anyone around. I might just pray for wind and go kitesurfing. I have been a very good boy Santa. Honest.

Electric Failiure

Woah that was a dramatic flight.

My electrical system failed and I was bollocked by the tower. Initially when I saw that the battery was losing charge, I landed, called the airfield and asked what to do. They asked if I wouldn't mind flying it back(around 1 hour) with minimal electrics turned on. I did this and it wasn't really a problem as the 152 hardly needs any electrics, in fact I had everything turned off until near Kissimmee.

Approaching the home airfield, I turned on my transponder and radio and made my call. Then initial call was a bit broken and fearing that it was going to die I set the transponder to 7600. The transponder brings up the aircraft's height and position on the radar at Orlando and 7600 is the code for radio failiure which should set alarm bells ringing. It turns out that Kissimmee control tower were never informed either because of lack of communication or because my battery was already too dead to operate the transponder.

The radio was too broken to read so I reported that my radio was failing hoping that they would pick it up and proceeded to orbit near the field. Whilst doing this I was able to see who was in the circuit and which runway was in use. I also waited for a light signal from the tower but none came. With hawk eyes looking out for other aircraft I started my appoach and then found my (electric) flaps weren't working fully; Something I had expected and one of the very good reasons we practise flapless landings.

The landing was fine but it turns out that I should have orbited over the top of the field as opposed to next to it. This explains my ticking off by the control tower.

Well you live and learn.

*Note. I have written this within a few minutes of landing so apologies if it sounds dramatic, it is still pretty fresh.

Croc Visit

Yesterday, I flew around a great deal of South Florida. 8.2 hours flying time via 9 airfields and 25 landings. You probably realise from the maths that I landed at some of them more than once.

The types of airfields that we fly to vary immensely. Some have a control tower and parallel runways where I might be landing next to turboprops and the odd airliner. Most are uncontrolled, it basically means that you must communicate with all the other planes in the circuit and let each other know where you are. Less confusing than it sounds. Some airfields are really small. One that I stopped at yesterday for fuel, had a man in a caravan and a dog. Knocking on the caravan door, I had images of it being opened by a guy with a shotgun. The door opened and the guy was holding a cat. Ahhh.

Marco Island was another that I stopped at yesterday. The guy there told me about the crocs that they had there(most of florida has freshwater 'gators). He didn't actually say 'Isn't this one a beaut' but he was pretty keen on them and took me in his Gator(4x4 thing not the animal) to see a croc that was sitting by the runway. 'Ahh, it's just a little male' he said. At 8 foot it looked plenty big enough to me though. I said as much, so he took me back to the office and like a new father with baby photos showed me pictures of the 15 foot male they have there. 'Crikey'. Apparently planes often have to go around because they like to bask on the runway and no-one feels like moving them. Fair enough.

There are only 1000 crocs in florida and they have 20 living at the airfield. He feels pretty blessed.

I have also an American cellphone. The number for which is 004 073 347 015. Normal text prices for you and it costs me 10c to text back as opposed to 50p if I were to use my UK SIM.

Going to go plan a flight now, so till next time........

You can call me Captain

Wahoo, I have just passed my skills test. I am now a qualified pilot.


Cleaning 69226 just before my PPL skills test

Am now going to do a bit of fun hour building and my multi engine. I am going flying all day tomorrow to celebrate my new pilot status.

Anna was out here too for my test which was good. Had a cracking time and was obviously sad to leave her at the airport.

Also, I have just bought a kiteboard ready for when I finish the flying. For those that know their boards, it is a Jamie Pro 128 '04. I'm pretty stoked.

Well signing off for now...... Captain Ed

Wahoo!!

Picking Anna up from the airport in T-7 hours.

Sorry, flew past Cape Canaveral again this morning.

Night flying is ace!!

Well I had my first night flight and was checked out in the 172 at the same time. It is such a better aircraft. It just feels solid, climbs at a far greater rate than the 152 and everything is just tighter. Night flying is cool too though navigation suddenly becomes a lot harder. Greased some landings though which was sweet.

I also flew as a passanger last night. A few of us flew to Venice beach for dinner and flew back again. How stylish is that!!

Thanks by the way for all your support, appreciated. I realise too that you are probably holding back on the jealousy. Cheers.

Not flying today as the weather is a bit crap. Still shorts weather, but the clouds are pretty low. I have also just been given a date for my skills test. It will be on Sunday. Strangely confident now, I hope that I am not over complacent.

Well, till next time.....