My
Flying Training
A recap of my initial training... Milestones, Challenges and Feelings.
A recap of my initial training... Milestones, Challenges and Feelings.
I have always wanted to be a
pilot. Ever since I was a kid. I was also easily swayed as
a kid, and when I was told by a schoolteacher in Year 10 that I would
never be able to be a pilot without passes in Maths II and Physics, I
stupidly believed him.
I applied to join the RAAF out of school, however I didn't quite make that, either. I was smart enough to get in, but (without going into detail) there was one tiny, insignificant little question on the application form that I happened to answer truthfully which went against me.
So, off to college I went, to the Darling Downs Institute of Advanced Education (now the University of Southern Queensland), to study Business. Being still relatively young and naive, I missed out on a golden opportunity to get into flying while I was in Toowoomba. My dad lined up some Saturday morning work for me through an acquaintance of his - Snow Richards - who owned a charter company called Union Air. Union Air provided charter services to the gas and oil fields in South Western Queensland, and I worked for a few months washing, polishing and refueling their aircraft.
I decided (as 17 year olds tend to do) that I knew it all, and I didn't stick at it, preferring to spend Saturday's goofing around with my mates. What an idiot.
So, to cut a long story short, it wasn't until 9 years later, in 1985, that I finally got around to fronting up to a flight training school to start taking lessons. I was living in Adelaide by then, and chose Bruce Hartwig's Flying School for my training.
As
Bruce was also the Piper agent for South Australia (Pacific Aviation),
my training was done in PA-28 Warriors. I got to fly several
PA-28's throughout my training, and to test my memory, their
registrations were: VH-CNN; VH-URN; VH-ASV; VH-AWS and VH-JAZ (pictured).
Even though I did my training over twenty years ago, I can still clearly remember the feelings I had at each of the major training milestones - First Solo, First Navex, Licence test - and the links at the left will take you there. Unfortunately, digital cameras weren't around then, so there aren't any brag shots. You'll have to make do with my narrative.
I applied to join the RAAF out of school, however I didn't quite make that, either. I was smart enough to get in, but (without going into detail) there was one tiny, insignificant little question on the application form that I happened to answer truthfully which went against me.
So, off to college I went, to the Darling Downs Institute of Advanced Education (now the University of Southern Queensland), to study Business. Being still relatively young and naive, I missed out on a golden opportunity to get into flying while I was in Toowoomba. My dad lined up some Saturday morning work for me through an acquaintance of his - Snow Richards - who owned a charter company called Union Air. Union Air provided charter services to the gas and oil fields in South Western Queensland, and I worked for a few months washing, polishing and refueling their aircraft.
I decided (as 17 year olds tend to do) that I knew it all, and I didn't stick at it, preferring to spend Saturday's goofing around with my mates. What an idiot.
So, to cut a long story short, it wasn't until 9 years later, in 1985, that I finally got around to fronting up to a flight training school to start taking lessons. I was living in Adelaide by then, and chose Bruce Hartwig's Flying School for my training.
As
Bruce was also the Piper agent for South Australia (Pacific Aviation),
my training was done in PA-28 Warriors. I got to fly several
PA-28's throughout my training, and to test my memory, their
registrations were: VH-CNN; VH-URN; VH-ASV; VH-AWS and VH-JAZ (pictured).Even though I did my training over twenty years ago, I can still clearly remember the feelings I had at each of the major training milestones - First Solo, First Navex, Licence test - and the links at the left will take you there. Unfortunately, digital cameras weren't around then, so there aren't any brag shots. You'll have to make do with my narrative.