Learning to Fly

This weekend I took to the (moody) skies again in the brilliant Aquila A211 at Teesside Airport. After a very dodgy takeoff on my 1st lesson in the Aquila, and a landing that required instructor intervention to arrest our descent rate over the runway, I approached this lesson with some trepidation – and a lot of humility.

This lesson is a big turning point in my journey towards my pilot’s license. First, I’m moving flying schools and, second, I’m changing aircraft!

My 22nd lesson turns into a photo blog of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Durham from the air at sunset

I recently wrote about decarbonising General Aviation (GA) under the heading of “Futurology”, but it turns out that that future has already started to arrive, and our travel to a future of carbon-neutral GA is accelerating.

My first solo navigation exercise, 61 nautical miles through the afternoon September sun, with a nice surprise afterwards.

We’re closer to slashing carbon emissions from aviation than we might imagine.

The night before this lesson I checked the weather. It said the skies would be clear… Read more: Learning to Fly: Lesson 20

As usual, I had been glued to the weather reports for the days leading up to… Read more: Learning to Fly: Lesson 19

Buckle up because this is a big one. This trip to the flight school was full… Read more: Learning to Fly: Lesson 18

This trip to the airfield was challenging, enlightening, embarrassing and involved an unexpected encounter with a… Read more: Learning to Fly: Lesson 17

Clouds covered the sky and grey cotton wool balls hung lower than the overcast here and… Read more: Learning to Fly: Lesson 16

So, in case you didn’t see it, this isn’t actually lesson 15, lesson 15 happened a… Read more: Learning to Fly: Lesson 15

I’ve spoken a bunch of times about the weather looking grim on my drive north to… Read more: Learning to Fly: Lesson 14 1/2

An overcast day but that shouldn’t be a problem. Winds quite light but variable. Will I finally get to solo today?

Checking the weather in the days before this lesson I was 50/50 whether I would be… Read more: Learning to Fly: Lesson Lucky 13?

This was the lesson I’ve been waiting for ever since I decided to learn to fly:… Read more: Learning to Fly: Lesson 12

After my ego (and nerves!) had taken a comprehensive battering at the previous lesson my mindset… Read more: Learning to Fly: Lesson 11

I’ve mentioned before that pride comes before a fall. Today proved this once again: this was… Read more: Learning to Fly: Lesson 10

Well! It’s been 7 months since my last lesson due to Long COVID keeping my medical… Read more: Learning to Fly: Lesson 9

Stalling 2. This was one of my most fun lessons yet. Building on the basic clean-… Read more: Learning to Fly: Lesson 8

“We’re doing stalls today,” said my instructor. This was the lesson I’d dreaded the most. Being… Read more: Learning to Fly: Lesson 7

Another day driving into dark clouds expecting to do ground school took a turn for the… Read more: Learning to Fly: Lesson 5

I did not expect to fly today. When I woke up it was raining and the… Read more: Learning to Fly: Lesson 4

I arrived still buoyed by the joy of unexpectedly landing at the end of my second… Read more: Learning to Fly: Lesson 3

We briefed today’s lesson then headed out to the Cessna, past an attention-grabbing 1950-vintage RAF Chipmunk,… Read more: Learning to Fly: Lesson 2

Dec 31st 2021 23:59 – As the minute hand of Big Ben hoisted itself to point… Read more: Learning to Fly: Lesson 1