9 days to go...

19 Feb,

The flying is getting serious. Four hours of training today – which does not sound a lot but with an hours worth of ground school with every hour flying, not to mention the refueling and driving, lunches etc, we get back only after 7 in the evening. Then its beer time (of course ;) while log books are filled in and then dinner.

I must mention our meals. Thank goodness we do not have to cook. It makes such a difference in not having to worry about making food, not to mention that it needs to be good food to keep us going – without that we would be lost. Evelyn, the is our chef. Not only is she a gorgeous woman (yup, blond hair, blue eyes, great body and with French accent – French Canadian ;) but she is a master at preparing meals fit for a king. Yup, we are eating like kings. And I am not just saying that. Its true. Tonight we had lamb chops, with fresh asparagus and a light rice to complement with all kinds of fruit for dessert. Last night we had roast lamb with baby potatoes, pumpkin, baby carrots with a great meat sauce and fruit salad with a strawberry smoothie to die for. Nights before I recall fish pasta's, paellas and beef stews and ti-chicken and roast duck and... The list goes on. O and did I mention free beer? There is no lacking in good food (and drinks). So after the meal, I shower, try to write something for the blog and emails and then crash. Up by 7 and out by 8 (Which is a reasonable time but like I said it is a long day and tough work)

But the boys are making progress. We are doing circuits – that is doing take offs, flying in the circuit pattern and landing again. Lots of touch and go’s. Lots of stress for us pilots too. Today, Fred locked on the bar a few times while I had to work hard to get him to relax in time (Before we flew into the ground! OK, it is just rounding out in time for landing) but this is the stuff that makes it hard work. Truth be told, I don’t like it much. It really is too hard and risky for my liking. Anyway, at this stage it is paying the bills and we have a lot of those at the moment. So we fly. ;-) (By the way, I love teaching but not trike training. Hang gliding yes. But trikes no. In a trike I am with the student who is doing their utmost to take you down with them. But with hang gliding I stand on the side and watch. If the student does not want to listen then they alone are going to eat sand. Much less stressful! ;-)
Anyway, 9 days to go and the boys will def not finish in time. I can see that. They can see that. In fact they have actually got to respect our skills, on their part realizing that it is going to take them far more hours to get up to speed with flying than they had at first estimated. It will take more than just having a licence to be experienced! But it is a start and they are enjoying it.

OK, time to hit the sack. Chat later and yes, I wish you were here. :-)