Category: End of Year Reviews

The flying highlight of my year was our two week European tour, making a wide circle around the Alps with stops in eight countries including Czechia, Austria, Slovenia and Italy. The vast bulk of my flight time was through instruction at every level from one-off “trial lesson/air experience” up to to completing full Instrument Ratings. I thrive on variety and exploring new places, using new techniques, learning about new equipment

COVID-19 has made this a difficult year for many, and I have been fortunate indeed not to be too badly affected. A lockdown until mid-April was mitigated with a few engine maintenance flights (once per month) and a few flights to retain currency as an instructor – this included a couple of standardisation flights that undoubtedly improved and aligned my technique with others in the club. Surprisingly, my hourly total

What a strange year this has been! COVID caused huge disruption to everybody in many ways and I have been fortunate not to have been badly affected. My major milestone this year was gaining my CPL (Commercial Pilot Licence). Flight instruction has continued between lockdowns and has been 80% IFR related this year. IR training has again almost entirely been in student’s own aircraft, with IMC ratings using the club

This year capitalised on my recently acquired instructor qualifications, ranging from first flights with potential new PPL pilots through Night Ratings, IMC Ratings to full Instrument Ratings. PPL instructing has generally been quite good fun, working with enthusiastic capable students who don’t seem to mind flying older PA28 aircraft. CB-IR courses have almost all been in the student’s own aircraft, mostly with glass panels such as G1000 and Aspen. There

This year was definitely focussed on gaining my instructor qualifications, but other highlights included a club tour to Sweden and a long weekend to Scotland in CORB. I’m beginning to understand why so many instructors rarely fly more than 25 miles from base, and have resolved not to let that happen. My training route towards instructing for the Instrument Rating required several steps: Passing 11 CPL Theory exams (I was

Another year with some definite highlights and quite a bit of variety. I finished it off today with a short club fly-out to Shobdon and back from Gloucester as a passenger. The highlight was unquestionably the beach landing at Barra airport in Scotland, as part of a three day tour which saw some pretty bad weather that relented just at the right time for our arrival. I again enjoyed a

It’s been a very busy and varied year’s flying, achieving the most annual hours so far partly due to my CRI (Class Rating Instructor) role opening up some new opportunities. Again the highlight of the year was a week’s flying holiday in California USA – it’s tough to beat the facilities and variety of scenery there. I used our co-owned TB20 more for weekends away than daytrips, visiting the north of Scotland, Scillies

It’s been quite a sociable year’s flying, consolidating my learning to date, although hours were slightly down on previous years. A week’s flying holiday in New England USA was undoubtedly the highlight of the year. During an intensive week, we covered a lot of ground and visited a wide variety of airfields and airports, even flying the Skyline route along the Hudson River next Manhattan. Back in the UK, I flew

Overall, I made some good personal progress this year by achieving a full EASA Instrument Rating in May. The majority of flying hours in 2014 were on club/school aircraft because our TB20 share-o-plane needing a major engine overhaul during the second half of the year, but I found other opportunities flying as passenger with others, joining a flyout with the Bristol Aero Club and a couple of US business trips. My objectives

This has been another really great year for flying, and I’m very fortunate to have been able to do so much. All that early training and initial experience has paid off. Buying into a share of an aeroplane and being able to tour with the family around Germany were highlights – the sort of goal I had in mind when I first started learning. Touring Scotland with the club was