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Flight Planning Centre
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Introduction to
the Cessna Cockpit
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Flying and
aviation
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| MD80
Simulator Gatwick |
Texas
Tail-dragger South Africa |
Stampe
Gloucester Airport |
Back
from Spain Antwerp, Belgium |
 | Flying has been one of my great passions for a
number of years. I started flying in April 1988 in a
Cessna
152. I gained my Private Pilot License (PPL) a year later
in April 1989. I did my training on various Piper Cherokees at
Bristol and Wessex Flying club at Lulsgate airport in Bristol.
It wasn't long after gaining my license that I flew to Holland in a
Piper Cherokee 140 in July 1989. During my stay there I started
flying the Pierre's
Robin R3000. (PH-KAO
and PH-SPE). |
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After
learning to fly aircraft with a retractable undercarriage
and variable pitch propeller, I passed the IMC rating
(Instrument Meteorological Conditions) in December
1990 |
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In February
1992 I took my Night
rating again from
Bristol Airport. The first time on a dark night, up in the
air, alone in an airplane is when you really feel lonely. |
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I carried
on to do a Multi-engine
rating on a Piper Aztec in April 1999 again at Bristol Lulsgate and
Filton airports.
The cost of regularly flying a twin engine aircraft
however is prohibitive and I don't fly twins anymore. |
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I moved to
Holland (for the third time) I attempted the Dutch
National Commercial Pilot license during 2001 to
2002. Although I passed commercial pilot examinations in Avionics, Air law,
Navigation, Jet and piston engines, Meteorology, and Human factors
all in one year I failed to complete all
examinations in time before the national license was
scrapped in favor of the Joint Aviation Requirements
(JAR) license. I also followed the full instrument course.
All examinations were in the Dutch language. |
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I have
flown all over the world, including South Africa in a
Texas Tail dragger, Hawaii, France, Germany, Holland, Belgium,
Croatia, Ireland,
Sweden, Spain, USA, Malta and Portugal. I have over 420 hours in total
( including 25 at night, 16 on twin engine, and 90
instrument hours). I have also flow a McDonald Douglas
MD80 simulator for 45 minutes. One of my more interesting
flights was in
Hawaii (Oahu)
where I flew over the
USS Arizona sunk during the attack on Perl Harbor on
December the 7th 1941. |
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I also
helped run the GATTI
flying group for several years after its formation. This
group operated a Piper Cherokee 128-140
(Golf-Alfa-Tango-Tango-India) out of Bristol Lulsgate airport. |
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My
knowledge as a Pilot and of air-traffic control
procedures has come in handy in a on at least one
occasion in a professional capacity, namely for a
project in Sweden to commission two en-route air-traffic
control centers. 
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In June 2000 I had the
great pleasure of flying as a passenger on
Concorde, sadly a
few weeks later it crashed outside Paris, France and started the chain of events
that led to it being withdrawn from service. |
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I am the author of
AviatorCalc software. This is
Flight Planning software written
specifically to run on mobile telephones.
Read more |
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