A frustrating couple of weeks!

That pretty much sums up the last few days in terms of flying, or lack of it.

I had to cancel my mid-week lesson at the end of August because my monthly flying budget had run out. I barely earn enough to fund this ridiculously expensive hobby at the best of times, so that's something I've had to get used to since my initial PPL training funds ran out. In addition to my monthly budget I'm trying to put aside some contingency money just in case there is a cash call from the group. Then my next flight, which was planned for the 5th of September, was canned because of weather - again something I've got used to over time.

These little delays are part of flying, but at the moment I'm especially keen to get up in the air to finish my sign-off on 'CC so that I can go and explore before the winter sets in. You're always at the mercy of the Met Office if you're a pilot, and although the best flying days are cold, frosty and clear winter days, there's a much greater chance of being cancelled due to weather once September is finished.

On the plus side, I've used my time on the ground wisely. I'm trying to get involved in the running of the CC group, and I've sat in on both of the committee meetings so far. Hopefully over the next few months this will give me a bit more insight and knowledge into my aircraft, and particularly the mountains of paperwork that need to be done in order to keep both the aircraft and pilots legal and happy.

I've downloaded the Memory Map software for my i-phone, and purchased the CAA charts for £20 and a £10 in-car suction mount. With the GPS built into the phone I'm hoping that this will be a really useful rudimentary GPS for flying. It'll only provide a moving map type system, but the software allows you to draw a route on and the only reason I really want it is to confirm my position if I become unsure. Considering that even a basic Aviation GPS is £200 I think I've done well there!

I've also embedded a Google Map on the side of this blog which shows all of the airfields I've visited up to now. At the moment it's pretty sparsely populated, but hopefully over time it'll become a bit more impressive! I've added the strips that Phil and I took in on our last flight, and all of the airfields I visited during my training.

Steve Noujaim being welcomed back by a couple of Spitfires

During the last week, Steve Noujaim completed his London-Cape Town-London record-breaking flight in his RV7. I saw the aircraft last time I was at the airfield, and it looked fantastic. Steve's achievement to fly the distance with only a 10hr turn-around in Cape Town and just 2 stops in each direction and a couple of hours sleep en-route is super-human, and I got very addicted to watching his live GPS track snake it's way down through Africa! It's the kind of challenge that I would love to take on one day, but I think I'll need a bit more of a budget and a lot more experience first. It has, at least, got me looking at the Vans RV website though, wondering whether I could afford to build an RV of my own one day! For more information on Steve and the challenge click on >this link<

Anyway, I've not much else to say at the moment. I'm hoping to fly again tomorrow, and maybe visit a couple more of the local grass fields, but the weather's not looking good at the moment. I'm also down to fly on Monday night, which, all being well, should mean that my PA28 conversion is complete. Then, the world will be my oyster!