Epilogue

I had to leave it a while before writing this last entry in my diary. I wanted to write a ‘epilogue' but there were so many positive things that happened to me over the 6 weeks I couldn’t get my thoughts in any order.

3 months on and I am still in awe at the whole experience. How many times do I have to write amazing, incredible, wonderful, extraordinary, and thrilling in order to convey my feelings?

I went back to work the day after returning from Sough Africa. Unlike those dreadful long hall flights to the US, the trip was free from jetlag and the resulting horrible three days of sleep deprivation. I spent the first week telling flying stories and being congratulated on my healthy appearance. I was very surprised to find there was a much wider audience to my blog that I had anticipated – family and close friends I could understand, but their family and their friends were also caught up in my excellent adventures.

If I had to pick three of the many positive outcomes from the trip, they would be:

1) Proving the doctors wrong! Three years ago they predicted a very grim, short future for me, and for a while I sat down and waited for it to happen. I saw the scholarship as my swan song – let me just do this before I die and I will be happy. Now - having, for the first time in my life, achieved something so amazing – I want to do more. I had such a good time, I found my optimism again – and my smile - and this time the doctors are not going to take them away from me.

2) Taking back my independence. When we arrived at 43 airschool we were given our little rooms and left to our own resources. The staff were incredibly kind and thoughtful, and although most of the day to day chores were provided, the every day business of managing our disabilities was our own responsibility. Of course, the challenges were different for all of us. In my case, for the first time in three years there was no one telling me to ‘rest’ ‘sit still’ or the all too familiar ‘I’ll do that’. There were no no recriminations – if you hadn’t done so much yesterday…………..’

I learned how to ‘pace my race’ and how to manage my own tiredness, if I overdid it, then the next day I would rest. I learnt to identify my own limits – and pushed them all the time – Two hours flying and two hours flight school was exhausting but it was my choice to do it – and my choice to have a rest day when I needed it. One of the first things I did when I got home was to ban those phrases in my house. It was difficult, because I know that my family love me and are frightened at the possibility of loosing me, but they respected my wishes and I am left to organise my time as I wish. Of course my husband still cooks me fabulous meals, ( there are some things I am happy to delegate) but now he only raises his eyes and gives ‘I told you so’ nods when I overdo things. I can make my own choices, and have to live with the inevitable exhausting consequences from time to time

3) And then there was the Flying…………I did it – I FLEW AN AEROPLANE IN SOUTH AFRICA. What an astounding experience. When I got into the tiny aircraft on the first day, I was terrified there were butterflies having a riot in my stomach . Thoughts like ‘what have I done’ and ‘whatever made me think I could do this’ went through my mind. Six weeks on the butterflies are still there – they are just flying in formation now! For the first time in my life I have overcome something that totally terrified me; it has not only given me a sense of achievement but the confidence to try other new things. When I found out I was going to die – I put money away to pay for my funeral expenses – now I’m going to use it for more flying lessons. It took a while for me to realise what a huge turnaround in my thinking that decision symbolised.

Thank you FSD for giving me back my life


Flying update…………

I have flown three times since I got back, and finally cracked the landing thing. I managed three unaided landings in my last lesson. My instructor thinks I’m almost ready to go solo, but unfortunately I am still not able to get medical clearance for the licence.

My last week

We were told that whilst the first few weeks would drag a little, the last weeks of our time here would fly by, and that’s certainly been the case. After our trip to the game park, a change in the weather, for the better this time, meant that I was able to get nearly three hours flying a day. (Trust the sun to start shinning the week before were due to leave). I still had to achieve an unaided landing, which has become a bit of a mission for poor Ian, my instructor, so we spent Monday flying circuits. I wrote everything on a piece of paper, including my radio calls, and tried to memorise the procedures one by one.

Tuesday was lovely and sunny but extremely windy and Ian thought it would be a good time to practice my emergency landings. We took a short cross country trip through some very strong head winds, to Granhamstown, about half an hour away. The ride was very bumpy but I was amazed to find that I quite enjoyed it, ......five weeks ago it would have terrified me, but now the ride was really quite jolly. I think if I can get used to being thrown about in a land cruiser and a bumpy aircraft, next year I’ll be ready for the rides at Disney World.


Riding round in circles gets pretty boring after a while so on Wednesday I took another trip to Port Elizabeth to finish of f the cross country I started two weeks ago. I don’t think I will ever get used to the stunning coastline, miles and miles of unspoilt sandy beaches and emerald green hills. On the trip out I flew at 800 feet along the coast and managed to find some Whales swimming not too far of shore.

I stopped for the (by now) traditional cappuccino and cheesecake in the airport café and headed for home. The same route back took us over a coastline swathed in low lying mist that made everything look strangely eerie.



As usual, the trip totally exhausted me and I went to bed saying that I couldn’t possible do anymore flying, and vowing that I was going to rest up for the next two days ready for the long journey home. Next morning it was a beautiful clear day and, after a good 12 hours of sleep I climbed into my flying suit once more to have another go a trying to make a perfect landing. Well, two out of the five were good ones and I was very happy to have overcome the last big hurdle of my adventure

I had a great surprise at lunchtime when I got POST, it took be back to my boarding school days. How exciting to get a package – Susan had sent me some books and a card and lovely picture drawn by my grandson Benjamin. It was such a treat, and made me realise that email is a great way to communicate, but a letter in an envelope with a stamp on is something really special.

The weather held all afternoon and I chose Grahamstown for the final flight of the trip. I had decided not to fly on Friday because I wanted to rest up and pack ready for our homeward journey the next day. I was sad to say goodbuy to this beautiful country, but eager to start getting ready for home. I managed another passable landing and made my way over the hills back to Port Alfred for the last time. I’m totally convinced that flying is the only way to see this beautiful country and I have been incredibly privileged to be given the opportunity to do it.

Now its Friday and my bags are packed. The catering staff organised a BBQ for us, our new friends and our instructors. Lots of good food – good wine and good company made for a great send of. Its sad to say goodbuy, knowing that in a very short time my trip will be just a memory. It seemed such a long time to spend here when we first arrived and now its over, gone in a flash of extrardinary experiences. I came to fly in South Africa and that’s just what I did, and I’m left with this nagging question in the back of my mind…….What’s next?

My days out the Game Parks

I don’t think any trip to South Africa would be complete without a trip to a game park. It’s always been on my list of things I’d like to do and I’m pleased to say that I was not disappointed. I have been privileged to go on two wonderful drives this trip. The first, last Sunday, we organised ourselves with the help of the local tourist information office. Kariega Game Reserve is a private reserve, quite local to the school.

We spent the day in what I think is called a ‘land cruiser’ a sort of open topped Land Rover with 10 seats –. It was driven by Judy, a young slip of a girl who came from England. Typical, I come all this way to South Africa game reserve to be driven by someone from Bournemouth!

It was a good day to visit the park because the weather, as usual was overcast, and there were few tourists. We were well wrapped up, so didn’t mind the cold too much, and, I know this is very British, but I think we were all quite grateful that it wasn’t so hot. Sitting in the bus in full sun would not have been at all pleasant. The first half of the journey was quite sedate – we saw water buffalo and zebra, waterbuck, Ostrich and several different types of buck. Then we were given a choice – either we could carry on at a sedate pace and see the rest of the east side of the park – or drive like a bat out of hell to see if we could find the Lions and the Elephants.

The was no choice – it had to be the Lions. So we set out on a theme park type ride of epic proportions. As we slipped and slid up and down mud trails, off road and through streams, Judy drove the bus as though it was a racing car. She had a great time and laughed, at the sight of me, grim faced, holding on so tight to the roll bar in front of me, that I lost all feeling in my fingers. We were so high up we were drenched as we drove through rain clouds but finally, after what seemed to be at least 3 hours, we turned a corner to find a lone bull Elephant grazing in a valley. He took absolutely no notice of a very muddy bus of spellbound, wet and windswept tourists, as we took, copious photographs, our cameras destroying the total silence with their electronic beeps.

We left the Elephant to his solitude and headed over more muddy paths to find the Lionesses. Luckily they had been spotted earlier in the day by another game warden and we were able to find them sitting in a patch of buttercups relaxing in the warm sunshine that had managed to fight its way through the clouds at just the right moment. What struck me was how like my own cats they were (or is that the other way around). Sitting cleaning themselves, totally relaxed in this beautiful setting, they could have been my two at home, sitting on the sofa in front of the fire. They were so totally different that than their cousins locked up in the Zoos back home.

Our Trip to Adowa the next week was much more relaxed thank goodness. Although pleased to have the experience of the game drive, I don’t think anyone wanted to repeat the experience. One of the Cadets Ralph, drove us in the nice warm and dry school bus. The game park was quite near Port Elizabeth, about an hour and a half away, and was famous for its Elephants as well as the other ‘big five’ animals. Adowa has the most incredible scenery, great rolling green hills and wide flat valleys and what bliss – proper tarmac roads. Once again we saw assorted varieties of buck, Kudu, Zebra and Warthogs, that were cheeky little characters who ran and jumped by the side of the road as we passed. We saw Monkeys playing in the trees, Wildbeest and a whole troop of Elephants. It was another wonderful day, this time the weather was kind to us and we were able to enjoy the experience of being in the most beautiful country in the world.

The game park also housed an excellent restaurant where I ate Kudu, which I’m ashamed to say tasted wonderful, and thank goodness, at last, a gift shop. The one thing that this trip to SA had lacked so far, was any decent shopping experiences. The local Pick and Pay supermarket at Port Alfred just didn’t provide the right ingredients for tourist shopping. Martine, Kath and I hit the gift shop like a swarm of Locusts – We got back to the bus a half hour later, happily loading our brown paper bags on top of the various medical aids that travel with us wherever we go.

Originally I was disappointed that both trips were scheduled to be on Sundays, and that I would miss my trips to church which I so enjoyed. But I really think there is no better way to worship the Lord that to spend a day experiencing his wonderful creation.

A totally exhausting day


I didn’t get to collect the aircraft from Port Elizabeth in the end. Another instructor hitched a ride with a student doing the same cross country route as I did, and was able to retrieve it.

He must have had a very uncomfortable trip. The Cherokee Pipers that we fly do have four seats, but it’s a bit smaller inside than a two door mini. I wouldn’t like to even try and get in the back, let alone get out. Apparently they were designed for the American mass market (Mom and Dad in the front with two children in the back). The very optimistic marketing objective was that they would become like a second car - every home would have one. They are totally reliable, very easy to fly and even have a cigarette lighter and ashtray! That didn’t work – but they have still found their place – as an excellent training aircraft

I managed to do another cross country today in the opposite direction this time – to East London Airport. I did all the navigation calculations on my own, and filed the appropriate flight plans, I’m becoming quite the seasoned aviator. No trip to the tower this time, Ian’s influence only extends to Port Elizabeth it seems, but he was still greeted by the air traffic controller by name over the radio and was waved at by most of the ground crew! The friendly ‘hello’ greeting here is ‘howisit’ said very fast, as one word. To begin with I politely said ‘very good thank you’ but soon learned the correct response is ‘howisit’ back!

I landed once again on a mammoth runway to park alongside a military helicopter and a 737. The cappuccino was as good, but I didn’t get cheesecake this time! I was pleased to find that despite the impending bad weather we were able finish the return leg of the trip and bring the aircraft home. But we had to go though customs first. Ian had to get a form signed by three different people and I got searched by a very nice lady who had great difficulty understanding how I could fly an aircraft when I couldn’t walk!

It happens a lot here, complete strangers walk up to us and say ‘Shame – what happened to you’ We were polite in the beginning but now its getting boring, Paul normally says that he crashed his spitfire, Martine says that she was a lion tamer and put her legs in the Lion’s mouth instead of her head, and I say that it was a skiing accident! Doesn’t seem to make much difference what we say, they make sympathetic noises and walk on. The other comments we get (which make us really mad) are to ask where are we from! It starts the same way ‘Shame’….. then…….. ‘it’s so nice to see you all out – where are you from’ as though we are on a day trip from some institution. You should see their face when we tell them 43 Airschool - they don’t know whether to believe us or not! I’ve even had it, from a woman in the local stationary store ‘Shame…you can’t get through’ (the display isles). I left, saying under my breath ‘Shame – and I won’t be spending any money with you either!’

We had a wonderful flight back along the ‘wild coast’ to Port Alfred and I managed to take some pictures, of course they will never truly represent the stunning coastline, or the experience of seeing it all from 1,500 ft. When we landed, I had to run back to my room (metaphorically speaking of course) because we all had tickets to go to the local high school in the evening to hear a talk from Patricia Glyn a local lady who had walked across Africa to Victoria Falls.

We had bought tickets when we first arrived and were desperate to get out of the campus – any reason seemed worthwhile at that stage. The talk was arranged by the local community to raise money for a large group of abandoned horses that had been taken in by the SPCA in a terrible state. Now four weeks on, the idea of sitting is a school hall listening to some woman talk about her holiday slides, was not so exiting and we all expected to have a very boring evening. The thing is, by the time we arrive anywhere and are installed in our seats, there is no sneaking out, we always manage to make a grand entrance, and exit!

Our fears were totally unfounded, Patricia was a professional broadcaster and journalist and, with the aid of an Apple notebook and projector she took us with her on her amazing journey on foot through Africa. Her trip followed as closely as possible in her English great uncle’s footsteps. They were the fourth nineteenth century foreign party of explorers to find the ‘great cascades’ after Livingston

She used their original diaries, and timescales to recreate the journey and walked 2,200 kilometres in four and a half months. It was an awe inspiring presentation interwoven with South African history and personal reflections. She talked about the way she had faced and fought her demons along the way, and I suddenly found resonance with what she was saying.

Although not to the same epic proportions, I too have fought to overcome demons on this trip. When I got into the aircraft for my first lesson, I was terrified! It was so totally different that the few hours flying I had experienced at the little airfield in the nice flat Peterborough area. This thing bobbed about in the air, and the ground seemed a million miles away. I’ve gone through sheer panic, complete desperation when I thought I wasn’t strong enough to handle the controls, disappointment of failing my medical, sheer exhaustion after a long flight, and managed to come through it all still smiling. Now I can navigate my way cross country to a commercial airport and the bobbing is beginning to be quite fun!

I bought Patricia’s book and she signed it for me, what a great day, and how exhausted I was at the end. So much so that I cancelled, my 08.00 flight this morning and will spend the rest of the day sleeping to recharge my very emptily energy supply


You can find more about Patricia Glyns trip at (http://www.1485.org.za/patriciaglynn.html

Some Pictures from my trip

I’ve had an excellent day today. We flew cross country to Port Elizabeth, the main commercial airport where we arrived on our BA flight almost five weeks ago. I landed the aircraft on a mamouth runway – the one the 747s use. It was so long that I spent the next 10 mins taxing to the end! My instructor Ian is a retired commercial pilot – a captain no less, he was able to organise a lovely lady to meet us with a wheelchair, and take us to the control tower to see all the radar equipment. I watched the screen as a 747 came in to land and another took off. It reminded me of the Bruce Willis film, the one where he had to save the entire airport from a terrible disaster. Only this time there was just Nicholas, the air traffic controller, to guide everyone in, - and a HUGE computer.

The trip started uneventfully, I plotted the headings on a map and calculated the effects the wind would have on our journey. My calculations were spot on; first we made a short trip to an unmanned airport about 50 miles inland from the air school; after a quick landing practice, we took off again towards Port Elizabeth (PA as we locals call it). It took us just over an hour to travel the 80 miles, over some of the most incredible scenery - hills and valleys of rich green vegetation, with the occasional tiny road or river that looked like tiny veins dissecting the countryside.

During our trip the weather took turn for the worst and we had to lose height so that we could fly under the clouds. Even though we now had a really good view of the ground, it was very difficult to be sure that we were going in the right direction, one green mountain looks very much like another when seen from above!. Thank goodness my calculations were correct and we were right on course to PA.

It was great to be flying the aircraft to a proper destination. I’ve spent weeks practicing manoeuvres and it was a treat to put it all into practice. God did me a big favour when I failed the medical. Not having to pass any tests and get all the relevant performance criteria ‘ticked’ has meant that I have been able to relax and have some fun. And what a great feeling it is to be flying over this beautiful unspoilt countryside – and doing most of it on my own. I keep having to pinch myself to make sure this is real!

As we arrived at PA the tower informed us that fog had closed the air school’s runways and we had to wait for further instructions. By the time we had finished at the control tower there was no hope of flying home. I was already flexing my credit cards in anticipation of finding a nice warm hotel with a hot bath and room service as Ian went off to find a suitable long term parking space for our little plane. I found the airport coffee shop and settled down to enjoy a large café latté. I got some very funny looks, sitting there in my navy blue flying suite clutching my crutches – I think people thought I had escaped from some institution! When he returned with the news that the school was sending a car for us, so no hotel for me, but I did manage a large glass of red wine before our driver arrived.

The best part of this adventure is that I get to repeat it tomorrow – weather permitting we plan to fly down to PA with another crew and bring the abandoned aircraft home. This time we will fly along the costal route and I might get to see some Whales.

african workers

Sights and sounds from the picket line