The end of week one.

There’s nothing so depressing as an airfield in bad weather. The planes are all on the ground, the runways are all muddy and everything is strangely quiet. It’s so too cold and wet to be outside, everyone is shivering and has locked themselves in their rooms. Even the little yellow weaver birds who build their nests in the tree outside my room have taken shelter from the wind somewhere. Weather.com estimates the wind to be 22mph with gusts up to 33 and it certainly feels like it in my room. Apparently central heating is uncommon in South Africa, so are glass and doors that fit – the draft in my room lifts the curtains with long graceful waves of cold air.

We were hoping to go out today but in true 1950’s British culture – everything is closed and anyway its too wet to ride around in wheelchairs. The highlight of the day has been the three trips to the canteen for meals, and – Ice cream with chocolate sauce for pudding at lunch, what bliss, and just when I had completely give up hope of having anything sweet for the next six weeks!

Bad weather of course means no flying, I don’t think I have ever spent a day when I had nothing - but nothing to do. Thank goodness for my ipod and radio. I have spent the day studying, and I was just getting the hang of the flying thing too. There’s such a lot to remember – but it’s quite easy really, or so everyone keeps telling me.

I think it’s like driving a car with extras! Point it where you want to go and accelerate, or decelerate, but being in the air you have to think about going up and down at the same time - up makes it go slower, down makes it go faster, and of course there’s the wings to think about as well. There’s a thing called a ‘trim’ which is like setting cruse control, you have to do it together with all the rest. Its like patting your head and rubbing your tummy at the same time, and I was never very good at that!.

I had a bad day on Friday and was ready to come back to my room and cry, I was convinced I had made a terrible mistake – and was not strong enough to handle the controls. Luckily the rest of the group gave me a good takling too and I soon got over feeling sorry for myself. I think we were all feeling pretty low that day, the consequence of a mammoth journey and sheer exhaustion. Two days later we are all feeling much more rested and optimistic, and utterly frustrated that we can’t do anything because of this horrible rain.

Everyone assures me that the experience of flying in worth just as much as achieving the licence, but I am really determined to do this – even if it means finishing it of in the UK when I get back.

So I’ve spent the days trying to get to grips with the books. Funnily enough I am really enjoying studying again, and learning something completely different. The mechanics of flying is very interesting; I have always wondered what made those huge aeroplanes stay up in the sky, all the way to America, now I know. I have just reached a rather lengthy explanation about ‘stall’, which frightened the life out of me, so I have closed the book and decided to write my diary. Tomorrow I have a flying lesson at 9am- and I am not going to worry about stalling yet – just trying to get the trim right.