I went to church on Sunday as planned, it was a bit of a struggle after our evening out the night before but I was glad I made the effort. The rain and wind had finally calmed down and it was a lovely warm morning with a bright blue cloudless sky. The church is quite old and in the most beautiful setting on a hill overlooking the ocean. In the front garden a huge red bottle brush tree in full flower and a purple Bougainvillea tumbled over the wooden arched entrance gate.














Some pictures I took on saturday of our windswept beach

The service reminded me of my school days, we sang lots of hymns and read the psalms. People were very friendly and were pleased that I had come all the way from England to visit their little church. While I was there I did mention to God that we only had four weeks to go, and some nice weather would be appreciated. Thank goodness he was listening and the most beautiful flying weather appeared on Monday morning. Although I wasn’t able to fly at 07.00 as planned, because the runways still needed time dry out, I was able to witness the most stunning sunrise.

With the beautiful weather came the bad news that I had failed my South African medical and would not be getting my student licence. This meant that I will not be able to fly solo while I’m here. I thought I took the news quite well from Buck, the College Registrar but when he left, in the privacy of my own room, I must admit I was extremely disappointed. I could of course understand their point of view, my condition isn’t stable and even I have begun to question whether I have stamina needed to fly an aircraft on my own. I still felt sorry for myself for about 10 mins –

Then I realised that the experience of flying was much more than a piece of paper, and if an instructure had to sit with me and read a book while I flew, so be it. Many FSD scholars have experienced similar medical problems. They were able to finish their PPL in England quite easily so I made a new plan, took a deep breath and went out into the sunshine.

The positive thing about the news was that I could now concentrate on learning to fly without the pressure of getting in the allotted hours needed for my licence, or passing all the exams. In a way it was a relief, the bad weather has meant that I have only 8 hours flying time so far and need to get another 32 within the next 4 weeks. With the changeable nature of the weather systems, even with help from above, it would probably mean taking 2 flights a day for most of the time we have left. Quite honestly that workload, together with the ground school is probably beyond me.

Once I had given myself a good talking to, I began to feel as though a big weight had been lifted of my shoulders, and I don’t think is was a co-incidence that my afternoon lesson went really well. For the first time I managed to co-ordinate all the controls, took off (mostly) by myself and had a wonderful flight over the most amazing coastline. I think my instructor was as surprised as I was at the improvement, and I think it was entirely due to the fact that I had relaxed.


The experience of being able to fly an aircraft is quite unique, couple that with flying over the most incredible countryside, sandy beaches and unspoilt coastline – I’m going to savour every minute, a piece of paper is not going to stop me getting the most out of my time here – or completing the challenge in my own time.


A birds eye view of Port Alfred in the early evening