Two weeks gone already!!

I’ve managed to get a few hours flying this week, but the weather has been terrible. There are Herons and ducks on the lakes that used to be the grass runways. Last night it rained so hard that I had to move to the other bed in my room in the middle of the night because the roof was leaking! This morning the canteen was totally flooded. We went into breakfast to find all the staff in bare feet trying to sweep away the water!


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I had a few hours flying this week and learnt how to stall the plane (deliberately) and how to recover, which is quite an important thing in the air! It’s not half as scary as the book makes out and I managed it without too many butterflies in my tummy. I’m quite good at turning and flying straight and I’ve started to learn how to take off and land but am not entirely convinced I’ll ever be able to do it by myself. There are so many things to think of and they all have to be in order. Still I’ve only had about 7 hours flying - by the time I’ve had 40, I might feel differently. My instructor plans to increase my lessons to two a day from next week – so thing should be getting a bit easier.

Ground school is going well too. We have finished ‘the principles of flight’ and ‘flight planning’, now are learning about aircraft mechanics. I went to bed last night totally exhausted, after a long day of studying, ground school and flying. I began to think that I had ‘bitten of more than I could chew’, but soon gave myself a good talking to – challenges are meant to be hard, that’s what makes them so fulfilling when they are accomplished.

Today we had a real treat – no flying because of the water-logged runways meant we were able to have our two hours of ground school early, that left us the whole afternoon to ourselves. One of the Cadets took us to a local cheese factory where we bought tourist stuff. I managed to find some marmalade – another thing I’ve been missing terribly. Taking us out is not easy, three wheelchairs and assorted crutches only just fit in the mini bus. Mine of course is the heaviest and as they don’t have any ramps, it needs two people to lift it in. The people watched in amazement as he unpacked all our stuff and we trooped into the shop. The rain stopped and the sun shone of long enough for us to sit outside for tea. I had a wonderful Cappuccino that could have come from Starbucks.

On the way we saw a family of monkeys playing by the side of the road and made the usual cooing noises – the cadet who is a local lad was very unimpressed; they are considered vermin here because if they get into a house they open all the cupboards and wreck everything. Apparently Baboons have the same fate because they eat all the fruit crops. He was totally bemused when we told him that we pay money to drive through open zoos to allow monkeys to sit on our cars and pull at our car aerials.

After our tea we went to the supermarket and bought yet more stuff – The shopping centre is a curious mix of old and new. There is a tiny shopping mall of about 20 shops, it has a very modern glass lift and elevator and several small shops outside. Ladies balancing bags of potatoes on their heads mix with business people and a large smattering of people from the air-school in their blue and white military style uniforms. No flying seems to mean that everyone leaves the base to go into town.

I finally found some postcards and some warm socks! I mistakenly thought that Africa would be hot and I wouldn’t get cold feet at night!! Martine and I went window shopping and were approached by a man wanting us to go into his shoe shop. She lifted up her trousers to show him her shinny metal legs and said – ‘no thanks mate – I don’t need any of those’ you should have seen his face!

All the shops closed dead on five ( or 17.00 as we pilots say) The mass exodus of people quickly divided into the ‘haves’ and ‘have-not’s’ As the cars owned by the more affluent people drove off, they were replaced by open backed pickup type trucks, everyone who could climbed aboard and clung on for dear life as the sped away. The remaining people, including the ladies with the bags of potatoes on their heads, were left to walk home, we saw them disappearing into the wilderness to goodness knows where, as we took our comfortable minibus back to the school

It’s going to be a busy weekend. Paul, our ground school teacher is taking us to a local pub and then out for dinner and I’ve arranged to go to the local Anglican Church on Sunday morning – We aim to enjoy our freedom while the ground dries out, because the really hard work starts on Monday. Two hours ground-school and four hours flying instruction each day (weather permitting) won’t leave much room for anything except studying and sleep.