The Dreaded Written Exams

The fact that upon arriving at Anglo and not having completed any of the JAA PPL written exams, meant that i had a mountain to climb in the two and a half weeks that i was there. This mountain was furthered by teh fact that i had only just started reading the Trevor Thom books on the severn subjects. Anyway, without further adue, successive days of reading, on various occasions numbering upto ten hours a day meant that i was soon ready for the Aviation Law exam. Although not the easiest of subjects, due to the fact that facts are facts that must be lernt and that an overall good general grasp of the subject was required, a first time pass ensured that once again i could leap into the sky on my first solo at Gillespie.

Met and Human Performance, enough said. They were simple enough after the straightforward nature of each exam was understood. Navigation, perhpas the most difficult subject to grasp due to the fact that i tried to learn how to navigate in theory, without the practical element being added. The exam itself, which consisted of plannign a nav trip on a CAA 1:500 000 scale chart and then answering a few questions on radio navigational aids was actually quite fun. Although a failure occured on the first attempt, a quick nav trip upto Hemet ensured that a pass was achieved on the second attempt.

Once again, comms was straightforward due to the fact that teh R/T work involved was mostly covered in the practical flying course, well all except Pan-Pan and Mayday, fingers crossed. The task of Flight Planning was attempted and although challenging in places, it was not as difficult as it first seemed to be. Finally, Aviation General and Principles of Flight. Although the indepth and broad nature of this topic meant that revision needed to be structured around certain key aspects, the fact taht a quick grasp was gained, combined with the knowledge gained after compling my relativly few hours meant that once again, a first time pass was achieved.

Overall, the task of the written exams was very demanding, but was attempted with great enthusiasm. The pure lust for flying propelled me on, knowing that without the passes gained, my dream to gain my licence would never take-off.

Night Flying Part Deux

After having only completed two hours of the night rating, which consisted of five hours, one of which had to be solo, 4 of which had to be duel, including an hour at least of navigation, the second to last night at Anglo was well set out to be an interesting time. AFter just having compleetd my skills test and the relavent mountain of paperwork which it included, the flight set off at half past eight. Clearly this was not going to be an early night, as they say, no rest for the wicked!

Golf Foxtrot, the IR Cessna 172 was the choosen machine, and having quickly decided on a route that would take us from Gillespie to Santa Monica. The route consisted of flying over towards Miramar and then out to the Gulf of Santa Catalina, which we would follow upto LA itself. The take off, followed by a spectacular vision fo a fire work display at the local NFL stadium clearly pointed out that this flight would not be the run of the mill type of excursion. The views of the night sky were spectacular, as we flew down north up the traffic pattern towards the Oceanside VOR. After a quick trim, there was little to do but enjoy the night sky, and try to occasionally check the T's and P's and guages. try being th opperative word lol, due to the fact that Golf Foxtrot had a distinct lack of internal instrument lights!

Once we hit the docks at LA, teh fun really began. Dropping down to 4500 feet and flying directly over one of LAX, one of the largest ariports in Westen America without having to make contact with the tower, we proceeded to Santa Monica. The pure thrill of looking down upon the four mighty runways, split only by the even greater terminal buildings was helped by the descent into Santa Monica itself. The approach path, which took the aricraft within 80 foot of downtown LA's skyscrapers was breath taking to say the least.

After a quick touchdown and an even quicker take off, the route back was simple. Emphasised by the fact that Jason contiued to be mesmorised by the GPS and its ability to continually change the ETA lol. After multiple attempts to gain my instructors clearence to play with the lights at Miramar lol, Gillespie approached quickly. Although arriving back at Gillespie at almost midnight may not seem like th normal way to spend a saturday night, i can guarantee that it certianly is a fantastic way to spend any night.

Night Flying

Wow, wow, wow. Thats quite possibly the only word capable of emphasising the effect that taking off down a lit runway into the infinity of darkness had on me. It was great. Having never flown a light aircraft at night before, i was eager to try it to say the least. As if i didnt have enough on my plate, after having to sit the severn JAA written exasm in two weeks, along with a skills test and a comms exam, i decided that the nigth rating was an addition that i wanted to grasp whilst at Anglo.

Nav lights flashing, Strobe lights on and off we wnt down the runway. As the 60 kts marker was reached on the ASI and the backwards pressure on the yolk started to lift the nose off the well lit runway, the feeling that we are not alone in the universe suddenly dawned on me. Perhasp this was because of the perfect view that was provided of the stars above San Diego. Although the first two hours, one of which was dual and the other of which was solo, were both circuit flights, staying well within the vacinity of Gillespie, the fun still kept on coming.

After dropping Jason, my instructor off, the feelign of excitment quickly over whelmed my body. Taking off now had a whole new meaning to it. It was fantastic. After listning to a new student trying to make his take off announcment, trying being the opperative word due to the five minutes it took him lol, the runway lights decided to switch off. Although this is a normal routine event every fifteen minutes, it was not widely appreciated by me as i was on short finals at 300 feet when it occured lol. Although they say to flick the trasmit button on the VHF 5 times to turn them back on, im sure i pressed it more like 20, in my wild attempts to relight the quickly approaching runway.

All in all, the flying was amazing. The combination of the perfect views of the local area, which seemed to be lit like an electric carpet, the lack of wind and the eerie calmless of the night sky meant that it is perhaps one of the best times to relax and fly at once.

Solo Navigation

Perhaps the largest and obviously the happiest step in my life so far was my solo nav trip. Flying form Gillespie to Cochran Regional Airport and then down Salton Sea to Imperial County Airport, right on the Mexican border. It was great flying, 10,000ft over the mountains and then dropped straight down into the deserts. Eating peanut butter mnm's and crusing at FL100. How can you beat that?

After the take off, which was good, as always, lol, i headed to El Capitan and then over to the Julian VOR. I followed the planned route that well, that i had trouble finding the beacon as it was directly beneath me. A steep turn quickly sorted that problem out. After that i descended slowly towards Cochran, or Thermal as its commonly known via Borrego Valley, a small aerodrome in the desert. The traffic at Thermal was minimal, but as the VHF frequency is only a air/ground radio, it was fun to say the least. After parking Zula Papa next to a learjet, (it was the best place i could find lol) it was a short trip to Imperial via Salton Sea, a large inland sea/lake. After a tricky, but not uncalculated landing and a can of mountain dew, it was back to Gillespie, via a long and ardous climb back up to altitude in the exhausting heat.

After three and a half hours of flying in the heat, it was a landing well asked for both me and Zulu Papa. A totally amazing day, one which will surely reamin one of my fondest memories for years to come. Thats surely why flying is such a fantastic and well deserved object of desire.

Achieving My Dreams

Anglo American, the Southern Californian flight training school in El Cajon allowed me to achieve my dreams of gaining my PPL. The two and a half weeks of flying not only gave me the experience of a lifetime, but also meant that i met some decent people and had fun in the sun at 90 degrees. The flying, obviously the biggest attraction in my eyes, was carryed out at Gillespie Field, an aerodrome with ample runway length, even for some of my longer than average touchdowns!

The local scenery was amazing, 6,500 feet of mountains to the East, followed by vast expanses of desert, Mexico to the South, LA to the North and of course Miramar to the West. As you can see, no boring views of the pennines and cloudy skies! Talking of cloudy skies, well there is nothing to talk about really. Apart from the occasional (one if i remember correctly) morning, i did not see a fluffy cloud in the sky. Fantastic.


The aircraft were a mixture of Cessna 152's, 172's and the Piper Warrior. Not being able to fit into a 152 and not liking the set up of the Piper, i opted for the 172. Four seats and enough fuel to fly the length of the long cross country with enough to spare to complete a quick solo circuits trip. Although they were far from new, there were no major problems, apart from the lack of carb heat on zulu papa.

After being home for all of two days, and hating every minute of it, i cant wait to get back to Anglo next febuary and continue my flying. It goes to show, that once uve experienced your dreams, its hard to go back to the grind of everyday life. Lets just hope that one day, everyday life will become the joys experienced at Anglo.