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.