Monday, October 1, 2012

Level 2 flight instructor rating

All weekends are busy but also great and successful at the same time. I finally got my glider instructor rating converted and upgraded. We traveled all the way to Bacchus Marsh for that. I am now Level 2 flight instructor which here means that I can additionally be responsible for flight ops, can decide if a student is ready for solo or not and be the chief flight instructor of a flying club. Peter is very happy that there is finally a possibility he can be relieved from this duty.

Twin Astir? Boring. Janus? Boring. Puchacz? Boring. Zephyrus is the answer!

it's been raining for days

I had an oral exam on teaching and explaining techniques. We also discussed differences in training glider pilots here and in Europe. There are some significant ones but it's not an issue to adjust to whichever system you're currently in. Chris, my examiner, was happy with that but weather didn't allow us to go up for a flight and we had to wait till Sunday to do so.

now is that x-wind or what?

setting up for the first low tow in my life

landing

I had 2 flights with Chris playing student on Sunday. The point was for him to see if and how I can explain things to a student in-flight. The second flight was all about spins - a very gentle, current and essential subject. It looks like I did well enough and Chris signed me off.

Since we had to stay over night we thought we could go to Melbourne but ... the footy finals weekend made the hotel prices in the city climb up to ridiculous levels. We went to Geelong instead and it was great we did so.

dream weekend with coffee and newspaper

drinking water for humans and bowl for a dog - how cute is that?

cold and windy but nice


We ended up in a waterfront hotel and went for a "discover Geelong" walk. We wouldn't have any idea it was such a beautiful place. It's beautifully maintained and water is as clear as it can be.




I'm sorry but I have to say that the Geelong beach beats the Miami beach ...

what do you think?

sunbathing under palm trees

float plane landing

marina

And here is one more cool picture. Our GPS knows exactly what the plan for the day is: