2012's retrospective [ENG]

I try every year around new year to look behind and see whether or not I met all the objectives I had for the last year.

I'm affraid that even if 2012 was dense aeronautically speaking, I did less than 50% of what I expected. 

The good news I thing is that I probably done the hardest half of it with my ATPL. I got all the 14 exams with an average of 91%, which I have to admit, I'm a bit proud of...

Unfortunetly I didn't get the chance to fly in California, but to be honest I think I'm lucky enough to be able to fly in New-Zealand, so I'm not really upset about it. 

I would say that as last year and the year before, I didn't start my aerobatics rating, but I think 2013 will be the one!

2012 has been a really good year after all, the year of my first paragliding solo which was absolutely amazing. I also had bad moments far from my familly, my friend and my girlfriend, but I kept saying to my self "It worth it" and I hope it will!

The things I want to achieve in 2013 are:

- Get this aerobatic rating.

- Get all my flight test as first time pass.

- Get my paragliding licence

- GET A JOB at the end of 2013!

- And the most important.... Enjoy what I'm doing!

Happy new year!

The pursuit of happiness...

Another day of circuits, and another day of happiness up there...

The circuits today were mental.
There were 6 or 7 CTC aircrafts in the circuit. I've been requested to do a right hand circuit at some point, when all the other were flying left hand, followed by two left rate one orbit abeam mystery creek.
I don't talk about being requested to climb 1200ft before turning crosswind, parrallel landings or being number 2 on final following a Katana on short final waiting for a third aircraft to vacate the runway...

Mental I said! This was an absolute mess, but it was awesome!

First CTC solo...Complete! [ENG]

After a week or so stuck on the gound I managed today to do my first solo with CTC on the Cessna 172 ZK-JMG. 

Why it's been so long?

Well, to be able to fly solo in NZ when you are a foreigner you have basically to do an English proficiency test. The problem with this test is its cost. Actually the test cost 300$ for a twenty minutes phone call with a person from the NZCAA.

I was pretty lucky because the FCL1.028 I sit in France a year and a half ago gave me ICAO Level 4 which give you the right as a foreigner to fly solo here. The problem is, that before my first solo last week CTC found out that the documents I gave them were not the ones expected by the CAA, because they weren't translated into english. 

As a consequence I've been cancelled three times in a week, and I had to harass the French administration to get the right certificate. It was quiet hard because of the time difference between NZ and France, and also because CTC found out the problem during a weekend which forced me to wait 3 days to get the opportunity to speak with someone of the DGAC in France.

It was a hard week, with a little bit of stress, but as soon as I pushed forward the thrust lever and got airborne, everythings were already behind me and forgotten!

Paragliding solo! [ENG]

Because I knew I'd have spare time, I had decided back in UK that I'd learn paragliding in  New Zealand. As soon as I got a car, I got my introduction day, mainly focused on ground handling and one glide towards the beach at the end of the day.

The site is located 40min south of Auckland, at Karioitahi beach, a wonderfull beach with black sand a fairly constant sea breeze.

Yesterday was my second day. More ground handling, more glide to the beach but at the end of the day a soar from a higher site few kilometers away on the cliff.

The conditions were pretty good, I was then expecting a 15 minutes soar, but because I made a mistake during my second turn, I left the uplift wave which were blowing against the cliff. I started to loose height, so my instructor asked me, by radio, to land on the beach. The 15' soar expected became a 2' glide. Even if it was too short, the feeling was absolutely amazing. 

In France paragliding is called "vol libre" which can be translate by "freedom flight". This is exactly the idea. You've got your wing/harness in your backbag, you climb a hill, a cliff or even a mountain, and off you go!