FF still on a roll

[lamercyfly]

Hi folk.

Yup! FF has done it again

She sat her commercial PPL instructor rating exams 2 weeks ago, and we have just received the results.

You guessed it, she passed both exams comfortably

Aish! This girl is going to give me performance anxiety at this rate

Her patter is scheduled for the first week in June, after which I have no doubt she will ace the instructors flight test.

She is sitting her ATP exams next month.

Will keep the forum posted.

Pressures on FF!!!

I know of many microlight pilots who have gone on to make commercial aviation their career. Firstly there is FF. Then there is Brett Tungay who now has his own R44 doing commercial operation up in the Berg, and KB who you all know. He flew trikes out of Ballito, and now has has commercial PPL (Helicopter), and is working with Brett. Then there is Ranaan Tidhar who did his trike licence at Petit and did quite a bit of his trike flying down at La Mercy. Ranaan now has his PPL commercial pilots licence (IFR). And lastly there is Lucy Erasmus, who did her trike licence at La Mercy. She now has her PPL Helicopter and is hour building at present toward doing her commercial rating and making a full time career of commercial helicopter flying. Lucy has stated that if it was not for doing her trike licence, she would never have considered a career in aviation. I am sure if I thought a little more, I could come up with a couple more names. And that's just me.

How about it? How many folk do you know that you can add to the list. I remain convinced that microlighting is still the easiest and cheapest way into aviation, and that it should be acknowledged as a viable feeder to the commercial arena!

I have witnessed first hand again, that hours of experience gained flying a microlight most definately do add to your airmanship and total experience, and that NOT giving sufficient credit to this source of experience is short sighted!!

Later,

[Morph]

Well done FF

You're making us proud.

BTW Lamercyfly, are you going to be changing your pseudonym at some stage soon or are we going to keep the name for posterity?

[DarkHelmet]

Well done FF!

[Smiley]

Good stuff FF

I wish I had the "balls" , to do this, but nou ja, looks like I'll be slaving away for the rest of my live....!

[Coyote]

Well done FF - hats off to you girl
Now keep going!!!

[Fairy Flycatcher]

Thanks guys

Didn't know Grumpy was going to shout from the rooftops.

Still enjoy flying the trike most of all....

[RV4ker (RIP)]

Well done FF.... Right Seat in Big iron by end of the year

[Dreamer]

Congrats FF..........

[kb]

Well done FF. Will cal lsometime. As Lamercy FLy said, Brett operates 2 44's in the berg, I'm da other pilot. Alot of my pax ask me what got me started in flying, and it's mym lil'sis who bought me a half hour flip in a trike. 4 years later, HCPL. Remember everytime you hover, oh, I mean "take off", remember that your friend on the back seat MIGHT have a slight career change, like I did. To those that have the determination to persue it, give it horns, go for it.

P.S> If anyone needs a heli in the berg northern KZN region, we have 2 machines, looking for work (hat coat door......)

chat soon.

[Aerosan]

Baie baie mooi

[Robin Hood]

Well done, FF. You obviously worked damn hard for this!!

[C205]

Well done FF. Congrats. You go girl!

[No Fly Now]

I don't know you FF, but awesome stuff and best wishes for your career.
I would like to just share my story, and David, you & FF will understand, so hope that it is interesting.

I have always yearned to fly, and when I was 12 (1969) I belonged to the Air Scouts in Durban North and stood duty at Virginia on Sundays, opening the door and ushering people to the aircraft for flips, and helping them get strapped in and comfortable. Every time there was a spare seat, I was invited along, and spent hours just loving being up in the sky.

I moved to Plett in 1979 and finally decided to take the plunge! I called Jim Davis who was running the Cape flying school from George, and started my PPL. Jim used to fly in to Plett and my lessons were done locally, which was awesome. After completing 8 hours, Jim said that it was about time to do my medical. Guess what........plugged the eye test with red/green blindness, and the optometrist said that the only way was for me to go to DCA (old name for CAA) in PTA, where I could do a practical lantern test, whereby they darkened a room and shone a red or green light, and if you got it right, then they would pass you!

I could hardly afford the PPL lessons that I was doing every couple of weeks let alone get up to PTA, so that was that. So for the next 16 years I gazed sadly at the sky. longing to fly.

That was until 1996 when I spotted some trikes on display and after enquiring, signed up for my demo flight and after 13 hours and R30 000, I was flying in my very own plane!!!! Can you imagine the joy and exhaltation. Sadly, after completing 220 fun-filled and incedent-free hours flying the Magaliesburg and surrounds, I had to sell the trike in 2000 when I was retrenched, and once again, I gazed up to the sky, longing to be up there.

The bottom line to the story is that I firmly believe that if I had qualified for my PPL way back then, I have no doubt that I would have made a fantastic career in aviation! I fly a stack these days on business with the national carrier etc, and my goal is to own my own aerie and have enough of a stash to employ a charter pilot to fly me around! (Well let's say that although he (or she of course) will occupy the left-hand seat, guess who'll actually be on the stick?)

Anyway, thanks to Microsoft, all is not lost. I spend hours on Flight Sim X and have mastered every plane, and probably done about 1000 hours in the last year.

Hope I haven't bored you all. I can only imagine that FF must just love flying as much as I (and perhaps we all) do!

Regards
Geoff

[kill_devil]

Well done Annie.

Always knew you were a high flyer and that I could never keep up with you.

Wow!

[lamercyfly]

Hi 'NO FLY NOW' alias Geoff

Thanks for your story. I read it twice. I was 10 years old in 69, and DOING EXACTLY WHAT YOU WERE DOING. I was cycling out to the local airfield where I grew up (Stutterheim), and standing around bumming rides in the local club 172

I feel for you, and FF and I welcome you to give us a call whenever you are visiting up here (Durban for now), and you can be sure that you are booked for a flight...........

Make a plan, get a plane.........just do it!!

And on that note, hey KB, nice to hear from you guys. Business must be good, or you are predicting it to be good :D Happy for you guys. Fly safe, you and Brett, just way to many helicopters going down. Awesome machines to fly in, but seemingly very demanding and quite unforgiving.
From FF and myself, a big congratulations 'slap on-the-back' to both you and Brett!!

What a way to earn a living hey. This flying is just the greatest thing. Quoting from the latest Aviation and Safety mag editorial 'what pilot do you know who actually wants to retire?' Makes you think hey "What a great job".

FF and I went on a jolly today. Hiring a C-140 from a friend of ours, she took me up to Howick Airfield to fetch one of our trikes that was temporarily hangared there. We stopped over at Maritzburg for breakfast. I then flew the trike back to Cato, where it is going to spend a month or two before I fly it up to Malawi (Monkey Bay). FF then landed back at Maritzburg to refuel, before stopping over at Cato to pick me up. Cato's canteen is really a lekka place now, so we had a cuppa there before heading off to Stanger, and then on to the coastline and back to Virginia.

I wonder what our kids think we are up to while they are at school?

Later,