I am thrilled to say that this I weekend I was able to complete both my Dual and Solo cross countries, about which for some time I had been a tad worried. In fact a while back I posted something regarding cross countries and what to look out for. It had been playing on my mind for a while so I decided to rely (as usual) on the advice of my mates on the forum, all of whom had given great advice. Morph - (take a coke and a chocolate along) etc etc...
So saturday dawned a beautiful morning and although I was proper Miff to miss part of the aeroden breakfast, i needed to spend some time with udher reviewing the planning and finer points of my dual cross country. As it happened we were good and the planning made the grade. After having a quick Breakie at Aeroden, we returned to and departed from Faap for my trip around the country. What a pleasure and just short of two hours later we were back on finals for Faap. Brilliant. All had gone well and the first of the two daunting tasks was over. (one lesson Learnt- Special rules west ins HELL of a busy on a saturday morning)
Early Night at Aeroden On saturday saw me completing all the plans for sundays trip and praying for good weather as a nasty storm passed through on saturday evening greatly disrupting our braai !!!
Five fifteen out of bed, the conditions were perfect. - Pulled the Bantam out, preflighted as always (Softness and I had cleaned ZU- DIF PROPERLY on Saturday afternoon, so I was ready to go. Had to deal with massive amounts of abuse from Gaylord, Udher , Basie and some other oke because apparently DIF looks a lot like a duck, ... I failed to see the funny side !!
Map attached to Knee board, plans and timers in place, nerves tingling a tad, I took off. I was thrilled to be joined by my very good mate Gaylord who while I was happy to have a little company offered exactly NO assistance in the routing, in case you think i cheated... So there we were, Pilansberg, Faap and back... Awesome awesome flight, went off with no problems, timings and distances spot on and a great experience. !!!~ A Huge thanks to gaylord for keeping me company and being around. You took some awesome photos chap.... will post soonest. The funniest (yet slightly nerve wracking thing) is that Pilansberg international airport had NO one home.
Irritated the Cr@p out of me as I expected more, anyway, did what I needed to do and landed on the longest runway of my short experience. Two jet pilots who fly serious embrauer business jets were really envious of the GT450 and the bantam - having just spent R 17,000 on fuel for the machine (for a family) of three. Anyway we gave them some Biltong and sent them on there way..
Flight home went like a charm and before i knew it i was back at Aeroden, safe on the ground and Cross Countries completed
!AWESOME feeling indeed. Thatchman flew in for a cooldrink on the way back from Zebula and all in all a great experience. Again - Marty mate thanks for being around, Coyote thanks for lending me your compass and advising me on the planning, Thatch bud thanks for popping in to say hi, and a big thanks to Jules thanks for being there girl...
The end is in sight !!!
