Another semester finished, and wow, does time fly!
It didnt quite sink in on Friday that I had finished for the semester, finishing my German exam and then handing in my final Law essay... it wasnt until I woke up Saturday morning that I really felt like the semester was over.
The disadvantage to finishing so early is of course that no one else has finished quite yet, so there's no one to celebrate with properly, but that's easily fixed.
But, theres no time to sit around relaxing - a break from uni is just that, not a holiday, so into the car I climb and off to Melbourne. Spending Saturday and Sunday night in Sale helped break the trip quite nicely and it was good to spend Sunday in particular at home, with it raining outside and rather cold, spending the afternoon on the couch in front of the open fire...
This week I'm down in Melbourne at Moorabbin airport doing structured ground school classes to finish off the CPL exams I didnt get through over summer. The fellow running these classes has an excellent reputation around the country and indeed abroad, with a fellow from Japan winning the award for most distance travelled to be here.
Its a different environment being in a classroom with nine other people studying the same thing than sitting at a desk by myself with a textbook trying to learn it all, I should have done this course months ago. The things that tripped me up last time through were rather oblique in the textbook, and simply having someone else's perspective on the same thing helps enormously, let along having a real live human to ask questions and clarifications of, rather than simply reading the textbook makes things so much easier.
Melbourne winters being Melbourne winters, its rather rainy down here, though thankfully it stays dry during the daytime. The local weather seems to have a fondness for clouds and rain at night, usually starting not long after dark, which is unfortunate given that I'm trying to get my Night rating while down here, so I can fly around in the dark as well as during the day. The plan at this stage is to start the course Friday afternoon, for hopefully there won't be quite the cloud around by then. Flying into cloud isn't a good idea during visual flight at the best of times, but at night you can't see the clouds ahead of you (they don't have lights on them), so you can fly into them unexpectedly if the weather is poor. So, wait I shall, and fingers crossed Friday I can get back into this, training I actually started this time last year with John May in Bloomington.
Having spent a lot of time talking to Rob in Canberra about helicopters, his enthusiasm is rubbing off on me and I figure that once I finish the last of my CPL exams a nice reward for myself could be a half hour introductory flight in a helicopter. There are plenty of flying schools here at Moorabbin so I popped in to a couple of the heli schools to see what they had to say, find out a little about helicopter training and most importantly to find out what it would cost.
I must admit I was a little surprised at what I found.
All the flying schools I've been to in the past have been extremely helpful when just walking in off the street, happy to talk to you about what they offer and not putting pressure on you, but both these helicopter schools, as soon as I mentioned something vaguely along the lines of an introductory flight they had the booking sheets out, quick as a flash, and were trying to book me in, within minutes of me walking into the building and before they mentioned their own names, their prices, or even anything about a helicopter! The first place I ventured into calmed down a little and answered my questions, but the second place had a very superior attitude, almost to the point of not wanting to spend any time talking to me unless I was committing to give them money. They gave me a brochure and disappeared.
I might put this helicopter idea on hold for a while until I can find a helicopter school that is a little more relaxed, like most other flying schools. Reading through the 'information brochure' I was given, it was quite over the top in its tone, big noting their own instructors and the school - the sort of talk that gives pilots the reputation of being full of their own importance - an image that I and every other pilot I know takes great effort to attempt to dispel.
Helicopters are expensive to fly, and I'm certainly not going to put any money into a company unless I'm completely comfortable with them, and both of these schools gave the distinct impression that they were out to get as much money from students as they could, as soon as they could, and students were not particularly high on their priority list.
I'm not sure how long it will be before I can post this ... there is no internet connection in the little burrow I'm staying in - though one can't expect too much, there isnt even a stove! I'll find some way soon of getting online to post, and of course to check my email which I havent done since Sunday night!
No comments:
Post a Comment