It's been a life-long ambition of mine to learn to fly. I've decided to document my Journey to a PPL 1) as a training aid to review my lessons prior to my next flight and 2) to share my experience with anyone interested! This is my first "proper" lesson - Tuesday 5th July. I have decided to learn at Turweston (EGBT) in a PA28 Piper Warrior.

Over the last 6 years, I've had two trial flights (at Coventry) and one 'joy ride' (at Cranfield), but have never been in the position to carry on learning to fly. So technically this isn't my first lesson, but my first “proper” lesson. My excuses for not being able to carry on are - holding down a full-time Engineering career, doing a part-time Engineering degree and saving to get married. Having completed my degree (mostly) and getting married last month, it's game on - PPL here we come!

Since I've always known I wanted to learn to fly - I have been steadily buying the equipment I need so I didn't need to buy it all in one go. The good thing about this approach is that I’ve been able to bag some absolute bargains! E.g. my headset. I had a budget of around £150 to buy a headset – I was torn between a newer, cheaper headset or a used, more expensive headset. After setting up a few eBay notifications for cheap Buy-it-now’s, a barely used Bose A20 set came up for, believe it or not, £140! With the knowledge that I’m protected buying through eBay and PayPal, I hit buy without hesitation. Luckily for me they were exactly as described and are an absolute dream to wear. I am starting with the Active Noise Reduction (ANR) switched off as I don’t believe this is necessary for GA flights and I’d like to be able to hear the noises of the engine and plane as I get to grips with learning to fly. The negative to buying things before they are needed is that some things are now out-dated and will need to be replaced such as one or two training manuals and my chart.

For my first “proper” lesson, I felt it went really well. I got on really well with my instructor. I’d remembered (just about) how to fly straight and level and climb / descend. After having lunch with my instructor, I’d obviously demonstrated I half knew what I was talking about for him to suggest I’d be doing the take-off today – my first ever. This is probably thanks to the numerous YouTube videos I'd watched whilst on my honeymoon!

My next lesson is booked for next Wednesday 13th July, weather permitting, and will be followed by my Class 2 medical. I’m also reading up on Air Law as I plan to sit this exam within the next few weeks to ensure I’m ready to go solo as soon as my instructor think’s I am ready.

I will try and keep up with the video's throughout my training and beyond. I’m filming using a GoPro Hero4 with suction mount and a special adaptor to capture the headset and ATC audio. If anyone would like any more info on the set up – just drop me a comment below!

Thanks for reading and watching. All comments are welcome. If you’d like to see more please like and subscribe ✈

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