First Post

After reading a bunch of flying blogs I've decided to start one myself - partly so I'll have something to look back on one day and partly because someone, somewhere might actually be interested in what I have to say.

For those who don't know me, I'm currently 19 and am part-way through my pilot training in Christchurch, New Zealand. As of today I have ~50 hours logged and will hopefully be sitting my Private Pilot Licence flight test soon. I've grown up surrounded by aviation as my parents have been involved in the industry since before I was born - my Dad has been a Commercial pilot his whole life and has flown aircraft such as the Boeing 737 and British Aerospace 146 in years gone by. As cheesy as it sounds, it's my dream to one day follow in his footsteps and become an airline captain.


I don't want to spend too long going over my previous flying experience, so I'll try to keep this brief.

I had my first logged flight in Feb 2007 at the Wellington Flight Centre in a Beech 77 Skipper, ZK-ESC - the one pictured below:

I went on to fly about 15 hours in ESC in the next couple of years, including my first solo at Wellington in August 2010 when I was 18.

I left home and moved to Christchurch in April 2011 to participate in a student loan funded course, which should hopefully see me with my Private and Commercial Pilot Licences and a Multi-Engine Instrument Rating by July 2012.

My first flight in Christchurch was in a Piper Cherokee 140, ZK-EBV in May 2011. Pictured below are some of the 8 Cherokee 140s that the International Aviation Academy operates (one of which, ZK-EBP, was flown by my Dad back in the 1970s as he progressed through his pilot training. EBP now has ~22,000 airframe hours!):

The Academy has a fleet of 38 aircraft, including:

9x Piper PA38 Tomahawks;
8x Piper PA-28-140s;
4x Piper PA28-161 (Warriors) - 3 have Avidyne Glass Cockpits, 1 has traditional steam gauges;
5x Piper PA28-181 (Archers) - 2 Avidyne, 3 traditional;
1x Piper PA28-200R (Arrow)
2x Cessna 172s
1x Piper Cub (1950s taildragger)
5x Alpha A160s;
1x Robin R2160;
3x Partenavia P68s;
and a single Piper PA-34 Seneca.

I'll hopefully log time in most, if not all these aircraft over the next few months, but for now I'm stuck in the old Cherokee 140s.

That pretty much covers it today, I've passed all my PPL exams (and some of my CPLs as well) so hopefully it shouldn't be too long until my flight test.