Los Angeles

Big news… the sun is still shining in Arizona! I am still waiting to see my first drop of rain since I’ve been here, though this morning there was lightning to the north, which was quite spectacular.

We have still been running through the basics in our flying lessons, moving on to a bit of instrument flying towards the end of the week. This involves flying with sole reference to the instruments, ie. without being able to see outside. So I took off, and after the initial climb I was made to wear the ‘hood’, which is a plastic thing that goes around your head so you can’t see above the instrument panel. The idea is to get you used to instrument flying before going solo in case you end up in a  cloud or something. It may not sound like a big deal, but the problem is that often your body gives different interpretations of the attitude of the aircraft to what your instruments might show. For example, if you roll in to a turn and stay there for a while, your body starts to interpret that as flying level, and then when you actually straighten the plane up, the body thinks you are in a turn. It can get disorientating at times, but the number one rule is to always trust your instruments.

This week, after doing practice forced landings and engine fires tomorrow, we move in to the circuit for the rest of the week to practice our take offs and landings. And hopefully, if we get a lesson every day, we should have our first solo flight on Friday afternoon! It’s a big first step, as after that we will be doing a lot of solo flying which means we could be flying a few times a day. Next week will be our first progress test which I am already dreading!

Me and Andrew took to the road this weekend and drove the 370 miles down to Los Angeles. The worst thing is that it is the same road all the way from Phoenix to LA, and it is a long, straight drive through the desert. We had a great time though, playing the role of tourists! We did all the sights, the Hollywood sign, the walk of fame, Venice beach, even a tour of the stars homes. The best thing though

was a tour of Warner Bros. studios which was absolutely brilliant. We got to see a lot of movie and television history, including a visit to Central Perk from Friends, which they have rebuilt as a permanent feature! It was a fun weekend but we were back flying this morning at 5.40am so I am pretty tired now! And now I have to sleep before my 7.20am flight!