It's been a bit quiet on the flying front - Feb's big earthquake in town has had a pretty major impact on our lives just in terms of routine and work. Things tend to get put on hold, and flying has been one of them.
Every two years one has to sit what's termed the 'Biannual Flight Review'. I completed mine Friday last.
To all intents and purposes, this involves a flight check-out that mirrors your initial Private Pilot flight test. I'm fine with this, even though in my early years of flying it used to make me a little anxious. I've learned to see the BFR as a bit of structured revision, and the opportunity to fine-tune any faults that have crept into my flying. You don't so much 'fail' your BFR; if you're not up to scratch you just do some more work on the relevant area and once you're proficient, you're signed off and have your flying WOF for another two years.
Fortunately, I've never had a problem getting through my BFR. I generally work pretty well under pressure, and I've found that flying aerobatics keeps my coordination pretty sweet. For the last few BFRs, I've combined the flight with what we call a 'type-rating'. This is what you do when you learn to fly a new 'type' of aircraft (yes, they are all quite different to fly).
To me, this is getting double the value for money, because when you do a type-rating, you cover of most of the things you do for a BFR. It does make it a little harder in that you're flying a new type of aircraft, but it's certainly not impossible.
So, back to the story. I'm happy to have nailed the BFR, and enjoyed this one more than I ever have. I huge part of that is flying with an instructor who is calm, relaxed and has an attitude of helping, rather than hindering. I'm very fortunate to be able to fly with Matt White. Some instructors make you feel you're under the spotlight (well, you are really) but Matt has a manner that quickly dissipates any thoughts along those lines.
This was my first chance to fly a Tomahawk, other than a trip a few years ago when I was technically a passenger. The Tomahawk is made to be a training aircraft - it only has two seats, it's pretty small, and it doesn't have an excess of power.
I rather liked it. It moves around a bit, being so light, but I like it's responsiveness to control input. It has some vices that you need to be aware of, but that's fine with me. You just fly the aircraft according to it's characteristics.
Anyway, long story short, I'm now rated on the Piper PA-38-112 Tomahawk, and I'm planning on taking one up every 4-5 weeks to keep my hand in, simply because it's a nice simple aircraft, has great visibility and makes flying fun.
