Day 1

What a day... My original booking was for 14:00 this afternoon.

So this morning I fetched people that got lost to the different training venues in Kempton Park. Checked that all my facilitators was at the different venues, on the way home at 09:15 got a call from the booking desk at AFOS that we need to bring my booking forward to 10:30.

Went home, got dressed, and drove to the airport. My instructor Rene was not available - he had to do a charter, so already the ground started shaking. The standby instructor Hussain (now you understand the ground shaking) was actually a very friendly and nice guy. The two hour briefing which started at 10:40 consist of terminology, procedures, flight planning, emergency calls – from pop to snow drop, etc. At one point it all sounded the same.

We finally got to the aircraft at around 13:20. Now for more instructions, terminology, fuel sniffing etc, I was ready to get into this thing and fly.

Getting taxi clearance, finding runway directions, finding holding positions, etc was already overwhelming.

Once airborne, it become a total sensory overload, sight, smell, hearing, feeling and even taste, all your scenes go into over drive.

• Keep direction
• Look over there
• Keep your altitude
• Keep your speed
• Careful too fast
• Careful you’re too high
• Forced control spin
• Check your fuel
• What does the aileron do?
• What does the flap do?
• Don't you think you should trim the a/c
• etc.

And all you can think of is, shit I want out!!! What the hell made me do this??? And once back on the ground you think, that was not that bad, let's do it again!!!!!!!

Time is now 20:10 (lt), 4 hours after landing and I still can not find words to describe the emotions going through my mind.

One word comes to mind - SHIT!!!!!

My brain hurts... but I can't wait for next week.