We did it!

After the flight to the Isle of Wight and about five seconds discussion afterwards, we made our final decision and an email was sent that night confirming that we’d like to join the syndicate. We now have the keys, various bits of paperwork and the excitement of being in the ‘Charlie family’. So now is the hard work of getting everything up to date and being ready to go.

Whilst in the hangar, I got chatting to a lovely lady called Helen who was about to fly to Bournemouth. She’d taken a Flying Companion course, had ‘got the bug’ and decided to go for her PPL with 35 hours and her first solo now under her belt. I’m not convinced that that would be me, but she thought I’d enjoy the Companion course.

I had wondered if there was such a course, particularly having recently watched a programme about a guy who’d had to bring a plane in to land after his friend, the pilot, became incapacitated during a flight they were taking. The passenger had had no training but had luckily picked up enough over the years to be able to operate the radio. He remained calm throughout and was talked down by an instructor on the ground. That situation would be my worst nightmare!

Here’s a report about it from BBC Look North which includes footage from the RAF who were the ‘eyes in the sky’.

I must look into the course. If nothing else, it would be reassuring for both of us to know that, should anything happen, I’d have a fighting chance of getting us to an airport and landing relatively safely.

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I’m starting to pick up some of the jargon, even if I don’t know what it actually means. There was talk of a heading bug – I’m sure I’ll find out what that is and how it works, but in the meantime, here’s my version…..