Learning to fly, one mistake at a time
Someone left a comment on one of my videos back in January. The video was about avionics installers, the Aspen and Avidyne saga, part two. Nothing to do with weight, medicals, or BMI. And then, buried in a line about engineers being the wild west, @ghoflyer wrote this:
"Looking a lot slimmer! Congrats."
It's a kind thing to say. It's also the kind of throwaway line that does a lot more than the writer probably intended. It's been turning over in my head ever since. So here's the long answer. The borderline BMI, the AME who put me on notice, the switch to a PMD, the Mounjaro, and the small matter of a lawnmower I cannot fly.
This isn't a brag and it isn't a sob story. It's just what being a heavier pilot actually looks like from the inside. One example, mine, and nobody else's.
Read more: Too Fat to Fly? (Now With 15% More Ways to Fail a Medical)
Five years ago today I flew an aeroplane on my own for the first time. One circuit of Elstree in a PA-28, fifteen minutes in the logbook, and a right seat so empty it was practically shouting. If your own first solo is somewhere ahead of you, this is the post I wish I'd read the night before mine.
Read more: Your First Solo: What It's Actually Like (Five Years On)
I drove to my own airfield the other day, walked up to the café I've eaten at for years, and couldn't get a table. Turns out the national press had found the place first. Here's why that's the best problem an airfield can have. And why I still ended up at a drive-thru.
Five years ago I turned onto Elstree Aerodrome and I saw a sign. Now that sounds deeply religious, and I've probably just offended half of you already. It wasn't. It was an actual sign. A board. And on the strength of it I picked the flight school that would teach a man in his fifties to fly. Me.
Read more: I Chose My Flight School Because of a Sign. Here's How That Worked Out.
Look, mum, no instructor! Yes it's true. I flew without an instructor and, more importantly to me anyway, I've managed to create another video from another flight in a month. God, is my channel coming back to life? Could I be doing more flying? Yes.
Welcome to Elstree. My Home.
It's quirky, busy and expensive. It has the worlds most complex circuit which flips daily, horrible noise abatement rules, militant walkers, pylons on the approach, movie starts on the other and footpaths in stupid places. but it is my home and I love it.
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