Learning to fly, one mistake at a time
Flying is simple isn't it? Take off. Land. Repeat. And obviously try not to get the two confused.
I started learning to fly in my early 50s and have never quite stopped being a student. This is my attempt at explaining why I fly. To myself, to Wifey, and hopefully to you.
I hope you find my antics honest, humorous and possibly even inspiring? That last one is a bit of a stretch, I know. But I love flying, and I love seeing others understand why I fly. If that encourages one person into the air, then I've succeeded.
My goal is simple: keep the number of landings equal to the number of takeoffs. And of course, try not to crash. I'm not an instructor - listen to them not some internet influencer (I was once called an 'up and coming YouTuber - Thanks Flyer Magazine'!!), All you will find here is just me and my experiences. Hopefully you can learn from them before I run out of luck, skill or cash.
Pilots love toys. We can't help ourselves. And these days a huge chunk of that toy collection lives on an iPad.
The problem is there's a lot of rubbish out there. Everyone has an opinion. Half the aviation YouTubers you watch have affiliate links and discount codes for things they may or may not actually use. I don't do that. Partly because I'm a small channel and nobody's offering me discount codes. But mostly because I'd rather just tell you what I actually use and why.
Every student pilot hits that moment where they're standing in a shop or scrolling through the App Store with absolutely no idea what they actually need versus what looks impressive. It's overwhelming.
SkyDemon is the one I won't fly without. Flight planning, navigation, airspace awareness. It just works. But the video covers a broader range because the honest answer is it depends what stage you're at and what problem you're trying to solve.
A word of warning though. Apps update. Some of the specifics in the video have moved on since I made it. The broad principles haven't. Don't buy something because it's popular in the US. UK airspace is its own beast and not everything crosses the Atlantic cleanly.
There's a longer piece coming in the toys section that goes deeper into the specific things I use day to day. This video is the starting point. Worth a watch if you're just getting into this and wondering where to begin.
I failed my skills test the first time. There. Said it.
I'm not proud of it but I'm not going to pretend it didn't happen either. That's not what this channel is about. And honestly, failing it taught me more than passing it the first time probably would have.
So. What went wrong?
Honestly a bit of everything. Nerves mostly. I'd flown the manoeuvres a hundred times with my instructor and the moment an examiner got in the right seat my brain decided to go on holiday. Classic. The kind of thing you read about and think won't happen to you. Spoiler. It happens to you.
The video is what came out of that experience.
A few things I wish someone had told me before I sat in that left seat.
If you're approaching your skills test, watch the video. And if you fail it the first time, come back and read this again. You'll be fine. I was.
This one still makes me a lkittle uncomfortable to watch.
A near miss on final is exactly what it sounds like. Another aircraft where it shouldn't be. A moment where the margin gets smaller than you'd like. And the slightly sick feeling afterwards when you realise what just happened. Looking back it doesnt seem to be as bad as it felt at the time. but hindsight is a wonderful thing.
I've posted a lot of content about mistakes and things going wrong. That's kind of the point of my channel. But this one is different. Most mistakes are about technique or judgement calls in the cockpit. This one is a reminder that the sky isn't just yours.
Elstree is a busy airfield. Circuit discipline matters. Radio calls matter. Awareness matters. And even when you're doing everything right, you're sharing the airspace with other people who may not be.
What I'd say to any student pilot watching this is simple. Keep your head out of the cockpit as much as possible, especially in the circuit. The instruments will wait. The aircraft that just turned final without a radio call won't.
I'm not an instructor and this isn't instruction. It's just a moment I caught on camera that serves as a reminder of why we don't switch off until the aircraft is parked and the engine is stopped.
