.Evan.

Would love to go!

Congratulations Winsor! Who's going to be your first pax?

I've never really been bothered by airsickness, even during a Yak52 aerobatic flight (where I instructed the pilot to "go bananas"!). However, the other week, I'd just come back from a hour of my own local flight with extensive airwork when my instructor invited me to go with him straight away on his recency flight. It was the longest I'd been in a light aircraft at two hours - with lots of steep turns, stalls, circuits, etc - and started to feel a little queasy on the inbound run. :rolleyes: I put it down to never going past the 1.3 hour mark before - plus, it wasn't two hours of straight and level! Haven't had a problem since, though.

Finally! A solution for all of those travelling pilot/trombone players worried about getting to that next gig without going over MTOW... The plastic trombone!!!

Glad to hear, Red! I think that's how we should all be approaching our flying! Keep up the good work.

Great stuff Win! Looks like you had much better weather up there than we did down here today!

Wow. Glad to hear that all is ok!

I meant to say that Nev, but forgot. Thanks for reminding us! :thumb_up: My instructor is very big on using the correct work-cycles. "Attitude, Power, Feel the force, Trim out the force" he'd say. I always would silently giggle to myself about the "feel the force" bit, and imagined Yoda sitting in the right seat.

That's a great idea, Win. I must have started doing that without knowing it, because after a little while my approach speed would settle much quicker and require very little power changes until short final. Not every day, though!

As has been mentioned above by much more experienced people than me - your feelings are completely normal! One thing that I found helpful for myself when learning to fly normal circuits was to make myself trim the aircraft properly and fly downwind almost 'hands off'. It took a little bit of time at first, but after a while it is automatic. Previously, I'd kind of trim the aircraft - y'know, near enough is good enough when you have bigger fish to fry as a student - but what it meant was that the aircraft wasn't settled and I was chasing it all the way down the downwind leg. That extra couple of seconds to yourself can be put to better use - get your pre-landing checks done early, take a mental break for a couple of seconds while you carefully watch your spacing with the runway and plan your turn to base. Circuits are full on - there's action the whole time! Those couple of seconds mental rest helped me a lot. Circuits are now my one of my favourite parts of flying. My instructor can fly them almost perfectly with the instrument panel covered up. I hope to be at that level one day! Keep at it, Red!

Looks interesting, Gnu! I'd seen the Contour, but not this variant. Looks very promising! If I only had more play money!

Hey Maynard, Tomo has some awesome stuff there. One thing to look at if you want to dabble with external cameras are these little rippers from China: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Micro-4GB-Spy-Key-chain-web-Camera-1280x960-video-SW013-/280683914672?pt=AU_Gadgets&hash=item415a10a5b0 Not expensive, and because of their low profile, easy to stick to the outside of the aircraft with some gaffer's tape. They do have some disadvantages, but for the price they're great fun! I used one similar to the one above for all of the external shots for this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZHCV5BLpks The internal shots were my little Casio compact camera. I like this one because it has a CCD sensor, which renders the propeller in a more natural way. The CMOS sensors generally have a 'rolling shutter' and can cause strange stroboscopic effects like this: I mostly just use Windows Movie Maker for editing. It's pretty simple to learn. I also have Sony Vegas which has many different features, but has trouble with .AVIs for some reason. Am a bit disappointed in that. Have fun!

It certainly has sent the conspiracy theorists into a tizz: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemtrail_conspiracy_theory

I quite often have to give thanks to the Aviation Gods for bringing us cabin heat. It's cold here in Ballarat sometimes!

Apparently it was the pilots as well. 500 feet below assigned IFR approach height. Twice!

That's exactly how I approach my flying and driving, but never thought about it like that. Thanks Nev for putting it so eloquently. :thumb_up: Thanks Kylie! That's what I'm hoping to do!

I'm also a musician. Currently with the Victoria Police Band, and several years before that with Army Band Melbourne. I'm glad to read I'm not the only muso around here! :super:

Thanks Andrew. Will do!

Cheers, David!

Yep, it's finally happened! I can now take a passenger. I've given the first option of first PAX to my Wife, then after that... First come, first served! I've been looking forward to sharing this flying caper with people since I began. I look forward even more to flying in the future! If you wanna read about today's flight, I've written all about it in my blog... Cheers, Evan

Thanks for all your help, guys... Because today I qualified for my passenger endorsement! My instructor was impressed by my preparation and pre-reading of the legal requirements, weights and balances, etc. Thanks again Recreational Flying team!

Ouch!!!

It's a sad state of affairs, Frank!

Haha!! Love it, Don!

Thanks Maz and CFI. Makes sense now. I guess smoking in the toilets of the Jabiru is a big problem!!