This week I’ve been continuing with the flying here at Springbank airport as part of my ThoughtWorks sabbatical. I chose Springbank Air Training College after trying various outfits around here, and picked them because frankly I felt safest here. There’s a high level of professionalism amongst the instruction staff and quite a lot of young-looking students. The picture above is yesterday morning’s weather. Not a cloud in the sky, still, calm air, and miles of visibility. Decoding the weather was really easy compared to Monday’s yukky rainclouds and bad visibility.

My instructor and I have spent a bunch of time reviewing theory from the Canada Flight Training manual, and also spent time in the simulator. The school has a Redbird FMX full-motion simulator which is really fun, much cheaper than renting a real aircraft, and still counts towards my total flight time. The biggest benefit is that all the controls match the real aircraft and I can practice the exact control adjustments I’d need in real life. This is more efficient than sitting on the tarmac burning fuel and doing it in a real plane.

I’ll be starting an online ground school this weekend and just got all my pilot gear including flight “computer” (crazy slide rule thing for doing navigation). This is one of those hobbies you can spend infinite money on gear, which I’m trying to avoid. I don’t think it’ll be hard — I’m converting all amounts to “hours in a real plane” and that makes being frugal much easier.