Blue Side Up

Well it’s been a while since my last post, but I’m back. When I wrote last, I was just gearing up for final exams at the end of my third year of university. I’m going to say that this was my excuse for not writing in about 2 months, but I think the real reason was that I was enjoying my freedom from school a little too much. I’ve started working full time and will actually be taking an internship with the Canada Revenue Agency for 10 months. A year off of school and full time work will also mean lots more flying (and lots more money to support my flying).

Lately I have been working towards my night rating. For my American viewers, we Canadians don’t get night flying privileges just because we have a private license. The night rating is a separate 10 hours of night flight which includes: 5 hours dual, 5 hours solo, and 10 hours instrument time. I already have 5 hours of instrument from my private license so I only need about 5 more. I’ve completed the dual requirement and need to spend some time in the circuit racking up my PIC time. Hopefully in a few flights I’ll have the PIC time that I’ll need.

You are also required to complete at least one cross country flight to another airport. I chose to fly to Hamilton (CYHM) and back which took about an hour and a half. I find that the hardest part about night flying is actually finding the airport at night. It’s usually somewhere near the darkest part of a city (the outskirts) and I always imagined that runway lights would be way brighter. Of course you can always cheat by keying ARCAL lights (Aircraft Radio Control of Aerodrome Lighting) on and keeping your eyes peeled for a sudden illumination of parallel lines on the ground in front of you.

Can’t wait to finish my night rating and truly start my commercial training! I can’t wait to be paid to fly.

Estimated time until graduation from university: 1 Year, 11 months, 1 day.
Time remaining to get my instructor rating: 1 Year, 11 months, 0 days.
Total time logged: 87.8 hours (PIC 26, Dual 61.8)